Austrian Bundesheer

Austrian Armed Forces
Österreichisches Bundesheer
Insignia of the Bundesheer
Founded	March 18, 1920
Current form	May 15, 1955
Service branches	Landstreitkräfte (Land Forces) Luftstreitkräfte (Air Forces) Spezialeinsatzkräfte (Special Forces)
Headquarters	Vienna
Leadership
President	Alexander Van der Bellen
Chancellor	Christian Kern
Minister of Defence	Hans Peter Doskozil
Chief of the General Staff	General Othmar Commenda
Manpower
Military age	17
Conscription	6 months
Available for military service	1,941,110 males, age 16-49, 1,910,434 females, age 16-49
Fit for military service	1,579,862 males, age 16-49, 1,554,130 females, age 16-49
Reaching military age annually	48,108 males, 45,752 females
Active personnel	25,963 (12,000 conscripts)
Reserve personnel	27,000
Expenditures
Budget	€2.481 billion (FY12)
Percent of GDP	0.80% (FY12)
Industry
Domestic suppliers	Steyr Mannlicher Steyr-Daimler-Puch Glock Ges.m.b.H.
Foreign suppliers	France  Germany  Italy  Sweden  United States  Australia
Related articles
History	Military history of Austria Austro-Hungarian Army

The Austrian Armed Forces (German: Österreichisches Bundesheer, lit.: Austrian Federal Army) is the military of the Republic of Austria. It is divided into branches: the Joint Forces (Streitkräfteführungskommando; SKFüKdo), which consist of Land Forces (Landstreitkräfte), Air Forces (Luftstreitkräfte), International Missions (Internationale Einsätze) and Special Forces (Spezialeinsatzkräfte), next to Mission Support (Kommando Einsatzunterstützung; KdoEU) and Joint Command Support Centre (Führungsunterstützungszentrum; FüUZ).

Austria, a landlocked country, today has no navy; from 1958 to 2006 however the Austrian army operated a naval squadron of patrol boats on the River Danube. That duty has been assumed by the Bundespolizei (Federal Police).

Between 1918 and 1920, the Austrian semi-regular army was called Volkswehr ("People's Defence"), and fought against Yugoslavian army units occupying parts of Carinthia. It has been known as "Bundesheer" since then, except when Austria was a part of Nazi Germany (1938–1945; see Anschluss). The Austrian Army did develop a defence plan in 1938 against Germany, but politics prevented it from being implemented.

In 1955, Austria declared its Everlasting Neutrality and made neutrality a constitutional law. The Austrian Military's main purpose since then has been the protection of Austria's neutrality.

With the end of the Cold War, the Austrian military have increasingly assisted the border police in controlling the influx of illegal immigrants through Austrian borders. The war in the neighbouring Balkans resulted in the lifting of the restrictions on the range of weaponry of the Austrian military that had been imposed by a 1955 international treaty.