MilitaryCompare / United Kingdom vs Japan
United Kingdom vs Japan
The United Kingdom ranks #5 and Japan ranks #10 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United Kingdom spends $89.0B on defense with 141K active personnel; Japan spends $62.2B with 247K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #5 | Global Rank | #10 |
| $89.0B | Defense Budget | $62.2B |
| 2.4% | Budget % of GDP | 1.4% |
| $4.00T | GDP | $4.44T |
| 69.49M | Population | 123.37M |
| Personnel | ||
| 141K | Active Personnel | 247K |
| 70K | Reserve Personnel | 56K |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 15K |
| Air | ||
| 593 | Military Aircraft | 1,214 |
| 172 | Combat Aircraft | 264 |
| 171 | Fighter Jets | 264 |
| 47 | 5th Gen Fighters | 47 |
| 1 | Bombers | 0 |
| 218 | Helicopters | 488 |
| 72 | Attack Helicopters | 83 |
| 12 | Military Drones (UAV) | 43 |
| Land | ||
| 285 | Main Battle Tanks | 340 |
| 526 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 70 |
| 2,750 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 766 |
| 166 | Artillery Systems | 772 |
| Naval | ||
| 10 | Submarines | 22 |
| 10 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 2 | Aircraft Carriers | 2 |
| 0 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 225 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 1 | Ballistic Missile Systems | — |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | — |
| 2 | Cruise Missile Systems | — |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | — |
| 12,000 km | Longest Missile Range | — |
Japan leads in 12 of the 20 measured categories, the United Kingdom in 8. 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.