Rank #24 · Americas
Mexico spent $13.6B on defense in 2025, just 0.7% of GDP — among the lowest defense burdens in the OECD despite an internal-security crisis driven by transnational cartels. Under President Claudia Sheinbaum, the Guardia Nacional was formally absorbed into SEDENA, completing the militarization of public security begun under her predecessor.
Mexico's 2025 federal defense budget combines SEDENA (army and air force) at roughly MXN 158B and SEMAR (navy) at roughly MXN 84B, with the Guardia Nacional adding approximately MXN 79B as an additional SEDENA-administered line after the 2025 reform. Total defense-and-security spending is around 0.7% of GDP — well below regional peers and far below NATO benchmarks. Procurement is modest and dominated by patrol aircraft, helicopters (UH-60M), light naval combatants, and small arms. SEDENA also runs major civilian infrastructure projects including the Felipe Ángeles airport, the Maya Train, and customs administration, complicating clean defense-spending comparisons.
Active strength is approximately 277,000 (around 215,000 SEDENA + 62,000 SEMAR), with an additional 120,000 Guardia Nacional now under SEDENA command. The army is a light/motorized infantry force with limited armor (mostly ERC-90, DN-3 Caballo, and Humvee variants). The Mexican Air Force operates F-5E (limited service), T-6C+ Texan trainers, and an aging fleet of utility helicopters. SEMAR fields a growing surface fleet centered on Sigma-class long-range patrol vessels, Holzinger and Oaxaca-class patrol vessels, and a marine corps focused on coastal interdiction. Posture is overwhelmingly oriented toward internal counter-cartel operations rather than external defense.
Mexico's domestic defense industry is small and concentrated in DGIM (small arms and ammunition, including the FX-05 rifle) and SEMAR-operated shipyards (ASTIMAR), which have produced indigenous Oaxaca and Reformador-class patrol vessels. Major platforms — Black Hawk helicopters, Sigma frigates (Damen, Netherlands), surveillance aircraft (Beechcraft King Air ISR variants from the US), and small arms components — are imported. The US is by far the dominant supplier; the State Department's Mérida Initiative and successor Bicentennial Framework have funded helicopters, surveillance equipment, and forensic support. France (helicopters) and Israel (ISR systems) are secondary suppliers.
Mexico has no external war but faces a chronic internal-security emergency: cartel-driven violence produced over 30,000 homicides in 2025, with armed-confrontation casualties of soldiers and Guardia Nacional reaching the highest levels in over a decade. The Sinaloa Cartel's Chapitos-Mayos faction war and CJNG expansion in Michoacán, Jalisco and Guanajuato dominate operational tasking. The US-Mexico relationship is strained: the Trump administration has designated several cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and openly discussed unilateral strikes; cross-border weapons flows southward and fentanyl-precursor flows northward remain unresolved.
On April 27, 2026 SIPRI placed Mexico's 2025 spending at $13.6B. Constitutional reform finalized in late 2024 transferred the Guardia Nacional to SEDENA; implementing legislation took effect July 1, 2025. In September 2025 a major fuel-smuggling corruption scandal at SEMAR led to the arrest of Vice Admiral Manuel Roberto Farías Laguna and others, with seizures including a tanker carrying 10 million liters of contraband diesel. Sheinbaum's security secretary Omar García Harfuch has overseen high-profile cartel arrests but per-capita homicide rates have not meaningfully fallen. US-Mexico friction over cartel designations and tariffs persisted through Q1 2026.
Mexico has no external military rivals, is shielded under the US security umbrella via geography and the Rio Treaty, and constitutionally limits military deployment abroad. Defense burden has been sub-1% of GDP for decades; spending growth since 2018 has been driven by internal security, not external defense.
The Guardia Nacional is a 120,000-strong federal force created in 2019. A 2024 constitutional reform transferred it from civilian SSPC to SEDENA, and 2025 implementing law made the transfer operational. It is now formally a military branch with police powers — a militarization of public security criticized by Mexican human-rights organizations.
The United States is the dominant supplier (helicopters, ISR aircraft, small arms), with secondary roles for France (Eurocopter), the Netherlands (Sigma-class naval design), Israel (ISR systems), and Spain (training). Domestic DGIM produces rifles and ammunition; SEMAR shipyards build patrol vessels.
No. Mexico is a state party to the Treaty of Tlatelolco (1967) and the NPT, and was a leading negotiator of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which it has ratified. Mexico has no civilian or military nuclear-weapons program.