Slovak Armed Forces

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.

Structure of the armed forces

 * Ground forces - are made up of two active mechanized infantry brigades and a Combat Support Brigade.
 * Air and air defence forces - comprising one wing of fighters, one wing of utility helicopters, and one SAM brigade.
 * Miscellaneous forces under the direct command of the general staff, including the 5th Special Forces Regiment

Air force



 * Aircraft
 * 🇷🇺 Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum - 11 (NATO upgraded)
 * Aero L-39 Albatros - 7 (NATO upgraded)
 * 🇮🇹 Alenia C-27J Spartan - 1, another 1 on order (deliveries 2017-2018)
 * 🇨🇿 Let L-410 Turbolet - 6 (NATO upgraded)
 * Mil Mi-17 Hip-H - 8 (NATO upgraded), to be replaced by UH-60M Black Hawks
 * 🇺🇸 UH-60M Black Hawk - 2, another 7 on order (deliveries 2018-2019)
 * 🇺🇸 Bell 429 - 9 on order (deliveries 2020-2022)

Note -- All aircraft data is current as of December 13, 2017.

Air defence systems

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 Slovak troops were withdrawn from Kosovo because the Slovak Armed Forces set its priority to focus mainly on an Afghanistan NATO led mission.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 2017).