Military of Slovenia

Slovenian Armed Forces Slovenska vojska
Slovenian Army emblem
Flag of the Slovenian Army
Founded	1991
Service branches	Slovenian Ground Force Slovenian Air Force and Air Defence Slovenian Navy
Headquarters	Ljubljana
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Borut Pahor (president of Slovenia)
Minister of Defense	Andreja Katič
Chief of Defense	Andrej Osterman (Major General)
Manpower
Military age	18
Conscription	Abolished in 2003
Available for military service	496,929, age 17 (voluntary) (2005 est.)
Fit for military service	405,593, age 17 (voluntary) (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annually	(2005 est.)
Active personnel	7,300 (professional soldiers) (ranked 123rd)
Reserve personnel	1,500 (contract reserve soldiers)
Expenditures
Budget	€378,575,978 (2013)
Percent of GDP	1.02% (2013)
Related articles
History	Slovenian War of Independence Slovenian Territorial Defence
Ranks	Slovenian military ranks Anthem of the Slovenian Army

The Slovenian Armed Forces or Slovenian Army (Slovene: Slovenska vojska; SAF/SV) are the armed forces of Slovenia. Since 2003, it is organized as a fully professional standing army. The Commander-in-Chief of the SAF is the President of the Republic of Slovenia (Borut Pahor), while operational command is in the domain of the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, the position being held since October 2014 by Major General Andrej Osterman.

The military history of Slovenia spans less than a hundred years. Following the disintegration of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, the Duchy of Styria was divided between the newly established states of German Austria and the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Rudolf Maister, a Slovene major of the former Austro-Hungarian Army, occupied the town of Maribor in November 1918 and claimed it to the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. After a short fight with German Austrian provisional units, the current border was established, which mostly followed the ethnic-linguistic division between Slovenes and ethnic Germans in Styria.

The current Slovenian Armed Forces are descended from the Slovenian Territorial Defence (Teritorialna Obramba Republike Slovenije; or Slovene TO), formed in 1991 by fusion of Territorial Defence (formed in 1968 as a paramilitary complement to the regular army of the former Yugoslav within the territory of Slovenia) with secret alternative command structure, known as the Manoeuvre Structures of National Protection (Manevrska struktura narodne zaščite, or MSNZ), which was an existing but antiquated institution, (unique to Slovenia), intended to enable the republic to form an ad hoc defence structure, akin to a Home Guard. It was of negligible importance prior to 1990, with antiquated weapons and few members.