The United States spent $997 billion on defence in 2025 — 37 percent of total global military expenditure — as worldwide spending hit a post-Cold War record, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) data compiled by Statista.
Top 10 Military Spenders Worldwide, 2025
| Rank | Country | Spending (USD bn) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | $997 |
| 2 | China | $314 |
| 3 | Russia | $149 |
| 4 | United Kingdom | $88 |
| 4 | Germany | $88 |
| 6 | India | $86 |
| 7 | Saudi Arabia | $80 |
| 8 | Ukraine | $65 |
| 9 | France | $64 |
| 10 | Japan | $56 |
India’s structural gap
India ranked sixth at $86 billion — a position held for the third straight year — spending roughly 2.3 percent of GDP, below the 3-percent threshold the Ministry of Defence has internally flagged as necessary for full tri-service modernisation.
The Union Budget 2025-26 allocated ₹6.81 lakh crore to defence. Of that, only ₹1.80 lakh crore is earmarked for capital acquisition; the rest covers salaries, pensions, and revenue expenditure. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence flagged this structural imbalance in its 38th report, tabled in March 2026.
The India-China gap is the sharpest strategic pressure point. China’s $314 billion is nearly fourfold India’s figure, and Beijing has grown its defence budget at roughly 7 percent annually over the past decade — more than doubling from 2015 levels. For the 17 Mountain Strike Corps, raised in 2013 and headquartered at Panagarh, West Bengal to counter Chinese ingress along the Line of Actual Control in Arunachal Pradesh and Ladakh, this translates into real shortfalls: the corps still operates with two infantry divisions instead of its originally sanctioned strength, a gap the Comptroller and Auditor General flagged in 2023.
Europe’s rearmament reshapes the table
Germany’s $88 billion marks the sharpest Western European pivot. Berlin spent just $52 billion in 2021; it crossed NATO’s 2-percent-of-GDP target for the first time in 2024, backed by a €100 billion Bundeswehr modernisation fund approved by the Bundestag. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government committed in March 2026 to hold spending above 2 percent through 2030.
Ukraine’s $65 billion — eighth globally — is the list’s starkest outlier. It represents over 34 percent of the country’s GDP, financed largely through NATO member contributions and US military aid packages approved by Congress in April 2024. Poland, outside the top ten, now spends 4.7 percent of GDP on defence, the highest ratio in NATO.
What India buys next
India’s Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is expected to clear procurement proposals worth an estimated ₹1.45 lakh crore in the financial year ending March 2027. Key items awaiting final approval include 97 additional Tejas Mk-1A fighters from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited under a Buy Indian category contract and a ₹22,000 crore deal for 31 MQ-9B SeaGuardian remotely piloted aircraft from General Atomics. The next SIPRI Yearbook, due April 2027, will offer the first full-year read on whether India’s spending trajectory has begun to close any ground on China.
