The Albanian Armed Forces (AAF) (Albanian: Forcat e Armatosura të Republikës së Shqipërisë (FARSH)) were formed after the declaration of independence in 1912. Today it consists of: the General Staff, the Albanian Land Forces, the Albanian Air Force and the Albanian Naval Forces.
The Albanian Land Forces or Albanian Army consist of: the Rapid Reaction Brigade plus a Commando Regiment, and the Area Support Brigade. Part of the structure of the Albanian Commando Regiment is the Special Operations Battalion or commonly known as BOS. BOS is a special forces unit and the most elite unit in Albanian Armed Forces.
The Albanian Army is mostly supported by the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Switzerland, Denmark and Belgium.
After several major re-equipment programs, in 2001 the Albanian Armed Forces launched a 10-year reform program to become technologically advanced and fully professional by 2011. The new armed forces consists of about 14,500 troops including 2,000 civilians, trained to NATO standards.
Read more about Albanian Armed Forces: Missions and Duties, Albanian Participation in Peacekeeping Operations/missions, History, Modernization, Peacekeeping, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words armed and/or forces:
“it pleaseth me when I see through the meadows
The tents and pavilions set up, and great joy have I
When I see o’er the campana knights armed and horses arrayed.
And it pleaseth me when the scouts set in flight the folk with
their goods;
And it pleaseth me when I see coming together after them an host of
armed men.”
—Bertrans De Born (fl. 12th century)
“There exists, at the bottom of all abasement and misfortune, a last extreme which rebels and joins battle with the forces of law and respectability in a desperate struggle, waged partly by cunning and partly by violence, at once sick and ferocious, in which it attacks the prevailing social order with the pin-pricks of vice and the hammer-blows of crime.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)