Uganda Military 2022, CIA World Factbook

Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF): Land Forces, Air Forces, Marine Forces, Special Forces Command, Reserve Force (2022)

note 1: the Special Forces Command is a separate branch within the UPDF; it evolved from the former Presidential Guard Brigade and has continued to retain presidential protection duties in addition to its conventional missions, such as counterinsurgency

note 2: in 2018, President MUSEVENI created a volunteer force of Local Defense Units under the military to beef up local security in designated parts of the country

Military expenditures

2.5% of GDP (2021 est.)

2.5% of GDP (2020 est.)

1.7% of GDP (2019) (approximately $870 million)

1.2% of GDP (2018) (approximately $640 million)

1.2% of GDP (2017) (approximately $610 million)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 50,000 troops, including about 1,000-1,500 air and marine personnel; approximately 20-30,000 personnel in the Local Defense Units (2022)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the UPDF's inventory is mostly older Russian/Soviet-era equipment with a limited mix of more modern Russian- and Western-origin arms; since 2010, Russia has been the leading supplier of arms to the UPDF (2021)

Military service age and obligation

18-25 years of age for voluntary military duty for men and women; 18-30 for those with degrees/diplomas in specialized fields such as medicine, engineering, chemistry, and education, or possess qualifications in some vocational skills; 9-year service obligation (2022)

Military deployments

6,800 Somalia (6,200 ATMIS; 625 UNSOM); 250 Equatorial Guinea (training mission) (2022)

note: in December 2022, Uganda sent approximately 1,000 troops to the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as part of a newly formed East Africa Community Regional Force (EACRF) to assist the DRC military against the rebel group M23

Military - note

the UPDF, which is constitutionally granted seats in parliament, is widely viewed as a key constituency for MUSEVENI; it has been used by MUSEVENI and his political party to break up rallies, raid opposition offices, and surveil rival candidates

as of 2022, the UPDF was conducting operations along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (including cross-border operations) against a Congo-based (and formerly based in western Uganda) Ugandan rebel group, the Allied Democratic Front (ADF), which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US in March 2021 as the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC; see Appendix T); in addition, elements of the UPDF were deployed in the northeast region of Karamoja against cattle rustlers and criminal gangs

beginning in 2012, the UPDF led regional efforts to pursue the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a small, violent group of Ugandan origin that conducted widespread attacks against civilians in much of Central Africa; the UPDF withdrew from the mission in 2017 after declaring that the LRA no longer posed a security threat; Uganda intervened in the South Sudan civil war in 2013-2016 and UPDF forces have clashed with South Sudanese forces along the border as recently as 2020

the military traces its history back to the formation of the Uganda Rifles in 1895 under the British colonial government; the Uganda Rifles were merged with the Central Africa Regiment and the East Africa Rifles to form the King’s African Rifles (KAR) in 1902, which participated in both world wars, as well as the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya (1952-1960); in 1962, the Ugandan battalion of the KAR was transformed into the country's first military force, the Uganda Rifles, which was subsequently renamed the Uganda Army; the Uganda People's Defense Force was established in 1995 from the former rebel National Resistance Army following the enactment of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda (2022)

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