List of military equipment of NATO
This is a list of all military equipment used by NATO. The equipment will be by country and organised alphabetically. At the end of the list there will be an overview of NATO military equipment and forces as a whole split into armies, air forces and Navy's. This will be based on the equipment which will be in the lists below.
B
C
Canada
Croatia
Czech Republic
D
E
F
G
Germany
I
Iceland
L
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
M
Montenegro
N
Netherlands
North Macedonia
P
Poland
S
Slovenia
T
U
United Kingdom
Armies and small arms, vehicles, Artillery and air defence systems
Armies
Biggest army in NATO by a significant margin is the US army with 485,000 regular personnel as of 2021 followed by the Turkish Army with 260,200. Most European members of NATO have total active personnel for their armies being in the tens of thousands. Exceptions would be the Greek and French Armies which have 100,000 and roughly 118,000 respectively. The Italian Army is just under 100,000 and the British Army is relatively large at 82,040. Other exceptions would be the Albanian Army with 8,500 personnel, the Slovenian Ground Force with 7,300, the Army of North Macedonia with 6,100 and the Army of Montenegro with 1,500. Iceland does not have an army and its only defense force is the Icelandic Coast Guard with 3 ships and 4 aircraft.
Ammo
Today the standard NATO round for service small arms is 5.56mm NATO although 7.62mm NATO is still in use with machine guns and sniper rifles. However some former Warsaw pact countries now in NATO still use the standard Russian assault rifle round the 7.62×39mm for their Kalashnikov rifles. 9mm Parabellum is obviously still in use for Sidearms. The 12.7mm NATO cartridge also know as .50 BMG is standard for heavy machine guns as NATO's primary heavy machine gun is the M2 Browning which was already chambered for .50 BMG before NATO was formed. Tank ammo has similarly also been standardised across NATO with 120×570mm NATO ammunition being in use in all NATO tanks except Challenger 2 although future Challenger 3 will be able to use the standard NATO tank ammo. All NATO tank ammo having the same dimensions means any round from a NATO country can be fired in a NATO tank. So a Leopard 2 can fire American M829 tank ammo and vice versa. Western aligned countries such as Israel, Japan and South Korea also make ammo to NATO standard dimensions so this could also be used in a NATO tank.
Small arms
A relatively large amount of NATO standard service arms are from the M16 family of assault rifles such as the M4 carbine, Colt Canada C7 and Heckler & Koch HK416. They are all variants of the M16 design. As well as this former Warsaw pact countries still use rifles from the AK family. Other assault rifles in NATO service are the Steyr AUG, Heckler & Koch G36, FN SCAR, SA 80,Beretta AR70/90, Beretta ARX160, CZ 805 BREN and HS Produkt VHS. Note that while the FAMAS is still used by France in 2022 it is set to soon be replace by the HK 416. NATO sidearms are from large commercial pistol manufacturers which are Beretta with the Beretta 92, SIG Sauer with the SIG Sauer M17, Glock with its Glock pistol, Heckler & Koch with the Heckler & Koch USP and CZUB with their CZ 75. Machine guns are usually either a 5.56 FN Minimi or 7.62 FN MAG both made by FN Herstal. However Germany makes its own machine guns the MG4 in 5.56 and MG5 in 7.62 and Denmark uses a modernised version of the Cold War US M60. The old MG 3 machine gun is still in service with the Bundeswehr and in the armies of other NATO members although it is being phased out by the Bundeswehr and should be replaced by the MG4 and MG 5 soon as of 2022. In terms of infantry anti-tank weapons NATO has a very wide variety which are FGM-148 Javelin, M72 LAW, NLAW, Panzerfaust 3, MATADOR, Carl Gustaf, AT4, Spike, C90-CR (M3), Eryx, MILAN, Missile Moyenne Portée, RPG-75, RPG-7 and 9K111 Fagot. The only anti tank weapons just listed that are not in widespread use in NATO meaning are used by multiple countries is the French Eryx only used by France and Turkey, The Missile Moyenne Portée also French only in use with France and the British and Swedish NLAW only used by the United Kingdom in NATO. For infantry anti-aircraft weapons there is FIM-92 Stinger, Starstreak, Mistral (missile) and Piorun (missile). Stinger is widely used in NATO as well as Mistral. Starstreak and Piorun are only in use in NATO in their country of origin.
Armoured fighting vehicles
In terms of MBT's there are 5 types in NATO that are modern enough for a peer conflict with Russia that are talked about below. The majority of NATO members use the Leopard 2 as their main tank with some countries such as Spain and Poland having their own variants. Leopard 2A4 is the most widely used variant but this is the least modern variant in current use and NATO uses the variants developed after the 2A4 the 2A5, 2A6 and 2A7.The US M1 Abrams tank is mainly used by US although Poland uses them alongside their Leopard 2'S being the only other NATO member to operate the Abrams than the United States. M1 Abrams is in service in large numbers with the US army and Leopard 2 is in widespread service throughout NATO making these tank types the bulk of NATO's armoured strength. Other tanks that are available in small numbers that are only used in NATO by their respective countries are Challenger 2, Leclerc and Ariete. They are roughly 200 in service tanks for each tank type and making a total 800 and there are roughly 1500 Leopard 2'S in NATO service and roughly 2500 M1 Abrams the majority M1A2 and the rest M1A1. So roughly half of NATO tank strength is composed of M1 Abrams tanks of the US army and the other half of European tanks with Leopard 2 being the majority of European tanks with smaller amounts of Challenger 2, Leclerc and Ariete available. While the tanks previously listed are the main NATO tank forces other NATO members operate obsolete Cold War tanks from both the West and the Soviet Union. Some of those Soviet tanks are domestic variants of an original Soviet design. The countries that operate these tanks also do not have the ability to deploy them abroad so they still could not be used in NATO operations against poorly armed opponents where they might be useful. In terms of infantry fighting vehicles there is slightly more variety due to the lower cost when compared to a tank. The US M2 Bradley makes up a substantial amount of infantry fighting vehicles in NATO with the US operating roughly 6,000. Other IFV's in NATO have hundreds of each type depending on which exact one present in NATO. These IFV's are Puma, Warrior, Dardo,Freccia, ASCOD, Combat Vehicle 90, VBCI, LAV III, BMP-1and BMP-2. The total for all these IFV's is roughly around 5000 meaning the US has roughly half of Nato's IFV's. Note I have not included anything that could be described as an IFV but is not classified as such like a Stryker, Boxer or Piranha. In terms of other armoured fighting vehicles a lot of NATO members operate wheeled APC's as well as IFV's to carry infantry the difference being an IFV would be employed with an infantry squad that was meant to work with tanks and a wheeled APC would be employed with independant infantry that were not supposed to cooperate with any tanks. These are the Stryker, Boxer and Piranha as I mentioned earlier and the Patria AMV, Patria Pasi, Pandur II and Pandur I. As you can imagine the majority of modern wheeled AFV's in NATO are Strykers at roughly 4,500. The next most widely available wheeled APC is the Patria AMV with Poland having a large amount having roughly 1000 vehicles with other NATO members employing much smaller numbers. Next is the Boxer with roughly 800 in NATO use and those numbers will soon go up substantially as of 2022 to roughly 1400 once the British Army gets the roughly 600 vehicles it ordered. Second least used is the MOWAG Piranha with roughly 500 in service in NATO. The modern wheeled AFV in the smallest numbers in NATO is Pandur II with 250 being present in NATO members the majority with Portugal and a smaller amount with Czech. Slovenian has also made a request for 14 Pandur II as they already operate Pandur I as of 2022. Older vehicles still in use as APC's but with tracks are the M113 armored personnel carrier and ELVO Leonidas-2. Most AFV's can also be configured into specialist vehicles as in most militaries.
Artillery
The main self propelled artillery vehicles in NATO service meaning the most wudespread are the M109 howitzer and Panzerhaubitze 2000. Other than this only one country in NATO operates the AS-90, AMX-30 AuF1, K9 Thunder,T-155 Fırtına and AHS Krab self propelled artillery as of 2022 which is their country of origin except for the K9 Thunder which is Korean but operated by Norway although this may change. The CAESAR self-propelled howitzer is unusual for a self propelled artillery vehicle as it is unarmoured. The CAESAR is as of 2022 is soon going to be used by multiple NATO members. The Czech 152 mm SpGH DANA Self propelled artillery is also unarmoured and used by multiple NATO members. In terms of towed artillery in NATO service some countries still use old Cold War US and Soviet or even World War II US towed artillery pieces as well old US self propelled ones from the Cold War. In terms of modern non-self propelled artillery in NATO you have the L118 light gun which is in use by many NATO members as well as the FH70 which is used by multiple NATO countries and the M777 howitzer only in use by US and Canada. In terms of MRLS the most widespread one and you could say the NATO standard one is the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System. M142 HIMARS is only used by US and Romania and RM-70 multiple rocket launcher by Greece, Poland and Slovakia. Only Poland uses WR-40 Langusta.
Air defence systems
The main air defence system in NATO as of 2022 is MIM-104 Patriot. Others in use are NASAMS, CAMM and in Eastern Europe Cold War Soviet 2K12 Kub. THAAD is a system designed to only intercept ballistic missile and is in use only by the US in NATO.
Aircraft
Fighters
The majority of NATO fighters are General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons. This is due to the fighter being made in relatively large quantities and widespread use by the US airforce and the selling of F-16's to a lot of US NATO allies like Turkey, Poland and the Netherlands. The Eurofighter Typhoon is in quantity in NATO with the European nations United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain using it as their main fighter although not in the same quantity as the F-16. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is also available in quantity in NATO and are growing in numbers with the US having a relatively large amount in service and smaller numbers being operated by individual NATO countries generally. The Dassault Rafale is for now only used by France and a small amount was acquired by Greece in 2020 and so is only available in small quantities. There is an extremly small number of Saab JAS 39 Gripen operated by the Czech and Hungarian airforce which is so small to be insignificant 14 each so 28 overall.
Attack helicopters
Boeing AH-64 Apache is the most used attack helicopter in NATO mainly because hundreds are in US service along with smaller amounts serving with the UK, Netherlands and Greece. Eurocopter Tiger is also present in quantity in NATO with France, Germany and Spain.
Ships
The US Navy forms the bulk of NATO's naval strength through large numbers as well as having the best aircraft carriers in the world. The majority of European Navies only operate frigates and smaller craft to protect their own waters, and lack a substantially armed "blue sea" navy. However, The British, French, Italian, and Spanish Navies hold a significant amount of naval power which is a strong addition to the US Navy to improve NATO's naval strength. They all operate destroyers to escort their carriers, although Spain designates their destroyers as Frigates.
The US operates 11 aircraft carriers and Royal Navy operates 2 aircraft carriers as does the Italian Navy. France and Spain both have 1 aircraft carrier. A significant amount of NATO carriers are not US and, while not being as advanced, most operate modern aircraft except Spain so they are a significant NATO asset that increases NATO naval power considerably. Despite not being blue water Navies the German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Turkish Navies have ships that could make a significant difference when part of a NATO carrier strike group or task force at sea.
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