Armed forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
| Libyan Armed Forces |
|
|---|---|
.svg) |
|
| Founded | 1969 |
| Disbanded | 2011 |
| Service branches |
|
| Headquarters | Tripoli |
| Leadership | |
| Brotherly Leader | Muammar Gaddafi |
| Manpower | |
| Conscription | 18 months |
| Available for military service |
1,775,000, age 15–49 |
| Fit for military service |
1,511,000, age 15–49 |
| Active personnel |
76,000 25 August 2011: 40,000 |
| Expenditures | |
| Budget | $1.90 billion (2008 est) |
| Percent of GDP | 1.9% (2008 est) |
| Industry | |
| Foreign suppliers | Arms embargo in effect |
| Related articles | |
| History |
Military history of Libya Six-Day War 1969 Coup d'etat Yom Kippur War Libyan-Egyptian War Uganda-Tanzania War Chadian–Libyan conflict Gulf of Sidra incidents Libyan Civil War |
76,000
The Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya consisted of the Libyan Army, Libyan Air Force and the Libyan Navy and other services including the People's Militia. In November 2010, before the Libyan Civil War in 2011, the total number of Libyan personnel was estimated at 76,000 though that war wore the military's numbers away. There was no separate defence ministry; all defence activities were centralised under Gaddafi. There was a High Command of the Armed Forces (al-Qiyada al-ulya lil-quwwat al-musallaha). Arms production was limited and manufacturers were state-owned. Colonel Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr was the last minister of defence of the Gaddafi-era military.
The roots of the 1951–2011 Libyan armed forces can be traced to the Libyan Arab Force (popularly known as the Sanusi Army) of World War II. Shortly after Italy entered the war, a number of Libyan leaders living in exile in Egypt called on their compatriots to organise themselves into military units and join the British in the war against the Axis powers. Five battalions, which were initially designed for guerrilla warfare in the Jabal al Akhdar region of Cyrenaica, were established under British command. Because the high mobility of the desert campaigns required a considerable degree of technical and mechanical expertise, the Libyan forces were used primarily as auxiliaries, guarding military installations and prisoners. One battalion, however, participated in the fighting at Tobruk.
After Britain succeeded in occupying the Libyan territories, the need for the British-trained and equipped Sanusi troops appeared to be over. The Sanusi Army was reluctant to disband, however, and the majority of its members arranged to be transferred to the local police force in Cyrenaica under the British military administration. When Libya gained its independence in 1951, veterans of the original Sanusi Army formed the nucleus of the Royal Libyan Army. British Army troops, part of Middle East Command and comprising 25th Armoured Brigade and briefly 10th Armoured Division, were still present after independence and stayed in Libya until at least 1957. Despite the Sanussi lineage of the new army, King Idris I quickly came to distrust them. The Free Officers' coup of 1952 in Egypt led many Libyan officers to be disenchanted with Idris and become great followers of Gamal Abdel Nasser. This situation reached the stage that the British Army officers retained by Idris to train and advise the new armed forces deemed the force entirely untrustworthy. They increasingly saw their role as to watch the army rather than to raise its effectiveness.
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Wikipedia