Military of Venezuela

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Military of Venezuela
Service branches Army
Navy
Air Force
Venezuelan National Guard
National Reserve
Territorial Guard
Military age 18
Available for
military service		 6,236,012, age 15–49 (2005 est.)
Fit for
military service		 4,907,947, age 15–49  (2005 est.)
Reaching military
age annually		 252,396 (2005 est.)
Active personnel Roughly 100,000
Expenditures
Budget $1,7 billion (FY04)
Percent of GDP 1.5% (FY04)

As of 2008, the National Armed Forces of Venezuela (FAN, Spanish: Fuerza Armadas Nacional) is roughly 100,000 individuals in four service branches--the Army, Navy (including the Marine Corps), Air Force, and the Armed Forces of Cooperation (FAC), commonly known as the National Guard.

Contents

[edit] Organization

As of 2008, about 600,001 soldiers were integrated in the military through a fifth service branch, the Armed Reserve, although some of this force is more of a militia than a formal, professional armed corps.

In 2006 the FAN was transformed into six service branches, the Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard, National Reserve and the Territorial Guard. The Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard will serve under the Strategic Operational Command (Comando Estratégico Operacional), the National Reserve and the Territorial Guard will serve under the National Reserve and Mobilization Command (Comando General de la Reserva Nacional y Movilizacion Nacional)

The Venezuelan army bears the title "Forjador de Libertades" or "Forger of Freedoms". This refers to Venezuelan armies fighting Venezuela's independence war, as well as the independence wars of five other countries, namely Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Panamá (then part of New Granada, present day Colombia) and Bolivia.

[edit] Branches

National Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armada Nacional or FAN) includes:

[edit] Rank

The army's officer rank system is unremarkable, but the system of non-commissioned ranks is notably complicated, with eighteen non-commissioned ranks from Distinguido to Maestro Técnico Supervisor. (For comparison, there are seven NATO non-commissioned ranks (OR-3 to OR-9) and six British non-commissioned army ranks.)

[edit] Procurements

The Venezuelan government has embarked on a massive military modernization and purchases that greatly expand their defensive and offensive capabilities, including negotiations for German submarines and transport aircraft, several agreements with Russia (outlined below), transport aircraft and naval vessels from Spain, radars from China, home-made and designed armored light vehicles and rocket launchers, studies for Leopard 2 main battle tanks, amongst many others.

In 2005 Venezuela signed agreements with Spain to procure 12 naval transport and reconnaissance aircraft and eight naval patrol vessels. The deal is worth $1.5-2 billion dollars to the Spanish defense industry, as well as an estimated 900 new jobs.

Venezuela has also recently purchased 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles and 53 Russian helicopters [1], including 12 Mi-17 military helicopters.[2] The government of Venezuela has also announced its intention to obtain about 3 dozen more Russian helicopters, including Mi-17 "Hip", Mi-26 "Halo" and Mi-35 "Hind" as well as announcing the procurement of 24 Su-30MK Interceptors with future possible purchases of Su-35 fighters.[3] Russia earned from Venezuela US$5.3 billion just with the above mentioned sales [4].


Venezuela has been offered the 2S31 Vena from Russia.

Venezuela is studying Antonov transport aircraft to revamp its aging fleet of transport craft, which includes IAI Aravas and Skytrucks. In June of 2008 in a trip to Russia Hugo Chavez will sign a weapons deal for 10 (12 in the future) Il-76 Candid heavy transports, 2 Il-78MKI tankers and an additional 10 Mi-28 "Havoc" attack helicopters. He will also purchase 4 project 636 "Kilo" class submarines. Additional equipment may be included later on. The deal is expected to be worth more than 2 billion dollars.

Venezuela has announced the purchase of 3 batteries of the TOR-M1 system, with the possible acquisition of 600 armored vehicles - possibly the BMP 3 or the Sabiex Iguana FV4.[5] Border defense systems are being purchased from Brazil, plus Steyr anti-riot trucks and expanded Tiuna purchases.

A co-operative research into UAV between Venezuela and Iran is also underway.[6]

In 2007, the Belarusian military optics industry supplied the Venezuelan army with night vision devices, and installed on - as Hugo Chavez described: "every single rifle in the Venezuelan army."[7]

In June, 2007 President Hugo Chavez confirmed that Russia will deliver 5 Kilo class 636 diesel submarines to Venezuela.[8]

On August 19, 2007 President Hugo Chavez announced the purchase of 5,000 Dragunov sniper rifles from the Russian Rosoboronexport, adding that Venezuela must ready itself for a "possible US invasion"[9].

[edit] Controversy with the United States

These acquisitions and other projects have been greeted with criticism from the United States, which opposes the government of President Hugo Chávez. The U.S. accuses Venezuela of starting an arms race, which they claim will destabilize the military equilibrium in South America. Venezuela is also accused of supplying small arms to neighboring Colombian guerrilla organizations including FARC, which is sympathetic to Chávez.[10]

United States criticism is met with skepticism by Venezuelan authorities, who claim the weapons are needed to update the basic equipment in the armed forces. In some cases, Venezuelan armaments like the FN FAL have been in service more than 50 years. The government also claims that the US has been the one to initiate arms races and de-stabilize countries by supplying subversive groups in Latin America throughout the past century (referring to the Cold War and the contra affair, among numerous other incidents).

In the 1990s Venezuela requested a batch of F-16C/Ds to update its F-16 fighter fleet, but the U.S. government blocked the request. [11] In October 1997 the US government approved the sale of the two crash replacement F-16s, but subsequently halted the sale.[12] In 2005 a contract with Israel Aircraft Industries to upgrade Venezuela's F-16s was frozen following U.S. pressure.[13] Chavez subsequently accused the U.S. of delaying the sale of spare parts to maintain Venezuela’s F-16s. After remarks by Chavez that he would sell or lend the 'unused' F-16's to any country that wanted them, including Iran, the US Government agreed to supply the spare parts; however, the shipment was detained at the Customs Office in Maiquetia International Airport due to security concerns.[14][15]

[edit] U.S. military embargo

The government of the United States announced an embargo of military material and equipments to Venezuela; no US made weapons or technology can be sold to Venezuela by any country or company.[16] This embargo has harmed several Venezuelan purchases, as not only are US technology goods unavailable, but other nations friendly to the US have chosen or been pressured to block sales of arms to Venezuela, as well. This is also considered one of the reasons Venezuela has turned to Russia and China for arms, in a move reminiscent of the Cold War. Below is a list of acquisitions frustrated directly or indirectly by the US embargo:[17]

[edit] References

  1. ^ G1 > Mundo - NOTÍCIAS - 'Gringo que se meter por aqui, 'pum'!', afirma Chávez
  2. ^ El Nuevo Diario - Managua, Nicaragua - Venezuela compra Fusiles y helicópteros rusos
  3. ^ Venezuela to purchase 24 new Russian fighter jets - Pravda.Ru
  4. ^ G1 > Mundo - NOTÍCIAS - 'Gringo que se meter por aqui, 'pum'!', afirma Chávez
  5. ^ www.fav-club.com
  6. ^ Daily News - eluniversal.com
  7. ^ EUX.TV - Belarus to provide Venezuela night vision devices
  8. ^ G1 > Mundo - NOTÍCIAS - 'Gringo que se meter por aqui, 'pum'!', afirma Chávez
  9. ^ G1 > Mundo - NOTÍCIAS - 'Gringo que se meter por aqui, 'pum'!', afirma Chávez
  10. ^ http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031006/6venezuela_3.htm][http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,12716,1396985,00.htm
  11. ^ AirToAirCombat.Com: F-16C Fighting Falcon LockheedMartin F-16 Origins
  12. ^ F-16 Air Forces - Venezuela
  13. ^ US Roadblocks re: the Venezuela-Israel F-16 Upgrade: Politics or Protectionism?
  14. ^ World/ReadArticle.Asp | August 15, 2007 | Global News For The Digital World
  15. ^ [1][dead link]
  16. ^ EEUU decreta un embargo de armas contra Venezuela
  17. ^ www.fav-club.com

http://www.globalfirepower.com/

[edit] External links

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