Throughout the course of World War II, artillery units literally defined the landscape. Tactical bombardment of enemy positions whether from the land or the sky created the gruesome landscape that was Europe in the wake of World War II. After years of refinement, technological advancement and upgrades, artillery units still play a vital role in modern military forces, and much military strength can be attributed to this firepower. (These are revolutionary military weapons that redefined warfare.)
Practically all NATO members were engaged in World War II to varying degrees, hence the formation of the alliance. With this coalition NATO countries can pool their resources and military power to project power where needed. On the European continent alone many of these countries have formidable artillery forces built up and ready for whatever operational need may be.
To identify the NATO countries with the most artillery units, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed 2024 Military Strength Ranking from Global Firepower, an annually updated defense-related statistics website with information on 145 countries. Countries were ranked on the total number of artillery units in their arsenal. We included supplemental information regarding the total military vehicles, tanks and MLRS units, as well as each country’s overall military strength score.
Out of all the NATO forces, the United States has by far the most robust military. Even outranking NATO’s newest member Sweden that only joined recently. The U.S. Air Force and Navy put it far ahead of other nations but its capacity to wage war on land with tanks and artillery units allow for U.S. forces to deal with any combat environment. (These are the longest range artillery units in the U.S. Army.)
While the U.S. outranks all of these NATO members in overall military strength, many of these nations have comparable sized forces on the ground. These nations rely heavily on their tanks and artillery to get the job done.
Here is a look at the NATO countries with the most artillery firepower:
32. Iceland
Source: MLiberra / iStock via Getty Images
- Total artillery: 0
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 175
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 3.5038 – #136 out of 145
31. Luxembourg
Source: quinet / Flickr
- Total artillery: 0
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 180
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 2.1458 – #109 out of 145
30. Albania
Source: usarmyeurope_images / Flickr
- Total artillery: 0
- Total tanks: 40
- Total military vehicles: 976
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 1.8188 – #90 out of 145
29. Belgium
Source: ajw1970 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 0
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 4,606
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 1.2064 – #70 out of 145
28. Canada
Source: 101561334@N08 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 0
- Total tanks: 74
- Total military vehicles: 18,054
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.3813 – #27 out of 145
27. Montenegro
- Total artillery: 12
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 662
- Total MLRS: 12
- Military strength score: 2.9109 – #129 out of 145
26. Slovenia
Source: 39955793@N07 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 18
- Total tanks: 55
- Total military vehicles: 1,502
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 1.8286 – #91 out of 145
25. Denmark
Source: morten812 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 19
- Total tanks: 44
- Total military vehicles: 4,056
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.7743 – #48 out of 145
24. Estonia
Source: 39955793@N07 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 24
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 1,409
- Total MLRS: 6
- Military strength score: 1.7237 – #87 out of 145
23. Sweden
Source: usarmyeurope_images / Flickr
- Total artillery: 26
- Total tanks: 120
- Total military vehicles: 7,958
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.4009 – #29 out of 145
22. Slovakia
Source: barteq24 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 44
- Total tanks: 36
- Total military vehicles: 2,048
- Total MLRS: 25
- Military strength score: 1.1891 – #69 out of 145
21. Czechia
Source: 96541566@N06 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 53
- Total tanks: 65
- Total military vehicles: 6,757
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.7706 – #46 out of 145
20. Norway
Source: 39955793@N07 / Flickr
- Total artillery: 56
- Total tanks: 36
- Total military vehicles: 7,048
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.5664 – #41 out of 145
19. Latvia
Source: usarmyeurope_images / Flickr
- Total artillery: 59
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 1,544
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 1.9911 – #99 out of 145
18. Netherlands
- Total artillery: 72
- Total tanks: 18
- Total military vehicles: 3,176
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.5644 – #40 out of 145
17. Lithuania
Source: usarmyeurope_images / Flickr
- Total artillery: 75
- Total tanks: 0
- Total military vehicles: 1,356
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 1.7395 – #88 out of 145
16. France
Source: Maurizio Fabbroni / iStock Editorial via Getty Images
- Total artillery: 96
- Total tanks: 222
- Total military vehicles: 85,023
- Total MLRS: 9
- Military strength score: 0.1878 – #11 out of 145
15. Portugal
Source: p300njb / Flickr
- Total artillery: 106
- Total tanks: 34
- Total military vehicles: 11,173
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.5609 – #38 out of 145
14. Germany
Source: soldiersmediacenter / Flickr
- Total artillery: 134
- Total tanks: 295
- Total military vehicles: 79,317
- Total MLRS: 33
- Military strength score: 0.2847 – #19 out of 145
13. Italy
Source: charlesduggar / Flickr
- Total artillery: 172
- Total tanks: 200
- Total military vehicles: 61,892
- Total MLRS: 21
- Military strength score: 0.1863 – #10 out of 145
12. Croatia
Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
- Total artillery: 181
- Total tanks: 75
- Total military vehicles: 3,076
- Total MLRS: 105
- Military strength score: 1.1333 – #66 out of 145
11. North Macedonia
Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
- Total artillery: 191
- Total tanks: 23
- Total military vehicles: 2,156
- Total MLRS: 24
- Military strength score: 2.1717 – #110 out of 145
10. United Kingdom
Source: studiaphotos / Flickr
- Total artillery: 197
- Total tanks: 213
- Total military vehicles: 27,203
- Total MLRS: 41
- Military strength score: 0.1443 – #6 out of 145
9. Spain
Source: elentir / Flickr
- Total artillery: 236
- Total tanks: 327
- Total military vehicles: 15,046
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.2882 – #20 out of 145
8. Bulgaria
Source: oregonmildep / Flickr
- Total artillery: 273
- Total tanks: 215
- Total military vehicles: 7,420
- Total MLRS: 24
- Military strength score: 1.0132 – #62 out of 145
7. Hungary
Source: peer_gynt / Flickr
- Total artillery: 318
- Total tanks: 208
- Total military vehicles: 7,797
- Total MLRS: 0
- Military strength score: 0.8478 – #54 out of 145
6. Poland
- Total artillery: 525
- Total tanks: 612
- Total military vehicles: 13,956
- Total MLRS: 211
- Military strength score: 0.2917 – #21 out of 145
5. Romania
Source: usarmyeurope_images / Flickr
- Total artillery: 720
- Total tanks: 345
- Total military vehicles: 9,990
- Total MLRS: 225
- Military strength score: 0.7712 – #47 out of 145
4. Finland
Source: VanderWolf-Images / iStock Editorial via Getty Images
- Total artillery: 792
- Total tanks: 200
- Total military vehicles: 11,716
- Total MLRS: 76
- Military strength score: 0.7967 – #50 out of 145
3. Greece
Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
- Total artillery: 1,318
- Total tanks: 1,365
- Total military vehicles: 57,030
- Total MLRS: 152
- Military strength score: 0.4349 – #32 out of 145
2. Turkey
Source: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
- Total artillery: 2,785
- Total tanks: 2,231
- Total military vehicles: 55,104
- Total MLRS: 286
- Military strength score: 0.1697 – #8 out of 145
1. United States
Source: Pool / Getty Images
- Total artillery: 2,862
- Total tanks: 4,657
- Total military vehicles: 360,069
- Total MLRS: 694
- Military strength score: 0.0699 – #1 out of 145
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