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:
“He could pause in his cross-examination, look at a man, projecting his face forward by degrees as he did so, in a manner which would crush any false witness who was not armed with triple courage at his breast,—and, alas! not unfrequently a witness who was not false.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“If in the opinion of the Tsars authors were to be the servants of the state, in the opinion of the radical critics writers were to be the servants of the masses. The two lines of thought were bound to meet and join forces when at last, in our times, a new kind of regime the synthesis of a Hegelian triad, combined the idea of the masses with the idea of the state.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)