Paraguay Military - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Military and security forces

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

Ministry of Internal Affairs: the National Police of Paraguay includes the Special Police Operations Force (Fuerza de Operaciones Policiales Especiales) (2022)

Military expenditures

1% of GDP (2021 est.)

1% of GDP (2020 est.)

1% of GDP (2019) (approximately $590 million)

1% of GDP (2018) (approximately $590 million)

0.9% of GDP (2017) (approximately $550 million)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 15,000 active duty personnel (10,000 Army; 3,500 Navy; 1,500 Air Force) (2022)

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 several countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Taiwan, and the US (2022)

Military service age and obligation

18 years of age for compulsory (men) and voluntary (men and women) military service; conscript service obligation is 12 months for Army, 24 months for Navy; conscripts also serve in the National Police; volunteers for the Air Force must be younger than 22 years of age with a secondary school diploma (2022)

note: as of 2021, women made up about 6% of the active military

Military - note

as of 2022, the armed forces were conducting operations against the Paraguayan People's Army (Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP), a Marxist-nationalist insurgent group operating in the rural northern part of the country along the border with Brazil; they were also assisting internal security forces in countering narco-trafficking networks

NOTE: The information regarding Paraguay 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 Paraguay 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Paraguay 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.