Military of Albania

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Albanian Armed Forces 'Forcat e Armatosura te Republikes se Shqiperise'
Insignia of the Albanian Armed Forces
Service branches	General Staff Land Forces Naval Forces Air Forces Logistic Support Doctrine and Exercises
Headquarters	Tirana
Leadership
Minister of Defense	Hon. Fatmir Mediu[1]
Chief of staff	Major General Luan Hoxha[2]
Manpower
Military age	19 years old
Available for military service	809,524 males, age 19 to 49, 784,199 females, age 19 to 49
Fit for military service	668,526 males, age 19 to 49, 658,334 females, age 19 to 49
Reaching military age annually	37,407 males, 34,587 females
Active personnel	55,000
Reserve personnel	200,000
Expenditures
Budget	$210 million (FY 2007)
Percent of GDP	1.91%

The military of Albania is made up of the General Staff Headquarters, Land Forces Command (Army), Naval Forces Command, Air Defense Command, Training and Doctrine Command, and Logistics Command.

Contents 1 Albania Military History 2 Albania Land Forces 2.1 Tanks 2.2 IFV's & APC's 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Albania Military History

Albania Built over 750,000 Bunkers during its 45 year communist rule by Enver Hoxha, this gives and has always given Albania a great advantage for fighting off any invasion or attack. The bunkers were built strong, and most of them easy to move, all there is to do is dig a hole and drop the bunker in with a crane or a helicopter. The types of bunkers include machine gun bunkers to beach bunkers, to naval underground bunkers, and even Air Force mountain & underground bunkers. There are approximately 500,000 pill boxes still in good condition and ready to serve in case of war.

[edit] Albania Land Forces

The Albanian land force consist of approximately over 500 operational tanks and approximately over 700 APC’s and IVF’s. Some equipment has been scraped, or put in storage. Mainly All of the T-34/76, T-54, and some 150 Type 59 tanks have been scraped or waiting to be scraped whilst the PT-76, BRDM-1, Type 60 and T-34/85 have been put in storage. Some 500 tanks & over 700 APC's & IFV's remain operational, there has also been a recent purchase of 300 Humvees from US, 150 of which are equipped with BGM-71 TOW anti tank rockets, also the 130x M113 APC's were a Military aid donation from Turkey to Albania 50x of the M113 are to be fitted with BGM-71 TOW , these are just some of the new things that have been introduced in Albanian Military Arsenal for its modernization, Albania also purchased some more modern equipment in 1995 in case of a conflict with Serbia it needed some new tanks to match Serbia’s M-84 MBT's, some 105 T-62 tanks from Ex-East German stock 55x are T-62A and 50x others are T-62M and so were the BMP-1, BMP-2 and BRDM-2 they were put in service near the border with Kosovo during the 1998-1999 Kosovo War

[edit] Tanks

• PT-76 - PT-76B version
• T34/76 - few
• T34/85 - many
• T-54
• T-55
• T-62 - T-62A & T-62M versions
• Type 59 - T-55 Chinese copy
• Type 62 - Light tank version of Type 59 (T-55 Chinese copy)
• Type 63 light tank - Chinese copy of PT-76B with T-55 turret & 105mm gun

[edit] IFV's & APC's

• M113
• BMP-1
• BMP-2
• BRDM-1
• BRDM-2
• BTR-40
• BTR-50
• Type 77 - Chinese copy of BTR-50
• Type 60 - tracked tractor truck
• Type 63 (armoured personnel carrier)

[edit] See also

• Albanian Air Force
• Albanian Naval Defense Forces
• Albanian Land Forces Command

[edit] External links

• Ministry of Defence of Albania (official site)
• Albanian Armed Forces (official site)
• [1]
• [2]

• [3]
• [4]
• [5]