Albania FactbookDraft
November 2026 Edition
Albania Factbook · National chapter / ALB
Military and Security
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2021 Factbook flag mirror; image identity has not been individually audited. Source.
Last updated: October 29, 2026
Sections in Military and Security
Military and Security
Military and security forces:158
Republic of Albania Armed Forces (Forcat e Armatosura të Republikës së Shqipërisë (FARSH); aka Albanian Armed Forces (AAF)): Land Forces, Naval Force (includes Coast Guard), Air Forces¶
Ministry of Interior: Guard of the Republic, State Police (includes the Border and Migration Police) (2025)¶
note:the State Police are primarily responsible for internal security, including counterterrorism, while the Guard of the Republic protects senior state officials, foreign dignitaries, and certain state properties¶
Military expenditures:159
Military and security service personnel strengths:160
approximately 7,500 active-duty military personnel (2025)¶
Military equipment inventories and acquisitions:161
since joining NATO, the military has been in the process of modernizing by retiring its inventory of Soviet-era weapons and replacing them with Western equipment, including donated and secondhand deliveries (2024)¶
Military service age and obligation:162
Military deployments:163
Military - note:164
the Albanian Armed Forces (AAF) are responsible for defending the country’s independence, sovereignty, and territory, assisting with internal security, providing disaster and humanitarian relief, and participating in international peacekeeping missions; the AAF is a small, lightly armed force that has been undergoing a modernization effort to improve its ability to fulfill NATO missions; the AAF has contributed small numbers of forces to several NATO missions since Albania joined NATO in 2009, including peacekeeping/stability missions in Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Iraq, and multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria and Latvia; it has also contributed to EU and UN missions (2025)¶
Notes & sources
- Military and security forces. Reference edition; observation: 2025. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩
- Military expenditures. Reference edition; observation: dates as stated in text. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩
- Military and security service personnel strengths. Reference edition; observation: 2025. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩
- Military equipment inventories and acquisitions. Reference edition; observation: 2024. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩
- Military service age and obligation. Reference edition; observation: 2024. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩
- Military deployments. Reference edition; observation: 2025. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩
- Military - note. Reference edition; observation: 2025. Field last updated: not supplied; profile fallback: 2025-12-09 11:53:33 -0500 (not a field revision date); needs review. Reference source. Edition retrieval date: not supplied (retrieval only). ↩