Description
Key sources
1. SIPRI (2024/2025 military expenditure report) — used for the NATO and Russia spending totals. SIPRI is the standard source for global defence-expenditure comparisons. SIPRI
2. Statista (aggregate country comparisons / 2025 summaries) — convenient aggregation for personnel, aircraft, and tanks across alliances; good for high-level NATO vs Russia comparisons. Statista+1
3. IISS / Parliamentary committee summaries (IISS Military Balance aggregates quoted in public committee evidence) — provided AFV (IFV/APC) global totals and context for how AFV inventories are counted; IISS is the authoritative inventory source (note: full Military Balance data is paywalled). UK Parliament Committees+1
4. Open-source trackers, IISS and investigative outlets (Oryx / The Insider / IStories / IISS reporting / OSINT) — used to estimate Russia’s non-MBT AFV pool after combat losses in Ukraine (these sources document confirmed losses and assessments of remaining usable vehicles). These show that Russia’s IFV/APC stocks were heavily drawn down and repaired/refurbished stocks are being used. Russia Matters+2Euromaidan Press+2
5. Naval and carrier aggregates (press/aggregators such as 24/7 Wall St., parliamentary reports, defence press) — used to estimate combined NATO hulls, carriers and submarines; counting rules differ but the cited sources provide comparable alliance vs Russia tallies. 24/7 Wall St.+1
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Short interpretation / caveats
• Counting rules matter. “Total aircraft,” “naval hulls,” and especially “armored vehicles (non-MBT)” are reported with different inclusion rules (active vs reserve vs in storage; whether self-propelled artillery or engineer vehicles are counted as AFVs). we show ranges where appropriate and cite the underlying methodology.
• Russia’s equipment numbers are volatile. Combat losses in Ukraine, refurbishment, and production all change the on-hand and operational inventories rapidly — open-source trackers (Oryx, IISS summaries) confirm large losses of IFVs/APCs and tanks since 2022. Use the Russia AFV figures above as best-estimate ranges in 2025 rather than audited counts. Critical Threats+1
• NATO is an alliance of 32 members (2024–2025), so NATO totals reflect aggregation across many national inventories — that gives NATO a very large numerical edge in most platform categories but the quality, integration, and deployment posture vary by country. SIPRI