Luxembourg Army

The Luxembourg Army is the national military of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has no navy, as the country is landlocked, or air force, although it does have aircraft. The Luxembourg Army was integrated into the Force Publique (Public Force) which included the Gendarmerie and the Police. The Gendarmerie was merged into the Grand Ducal Police in 2000. The army has been an all-volunteer force since 1967. It has a current strength of approximately 450 professional soldiers, 340 enlisted recruits and 100 civilians, and a total budget of $369 million, or 0.9% of GDP.

The army is under civilian control. The Commander-in-Chief is the Grand Duke. The professional head of the army is the Chief of Defence, currently Gaston Reinig. He answers to the civil Minister for Defence in the civilian government, currently Jean-Marie Halsdorf, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration. The Grand Duke and the Chief of Defence are the only generals, with colonels as Deputy Chief of Defence and head of the Military Training Centre.

Luxembourg has participated in the Eurocorps since 1994, has contributed troops to the UNPROFOR and IFOR missions in former Yugoslavia, and participates with a small contingent in the current NATO SFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Luxembourg army is integrated into the Multinational Beluga Force under Belgian command. Luxembourg troops have also deployed to Afghanistan to support ISAF. Luxembourg has financially supported international peacekeeping missions during the 1991 Gulf War, in Rwanda and, more recently, Albania. The army also has participated in humanitarian relief missions such as setting up refugee camps for Kurds and providing emergency supplies to Albania.