MilitaryCompare / United Kingdom vs South Korea
United Kingdom vs South Korea
The United Kingdom ranks #5 and South Korea ranks #6 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United Kingdom spends $89.0B on defense with 141K active personnel; South Korea spends $47.8B with 450K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #5 | Global Rank | #6 |
| $89.0B | Defense Budget | $47.8B |
| 2.4% | Budget % of GDP | 2.6% |
| $4.00T | GDP | $1.87T |
| 69.49M | Population | 51.68M |
| Personnel | ||
| 141K | Active Personnel | 450K |
| 70K | Reserve Personnel | 3.10M |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 14K |
| Air | ||
| 593 | Military Aircraft | 1,713 |
| 172 | Combat Aircraft | 637 |
| 171 | Fighter Jets | 387 |
| 47 | 5th Gen Fighters | 40 |
| 1 | Bombers | 0 |
| 218 | Helicopters | 532 |
| 72 | Attack Helicopters | 147 |
| 12 | Military Drones (UAV) | 10 |
| Land | ||
| 285 | Main Battle Tanks | 1,826 |
| 526 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 499 |
| 2,750 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 3,110 |
| 166 | Artillery Systems | 5,735 |
| Naval | ||
| 10 | Submarines | 20 |
| 10 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 2 | Aircraft Carriers | 0 |
| 0 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 225 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 1 | Ballistic Missile Systems | 3 |
| 0 | ICBM Systems | 0 |
| 2 | Cruise Missile Systems | 6 |
| 0 | Hypersonic Systems | 0 |
| 12,000 km | Longest Missile Range | 1,500 km |
South Korea leads in 15 of the 25 measured categories, the United Kingdom in 10. 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.