Structure
Faced by Armenian forces apparently with some Russian support, the Azeri military was forced back out of Nagorno-Karabakh, and was significantly reorganised in the mid 1990s predominantly around brigades, though at least one division was reported as late as 2000. Manoeuvre formations have consistently stayed at a strength of around twenty brigades and regiments since 1995, though that has slowly risen recently. During the 1990s, these brigades may have included the 701st Motor Rifle Brigade (мсбр)(1st Army Corps), the 708th Motor Rifle Brigade (1st Army Corps), 130th Motor Rifle Brigade (1st Army Corps), 161 мсбр(2 АК), 709 мсбр Быв. 23 мсд, and the 112th Motor Rifle Brigade.
In 2002-4 the IISS Military Balance reported personnel strength falling while total manoeuvre formations increased by one. The Military Balance 2003-4 reported an army strength of 56,000, with four corps headquarters and twenty-three motor rifle brigades, compared to the previous year’s edition showing 62,000 personnel and twenty-two brigades. Artillery and anti-tank units include two brigades and a regiment. 1st Army Corps is headquartered at Yevlakh (Евлах) reportedly with six brigades in 1999. (Brinkster.net gave the corps 1, 3, 9, 10, 15, 17th Motor Rifle Brigades in 1999. The 2nd Army Corps at Pirəkəşkül had seven brigades attached in 1999 (Brinkster.net naming these brigades as the 2, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, and 18th Motor Rifle Brigades), while 3rd Army Corps, also with six brigades attached, was headquartered at Shamkir/Shamkira (Шамкира). Brinkster.net named these formations as the 7, 11, 12, 16, 19, 20 Motor Rifle Brigades (1999). 4th Army Corps was in the isolated Nakhichevan enclave. It is a former motor rifle division with three motor rifle regiments (1999).
The IISS estimated in 2007 that the Azeri regular army was 56,840 strong, probably basing this figure on Conventional Forces in Europe treaty data. It attributes to the army five corps headquarters, 23 motor rifle brigades, one artillery brigade, one multiple rocket launcher brigade, and one anti-tank regiment. Of the five army corps, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Army Corps are concentrated against NK; part of 2nd Army Corps is deployed on the Azerbaijan-Iranian border; the 4th (Bakinskiy) Army Corps covers the capital and the coast and the 5th Army Corps is deployed in Nakhichevan.
Azerbaijani formations reportedly include motor rifle brigade at Гянджа/Gyandzha, motor rifle brigade at Hacı Zeynalabdin, мсбр Кусары/Kusar, мсбр Nakhichivan, мсбр Казах/Kazakh, мсбр Товуз/Tovuz, мсбр Бейлаган/Beilagan, мсбр Göytəpə, Jalilabad (Гейтепе), мсбр Джульфа/Dzhulfa, мсбр Кедабек/Kedabek, tank brigade Gyuzdek/Гюздек.
Read more about this topic: Azerbaijani Land Forces
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