Armed Forces of Chile

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ChileChile Armed Forces of Chile
Fuerzas Armadas de Chile
Flag of the Minister of Defense of Chile.svg
guide
Commander in Chief : Sebastián Piñera
Military strength
Active soldiers: 77,300 (2009)
Conscription: Yes
Eligibility for military service: 18 years
household
Military budget: $ 6.8 billion (2012)
Share of gross domestic product : 2.1% (2012)
history
Founding: 1810
Soldiers of the Armada de Chile (Marine Infantry), June 2007

The armed forces of Chile ( Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas de Chile ) consist of the armed forces army , navy , air force and the national police (Carabineros de Chile). In 2008 the armed forces of the Republic of Chile comprised a total of 77,300 soldiers.

organization

The armed forces are under the supreme command of the Chilean President, the military official business is conducted by the Defense Minister. Since the constitution of 1980, the armed forces had political autonomy and were not subordinate to the executive , but rather formed a fourth state authority. At that time, even the president could not remove the military leadership from its offices. Only since the constitutional amendment in August 2002 has the President been able to dismiss the senior officers .

In Chile there is general conscription for men with a duration of 11 to 13 months. Nevertheless, all the necessary places are taken by volunteers. Women can voluntarily choose to work in arms. In the Chilean army, conscripts can undertake to serve for another five years.

The move-in age is 18 years. In 2007 around 72,000 men served in the armed forces; the potential availability of soldiers was about 2,973,000 men. In 1999 military spending was about 2.5 billion US dollars , or about 3.1% of the gross national product . It should be mentioned that the police, border police, coast guard, rescue services and other security forces are subordinate to the Ministry of Defense and are financed from its budget. In 2012 the share of GDP was 2.1%.

history

Escuela Militar in Santiago de Chile , main cadet establishment of the Chilean Army (1916)

independence

The independence movement in Chile began when Napoleon's brother Joseph came to power in Spain in 1808. On September 18, 1810, a junta was established that declared the allegiance of Chile to the deposed King Ferdinand VII , as an autonomous province within the Spanish Kingdom. This date is celebrated in Chile as the beginning of independence. A little later, Chile declared its total detachment from Spain and the monarchy.

In 1814, after the end of the Spanish War of Independence and the defeat of the patriots in the Battle of Rancagua , Spain regained unrestricted power in Chile. The Spaniards were defeated in the Battle of Chacabuco by a Chilean-Argentine army under General José de San Martín . The Spanish resistance finally collapsed at the Battle of Maipu in 1818.

On April 17, 1830, Diego Portales Palazuelos overthrew the Liberal government at the Battle of Lircay. Portales ruled (indirectly) until August 1831 by dictatorial means. In 1833 a strict presidential constitution was drawn up with the help of Portales. This highly centralized constitution granted Chile a long period of stability, until the civil war of 1891.

From 1836 to 1839 there was the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation War against Bolivia and Peru , which the Chileans won. On September 17, 1865, Chile declared war on Spain ( Spanish-South American War ) after Spain tried to gain influence in Peru by military means. It then came to the sea battles at Papudo and at Abtao off the island of Chiloé. On December 5, 1865, Peru also allied itself with Chile to fight their common enemy. On March 31, 1866, the Spaniards massively shelled the city of Valparaíso . The conflict with Spain could only be finally resolved in treaties of 1871 and 1883.

In the Saltpeter War from 1879 to 1884, Chile occupied the Atacama Desert, Lima and parts of the Pacific coast of Peru, which had previously belonged to the neighboring countries of Peru and Bolivia . In the peace treaty of 1904 between Chile and Bolivia , Bolivia had to cede its free access to the Pacific to Chile. After the end of the Saltpeter War, the Chilean military was reorganized and modernized. The Prussian artillery captain Emil Körner rose to general in the Chilean civil war of 1891 and became inspector general of the Chilean army in 1900.

First and Second World War and post-war period

Chile remained neutral in World War I. After Chile had remained neutral for a long time in World War II, President Juan Antonio Ríos Morales decided on February 14, 1945 to join the war on the side of the Allies, but Chile's influence on the outcome of the war remained insignificant. The 1958 Copper Act (Ley del Cobre Reservado) stipulated that 10 percent of copper export revenues would go exclusively to the military.

From Pinochet to today

Chilean honor guard

On September 11, 1973, there was a bloody military coup against the elected government. President Allende committed suicide in the Moneda . Hundreds of his followers were killed in these days and thousands were imprisoned. All state institutions throughout Chile were occupied by the military within hours. General Augusto Pinochet assumed power as president of a junta . The military set up secret prisons all over the country, where opposition groups and their sympathizers were often tortured to death or, among other things, flown out to sea in airplanes and thrown out there. Thousands of Chileans went into exile because of the continued human rights violations (→  torture in Chile ).

In December 1978 the Beagle conflict with Argentina intensified and there were military threats against Chile. The uninhabited islands of Lennox, Picton and Nueva in the Beagle Channel became a point of contention, mainly because the area was believed to have larger oil reserves. The dispute reached its most dangerous climax on December 22, 1978, when Argentina launched Operation Soberanía to occupy the islands militarily and invade continental Chile. The President Patricio Aylwin , freely elected in 1989 after 15 years of dictatorship, began to come to terms with the crimes of the military dictatorship: In November 1993, officers were tried for the first time for human rights violations.

In 2000 the socialist Ricardo Lagos became the new Chilean president. His program envisaged the integration of the army budget in the state budget.

Traditions

Chilean Presidential Guard (grenadiers on horseback) in their classic Prussian dragoon uniforms, which have been used again since 2011

Since German trainers played a major role in the expansion of the Chilean army in the period before the First World War , the influence of Emil Körner should be emphasized here , a wealth of German military traditions have taken root and preserved in Chile (so-called prusianización ). For example, the parade uniforms of the Chilean main cadet institute in Santiago , which was reformed by Körner, are still similar to the German cadet uniforms from the time of the Empire (from the color and cut of the tunic to the pimple bonnet with a hair tail). The drill regulations largely correspond to the Prussian-German. The Prussian goose-step for parades and numerous military marches from the Prussian army march collection (as well as many Austrian marches) as well as a large number of pieces from the German military songs in Spanish translation (for example the song Der gute Kamerad ) were also adopted. The parade uniforms of the regular army units are gray; They also include the German M35 steel helmet , which was used as a helmet by the Wehrmacht during World War II . The hussars have a squadron of horsemen whose black uniform is reminiscent of Prussian skull hussars . The elite regiment of grenadiers on horseback ( Granaderos ), which functioned as the presidential guard and until then wore cavalry uniforms similar to the Reichswehr with German steel helmets and traditional lances , received back in 2011 the original light blue parade uniform with a spiked hood from the Prussianization period, which was reminiscent of the uniform of the Prussian dragoons is ajar. Likewise, the traditional artillery of the 1st Tacna Artillery Regiment , which operates the salute cannons on official occasions and used parade uniforms in the style of the German interwar period until 2011 , has since been wearing classic dark blue uniforms with black, red piped facings and the pimple hoods traditionally provided with a ball instead of the tip of the Prussian artillery .

Army (Ejército de Chile)

Chilean hussars in modern combat gear (2015)
Logo of the Ejército de Chile

The Chilean army is led from the headquarters of the high command in Santiago de Chile . The Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Land Forces is General of the Infantry Ricardo Martínez Menanteau , appointed by Chilean President Sebastián Piñera in 2014. The strength of the Chilean land army is given in 2015 with around 51,000 army personnel. This number includes around 10,000 conscripts and around 8500 civilian employees . The armed forces are divided into seven divisions . The infantry is considered to be the best trained in Latin America . An airborne brigade is stationed in Rancagua , special forces in Colina . The Chilean army is one of the few armies in the world that still maintains modern cavalry , which as a fully mounted unit is actually deployed and trained as a cavalry in addition to being deployed on armored vehicles .

The Chilean land forces bought since 1997, among other things, 24 M109 RUAG, 202 Leopard 1 V, 140 Leopard 2 A4 , 138 Marder 1A3 , 139 YPR-765, about 330 M113 (various versions) and 200 HMMWV . At the end of 2010, the Army Aviation had 11 transport aircraft (5 CASA C-212 , 3 CASA CN-235 and 3 Cessna 208 ) and around 25 attack helicopters (8 Eurocopter AS332 / AS532 plus 2 orders, 2 Eurocopter AS 350 , 1 AS355 , 1 Bell 206 , 9 MD530 , 1 Aérospatiale SA-315 and 1 Bell UH-1 H).

Marine (Armada de Chile)

Logo of the Armada de Chile

Admiral Edmundo González heads a 19,000-strong Marine (including 4500 marines ).

Warships

The fleet comprises 29 ships, of which the eight frigates listed below are intended for larger missions. They are based in Valparaíso and together with the fuel tanker Almirante Montt (AO-52) of the Henry J. Kaiser class form the Escuadra Nacional . There are also some amphibious units in Valparaiso. The Navy also owns four submarines stationed in Talcahuano . Two of them represent the most modern examples of the Scorpène class , the other two are class 209 boats . Among the other floating units are some Iquique- based missile speedboats of class 148 , which were taken over by the German Navy . Other S-boats taken over from India are based in Punta Arenas .

Naval Jack of Chile.svg Armada de Chile ( badge )

Frigates of the Chilean Navy

  • Adelaide class :
  • M or Karel Doorman Class :
    • Frigate Almirante Blanco Encalada (FF-15), (former HNLMS Abraham van der Hulst )
    • Frigate Almirante Riveros (FFG-18), (former HNLMS Tjerk Hiddes )
  • Type 22 or Broadsword class :
  • Type 23 or Duke class :
    • Frigate Almirante Lynch (FF-07), (former HMS Grafton )
    • Frigate Almirante Cochrane (FF-05), (former HMS Norfolk )
    • Frigate Almirante Condell (FF-06), (former HMS Malborough )

other ships (selection)

Naval shipyard

The Armada de Chile maintains a shipyard with three bases, the Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada - ASMAR

Naval aviators

The naval aviators currently (as of the end of 2010) own the following aircraft:

Air Force (Fuerza Aérea de Chile)

Logo of the Fuerza Aérea de Chile

The Luftwaffe ( FACh ) is led by General Osvaldo Sarabia Vilches and has 10,600 soldiers.

bases

The Air Force consists of five air brigades with headquarters at the following military airfields , from north to south:

On the mainland, units of the Chilean air force are stationed in other places.

It also maintains the Base Aérea “Teniente Rodolfo Marsh” on King George Island in Antarctica and also maintains a small presence at Mataveri Airport on Easter Island .

equipment

The Air Force is one of the best equipped air forces in South America , along with that of Brazil . She has u. a. over

as well as a number of transport planes and even tankers .

Roundel of Chile.svg Fuerza Aérea de Chile ( badge ) Escarapela de Chile.svg Fuerza Aérea de Chile ( cockade )

National Police (Carabineros de Chile)

Logo of the Carabineros de Chile

Through the amalgamation of regional and partly already centralized, parallel police units, today's institution Carabineros de Chile was founded in 1927 as a uniform national police force. After the military coup in 1973 , the Chilean police were completely subordinated to the Ministry of Defense, and since 2011 the institution has been directly subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. General Bruno Villalobos Krumm heads the police force, which is around 60,000 strong. The main tasks include the general police service in the cities and in the country, the - especially in rural areas often social - service to society, the investigation of criminal cases, the control and security of road traffic , the fight against drug-related crime and border control .

Web links

Commons : Military in Chile  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. CIA World Factbook (2012) (English)
  2. Ricardo Martínez Menanteau, General de Ejército, Commander in Chief del Ejército. In: Alto mando (= high command). From Ejercito.cl (Spanish), accessed January 28, 2019.
  3. Comandante en Jefe efectúa conferencia a Curso Conjunto de las Academias de Guerra de las Fuerzas Armadas (= Commander-in-Chief holds a conference on the joint course of the military academies of the armed forces.) June 25, 2015. At Ejercito.cl (Spanish), accessed on 28 January 2019.
  4. Annual report of the Chilean Army 2013 (PDF; 11.6 MB), p. 381. Not available on January 28, 2019.
  5. ^ First Modernized Lockheed P-3 Orion Delivered to Chilean Navy , December 8, 2019
  6. ^ Chile: The Carabineros. In: country-data.com. March 1994, accessed January 31, 2018 .
  7. ^ Carabineros de Chile. In: carabineros.cl. Retrieved January 26, 2018 (Spanish).
  8. Chilean Carabineros. In: fiep.org, International Association of Gendarmeries and Police Forces with Military Statues. Retrieved January 31, 2018 .