Editing Armed Forces of Croatia (section)

==Defence expenditure==
{{See also|List of countries in Europe by military expenditures}}The trajectory of Croatian [[military budget]] and spending was constantly below  2% of [[Gross domestic product|GDP]], a major difference from the 1990s when defence expenditure represented a major stake in Croatian budgetary expenditure due to then ongoing [[Croatian War of Independence]]. For example, in 1995 the Croatian defence budget stood at 12.4 billion [[Croatian Kuna]] or around 10% of GDP, which was also represented at the time highest defence expenditure rate. In late 2019, the Croatian Government issued a revised defence expenditure strategy which will see the country increase its defence expenditure to gradually meet the 2% NATO target, with 2019 and 2020 defence budgets seeing immediate revisions and increases to meet the new spending plan. However, if defence pensions are included in Croatia's defence expenditure, then Croatia already meets the 2% target recommended by the NATO. Some €1140 million was paid in defence pensions to some 97000 individuals in Croatia.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tportal.hr/biznis/clanak/analiza-proracuna-foto-20221115 | title=Pročešljali smo novi državni proračun: Vojska, policija, političari, umirovljenici i učitelji trljaju ruke, medicinari najveći gubitnici }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://n1info.hr/biznis/koliko-iznose-mirovine-hrvatskih-branitelja/ | title=Koliko iznose mirovine hrvatskih branitelja? | date=18 November 2022 }}</ref>

Defence expenditures in recent years;<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/20230707_natopub_defence_expenditure_of_nato_countries_2014-2023_0.pdf|title=Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2023)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2024/6/pdf/240617-def-exp-2024-en.pdf|title=Defence Expenditure of NATO Countries (2014-2024)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=International Monetary Fund Croatia economic outlook |url=https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPD@WEO/HRV?zoom=HRV&highlight=HRV}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
|'''Year'''||'''Amount (in [[United States dollar|USD]])'''|| '''% of GDP''' ||'''Change in %'''
|-
|2014
|1.064 bil.
|1.78
|
|-
|2015
|883 mil.
|1.73
|{{Decrease}} 1.03
|-
|2016
|837 mil.
|1.58
|{{Decrease}} 5.96
|-
|2017
|926 mil.
|1.64
|{{Increase}} 6.15
|-
|2018
|966 mil.
|1.56
|{{Decrease}} 2.81
|-
|2019
|1,001 bil.
|1.61
|{{Increase}} 7.19
|-
|2020
|983 mil.
|1.69
|{{Decrease}} 3.02
|-
|2021
|1,361 bil.
|1.95
|{{Increase}} 30.82
|-
|2022
|1,285 bil.
|1.78
|{{Decrease}} 2.40
|-
|2023
|1,441 bil.
|1.74
|{{Increase}} 0.73
|-
|2024
|1,624 bil.
|1.81
|{{Increase}} 7.11
|}
With the publishment of the new budget for the year 2025., defence expenditure will reach 2% mark as per the obligations to the NATO. Furthermore, in regard to the modernization of the equipment of the Armed Forces, it is planned that 29% of the total amount will be spent on acquiring new NATO standard equipment, well above 20% that [[North Atlantic Treaty|NATO charter]] obliges its member state to spend.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vlada.gov.hr/UserDocsImages/Vijesti/2024/Studeni/14_studenoga/Prijedlog_proracuna_2025-2027.pdf|title=Proracun 2025: ulaganja u opremanje i modernizaciju vojske}}</ref>