Bundeswehr

The Bundeswehr (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌveːɐ̯] , lit. Federal Defence) are the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part (armed forces or Streitkräfte) and a civil part. The military part consists of the four armed forces: German Army, German Navy, German Air Force and Cyber and Information Domain Service, which are supported by the Bundeswehr Joint Support Command. As of 31 January 2026, the Bundeswehr had a strength of 186,221 active-duty military personnel and 81,205 civilians, placing it among the 30 largest military forces in the world, and making it the second largest in the European Union behind France. In addition, the Bundeswehr has approximately 860,000 reserve personnel (2025). With the German military budget at $127 billion (€108.2 billion) for 2026, the Bundeswehr is the fourth-highest-funded military in the world. Germany's defence spending had averaged approximately 1.2% of GDP over the preceding decade, well below the NATO guideline of 2%, which Germany first met in 2024. NATO's revised spending guidelines call for 3.5% of GDP allocated to defence and an additional 1.5% to critical infrastructure resilience, a threshold endorsed at the 2025 Hague summit. Germany is aiming to expand the Bundeswehr to around 203,000 soldiers by 2031 to better cope with increasing responsibilities. Following concerns from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced a major shift in policy, pledging a €100 billion ($116.344 billion) special fund for the Bundeswehr – to remedy years of underinvestment – along with raising the budget to above 2% GDP. In 2025, the German constitution was amended, exempting military and intelligence spending above 1% GDP from the Schuldenbremse (debt limit).