British Armed Forces,[b] also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces

37,810

Total

153,290

37,420

8,170

198,880

As of 1 October 2017, there were a total of 9,330 Regular service personnel stationed outside of the United Kingdom, 3,820 of those were located in Germany. 138,040 Regular service personnel were stationed in the United Kingdom, the majority located in the South East and South West of England with 37,520 and 36,790 Regular service personnel, respectively.^[78]
Defence expenditure[edit]
Top ten military expenditures in billion US$ in 2014
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United Kingdom has the fourth-largest defence budget in the world.^[79] For comparison's sake, this sees Britain spending more in absolute terms than France, Germany, India or Japan, a similar amount to that of Russia, but less than China, Saudi Arabia or the United States.^[79] In September 2011, according to Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute, current "planned levels of defence spending should be enough for the United Kingdom to maintain its position as one of the world's top military powers, as well as being one of NATO-Europe's top military powers. Its edge – not least its qualitative edge – in relation to rising Asian powers seems set to erode, but will remain significant well into the 2020s, and possibly beyond."^[80] The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 committed to spending 2% of GDP on defence and announced a £178 billion investment over ten years in new equipment and capabilities.^[81][82]