Turkiye will allocate $22.776 billion for military spending, equalling 2.09 per cent of its GDP as presented in NATO’s annual report. These values represent an increase of nearly $6 billion and surpass the goal of two per cent of the GDP for each country. The increase in spending is the highest of the 2014-2024 period, at 44.09 per cent. 34.2 per cent of this spending is reserved for military equipment, significantly above the 20 per cent goal. Since 2024, multiple production contracts have been signed for Turkiye’s critical defence programmes, such as air defence systems, artillery rockets, and new-generation ballistic missiles.
NATO collects defence expenditure data from Allies and publishes it regularly. Each Ally’s Ministry of Defence reports current and estimated future defence expenditure according to an agreed definition. The amounts represent payments by a national government that have been or will be made during the fiscal year to meet the needs of its armed forces, those of Allies or the Alliance. In the following figures and tables, NATO also uses economic and demographic information from the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission (DG ECFIN) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). According to defence expenditure as a share of GDP percentage, three countries out of 31 passed the 2.0 threshold in 2014. These are the USA, the U.K. and Greece. While the threat of war is imminent, 23 countries, including the previous three countries, reached that goal. As a result, in terms of current defence expenditure as a share of GDP percentage,
Turkiye is just above NATO’s 2 per cent target at 2.09 per cent and just below the NATO average of 2.11 per cent. Poland with 4.12 per cent, the USA with 3.38 per cent and Greece with 3.08 per cent are leading countries. When it comes to equipment expenditure as a share of defence expenditure, eight out of 31 countries reached NATO’s guideline of 20 per cent in 2015. These are Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Türkiye, Sweden, Estonia, Norway, the USA, and France. Only two countries, Canada and Belgium, do not exceed this limit today.
Turkiye is well above the NATO target of 20 per cent, with 34.2 per cent, and just above the NATO average of 30.9 per cent. Poland is the leading country, with 51.1 per cent, and Hungary ranks second, with 47.8 per cent. Turkiye has the second-biggest army in NATO after the U.S. The budget is, therefore, mostly spent on salaries. The Turkish Armed Forces’ personnel expenditures are high compared to those of other members.
