Luxembourg Military - 2024

Military and security forces

Luxembourg Army (l'Armée Luxembourgeoise) (2024)

note: the Grand Ducal Police maintain internal security and report to the Ministry of Internal Security

Military expenditures

1% of GDP (2023 est.)
0.6% of GDP (2022)
0.5% of GDP (2021)
0.6% of GDP (2020)
0.6% of GDP (2019)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 900 active-duty personnel (2023)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the inventory of Luxembourg's Army is a small mix of Western origin equipment (2024)

Military service age and obligation

18-26 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; no conscription (abolished 1969) (2024)

note 1: since 2003, the Army has allowed EU citizens 18-24 years of age who have been a resident in the country for at least 36 months to volunteer

note 2: 2023, women made up about 12% of the military's full-time personnel

Military - note

founded in 1881, the Luxembourg Army is responsible for the defense of the country and fulfilling the Grand Duchy’s commitments to NATO, European security, and international peacekeeping, as well as providing support to civil authorities in the event of emergencies, such as floods or disease outbreaks; the Army is an active participant in EU, NATO, and UN missions and has contributed small numbers of troops to multinational operations in such places as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, North Macedonia, Mali, Mozambique, and Uganda; it trains and exercises regularly with EU and NATO partners and has contributed to the NATO battlegroup forward deployed in Lithuania since 2017; Luxembourg was one of the original 12 countries to sign the North Atlantic Treaty (also known as the Washington Treaty) establishing NATO in 1949

the combat forces of the Luxembourg Army are two companies of infantry and reconnaissance troops; the Army has no combat aircraft; in 2015, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg signed an agreement to conduct joint air policing of their territories; under the agreement, which went into effect in January 2017, the Belgian and Dutch Air Forces trade responsibility for patrolling the skies over the three countries (2024)