Armenia

the Armenian Armed Forces were officially established in 1992, although their origins go back to 1918; the modern military’s missions include deterrence, territorial defense, crisis management, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response, as well as socio-economic development projects; territorial defense is its primary focus, particularly in regards to tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan; Armenia and Azerbaijan engaged in open conflicts over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in 1991-94 and 2020; Azerbaijan seized the entire enclave in 2023 Armenia has traditionally had close military ties with Russia; it has been a member of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) since 1994 and committed troops to CSTO's rapid reaction force until suspending its engagement in 2024; Armenia has relations with NATO going back to 1992 when Armenia joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council; in 1994, it joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace program and has contributed to the NATO force in Kosovo, as well as the former NATO deployment in Afghanistan (2025)

Armenian Republic Armed Forces: Armenian Army (includes land, air, air defense forces) (2025)

note: the Police of the Republic of Armenia is responsible for internal security, while the National Security Service is responsible for national security, intelligence activities, and border control

18-27 for voluntary (men and women), contract (men and women) or compulsory (men) military service; contract military service is 3-12 months or up to 5 years; conscripts serve 24 months; all citizens aged 27-50 are registered in the military reserve and may be called to serve if mobilization is declared (2025)

note: in 2023, Armenia approved six-month voluntary service for women, after which they have the option to switch to a five-year contract; previously, women served on a contract basis; as of 2021, women made up about 10% of the active-duty military

the military's inventory includes mostly Russian and Soviet-era equipment; in recent years however, Armenia has looked to other countries besides Russia to provide military hardware, including France and India (2025)

approximately 40-50,000 active Armenian Armed Forces (2025)