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NewsClock · methodology

Hardware data: coverage & notes

Full detail behind the Wikipedia-sourced tanks / self-propelled artillery / towed artillery / MLRS figures on each country profile -- which countries are covered, which zeroes are real verified figures vs. still-open gaps, and why specific fields are left blank rather than guessed. See Data sources for the short version and the rest of the site's sourcing.

Source notes

Coverage

Tanks, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, and MLRS strength, being rebuilt one verified country at a time from Wikipedia's per-model equipment rosters (which themselves cite sources like the IISS Military Balance) as GlobalFirepower's replacement. Currently covers 172 countries: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, the Republic of the Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, the Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Solomon Islands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, the UAE, the UK, the US, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe -- everything else still shows as not tracked, and even covered countries are missing whichever individual fields couldn't be verified with a clean, current, non-conflicting figure.

Confirmed zeroes vs. open gaps

Some zeroes on this list are real, verified figures rather than gaps -- the Philippines, Colombia, and Mexico genuinely field no tanks (Mexico confirmed by two independent sources citing its shift to a wheeled-armor, internal-security doctrine), Colombia has no MLRS, Ghana fields no tanks at all (multiple comprehensive current rosters agree), Guatemala fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all (its equipment list has dedicated tables for everything else but no armor/SPG/rocket sections), El Salvador fields no tanks at all (no source lists one, and its tracked-vehicle replacement plans are described as permanently shelved), Nicaragua fields no self-propelled artillery at all, Namibia fields no tanks at all (its entire legacy T-55 fleet is explicitly non-serviceable), Panama, Iceland, Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Palau, Vanuatu, and Samoa all have no standing military at all, Belgium explicitly fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS, Latvia and Estonia have each deliberately chosen not to field tanks (Latvia's MLRS is also a confirmed zero, with HIMARS on order but not yet delivered), Ireland and Luxembourg each field none of tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all, North Macedonia fields no tanks or self-propelled artillery at all (it donated its entire Soviet-era fleet to Ukraine in 2022-23 and rebuilt its army around wheeled armor and drones instead), Albania fields no tanks and no MLRS at all (both went to zero around 2010-2015 with no replacement since), Montenegro fields no tanks at all (its equipment list has no tank category, and a news report says so explicitly), Moldova fields no tanks at all (an open-source inventory survey states it plainly), Nepal fields no tanks at all (its equipment table has no tank category, consistent with its mountainous terrain), Canada currently fields no self-propelled artillery at all (confirmed directly by a 2026 report on prototype candidates for the gap) and no MLRS either (a first-ever HIMARS order was only placed in June 2026, with deliveries not expected to begin until 2029), Peru's MLRS is likewise a confirmed zero -- its Dec 2025 PULS deal with Elbit is reported as that firm's first-ever PULS sale in South America, i.e. Peru's first rocket artillery system of any kind, still unfielded, and Czechia's MLRS is a confirmed zero too, its 60-launcher RM-70 fleet 'decommissioned as of end of 2011 without replacement.' Hungary's MLRS is likewise a confirmed zero -- a 2023 defense-industry survey states plainly Hungary 'currently lacks any such systems,' and its would-be HIMARS purchase was only contracted in April 2026, still pre-delivery. The Netherlands fields no towed artillery at all -- a comprehensive current-and-former Dutch equipment list marks every towed piece it ever fielded as retired, and a Dutch military-journal survey of current ground fire support names only the PzH 2000 and mortars. Portugal's MLRS is also a confirmed zero -- Janes' complete order-of-battle description of Portuguese field artillery names only its three towed/self-propelled unit types, with no rocket-artillery unit at all. Mozambique fields no self-propelled artillery at all (its current roster runs entirely towed guns and rocket launchers, with no SP system listed on any current source). Senegal fields no tanks or self-propelled artillery at all (DefenceWeb's comprehensive roster, the AMX-13 operators list, the IISS 2012 roster, and DefenceWeb's own parade coverage all agree). Bolivia fields no self-propelled artillery or MLRS at all (three independent sources confirm the self-propelled-artillery zero, and the BM-21 Grad's own operators list omits Bolivia entirely for MLRS). Guinea-Bissau fields no self-propelled artillery or MLRS at all (the 2S1 Gvozdika's operators list omits it, and DefenceWeb's order-of-battle has no self-propelled-artillery entry). Burkina Faso fields no tanks at all (no tank category appears on any current roster, and the last organizational reference is 14-plus years stale). Niger fields none of tanks, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, or MLRS at all (two independent, itemized current rosters agree the country simply doesn't field any of these four categories). Malawi fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all, only towed guns (three independent current rosters agree). Benin fields no self-propelled artillery or MLRS at all (three independent current rosters agree). Gabon fields no tanks or self-propelled artillery at all (two independent current rosters agree, only wheeled recce vehicles and towed/rocket artillery are fielded). Lesotho fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all (DefenceWeb explicitly states the LDF does not operate tanks, and the other two are absent by consistent pattern). Eswatini fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all (consistent absence across current rosters). New Zealand fields no tanks at all -- Wikipedia states plainly that a 2003 government decision 'marked the end of the use of tanks by the New Zealand Army' -- and fields no self-propelled artillery or MLRS either. Burundi and Trinidad and Tobago each field no tanks or self-propelled artillery at all, and Trinidad and Tobago fields no towed artillery or MLRS either (a small, coast-guard-focused force). Kosovo fields no tanks at all, consistent with its constitutional prohibition on heavy armor, and currently fields no self-propelled artillery either -- a 6-unit Hawkeye 105mm order exists but isn't due for delivery until 2027. Guyana fields no tanks at all (an IISS-sourced order of battle contains no armor unit). Jamaica fields none of tanks, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, or MLRS at all -- Tank Encyclopedia states this plainly. Malta fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all (a small, neutral, garrison-style force). Papua New Guinea fields none of tanks, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, or MLRS at all -- its own defence-force profile states plainly the army is 'only lightly equipped -- possessing no armour, artillery, heavy weapons, anti-armour or anti-aircraft weapons.'

Why some fields still stay blank

A few recurring reasons a field stays blank even for a covered country: the source gives only one combined figure spanning multiple of our categories with no breakdown (South Korea's and North Korea's artillery totals); a figure is real but only for some models in that category (Vietnam, Pakistan's and the UAE's MLRS); a category total can't be trusted not to double-count a future order or a stored/reserve status (Saudi Arabia's and Malaysia's self-propelled artillery, Pakistan's Haider tank, Spain's MLRS, Norway's and Australia's tank fleets mid-replacement, Morocco's stored VT-1A tanks); Turkey's tanks are now covered (2,318, from Wikipedia's itemized Turkish Land Forces equipment list -- about a third of that total is 1950s-origin M48A5T2 Patton hulls of limited modern combat value, so a stricter 'modern fleet only' reading would put the figure closer to 1,450-1,550). Turkey's self-propelled artillery and towed artillery are likewise covered: a single dominant system each (320 T-155 Firtina self-propelled; 517 M114A1/A2 towed, the clear majority of Turkey's towed park) with clean, current, well-sourced totals -- Turkey's MLRS stays excluded, since current sources range from roughly 146 to 532 depending on which launcher types they count, with no clearly most-authoritative figure among them to resolve the conflict. Russia and Israel are skipped for now for the same active-conflict reasoning as their reserve-personnel exclusion. Romania, Hungary, and Portugal were originally covered for tanks only; later per-model passes filled in most of the rest -- Romania's and Hungary's towed-artillery rows remain blank (the only figures found trace to a stale 2016 Military Balance edition or an unreconcilable 2023 partial figure), while Hungary and Portugal both now carry a confirmed MLRS zero (see below) rather than a gap. Brazil is the inverse case: its self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, and MLRS come from specific, dated IISS Military Balance figures, but its tanks stay excluded because current reporting shows a genuine, sourced gap between tanks nominally 'in service' (~220) and tanks actually operational ('>100'), with many grounded for lack of spare parts. Greece, Argentina, and Iraq were all in this same bucket until later passes used the per-model fallback method successfully -- same as Ethiopia. Timor-Leste fields none of tanks, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, or MLRS at all, per an explicit (if dated) source statement corroborated by consistent current absence elsewhere. The Gambia fields no tanks, self-propelled artillery, or MLRS at all. Liberia and Mauritius each field none of tanks, self-propelled artillery, towed artillery, or MLRS at all -- Liberia's post-civil-war military is described directly as having 'almost no hardware,' and Mauritius has no standing army by design. Serbia's equipment-list page was likewise garbled, so it was built per-model instead: its self-propelled artillery excludes the 2S9 Nona (checked directly and Serbia is not a listed operator) and its towed artillery is D-30 only, since the only figures found for its M-56 and M-46 stocks were stale 1998-era numbers with no current confirmation. Venezuela was researched and deliberately excluded: current reporting confirms its tanks, self-propelled artillery, and MLRS all suffer widespread low operational readiness from fuel shortages, cannibalization, and sanctions-driven maintenance decay, so published delivery totals would overstate what's actually functional today -- the same reasoning that excludes Russia, Israel, Syria, Ukraine, and Afghanistan. Aircraft, helicopters, and armored-vehicle totals are now sourced separately (FlightGlobal's World Air Forces census, IISS Military Balance, official releases, and defense press) for roughly 155-171 of 181 countries depending on the field, replacing an earlier GlobalFirepower-derived version entirely -- see the Data sources section for exact per-field counts. For Yemen, Afghanistan, and Sudan -- countries without a coherent current national military since, respectively, the 2014-15 Houthi takeover, the Taliban's Aug 2021 return to power, and the civil war that began in Apr 2023 -- these fields show a dated pre-collapse or point-in-time figure with an "as of <year>" badge rather than a blank, the same treatment as Turkey's attack-helicopter count above. Turkey's own helicopter/AFV fields stay mostly blank despite a dedicated research pass: its Wikipedia equipment tables were found to contain a confirmed error (Cobra attack helicopters listed under the Army years after they transferred to the Navy) and its armored-vehicle figures conflict by 2-20x across sources depending on which model list is used. Turkey's attack-helicopter count (58 T129 ATAK) is shown as a dated 2021 figure rather than blank, since production has continued since but no current aggregate could be verified.