Lao People's Armed Forces

Lao People's Armed Forces
Emblem of Lao People's Armed Forces
Founded	1975
Service branches	Lao People's Army (includes Riverine Force) Lao People's Air Force
Headquarters	Vientiane
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Bounnhang Vorachith
Minister for Defence	Lieutenant General Sengnuan Xayalath
Manpower
Military age	17 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation - minimum 18 months (2004)
Available for military service	1,500,625 males, age 15–49 (2005 est.), 1,521,116 females, age 15–49 (2005 est.)
Fit for military service	954,816 males, age 15–49 (2005 est.), 1,006,082 females, age 15–49 (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annually	(2005 est.)
Active personnel	130,000 (ranked 85)
Expenditures
Budget	$55 million (1996-97)
Percent of GDP	0.5% (2006)
Industry
Foreign suppliers	Vietnam  Cuba  Russia  China  North Korea  Mongolia Former:  Soviet Union
Related articles
History	First Indochinese War Laotian Civil War Insurgency in Laos Thai-Laotian Border War

First Indochinese War
Laotian Civil War
Insurgency in Laos

The Lao People's Armed Forces is the name of the armed forces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, who are charged with protecting the country.

The army of 130,000 is equipped with 30 main battle tanks. The army marine section, equipped with 16 patrol craft, has 600 personnel. The air force, with 3,500 personnel, is equipped with anti-aircraft missiles and 24 combat aircraft.

Militia self-defence forces number approximately 100,000 organised for local defence. The small arms utilised mostly by the Laotian Army are the Soviet AKM Assault rifle, PKM Machine gun, Makarov PM pistol, and the RPD light machine gun.

Until 1975, the Royal Lao Army were the armed forces of the Kingdom of Laos.

Serving one of the world's least developed communist countries, the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is small, poorly funded, and ineffectively resourced. Its mission focus is border and internal security, primarily in internal suppression of Laotian dissident and opposition groups.

This includes the brutal crushing of the peaceful 1999 Lao Students Movement of Democracy demonstrations in Vientiane, and in countering ethnic Hmong insurgent groups and other groups of Laotian and Hmong people opposing the one-party Marxist Pathet Lao government and the support it receives from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Together with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the government, the Lao People's Army (LPA) is the third pillar of state machinery, and as such is expected to suppress political and civil unrest and similar national emergencies faced by the authoritarian, communist government in Vientiane. The LPA also has reportedly upgraded skills to respond to avian influenza outbreaks. At present, there is no major perceived external threat to the state and the LPA maintains very strong ties with the neighbouring Vietnamese military (2008).