The
Albanian Joint Forces Command, consists in the
branch of the Albanian military
charged with protecting the territorial integrity of Albania
. The
Command has under the proper structure the
Rapid Reaction Brigade, the
Commando Regiment, the
Albanian Air Force, the
Albanian Naval Defense Forces
and the
Area Support
Brigade.
History
Albania
requested a Defense Assessment from the USA
in
coordination with NATO
(Allied Command Transformation)
and NATO Headquarter Tirana,
early in 2006 in order to ensure that previous reform efforts were
proceeding well and to provide for course corrections if
needed. Conclusions of this work encouraged both Ministry of
Defence and
General Staff of
AAF to continue refining force structure and reducing
the size of the Armed Forces by reducing staffs and removing
obsolete units making the resultant force more capable and
affordable.
A major element of this restructure process was the development of
a Joint Forces Command.
This streamlined the command and the control
of operational units, by contributing more effectively to NATO led Peace Support Operations.
Another key element of this restructuring was the consolidation of
almost all units under three major commands; the Joint Forces
Command, the
Albanian Training and
Doctrine Command, and the
Albanian Logistic Support
Command, thus enhancing supervision of subordinate units and
reducing the span of control of the
General Staff.
Basic History
In 1999,
(based on the old structure The Albanian Land Forces were the main
Albanian Armed Forces battle
component), the AAF were in alert due to a
possible military confrontation with Yugoslavia over the province of Kosovo
.
Previous
preparations during the 90's, included the purchase of the Chinese
antitank missile
HJ-8, and the antiaircraft HN-5, an
improved version of the Russian
SA-7. During the 1998-1999 Kosovo War part of the Albanian Armed Forces were deployed
along the Albanian-Yugoslavian
border.
Developments
The Albanian Land Forces used to field 373
Type
59 Main Battle Tanks and 130
M113 Armoured
Personal Carriers.
Most of the Cold
War-era equipment from the Soviet Union
and China
has been
scrapped or put in storage: i.e all of the World War II era T-34/76, T-34/85, PT-76, BRDM-1, T-54 and most part of Type 59
tanks have been scrapped. With the new structure, the
Albanian Armed Forces do not
have any more a
Tank capability.
Antitank weaponry, also combined with
Helo capability will be the priority. Procedures for
the acquisition of a new
APC in order to achieve
the standards required for the troops training, are
on-going.
Albania is now a
member of NATO, so that
further modernization efforts, as well as more scrappings of
obsolete hardware, are underway to achieve the necessary
compatibility with NATO equipment
standards.
Weapons
Manpower and equipment
As of 2005, the Land Forces Command had:
- 16,000 + active personnel and 35,000 reserves:.
On 2010 the
Joint Forces
Command authorized personnel strength will be approximately
8,200. (With the new structure, the 5 Reserve Brigades have been
deactivated)
Structure
Structure of the Albanian Military
Joint Forces
See also
References
- http://www.mod.gov.al/eng/industria/november2004.asp
- The World Defence Almanac 2006, page. 95, Mönch Publishing
Group, Bonn 2006
- The Centre for SouthEast European Studies
External links
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