Military Power.net

Germanyvs India

On Global Firepower's 2026 index, India (#4) holds a solid edge over Germany (#12).

  • India has nuclear weapons; Germany has none.
  • India has aircraft carriers; Germany has none.
  • India has destroyers; Germany has none.

Who leads in each area

  1. People and moneyIndia leads 3 of 4
  2. Land forcesIndia leads 4 of 5
  3. Air powerIndia leads 7 of 7
  4. Naval forcesIndia leads 6 of 7
  5. Nuclear weaponsIndia leads 2 of 2

Leads count raw numbers in each category. Larger is not always stronger: a modern fleet can beat a bigger, older one.

People and money

Who can be put in uniform, and how much is spent keeping them there.

$114B
Military spending
$92.1B
184K
Active personnel
1.43M
860K
Reserves
1M
0
Paramilitary
2.53M

Spending is SIPRI's 2025 estimate in US dollars (Germany: 2.3% of GDP; India: 2.3% of GDP).

Land forces

Armour and artillery: the weight an army can put on the ground.

296
Tanks
3,913
87K
Armored vehicles
164K
134
Self-propelled artillery
100
0
Towed artillery
5,640
33
Rocket artillery
300

Air power

Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.

569
Total aircraft
2,183
127
Fighters
476
63
Attack aircraft
124
292
Helicopters
594
49
Attack helicopters
79
3
Tankers
6
55
Transports
277

Naval forces

Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.

96
Total fleet
343
0
Aircraft carriers
2
0
Helicopter carriers
0
6
Submarines
18
0
Destroyers
13
11
Frigates
18
6
Corvettes
21

Nuclear weapons

Estimated warheads in military stockpiles, January 2026.

0
Warheads
190
0
Deployed warheads
12

Compare other countries

Related matchups

Profiles: Germany and India. Sources: Global Firepower 2026, SIPRI Military Expenditure 2025 (Apr 2026), SIPRI Yearbook 2026: World Nuclear Forces.