Founded 1 January 1993 President of the Republic Andrej Kiska Chief of the General Staff General Milan Maxim | Minister of Defense Peter GajdoĊĦ | |
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Service branches Ground Forces of the Slovak RepublicSlovak Air Force |
The Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic number 15,996 uniformed personnel and 3,761 civilians. Slovakia joined NATO on 29 March 2004. From 2006 the army transformed into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished.
Contents
Structure of the armed forces
Air force
Note -- All aircraft data is current as of January 1, 2017.
Special forces
The 5th Special Forces Regiment is Slovakia's counter-terrorism and special operations unit. The unit is directly attached to the armed forces general staff, but works for the Operational Reconnaissance Bureau.
Missions
Slovakia has 169 military personnel deployed in Cyprus for UNFICYP United Nations led peace support operations. Slovakia committed to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan to around 45 men by the end of 2016. Slovakia has 41 troops deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina for EUFOR Althea. Slovak troops were withdrawn from Kosovo because the Slovak Armed Forces set its priority to focus mainly on an Afghanistan NATO led mission. Since the independence of Slovakia in 1993, there have been 59 uniformed personnel deaths in the line of service to the United Nations and NATO (as of 2016).