Belgium vs. Germany
Military
| Belgium | Germany | |
|---|---|---|
| Military branches | Belgian Armed Forces: Land Component, Naval Component, Air Component, Medical Service (2021) | Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr): Army (Heer), Navy (Deutsche Marine, includes naval air arm), Air Force (Luftwaffe, includes air defense), Joint Support Service (Streitkraeftebasis, SKB), Central Medical Service (Zentraler Sanitaetsdienst, ZSanDstBw), Cyber and Information Space Command (Kommando Cyber- und Informationsraum, Kdo CIR) (2021) |
| Military service age and obligation | 18 years of age for male and female voluntary military service; conscription abolished in 1995 (2019) | 17-23 years of age for male and female voluntary military service; conscription ended July 2011; service obligation 8-23 months or 12 years; women have been eligible for voluntary service in all military branches and positions since 2001 (2019) |
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 1.07% of GDP (2020 est.) 0.89% of GDP (2019) 0.89% of GDP (2018) 0.88% of GDP (2017) 0.89% of GDP (2016) | 1.56% of GDP (2020 est.) 1.36% of GDP (2019) 1.25% of GDP (2018) 1.23% of GDP (2017) 1.2% of GDP (2016) |
| Military - note | Belgium is a member of NATO and was one of the original 12 countries to sign the North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) in 1949 in 2018, the Defense Ministers of Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the creation of a Composite Special Operations Component Command (C-SOCC); the C-SOCC was declared operational in December 2020 | the Federal Republic of Germany joined NATO in May 1955; with the reunification of Germany in October 1990, the states of the former German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany in its membership of NATO |
| Military and security service personnel strengths | the Belgian Armed Forces have approximately 26,000 active duty personnel (11,000 Land Component; 1,500 Navy; 5,000 Air Force; 1,500 Medical Service; 7,000 other, including joint staff, support, and training schools) (2020) | the German Federal Armed Forces have approximately 180,000 active duty personnel (62,000 Army; 16,000 Navy; 28,000 Air Force; 27,000 Joint Support Service; 20,000 Medical Service, 13,000 Cyber and Information Space Command; 14,000 other) (2020) note - Germany in 2020 announced it planned to increase the size of the military to about 200,000 troops by 2024 |
| Military equipment inventories and acquisitions | the Belgian Armed Forces have a mix of weapons systems from European countries, Israel, and the US; since 2010, France, Germany, and Switzerland are the leading suppliers of armaments; Belgium has an export-focused defense industry that focuses on components and subcontracting (2020) | the German Federal Armed Forces inventory is mostly comprised of weapons systems produced domestically or jointly with other European countries and Western imports; since 2010, the US is the leading foreign supplier of armaments to Germany; Germany's defense industry is capable of manufacturing the full spectrum of air, land, and naval military weapons systems, and is one of the world's leading arms exporters (2020) |
| Military deployments | 125 France (contributing member of EuroCorps); 100 Mali (EUTM/MINUSMA); est. 260 Baltic States (NATO) (2020) | approximately 500 Middle East (NATO/Counter-ISIS campaign); 130 Lebanon (UNIFIL); 500 Lithuania (NATO); 800 Mali (MINUSMA/EUTM); note - Germany is a contributing member of the EuroCorps (2021) |
Source: CIA Factbook
