In Qatar, Qatar's military is a small and well-equipped force that is responsible for defense against external threats; following the downturn in ties with Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE in the mid-2010s, the Qatari Government embarked on an arms acquisition and modernization program to increase the military's capabilities and regional standing; the Air Force's inventory of combat aircraft, for example, grew from 12 older models in 2017 to more than 60 modern multirole fighter aircraft from Europe and the US by the 2020s; it is slated to further increase to about 100 such aircraft; other aircraft acquisitions have included US attack helicopters; the Land Force has re-equipped its armored, mechanized, and artillery units with modern tanks, armored vehicles, and self-propelled artillery, mostly with purchases from Germany and Turkey; meanwhile, the Navy over the same period has received several corvettes and offshore patrol vessels from Italy and Turkey

Qatar hosts the regional headquarters for the US Central Command (CENTCOM; established 1983) and several thousand US military forces at various military facilities, including the Al Udeid Air Base; it has Major Non-NATO Ally status with the US, a designation under US law that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation; Qatar also has close security ties with Turkey and hosts Turkish military forces at two bases established in 2014 and 2019 (2024)