Ice Military - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Military and security forces

no regular military forces; Ministry of Interior: Icelandic Coast Guard (includes both air and maritime elements); Icelandic National Police (2022)

Military and security service personnel strengths

the Icelandic Coast Guard has approximately 250 personnel (2022)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the Icelandic Coast Guard's inventory consists of equipment from mostly European suppliers (2022)

Military - note

Iceland was one of the original 12 countries to sign the North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) in 1949; Iceland is the only NATO member that has no standing military force; defense of Iceland remains a NATO commitment and NATO maintains an air policing presence in Icelandic airspace; Iceland participates in international peacekeeping missions with the civilian-manned Icelandic Crisis Response Unit (ICRU)

Iceland cooperates with the militaries of other Nordic countries through the Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO), which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden; areas of cooperation include armaments, education, human resources, training and exercises, and operations; NORDEFCO was established in 2009

in 1951, Iceland and the US concluded an agreement to make arrangements regarding the defense of Iceland and for the use of facilities in Iceland to that end; the agreement, along with NATO membership, is one of the two pillars of Iceland‘s security policy; since 2007 Iceland has concluded cooperation agreements with Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the UK; it also has regular consultations with Germany and France on security and defense (2022)

NOTE: The information regarding Ice on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ice 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ice 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.