MilitaryCompare / United Kingdom vs Iran
United Kingdom vs Iran
The United Kingdom ranks #5 and Iran ranks #18 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United Kingdom spends $89.0B on defense with 141K active personnel; Iran spends $7.4B with 610K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #5 | Global Rank | #18 |
| $89.0B | Defense Budget | $7.4B |
| 2.4% | Budget % of GDP | 2.1% |
| $4.00T | GDP | $363B |
| 69.49M | Population | 92.42M |
| Personnel | ||
| 141K | Active Personnel | 610K |
| 70K | Reserve Personnel | 350K |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 40K |
| Air | ||
| 593 | Military Aircraft | 1,402 |
| 172 | Combat Aircraft | 245 |
| 171 | Fighter Jets | 213 |
| 47 | 5th Gen Fighters | 0 |
| 1 | Bombers | 0 |
| 218 | Helicopters | 124 |
| 72 | Attack Helicopters | 11 |
| 12 | Military Drones (UAV) | 750 |
| Land | ||
| 285 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,513 |
| 526 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 610 |
| 2,750 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 640 |
| 166 | Artillery Systems | 3,798 |
| Naval | ||
| 10 | Submarines | 4 |
| 10 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 2 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 0 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 0 |
| Strategic | ||
| 225 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 1 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 9 |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 2 | Cruise Missile Systems | 3 |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | 1 |
| 12,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 3,000 km |
Iran leads in 13 of the 25 measured categories, the United Kingdom in 12. Numbers alone do not decide a war: training, logistics, geography, alliances and nuclear deterrence matter too. A dash means the source publishes no figure.
Sources: CSIS Missile Threat, Federation of American Scientists, IISS Military Balance, Military Atlas Index, SIPRI, Wikipedia, Wikipedia / FlightGlobal, World Bank.