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Contents

Historical background

Size of forces

Equipment and international relations

Army

Air force

Territorial Air Defense Force

See also

References

Historical background

The Algerian military is the direct successor of the Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN), the armed wing of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), which fought French colonial occupation during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62). The top echelons of the Algerian military establishment have long played an important role in the country's political life, both through high-ranking officers holding public office, and through more indirect means of influencing policy. After being structured as a politicized "people's army" in the Houari Boumédiène era, and retaining its allegiance to the FLN during the single-party years of Algerian history, the military forces were formally depoliticized in 1988, as a multi-party system was introduced.
In 1992, military officers executed a coup d'état, aborting an Islamist electoral takeover and triggering the Algerian Civil War. The state and military side broke Islamist resistance in the late 1990s, but local and sporadic fighting persists in 2007; the army is presently engaged in refitting itself for the tasks of a conventional army, after more than a decade of anti-guerrilla action.

Size of forces

The People's National Army consists of 127,500 members, with some 100,000 reservists. The army is under the control of the president, who also is minister of National Defense (current president is Abdelaziz Bouteflika). Defense expenditures accounted for some $2.67 billion or 3.5% of GDP. One and a half years of national military service is compulsory for males.
The Armed forces of Algeria comprise:

★ 'The People's National Army' (ANP)

★ 'Algerian National Navy' (MRA)

★ 'Algerian Air Force' (QJJ)

★ 'Territorial Air Defense Force'

Equipment and international relations

Algeria is a leading military power in North Africa and has its force oriented toward its western (Morocco) and eastern (Libya) borders. Its primary military supplier has been the former Soviet Union, which has sold various types of sophisticated equipment under military trade agreements, and the People's Republic of China. Algeria has attempted, in recent years, to diversify its sources of military material. Military forces are supplemented by a 45,000-member gendarmerie or rural police force under the control of the president and 30,000-member ''Sûreté nationale'' or Metropolitan police force under the Ministry of the Interior.
Recently, the Algerian Air Force signed a deal with Russia to purchase 49 MiG-29SMT and 6 MiG-29UBT at an estimated $1.5 Billion. They also agreed to return old airplanes purchased from the Former USSR.

Army

''See People's National Army''

Air force

''See Algerian Air Force''

Territorial Air Defense Force

''See also People's National Army''
[1]
World Navies

See also

★ ALN

★ FLN

★ People's Liberation Army (Which influenced the Algerian People's National Army)

References

★ ''CIA World Factbook, 2005

★ ''U.S. Department of State Background Notes, 2003