Albanian Armed Forces

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Armed Forces of Albania
)

Albanian Armed Forces
Forcat e Armatosura Shqiptare
Major General Arben Kingji[2]
Personnel
Military age18
ConscriptionRepealed
Available for
military service
1,519,794 age 18-49, age 15–49
Fit for
military service
1,270,274 age 18-49, age 15–49
Reaching military
age annually
62,032
Active personnel6,600[3] (ranked 90 of 145)
Deployed personnel Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Bulgaria
 Chad
 Ivory Coast
 Kosovo
 Liberia
 Latvia
 
Mali
formerly:
 Georgia
 Afghanistan
 Iraq
Expenditures
Budget48.3 billion Lek ($514 million) (2024)[4]
Percent of GDP2% (2024)[4]
Industry
Domestic suppliersMechanical Combine in Poliçan
Mechanical Plant in Gramsh
Explosive Materials Plant in Mjekës[5]
MEICO[6]
Foreign suppliers Austria
 Belgium
 France
 Germany
 Italy
 Romania
 Turkey
 United States
formerly:
 China
 Soviet Union
Related articles
HistoryRoyal Albanian Army (1928–1939)
Albanian People's Army (1945–1991)
RanksMilitary ranks of Albania

The Albanian Armed Forces (

Albanian Land Force, Albanian Air Force and the Albanian Naval Force
.

The

Commander-in-Chief of the nation's military.[7] In times of peace, the President's powers as Commander-in-Chief are executed through the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister.[8]

Missions and duties

According to the

Albanian Constitution
, the Albanian Armed Forces are charged to: protect the territorial integrity of the country, be present in areas incurring menace, assist the population in case of natural and industrial disasters, warn the dangers of military and non-military nature, protect the constitutional order as it is determined by law and participate in international operations in composition of multinational forces.

History

On 4 December 1912, the Albanian

By 1923, the Albanian Armed Forces fielded 10,691 active troops, including military police forces. At that time, Albania did not have a navy.[10]

In 1927, the Albanian Armed Forces numbered approximately 8,000. These troops were organised into three groups, based in Tirana, Shkodër to the north and Berat to the south. Each group was organised into three battalions of 500. A guards battalion of 350 was organized in Tirana. Four frontier battalions of mountaineers were held on reserve, as well as tanks and armoured cars. Additionally, a cadet school, a machine-gun school, and a bombing school were housed in the capital. Italian involvement in the Albanian Armed Forces was significant, with an Italian Colonel attached to each of the three main troop groups and an Italian officer attached to each battalion and battery and to each medical, veterinary, and transportation unit. In 1927 alone, the Albanian military ordered 20,000 rifles, 40 mountain guns, 120 machine guns, and other supplies from Italy.[11]

Royal Albanian Army

The

Zogu from 1928 until 1939. Its commander-in-chief was himself; its commander General Xhemal Aranitasi; its Chief of Staff was General Gustav von Myrdacz. The army was mainly financed by Italy.[12] On 7 April 1939, Italian troops invaded the country
, and captured it in six days after weak resistance by the overwhelmed Albanian army.

Cold War

After the

Second World War, Albania became a Soviet-aligned country. The ranks and structure of the Albanian Armed Forces were organised based on Soviet
concepts, thus increasing the political control of the State-Party over the Armed Forces. One of the defining characteristics of civilian-military relations during this period was the effort of the civilian leadership to ensure the loyalty of the military to the communist system's values and institutions.

Like all other branches of the state, the military was subjugated to Communist Party control. All high-ranking military officers and most of the lower and middle ranks were members of the Communist Party—and had loyalties to it. The system was re-enforced by the establishment of Party cells within the military and extensive communist political education alongside soldiers' military training, by the political commissars. To further increase its political control, the Albanian Communist Party enlarged the conscription system, thus enlisting in the Armed Forces personnel dedicated to the military career from the Albanian rural areas.

The State and Party went even further, beginning on 1 May 1966,

guerrilla war (Vietnam War doctrine). The military was still organised during this period into basic structural forms, but the role of the military commander was insignificant with respect to the commanding role of the political commissars. In 1991 the rank system was reestablished under President Ramiz Alia.[13]

During all these years,

communist regime
collapsed in Albania during 1990, there was a real fear that the armed forces might intervene to halt the collapse of communism by force. In the event, the armed forces stood by as the regime of which they had been a part disintegrated.

During the 1980s, Albania had reduced the number of infantry brigades from eight to four. It had shifted to fully manned units from its prior reliance on the mobilisation of reserve soldiers to flesh out a larger number of units manned at a lower level. Each brigade had three infantry battalions and one lightly equipped artillery battalion. Armoured forces consisted of one tank brigade. Artillery forces were increased from one to three regiments during the 1980s, and six battalions of coastal artillery were maintained at strategic points along the Adriatic Sea littoral.

Post 1991

Albania-Yugoslav border incident in May 1999

In 1992, the Library of Congress estimated that the ground forces had about 35,000 men, or about three-quarters of all armed forces personnel.[14] Because the strength of the ground forces was sufficient to man only about two divisions, brigades of approximately 3,000 soldiers became the largest army formation. In 1991 four infantry brigades constituted the bulk of combat units in the ground forces.[15]

During the civilian riots in 1997, the political attempts by the government to use the Armed Forces to crush the rebellion were soon demonstrated to be a failure, following a total disintegration of the Armed Forces and the looting of the military facilities by the civilian population.[16]

Albania sheltered many thousands of Kosovar refugees during the 1999 conflict, and allowed NATO to provide logistical assistance for

ISAF and the international stabilization force in Iraq. Albania has been a steadfast supporter of U.S. policy in Iraq, and one of only four nations to contribute troops to the combat phase of Operation Enduring Freedom.[18]
Increasing the military budget was one of the most important conditions for NATO integration. Military spending has generally been lower than 1.5% since 1996 only to peak in 2009 at 2% and fall again to 1.5%.[19]

Albanian soldiers conduct a joint patrol with U.S. soldiers in Iraq on 13 January 2005

There was an incident in 2002 in Albania where it was discovered, in a cluster of mountain bunkers, 16 tons[20] of primitive, undocumented chemical weapon agents that Albania had forgotten about.[21]

In December 2006, the Armed Forces adopted a new structure based on the

Albanian Training and Doctrine Command was established as the main educational and training provider for the Albanian Armed Forces. The final number of personnel will be 13,800 (including 2,000 civilians). However this new structure lasted a little more than 3 years and in April 2010 returned to its classic and current form.[22]

Convoy transfer of the Albanian Army

In March 2008 the problem of massive amounts of excess ammunition stockpiled in Albania became known to the public through the tragic consequences of the explosion of an ammunition depot (the

2008 Tirana explosions).[23]

The Albanian Land Force or Albanian Army consists of the

Special Operations Battalion (BOS). The Albanian Army is mostly supported by the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium
.

The Albanian Navy performs mainly Coast Guard duties, and recently the Albanian parliament has approved some amendments to the articles of the actual Law on the Coast Guard in Albania, in order to improve the necessary legal framework due to efforts at European Union-NATO integration. Since February 2008, Albania participates officially in NATO's

North Atlantic Treaty Organization on 1 April 2009.[25] It hosts an international fair on security and defense called the Albanian Military Exhibition (ALMEX) where different security industries can present their products and services for the regional market.[26]

Modernisation

Albanian flag patch worn on Army uniforms
Albanian Army badges
Albanian special forces soldier in Afghanistan, 2013

After several major re-equipment programs, in 2001 the Albanian Armed Forces launched a 10-year reform program to become technologically advanced and fully professional by 2011. The new armed forces consists of about 14,500 troops including 2,000 civilians, trained to

helicopters, artillery equipment, navy vessels, SALW and ammunition.[28] Albania started an ambitious destruction program. However, Albania is still dealing with a huge amount of surplus and obsolete ammunition, a direct result of the country's long isolation and ethnic tensions in the area. The Albanian Ministry of Defense
estimates such quantity up to 85,000 tons, but it is expected to increase up to 104,000 tons due to the ongoing downsizing process of the AAF.

In 2004 U.S. President

Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program funds for projects in Albania, marking the first time such funds were reauthorised for use outside the former Soviet Union. With this funding the U.S. assisted the Government of Albania with the destruction of a stockpile of chemical warfare agents left over from the communist regime (Category 1, Total amount 16.7 tons).[29]
The final cost of the project was US$48 million and was officially completed on 10 July 2007.

On 3 April 2006, the final contract for the delivery of 12 Bölkow-Blom MBB

Ministry of Interior
and the remaining two for the Albanian Ministry of Health.

Albania has recently acquired four

Damen Stan 4207 patrol vessels
have been commissioned in the Navy, three of them have been constructed in Albania.

On 16 July 2014, The Albanian Defence Minister declared that within 2014 the Albanian Motorised Infantry Battalion will be fully combat ready and also equipped with modern NATO equipment. This will be the first unit in the Albanian Armed Forces to not have the AK 47 in its inventory. Instead the M4 carbine will act as its standard battle rifle.[31]

In August 2018, the

Kuçovë Air Base."[32]

The process of modernization of the Albanian Armed Forces is based on the short-term, middle-term and long-term objectives and priorities of their restructuring and development aiming at achieving the increase of the operational capacities. The modernization programme started before the country's

North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership (on 1 April 2009) with the purchase of armaments produced by the NATO
countries. It also started a programme for the disposal and alienation of surplus ammunition inherited from the communist regime for 50 years.

Ground Forces

The modernization of the Land Forces began around 2006, starting with Special Forces such as the BFS (then known as the Batalioni i Operacioneve Speciale, BOS) and the Commandos. Seeing their involvement in NATO peacekeeping operations in


In 2015 other weapons were introduced over all ground units. The
.
The following year the
Standardization Agreement (STANAG) of NATO allies since Albania's accession in 2009.[40]
The process that was expected to last within 10 years, but the aid package helped completing the process 4 years earlier and without additional costs. After the process of replacing the AK47 variants (many of which were locally produced under the name ASh-78 and ASh-82) with the AR70/90 was ended, the rifle became the standard weapon and most used over most Land Forces branches.
In 2017 the Combat Support Battalion (Batalioni Mbështetjes së Luftimit, BML) was equipped with
Excess Defense Articles (EDA) through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a United States program to support NATO partners and allies.[41] The vehicles were immediately put at the service of B1K. In 2019 came the second part of the package of 250 vehicles and it consisted of 36 International MaxxPro and 1 MaxxPro Wrecker recovery vehicle. These vehicles joined the previous 3 MaxxPro bringing the total number of MRAPs used by Special Forces to 40.[41][42]

Naval Forces

In 2007, was signed a contracts with the

]

Structure

Structure of the Albanian Armed Forces (click to enlarge)

Participation

Country Current Mission Organization No. of personnel
 Afghanistan
ISAF
NATO 2862014, 4132016, 6192017
Ivory Coast Ivory Coast
UNOCI
United Nations 10
Liberia Liberia
UNMIL
United Nations
Kosovo Kosovo KFOR NATO 89[54]

Equipment

References

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External links