Paraguay Military - 2021

Military and security forces

Armed Forces Command (Commando de las Fuerzas Militares): Army (Ejercito), Navy (Armada, includes marines), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea) (2021)

Military expenditures

1% of GDP (2019)

0.9% of GDP (2018)

0.9% of GDP (2017)

1% of GDP (2016)

1.1% of GDP (2015)

Military and security service personnel strengths

the Armed Forces of Paraguay have approximately 14,000 active personnel (9,000 Army; 3,000 Navy; 2,000 Air Force) (2021)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the Paraguayan military forces inventory is comprised of mostly older equipment from a variety of foreign suppliers, particularly Brazil and the US; since 2010, Paraguay has acquired small quantities of mostly second-hand military equipment from Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Taiwan, and the US (2020)

Military service age and obligation

18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; conscript service obligation is 12 months for Army, 24 months for Navy; volunteers for the Air Force must be younger than 22 years of age with a secondary school diploma (2016)

Military - note

as of late 2020, the armed forces were principally focused on the Paraguayan People's Army (Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP), a Marxist-nationalist insurgent group operating in the rural northern part of the country