Mexican Army

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mexican Military

Components

Mexican Air Force
Mexican Army
Mexican Navy
Ranks
Air Force ranks and insignia
Army ranks and insignia
Navy ranks and insignia
History
Military History of Mexico
Awards
Military decorations of Mexico

The Mexican Army is the land arm of the Mexican Military, and the largest branch of Mexico's armed services. It consists of over 300,000 men and women of the Mexican Army serving Mexico. Since the early 2000's the Army has been steadily modernizing itself to compete with other Latin American countries, and to facilitate a more proactive role in counter-drug actions. Despite its size Mexico maintains a comparatively small army. An interesting display of the Army's recently increased budget is the domestic production of the new FX-05 Assault Rifle.

1 Organization
2 Equipment
3 Vehicles and other land equipment
4 Small arms and personal weapons
5 Artillery
6 See also

[edit] Organization

The Army falls under the authority of the National Defense Secretariat.

There are three main components of the Army: a national headquarters, territorial commands, and independent units. The Minister of Defense commands the Army by means of a very centralized system and a large number of general officers. The Army uses a modified continental staff system in its headquarters.

At present there are 12 Military Regions, which are further broken down into 44 subordinate Military Zones. In both cases, a numbering system is used for designation. There is no set number of zones within a region, and these can therefore be tailored to meet operational needs, with a corresponding increase or decrease in troop strength.

Military zone commanders are appointed by the president, usually on the recommendation of the secretary of national defense. The senior zone commander in a given area also acts as the commander of the military region in which the zone falls. Zone commanders hold jurisdiction over all units operating in their territory, including the Rural Defense Force (see Rurales). They occasionally have served the federal authorities as a political counterweight to the power wielded by state governors. Zone commanders provide the secretary of national defense with valuable intelligence regarding social and political conditions in rural areas, and traditionally have acted in close coordination with the Secretariat of National Defense on resource planning and deployment matters.

The primary units of the Mexican army are six brigades and a number of independent regiments and infantry battalions. The brigades, all based in and around the Federal District (encompassing the Mexico City area), are the only real maneuver elements in the army. With their support units, they are believed to account for over 40 percent of the country's ground forces. According to The Military Balance , published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the army has six brigades: one armored, two infantry, one motorized infantry, one airborne, and the Presidential Guard Brigade. The one combined military police and engineer brigade has been transferred to the Federal Preventive Police in 1999. The armored brigade is one of two new brigades formed since 1990 as part of a reorganization made possible by an increase in overall strength of about 25,000 troops. The brigade consists of three armored and one mechanized infantry regiment.

Distinct from the brigade formations are independent regiments and battalions assigned to zonal garrisons. These independent units consist of one armored cavalry regiment, nineteen motorized cavalry regiments, one mechanized infantry regiment, seven artillery regiments, and three artillery and eighteen infantry battalions. Infantry battalions, each composed of approximately 300 troops, generally are deployed in each zone. Certain zones also are assigned an additional motorized cavalry regiment or one of the seven artillery regiments. Smaller detachments often are detailed to patrol more inaccessible areas of the countryside, helping to maintain order and resolve disputes.

An interesting topic of note is the subservience of the Mexican Air Force to the Army. Though the Air Force is technically its own branch, its command structure falls under the authority of the National Defense Secretariat, as the Army's does. This position has always been held by Army officers, and Air Force officers rarely rise to any position of power in the hierarchy.