Bahraini armed forces

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Bahrain flag Bahraini Armed Forces
Bahrain Defense Force
Flag of the Armed Forces of Bahrain
guide
Commander in Chief : Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
Military strength
Active soldiers: 8,200
Conscription: No
Resilient population: 799,664 (men and women, ages 16–49; 2010)
Eligibility for military service: Age 18 and over
household
Military budget: USD 697.0 million (2009),
plus USD 19.5 million in military aid from the USA (2010)
Share of gross domestic product : 3.14% (2012)
history

The Bahrain Defense Force ( Bahrain Defense Force ) are the defense of the Kingdom of Bahrain . The approximately 8,200 soldiers strong military is composed of the components Army , Air Force and Navy together.

General

In 2017, Bahrain spent just under 4.1 percent of its economic output, or 1.4 billion US dollars, on its armed forces. The state is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council ; the US armed forces maintain major US Air Force and US Navy bases .

Bahraini military history

From 1820 until independence from Great Britain in 1971, His Majesty's Armed Forces maintained military units in Bahrain on the Persian Gulf (formerly the catchphrase "mare britannicum" ). From 1935 an air base was built on Muharraq by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy built bases on the islands bordering the Bahrain and in Manama . In 1962 the deep sea port of Mina Salman was expanded as a naval base.

After independence in 1971, the ruling dynasty of Al Khalifa saw no reason to make major investments in national defense . After the shock of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978/1979, new concepts for national defense were developed. In 1979, two patrol boats were ordered from the Lürssen shipyard , but they were not subordinated to the military, but to the coast guard .

After a Shiite coup attempt in 1981, the Saudi Air Force dispatched 25 Northrop F-5s and Saudi Arabia provided a bodyguard for the ruling family. In 1982, the Gulf Cooperation Council gave the Kingdom military aid of US $ 1.7 billion to build and expand the armed forces.

In 1987 the armed forces were regrouped into separate branches, and in 1990 the US armed forces found their way into Bahrain. During the Second Gulf War and the Iraq War , Bahrain was used as a deployment base for the United States .

There were three armed border conflicts with Qatar over the question of membership of the Hawar Islands , which were settled by an arbitration ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2001.

army

Flag of the Bahraini Army

The 6000-strong army is divided into a tank brigade (two tanks and a reconnaissance battalion ), an infantry brigade (two battalions of mechanized infantry and a battalion Motorized Infantry ), an artillery brigade (a heaviness, two of medium difficulty, a light artillery battery and a MLRS - Battery ), a battalion anti-aircraft (two FlaRak batteries and a Flak battery), a battalion special forces and the Amiri -Gardebataillon.

equipment

Held by the Army are Bahrain's 180 M-60A3 -Kampfpanzer, 22 AML-90 , 8 Saladin - Spähpanzer , 8 Ferret -Spähpanzer, 8 Shorland -Spähpanzer, 25 YPR-765 (25-mm-MK) - armored , 10 AT -105- "Saxon" team transport tanks , 110 M-3 "Panhard" team transport tanks and 205 M-113A2 team transport tanks .

In the field artillery to be 8105 mm L118 guns, 18 155mm M198 -Geschütze, 20 155mm M109A5 - self-propelled guns , 13 203 mm-M110 -Selbstfahrlafetten, 9 MLRS missile launcher (30 ATACMS ) , 12 81 mm grenade launcher, 12, 120 mm grenade launcher 25 106 mm M40A1 - anti-tank guns , 6 120 mm MOBAT -Panzerabwehrkanonen, 60 Javelin - anti-tank missile , 15 35 mm Oerlikon -Flugabwehrkanonen, 12 40 mm-L / 70 anti-aircraft guns, 60 RBS-70FIM anti-aircraft missiles , 18 FIM-92A “Stinger” anti-aircraft missiles, 7 Crotale anti-aircraft missiles and 8 MIM-23B I-HAWK anti-aircraft missiles.

marine

The frigate Sabha (FFG 90) of the Oliver Hazard Perry class has been in service since 1996

The 700-strong Bahraini Navy is one of the two naval forces of the Gulf Cooperation Council, along with the Saudi Arabian one, which uses large types of ships.

Bahrain has the following warships:

In addition, two Bo 105 CBS-4s and two Eurocopter Dauphin are used.

The Navy has its base in Mina Salman.

Air Force

The 1500-strong air force is largely divided into squadrons, these are in detail:

  • 1st multipurpose squadron (F-16C / D)
  • 2nd multipurpose squadron (F-16C / D)
  • 3rd helicopter squadron (AB.212, will be converted to UH-60M)
  • 4th Training Relay (T-67)
  • 5th Training Relay (Hawk)
  • 6. Multipurpose Relay (F-5E / F)
  • 7th squadron (this squadron has no aircraft)
  • 8th Combat Helicopter Squadron (AH-1E)
  • 9th Combat Helicopter Squadron (AH-1E)
  • 10th Helicopter Squadron (Bo-105)

There is also an air transport squadron (RJ, BAe 146) and the royal flight readiness (S-70, Bell 430, S-92, UH-60M).

Aircraft

Bahraini Air Force F-5E Tiger II

Status: end of 2013

Aircraft origin use version active Ordered Remarks
Planes
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon United StatesUnited States United States Multipurpose
fighter combat trainer
F-16C
F-16D
17
4
A machine crashed on September 27, 2003 over the Persian Gulf .
Northrop F-5 Tiger II United StatesUnited States United States Fighter-bomber
combat trainer
F-5E
F-5F
8
4
Will be replaced by 16 F-16V Viper Block 70 .
BAE Hawk United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom Advanced trainer Hawk 129 6th
Slingsby T-67 Firefly United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom Basic trainer 3
helicopter
Bell AH-1 Cobra United StatesUnited States United States Combat helicopter /
training helicopter
AH-1E
AH-1P
TAH-1P
10
6
6
Sikorsky UH-60 United StatesUnited States United States Transport helicopter UH-60L
UH-60M
UH-60M VIP
2
8
1
Bell 212 United StatesUnited States United States Multipurpose helicopter 18th
Bölkow Bo 105 GermanyGermany Germany Training helicopter 4th

Most of the air force is stationed at Sheikh Isa Air Base .

Calls

During the Syrian Civil War , the Bahraini Air Force supported the United States in bombing positions of the terrorist organization Islamic State .

Other security guards

The other security forces, such as the police and the coast guard, are subordinate to the Bahraini Interior Ministry.

The Bahraini police have two Bell 412s and one Bell 427 to carry out their duties .

In addition to various patrol boats, the 260-man coast guard also has three landing craft and a hovercraft . It is headquartered in Bandar-Dar and has a base in al-Muharraq .

Web links

Commons : Bahraini Armed Forces  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Home | SIPRI. Retrieved July 10, 2017 (English).
  2. World Air Forces 2014. (PDF; 3.9 MB) In: Flightglobal Insight. 2014, archived from the original on December 25, 2013 ; accessed on March 26, 2014 (English).
  3. Bahrain buys state-of-the-art F-16s. fliegerweb.com, June 28, 2018, accessed April 18, 2020 .
  4. Obama attacks IS in Syria with an Arab alliance. Welt Online , September 23, 2014, accessed January 18, 2015 .