Azerbaijan Military - 2024

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)