South Korea ranks even higher despite a smaller budget and even smaller population. The difference is less in how much money gets spent to buy new equipment, but in what happens to old equipment.

South Korea still has lots of tanks left over from the Korean War. Similarly, Germany used to have lots of Cold War-era tanks inherited from the combined arsenals of West and East Germany, but as they were considered outmoded and unlikely to ever get used again, the Bundeswehr sold them off. Then when a new use for them was found in Ukraine, some of them got bought back again.