The Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia (, abbreviated ՀՀ ԶՈՒ, HH ZU), sometimes referred to as the Armenian Army (), is the national military of Armenia. It consists of personnel branches under the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces, which can be divided into two general branches: the Ground Forces, and the Air Force. Although it was partially formed out of the former Soviet Army forces stationed in the Armenian SSR (mostly units of the 7th Guards Army of the Transcaucasian Military District), the military of Armenia can be traced back to the founding of the First Republic of Armenia in 1918. Being landlocked, Armenia does not have a navy.
The Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the military is the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan. The Ministry of Defence is in charge of political leadership, headed by Suren Papikyan, while military command remains in the hands of the general staff, headed by the Chief of Staff, who is Lieutenant-General Edvard Asryan. Border guards subject to the Ministry of Defence until 2001, patrol Armenia's borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan, while Russian troops continue to monitor its borders with Iran and Turkey. Since 2002, Armenia has been a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. As of 2026, Armenia is undergoing a top-to-bottom transformation of its Armed Forces to build a modern military.
History
Early Armenian Army An Armenian military corps was established to fight against the Ottomans during the Turkish–Armenian War in early 1918. In accordance with the Treaty of Batum of 4 June 1918 the Ottoman Empire demobilized most of the Armenian army.Hovannisian. Armenia on the Road to Independence, pp. 197. Ethnic Armenian conscripts and volunteers in the Imperial Russian Army would later become the core of the military of the First Armenian Republic.
Soviet era The 7th Guards Army was based in Yerevan from 1946 to 1992. In the late 1980s the Army consisted of:
Directorate – Yerevan 15th Motor Rifle Division – Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) 75th Motor Rifle Division – Nakhichevan 127th Motor Rifle Division – Leninakan (now Gyumri) 164th Motor Rifle Division – Yerevan
On 1 June 1992, ITAR-TASS reported that General Fyodor Reut said that some units of the 7th Guards Army would begin leaving Armenia in 10–15 days. The army was disbanded later that summer.Holm/Feskov 2015, 7th Guards Combined Arms Army The former Soviet Air Defense Forces in Armenia were drawn from the 14th Air Defense Corps of the 19th Separate Air Defense Army.
1988–1992
The modern Armenian military entered its first stage at the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, when Armenian militias were formed to combat Azerbaijani units in Artsakh.Ministry of Defense of Armenia. General History of the Armenian Army . Retrieved 31 January 2006. On 20 September 1990, the first military unit was created, the Yerevan Special Regiment, with the first oath being held in the Republican Assembly Point and was attended by the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Prime Minister Vazgen Manukyan, and defence minister Vazgen Sargsyan. Five battalions were also formed in Ararat, Goris, Vardenis, Ijan and Meghri. In 1991, by the decision of the government, the State Committee of Defense under the Council of Ministers, which facilitated the task of coordinating the defense operations of Armenia, becoming the basis on which the Ministry of Defense was to be established later on.
1992–2020 Armenia established a Ministry of Defence on 28 January 1992. The first military unit of the defence ministry to be formed was the 1st Airborne Regiment, where the first Armenian soldier took the oath to the nation that March. Since a significant part of the officers of the Armed Forces were fighters of the self-defense volunteer detachments, a center for raising the qualification of officers was established for their qualification and training, which during its activity it provided about 1,500 officer-graduates. The School of Non-Commissioned Officers produced about 1,000 graduates.
The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was ratified by the Armenian parliament in July 1992. The treaty establishes comprehensive limits on key categories of military equipment, such as tanks, artillery, armored combat vehicles, combat aircraft, and combat helicopters, and provides for the destruction of weaponry in excess of those limits. Armenian officials have consistently expressed determination to comply with its provisions and thus Armenia has provided data on armaments as required under the CFE Treaty. Despite this, Azerbaijan accuses Armenia of diverting a large part of its military forces to Nagorno-Karabakh and thus circumventing these international regulations. In March 1993, Armenia signed the multilateral Chemical Weapons Convention, which calls for the eventual elimination of chemical weapons. Armenia acceded to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapons state in July 1993.
In addition to the branches of services listed above, Armenia established its own Internal Troops from the former Soviet Interior Troops after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Up until December 2002, Armenia maintained a Ministry of Internal Affairs, but along with the Ministry of National Security, it was reorganized as a non-ministerial institution. The two organizations became the Police of Armenia and the National Security Service.Taylor and Francis, Europa World Yearbook 2004, p.554 Armenia signed a military cooperation plan with Lebanon on 27 November 2015.
2020–present
On the 2026 Republic Day military parade, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan presented the "new army of the Republic of Armenia", including "new weapons, new uniforms and a new ideology". He emphasized that the only task of the army was the defense of the internationally recognized sovereign territory of the country.
Organization and service branches
The Armenian Armed Forces are Headquartered in Yerevan, where most of the general staff is based. The general staff is responsible for operational command of the Armenian Military and its two major branches. The armed forces also has the following personnel branches: Department of Military Preparedness Department of Military Apparatus Department of Aviation Department of Missile Troops Department of Air Defence Department of Rear Services Department of Signal Troops Department of the Engineer Troops Department of Armaments Department of the RNBC Defence Troops Medical Department Personnel Department Intelligence Department Strategic Planning Department Mobilization Department Operative Department Department of Military Service Security Department of Military Commissars Financial Department Human Resources Department
Ground Forces
According to IISS 2010, Armenia has 30 T-80 tanks,Jane's World Armies Armenia, 2008. 390 T-72 tanks, 14 T-54/55 tanks and 80 BMP-1, 7 BMP-1K, 55 BMP-2 and 12 BRM-1K. Wheeled APCs reported included 11 BTR-60s, 21 BTR-70s, 4 BTR-80s, 145 MT-LBs, 5 BMD-1S, and 120 BRDM-2 scout vehicles.
Although the Russians have supplied newer equipment to Armenia over the years, the numbers have never been sufficient to upgrade all ground force formations and many of the lower readiness units still have older, Soviet-legacy systems that have not been upgraded or in many cases effectively maintained. These older systems are placing great demands on the logistics system for service, maintenance, replacement parts and necessary upgrades, costing the army both financially and in overall readiness. The ground force is engaged in an effort of reassessment, reorganisation and restructuring, as the future of Armenia's defence needs a revised force structure and unit mix. The army sees the need to maintain much of its traditional mechanised formations, but is looking to lighten and make more mobile and self-sustainable a small number of other formations. It must develop these newer formations to support its international requirements and effectively operate in mountainous and other rugged terrain, but it must do this without affecting the mechanised capability that is needed to confront Azerbaijan's conventional forces.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia has followed a policy of developing its armed forces into a professional, well trained, and mobile military. In 2000, the Centre for International Studies and Research reported that at that time the Armenian Army had the strongest combat capability of the three South Caucasus countries' armies (the other two being Georgia and Azerbaijan).Robert Fairbanks, Public and private armies in the Caucasus, Sciences Po, November 2000 CSTO Secretary, Nikolay Bordyuzha, came to a similar conclusion after collective military drills in 2007 when he stated that, "the Armenian Army is the most efficient one in the post-Soviet space". This was echoed more recently by Igor Korotchenko, a member of the Public Council, Russian Ministry of Defense, in a March 2011 interview with Voice of Russia radio.
The Army is functionally divided into Active and Reserve Forces. Their main functions include deterrence, defense, peace support and crisis management, humanitarian and rescue missions, as well as social functions within Armenian society.
The Active Forces mainly have peacekeeping and defensive duties, and are further divided into Deployment Forces, Immediate Reaction, and Main Defense Forces. The Reserve Forces consists of Enhancement Forces, Territorial Defense Forces, and Training Grounds. They deal with planning and reservist preparation, armaments and equipment storage, training of formations for active forces rotation or increase in personnel.
During peacetime the Army maintains permanent combat and mobilization readiness. They become part of multinational military formations in compliance with international treaties Armenia is a signatory to, participate in the preparation of the population, the national economy and the maintenance of wartime reserves and the infrastructure of the country for defense.
In times of crisis the Army's main tasks relate to participation in operations countering terrorist activities and defense of strategic facilities (such as nuclear power plants and major industrial facilities), assisting the security forces in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal armaments traffic and international terrorism.
In case of low- and medium-intensity military conflict the Active Forces that are part of the Army participate in carrying out the initial tasks for the defense of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country. In case of a high intensity conflict the Land Forces, together with the Air Force, Air Defense and Border Guards, form the defense group of the Armenian Armed Forces aiming at countering aggression and protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country.
Experiments in developing small arms have been undertaken in Armenia, producing the K-3 assault rifle, but Jane's Infantry Weapons estimates that the program has ceased, and the rifle is not in widespread service with the army. The AK-74 is the standard-issue rifle of the Armenian Army with older AKMs in reserve use. Beside AK rifles Armenian forces use mostly Russian small arms like the Makarov pistol, SVD sniper rifle, and the PKM general purpose machine gun.
Air Force and Air Defense
The Armenian Air Force consists of 15 Su-25 ground attack planes, 4 Su-30 jet fighters, 1 Mig 25, 16 Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunships, 6 L-39 trainer and attack aircraft, 16 Yak-52 trainer aircraft, 3 Il-76 cargo planes, 18 Mil Mi-8 transport helicopters, and 10 Mil Mi-2 light utility helicopters. There are an additional 18 MiG-29 fighter jets of the Russian 102nd Military Base stationed in Gyumri.