Military of Uzbekistan

The military of Uzbekistan is the state organisation charged with the defence of Uzbekistan, consisting of a ground force, air defense forces, national guard and a frontier service. They are reported to be the largest in Central Asia. According to the 1992 Law on Defence, Uzbekistan's military is for defensive purposes only.

Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, used to be the headquarters of the Soviet Turkestan Military District and on 20 February 1992, the new Ministry of Defence Affairs took over the offices which had been formerly occupied by the district headquarters staff. On 2 July 1992 a Presidential Decree established a Ministry of Defence to supersede the Ministry of Defence Affairs. Over the succeeding years, Uzbekistan replaced Russian officers with ethnic Uzbeks and restructured the military to focus on targets like civil unrest, drug trafficking, and Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

Uzbekistan and Russia signed a mutual defence pact in 2005, that will also result in closer military cooperation. This marked a stark contrast to a few years earlier, when the US appeared to be Uzbekistan's favoured foreign friend, and relations with Russia were cooler.

'The country [has] also began professionalizing its military, an effort that has only limited success and erratic government support. But even in Uzbekistan, these changes represent merely a modest beginning and most of the benefits are concentrated in a few elite, higher readiness formations rather than uniformly applied to the entire force. The Uzbek military is woefully inadequate, but it is far superior to its neighbours.'

The government maintains a command and staff college for the military in Tashkent, based on the former Soviet TVOKU higher command college.

Activities and foreign relations
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States leased the Karshi-Khanabad airbase in southern Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan. The American base there was called "Camp Stronghold Freedom," yet was more often referred to as "K2 Airbase" by the personnel in theater.

In May 2005, the military was involved in suppressing unrest in the Ferghana Valley city of Andijan, which became known as the Andijan massacre. Consequently, the EU banned arms sales and imposed a one-year visa ban on 12 senior officials, including the security chief and interior and defence ministers, accusing them of bearing responsibility for the killings.

In the aftermath of the incident, President Karimov dismissed several senior military figures: Defense Minister Kadyr Gulyamov, Head of the Joint Headquarters of the Armed Forces Ismail Ergashev, and Commander of the Eastern military district Kosimali Akhmedov. Burnashev and Chernykh said that '..although these dismissals did not change the formal system of administration in the security and military structures, they reflected serious shifts in power relations among regional elites representing their clans.'

A joint statement of the member countries of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation issued in early July, 2005 on a conference in Astana (Kazakstan) called for a withdrawal of US troops from military bases in Central Asia. On July 29, 2005, Uzbekistan invoked a provision asking the U.S. to leave within 180 days. On November 21, 2005, the withdrawal of US troops from Karshi-Khanabad and any other bases was completed.

The European Union lifted the arms sales ban in 2009.

Arms control and non-proliferation
The government has accepted the arms control obligations of the former Soviet Union, and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state. It has also supported an active program by the U.S. Department of Defense Defense Threat Reduction Agency in western Uzbekistan (Nukus and the biological warfare test laboratory on Vozrozhdeniye Island).

Land Forces
Organisation

The army includes five military districts, the Northwest at Nukus, the Southwest Special Military District at Karshi, the Central Military District at Dzhizak, and the Eastern Military District at Ferghana. In 2001, the Tashkent garrison was transformed into the Tashkent Military District.

The headquarters of the military districts and their areas of responsibility are confirmed. The subordinate brigades listed in the table below have been attributed to the various military districts either because they are located in the same city as the military district headquarters or are clearly within the military districts' area of responsibility - that is, the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade at Andijan.

There are four motor rifle brigades whose designations are not known, and the 17th Air Assault Brigade at Fergana, the former Soviet Airborne Forces' 387th Airborne Training Regiment. Motorized brigades are located around Bukhara, Samarqand, Termez, Nukus, and Andijan.

Other Listed Formations
 * 2 АК МС, Fergana, в/ч 49827, вкл. 15 дшбр, чирчикский учебный полк и ферганская парашютно-десантная бригада-1999
 * Motor Rifle Brigade, Chirchik, в/ч 16707
 * Motor Rifle Brigade, Samarqand, former motor rifle division? (быв. мсд (запасная, кадрированная))
 * Motor Rifle Brigade, Termez, На базе 108 мсд
 * Tank Regiment (тп), Tashkent, Был в Навои, переведен в Ахангаран
 * исбр
 * б-н (отряд) спецназа, Ташкент, Быв. 459 рота спецназа
 * бригада НГ, Ташкент, 1 тыс.чел-в бригаде один батальон охраны, рота почетного караула и рота спецназа.

Exercises

Uzbek troops participated in Partnership for Peace Exercise Cooperative Osprey '96 at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, hosted by the United States Marine Corps.

In September 2004, the (then) Royal Welsh Regiment (now 3rd Bn The Royal Welsh) of the British Army participated with the Uzbek Army Peacekeeping Battalion in "Exercise Timurlane Express" in the Farish Mountain Training Area. This was a 3-week NATO sponsored Partnership for Peace training exercise.

Current equipment

Reportedly, Uzbek armed forces' small arms include the AK-47, AK-74, Dragunov sniper rifle, Makarov PM pistol, and PK.

Heavier equipment includes:

Tanks
 * T-72 - 70
 * T-64 - 100
 * T-62 - 170
 * T-54/55 – 80

Infantry Fighting Vehicles
 * BMP-1 - 180
 * BMP-2 - 172

Armoured Personnel Carriers
 * BTR-80 – 290
 * BTR-70 – 36
 * BTR-60 – 24
 * BRDM-2 - 13

Towed Artillery
 * 122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30) - 540
 * 152 mm howitzer M1943 (D-1)
 * 152 mm towed gun-howitzer M1955 (D-20)
 * 152 mm gun 2A36 - 140

Self-propelled Artillery
 * 120 mm 2S9 Nona - 60
 * 122 mm 2S1 Gvozdika - 18
 * 152 mm SO-152 - 17
 * 203 mm 2S7 Pion - 48

Rocket Artillery
 * 122 mm BM-21 Grad - 60
 * 220 mm BM-27 Uragan - 49

Air Forces
The Uzbek air forces consist of units formerly part of the 49th Air Army of the Turkestan Military District headquartered at Tashkent. There are two remaining combat units, brigades at Karshi-Khanabad and Dzhizak.

The 60th Separate Brigade is the former 735th Bomber Aviation Regiment combined with the former 87th Separate Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment. It has 31 Su-24s, 32 MiG-29s, and 6 Su-27s. Other recently disbanded units include the 61st Fighter Aviation Regiment at Kakaydy, which was itself a merger with the previous 115th Fighter Aviation Regiment, and the 62nd Fighter Aviation Regiment at Andijan. Regiments at both bases were disbanded in 1999. As many as 26 stored Su-17s, apparently in very bad condition, remain at Chirchiq (see Google Earth 41°30'05.69"N 69°33'44.90"E).

List of units

 * 60th Separate Mixed Aviation Brigade (Karshi-Khanabad)(60 BAP), Su-24/Su-24MR, Su-27- (31 Su-24, 32 MiG-29, 6 Su-27, 1200 personnel.)
 * Separate Mixed Aviation Brigade, Dzhizak, Su-25 - (Su-25, L-39, Mi-8, Mi-24)
 * Separate Mixed Aviation Regiment, Fergana, Аn-12, 12РР, 26, 26РР
 * Separate Mixed Aviation Squadron, Tashkent, Аn-24, Тu-134
 * 65th Separate Helicopter Regiment Kagan, Bukhara Mi-6,8. According to the IISS Military Balance 2002- 28 Mi-6, 29 Mi-8. Former 396th Separate Helicopter Regiment, Southern Group of Forces
 * 66th Separate Helicopter Regiment, Chirchiq, Mi-8/24/26 helicopters. The IISS Military Balance 2002 listed Uzbekistan with 42 Mi-24, 29 Mi-8,1 Mi-26
 * 12th Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade
 * Radio-Technical Brigade

Border Guard
The Frontier Service, also called the Committee for State Border Protection of the National Security Service, is the border guard of Uzbekistan. They have gotten into disagreements with the Frontier Forces of Kyrgyzstan in the Batken province.

Special Forces
The military, SNB, and MVD maintain several spetsnaz battalions, named Scorpions, Bars, and Alfa. They are commonly used against Islamic terrorists in the border regions near Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.