The Latvian National Armed Forces (Latvian: Latvijas Nacionālie bruņotie spēki) consist of 5910 personnel in uniform.
| Latvian National Armed Forces |
| Military manpower |
| Military age |
19 years of age |
| Availability |
males age 15-49: 594,596 (2004 est.) |
| Fit for military service |
males age 15-49: 466,659 (2004 est.) |
| Reaching military age annually |
males: 19,209 (2004 est.) |
| Military expenditures |
| Dollar figure |
$87 million (FY01) |
| Percent of GDP |
1.2% (FY99) |
Latvia's defense concept is based upon the Swedish-Finnish model of a rapid response force composed of a mobilization base and a small group of career professionals. The armed forces consists of mobile riflemen, an air force, and a navy. The army, navy, and air force comprise 5,864 personnel. The "zemessardze," or home guard, is an autonomous 13,890-man-strong volunteer paramilitary organization which also performs traditional national guard duties. Latvia is switching to a professional army—it has announced that the last draft was in 2005, with the last drafted soldiers leaving mandatory service in autumn 2006. From January 1st, 2007, the Latvian army will be fully professional. Defense spending has risen in recent years, and in 2000 comprised 1.5% of budget spending.
Latvia cooperates with Estonia and Lithuania in the joint infantry battalion BALTBAT and naval squadron BALTRON which are available for peacekeeping operations.
As of March 29, 2004, Latvia officially joined NATO. Currently, NATO is involved in the patrolling and protection of the Latvian air space as the Latvian army does not have the means to do so effectively. For this goal NATO F-16 jets based in Lithuania are used.
Organisation
- Latvian Army
- National Guard (Zemessardze)
- Latvian Navy
- Latvian Air Force
- Border Guards
Latvian Army
The Army has 2134 personnel including 305 civilians. The regular component of the Army consists of the LATBAT light infantry battalion and training centers. The reserve component consists of the National Guard and is made up of 32 light infantry battalions.
Equipment:
Latvian Navy
The Navy [1] has 797 personnel and consists of a combat ship flotilla in Liepāja and a coast guard flotilla in Riga.
Latvian Air Force
The Air Force has 247 personnel and operates three Mi-2s, four Mi-8s and a L-410UVP Turbolet transport airplane. The Latvian air space is also being protected by NATO F-16 jets.
External links
Weekest army ever.
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Latvia under GFDL
