Belgian Army - Land Component

Land Component

The Belgian Land Component is the Ground Arm of the Belgian Defence. It currently has 12,000 soldiers and 1000 civilian staff. The Land Component Commander (LCC) is Major-General Hubert DE VOS.

The Land Component consists of one staf (COMOPSLAND), two brigades and several support units.

The Light Brigade is used for rapid interventions by air or sea, on foot or with light vehicles. The men in the brigade are all qualified Paratrooper and Commando personnel, except for the light infantry battalion.

- Light Brigade Command

- Light infantry battalion (12e/13e Line)

- 2 ParaCommando battalions (2 Commando/3 Para)

- Special forces (Special Forces Group)

- 2 Training Centres (TrgC Para/TrgC Commando)

The Medium Brigade is used for actions where heavy firepower and vehicles are needed.

- Medium Brigade Command

- 4 heavy infantry battalions

The support units are:

- 2 engineer battalions (4 Gn/11 Gn)

- 1 artillery battalions (Bn Aie)

- 1 ISTAR battalion (Bn ISTAR)

- 3 logistic battalions (4 Log/18 Log/29 Log)

- 3 communication & information battalions (4 CIS/6 CIS/10 CIS)

There are three units with ParaCommando capicity: 11 Gn (one company frogmen and deminers), 6 CIS (one platoon radio-operators) and Bn Aie (one company field artillery).

The standard rifle is the FNC and the secondary weapon the FN GP. Almost all weapons currently in use by the Belgian Defence are made in Belgium.

Its equipment consists of:

Vehicles:

• Mowag Piranha (Armed Infantry Vehicle)
• Pandur I (Recce Vehicle)
• M113 Armored Personnel Carrier (being phased out)
• Dingo 2 (Multi Purpose Protected Vehicle)
• Iveco LMV (Light Multirole Vehicle)
• JCB Groundhog (used by ParaCommando units for medevac)
• BMW R 1150 RT (Military Police motorcycle)
• Unimog U1350L (allround utility vehicle)
• Iveco 8T (troop transport truck)
• Volkswagen Iltis (being phased out)

The Belgian Landcomponent also uses vans and other specialised vehicles for engineers, logistics, command, ...