Military Power.net

Polandvs Germany

On Global Firepower's 2026 index, Germany (#12) holds a solid edge over Poland (#21).

  • Germany fields 6× as many submarines.
  • Poland fields 2.7× as many tanks.
  • Germany spends 2.4× as much on its military.

Who leads in each area

  1. People and moneyEven, 2–2
  2. Land forcesPoland leads 3 of 5
  3. Air powerGermany leads 7 of 7
  4. Naval forcesGermany leads 4 of 7
  5. Nuclear weaponsEven, 0–0

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.

$46.8B
Military spending
$114B
250K
Active personnel
184K
350K
Reserves
860K
50K
Paramilitary
0

Spending is SIPRI's 2025 estimate in US dollars (Poland: 4.5% of GDP; Germany: 2.3% of GDP).

Land forces

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

798
Tanks
296
58K
Armored vehicles
87K
593
Self-propelled artillery
134
0
Towed artillery
0
298
Rocket artillery
33

Air power

Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.

457
Total aircraft
569
58
Fighters
127
12
Attack aircraft
63
224
Helicopters
292
29
Attack helicopters
49
0
Tankers
3
44
Transports
55

Naval forces

Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.

63
Total fleet
96
0
Aircraft carriers
0
0
Helicopter carriers
0
1
Submarines
6
0
Destroyers
0
2
Frigates
11
2
Corvettes
6

Nuclear weapons

Estimated warheads in military stockpiles, January 2026.

0
Warheads
0
0
Deployed warheads
0

Compare other countries

Related matchups

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