NATO: World-Leading Spending Enabling Air, Naval Power

With the international community still assessing the implications of NATO's first deployment test of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) in June in western Poland, the question becomes: how does NATO rank among other military alliances worldwide?  For the purposes of the June exercise, 2,100 soldiers and over 300 vehicles were deployed to Poland within four days, using six trains, 16 flights, and 14 convoys, according to western press reports. In the event of a real crisis, however, the necessary approval of all 28 NATO members to deploy the VJTF would potentially lengthen the response time.
 
Overall, military expenditures of NATO countries are 62 percent higher than the military spending of all other countries combined, according to a report from Global Fire Power. NATO and Major non-NATO Allies have developed more attack air forces and naval power than the rest of the world combined. NATO and its closest allies also have more tanks, artillery, and manpower than the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty, including China.
 

Select the indicator to compare NATO forces to other military alliances and the "rest of the world."

Source: Global Firepower, April 2015. For the country membership details on referenced groups, refer to the legend at the bottom of the page.

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