Military of Guinea-Bissau

The armed forces of Guinea -Bissau consist of the three branches of the armed forces, army, air force and navy, and a total of 9,250 men strong.

Due to the limited financial resources, it can raise the country on its military ( 2003, the defense budget only around three million U.S. $ ), the armed forces are in a very poor condition. It is planned to reduce the armed forces to 2,000 to 2,500 men and they place greater emphasis on internal security missions.

• Army: The army of Guinea-Bissau comprises around 6,800 soldiers, making it by far the largest branches of the armed force of the country. On heavy equipment they have on paper than ten Russian T- 34 tanks from the Second World War, due to their advanced age and poor supply situation probably are not ready, however, and are also hopelessly outdated.

• Air Force: The Air Force of the country has around 2,100 soldiers, including five MiG- 21MF fighters, a two-seater MiG- 21UM - training machine, six helicopters ( Gazelle, Mil Mi -8) and transport equipment ( Antonov An -14 and An-24 ) available. Here, too, is likely to severely limit the operational readiness of the dire financial situation.

• Marine: A small navy with 350 men and three lightly armed speedboats protects the coast of the country.