Military Power.net

Indiavs North Korea

On Global Firepower's 2026 index, India (#4) holds a clear lead over North Korea (#31).

  • India has aircraft carriers; North Korea has none.
  • India spends 19× as much on its military.
  • India fields 6.5× as many destroyers.

Who leads in each area

  1. People and moneyIndia leads 4 of 4
  2. Land forcesNorth Korea leads 3 of 5
  3. Air powerIndia leads 7 of 7
  4. Naval forcesIndia leads 5 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.

$92.1B
Military spending
$4.8B*
1.43M
Active personnel
1.32M
1M
Reserves
560K
2.53M
Paramilitary
100K

Spending is SIPRI's 2025 estimate in US dollars (India: 2.3% of GDP). * SIPRI publishes no figure for this country, so the Global Firepower budget estimate is shown instead.

Land forces

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

3,913
Tanks
4,895
164K
Armored vehicles
48K
100
Self-propelled artillery
1,300
5,640
Towed artillery
700
300
Rocket artillery
1,500

Air power

Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.

2,183
Total aircraft
837
476
Fighters
341
124
Attack aircraft
114
594
Helicopters
205
79
Attack helicopters
20
6
Tankers
0
277
Transports
1

Naval forces

Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.

343
Total fleet
332
2
Aircraft carriers
0
0
Helicopter carriers
0
18
Submarines
24
13
Destroyers
2
18
Frigates
2
21
Corvettes
8

Nuclear weapons

Estimated warheads in military stockpiles, January 2026.

190
Warheads
60
12
Deployed warheads
0

Compare other countries

Related matchups

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