Military Power.net

Israelvs South Korea

On Global Firepower's 2026 index, South Korea (#5) holds a solid edge over Israel (#15).

  • Israel has nuclear weapons; South Korea has none.
  • South Korea has destroyers; Israel has none.
  • South Korea fields 3.7× as many submarines.
  1. People and moneySouth Korea leads 3 of 4
  2. Land forcesSouth Korea leads 5 of 5
  3. Air powerSouth Korea leads 6 of 7
  4. Naval forcesSouth Korea leads 5 of 7
  5. Nuclear weaponsIsrael leads 1 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.

$48.3B
Military spending
$47.8B
170K
Active personnel
450K
465K
Reserves
3.1M
35K
Paramilitary
120K

Spending is SIPRI's 2025 estimate in US dollars (Israel: 7.8% of GDP; South Korea: 2.6% of GDP).

Land forces

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

1,300
Tanks
1,831
62K
Armored vehicles
117K
323
Self-propelled artillery
2,780
171
Towed artillery
5,800
228
Rocket artillery
525

Air power

Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.

597
Total aircraft
1,540
239
Fighters
242
45
Attack aircraft
98
127
Helicopters
827
48
Attack helicopters
113
13
Tankers
4
14
Transports
40

Naval forces

Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.

82
Total fleet
215
0
Aircraft carriers
0
0
Helicopter carriers
2
6
Submarines
22
0
Destroyers
14
0
Frigates
18
7
Corvettes
3

Nuclear weapons

Estimated warheads in military stockpiles, January 2026.

90
Warheads
0
0
Deployed warheads
0

Compare other countries

Related matchups

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