Azerbaijan Military - 2024

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Military and security forces

Azerbaijan Armed Forces: Land Forces, Air Forces, Navy Forces, State Border Service, Coast Guard

Ministry of Internal Affairs: Internal Troops, local police forces; Special State Protection Service (SSPS): National Guard (2024)

note: the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Security Service (intelligence, counterterrorism) are responsible for internal security; the SSPS is under the president and provides protective services to senior officials, foreign missions, significant state assets, government buildings, etc; the National Guard also serves as a reserve for the Army

Military expenditures

4.5% of GDP (2022 est.)
5% of GDP (2021 est.)
5% of GDP (2020 est.)
3.8% of GDP (2019 est.)
3.6% of GDP (2018 est.)

Military and security service personnel strengths

estimates vary; approximately 60-75,000 active armed forces; approximately 15,000 Ministry of Internal Affairs troops (2023)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

Baku has been actively upgrading its equipment for over a decade with purchases from Belarus, Israel, Russia, and Turkey; while most of the military's equipment was once Soviet-era material, it now fields quantities of advanced equipment, including armored vehicles, artillery systems, air defense systems, tanks, and UAVs (2023)

Military service age and obligation

18-25 years of age for compulsory military service for men; 17-35 years of age for voluntary service for men and women; 18 months service for conscripts (2023)

note: most of the military is made up of professional contract soldiers; as of 2018, women made up an estimated 3% of the active duty military

Military - note

the Azerbaijani military was established in 1991, although its origins go back to 1918; much of the military’s original equipment was acquired from former Soviet military forces that left Azerbaijan by 1992; territorial defense is the military’s primary focus, particularly with regards to neighboring Armenia; a secondary focus is guarding against Iran; the Ground Forces have five army corps, plus an independent combined arms army, which is assigned to the Azerbaijani exclave of Naxicvan (Nakhichevan); between them, the corps and the combined arms army have more than 20 mechanized or motorized combat brigades; the Ground Forces also have separate brigades of artillery, battlefield rockets, and special forces; the Air Force has a few dozen Russian-origin fighters and ground attack aircraft, as well as some combat helicopters; the Navy patrols the Caspian Sea with a corvette and several coastal patrol craft

Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in open conflicts over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in 1991-94 and 2020, plus a brief flare-up in 2016; tensions continued following the 2020 conflict; Azerbaijan seized the entire enclave in 2023 

Turkey is Azerbaijan’s strongest military partner, a relationship that has included weapons transfers, technical advice, bilateral training exercises, and key support during the 2020 conflict with Armenia; Azerbaijan is not part of NATO but has had a cooperative relationship with it dating back to when it joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program in 1994 and has provided troops to NATO-led missions in Kosovo (1999-2008) and Afghanistan (2002-2014) (2023)

NOTE: The information regarding Azerbaijan on this page is re-published from the 2024 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Azerbaijan 2024 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Azerbaijan 2024 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.