Armed forces, personnel, equipment, deployments: the complete military file on Croatia.
| Active personnel (est.) | 15,000 |
|---|---|
| World rank by personnel | #116 / 162 |
MBB · 59/100 — The Magna grade is our 0–100 composite of structural national power — five dimensions, 100+ indicators. It is the Bureau's own assessment, not a mirror of World Bank or CIA figures.
Momentum 0 — Quarterly momentum: the Bureau's read on the country's trajectory over the last quarter, from −10 (deteriorating fast) to +10 (accelerating).
The quarter passed without decisive turns. Governance continued, markets functioned, and the score reflects that uneventfulness.
For countries like this, the real story is always the slow one — and this quarter added no new chapter to it.
Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia (Oruzane Snage Republike Hrvatske, OSRH): Croatian Army (Hrvatska Kopnena Vojska, HKoV), Croatian Navy (Hrvatska Ratna Mornarica, HRM; includes Coast Guard), Croatian Air Force (Hrvatsko Ratno Zrakoplovstvo, HRZ) (2025)
approximately 15,000 active-duty military personnel (2025)
the military's inventory is a mix of Soviet-era (largely from the former Yugoslavia) equipment and a growing amount of more modern, NATO-compatible weapon systems from suppliers such as France, Germany, Türkiye, and the US (2025)
18-29 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; conscription abolished in 2008 but will be reinstated in 2026 when it will become mandatory for men aged 19-29 to undergo two months of basic military training (2025)
150 Kosovo (KFOR/NATO); also has a few hundred personnel participating in several other EU, NATO, and UN missions (2025)
the Armed Forces of Croatia (OSRH) are responsible for the defense of Croatia’s sovereignty and territory, contributing to international humanitarian, peacekeeping, and security missions, and providing assistance to civil authorities for such missions as responding to disasters, search and rescue, anti-terrorism, and internal security in times of crisis if called upon by the prime minister or the president; Croatia joined NATO in 2009, and the OSRH participates in NATO missions, including its peacekeeping force in Kosovo and the Enhanced Forward Presence mission in Eastern Europe; it also contributes to EU and UN missions; the OSRH trains regularly with NATO and regional partners the OSRH was established in 1991 from the Croatian National Guard during the Croatian War of Independence (1991-95); during the war, the ground forces grew to as many as 60 brigades and dozens of independent battalions, and a single military offensive against Serbian forces in 1995 included some 100,000 Croatian troops; in 2000, Croatia initiated an effort to modernize and reform the OSRH into a small, professional military capable of meeting the challenges of NATO membership (2025)
