Libyan Armed Forces

See also: armed forces of the Government of National Accord (GNA) and armed forces commanded by Khalifa Haftar (LNA)

Libyan Armed Forces
Arabic: القوات المسلحة الليبية
Founded	1951 (1951)
Current form	2021
Service branches	Libyan Ground Forces Libyan Navy Libyan Air Force
Headquarters	Tripoli
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief	Mohamed al-Menfi
Minister of Defence	Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh
Chief of the General Staff	Mohamed Ali al-Haddad
Personnel
Military age	18 (2012)
Active personnel	c. 32,000
Industry
Foreign suppliers	Current: Belarus China Cuba Czech Republic Hungary Iran North Korea Poland Russia Ukraine Vietnam Historical: Czechoslovakia East Germany France Italy Soviet Union United Kingdom United States
Related articles
Ranks	Military ranks of Libya

The Libyan Armed Forces (Arabic: القوات المسلحة الليبية) or the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (Arabic: القوات المسلحة العربية الليبية) are, in principle, the state organisation responsible for the military defence of Libya, including ground, air and naval forces.

The original army under the Libyan monarchy of King Idris I was trained by the United Kingdom and the United States. Since Muammar Gaddafi rose to power in 1969, Libya received military assistance from the Soviet Union. The Libyan military fought in several wars, including the Libyan–Egyptian War (1977) and the Chadian–Libyan conflict (1978–1987).

After the 2011 civil war and the fall of Gaddafi, the armed forces consisted mostly of local militias that were frequently created or ceased to be active and made temporary shifting alliances. During 2015–2018, after Khalifa Haftar was appointed in 2015 by the Libyan parliament in Tobruk as the supreme commander of the armed forces, he unified many militias into a regular hierarchical structure in the eastern part of Libya that became known as the core of the Libyan National Army (LNA).

As of November 2019, the regular core of the LNA (about 7000 soldiers) was complemented by Salafist militias and foreign mercenaries (about 18000 soldiers). As of 2019, the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) retained formal control of the militias nominally constituting the Libyan Army, while the Libyan Air Force was split into LNA and GNA controlled components. The naval and coast guard forces were mostly under GNA control. with some coastal patrol boats under LNA control. In 2021, all the armed forces branches (except for the Haftar's forces) were under command of the new President of Libya, Mohamed al-Menfi from Government of National Unity after the Second Libyan Civil War ceasefire.

Kingdom of Libya (1951–1969)

The roots of the Libyan armed forces can be traced to the Libyan Arab Force (popularly known as the Sanusi Army) of World War II. Shortly after Italy entered the war, a number of Libyan leaders living in exile in Egypt called on their compatriots to organise themselves into military units and join the British in the war against the Axis powers. Five battalions, which were initially designed for guerrilla warfare in the Jabal al Akhdar region of Cyrenaica, were established under British command. Because the high mobility of the desert campaigns required a considerable degree of technical and mechanical expertise, the Libyan forces were used primarily as auxiliaries, guarding military installations and prisoners. One battalion, however, participated in the fighting at Tobruk.

After Britain succeeded in occupying the Libyan territories, the need for the British-trained and equipped Sanusi troops appeared to be over. The Sanusi Army was reluctant to disband, however, and the majority of its members arranged to be transferred to the local police force in Cyrenaica under the British military administration.

The United Kingdom of Libya officially gained its independence from Italy on 24 December 1951. The kingdom was later renamed as the Kingdom of Libya in 1963.

Under the Libyan monarchy, there existed a federal army and local provincial police forces. The U.S. State Department reported in 1957 that the army numbered 1,835 men, while the police forces had around 5,000–6,000. King Idris of Libya and his government relied on the police for internal security and were anxious to increase the size of the national army to 5,000 troops.

When Libya gained its independence in 1951, veterans of the original Sanusi Army formed the nucleus of the Royal Libyan Army. British Army troops, part of Middle East Command and comprising 25th Armoured Brigade and briefly 10th Armoured Division, were still present after independence and stayed in Libya until at least 1957. Despite the Sanussi lineage of the new army, King Idris I quickly came to distrust them. The Free Officers' coup of 1952 in Egypt led many Libyan officers to be disenchanted with Idris and become great followers of Gamal Abdel Nasser. This situation reached the stage that the British Army officers retained by Idris to train and advise the new armed forces deemed the force entirely untrustworthy. They increasingly saw their role as to watch the army rather than to raise its effectiveness.

The United States also contributed to training a 1,035-man contingent and in June 1957 considered taking responsibility for training the entire army.

From November 1959, 3 L.A.A. Regiment and 11 H.A.A. Regiment (Royal Malta Artillery) formed the backbone of a mobile anti-aircraft force in Libya. (Source: P.R.S. Malta & Libya B.F.P.O. 51: 240/5)

Meanwhile, Idris formed a navy in 1962 and an air force in 1963. In May 1957 the U.S. had agreed to supply Libya with 10 Northrop F-5s. He attempted to counter his growing doubts about the loyalty of the army by stripping it of potential. He placed loyal but often unqualified Cyrenaicans in all senior command positions, limited the armed forces to 6,500 men, kept the army lightly armed, and built up two rival paramilitary units, the National Security Force and the Cyrenaican Defence Force which was recruited from Cyrenaican Bedouin loyal to the Sanussi. Together the two forces had a total of 14,000 men armed with helicopters, armoured cars, anti-tank weapons, and artillery.

These measures did not prevent, however, a group of army officers led by then Captain Muammar Gaddafi (a signals officer) seizing power on 1 September 1969. Pollack says that the defeat of the Arabs during the Six-Day War of July 1967 was an important factor in the coup, as the officers believed that Libya should have dispatched forces to aid Egypt and the other Arab states. Idris had also tried to reform the military, but only half-heartedly, further frustrating young Libyan officers. Immediately after the coup, Gaddafi began to dismiss, arrest, or execute every officer above the rank of colonel in the armed forces, as well as some other lower-ranking officers closely linked to the monarchy. Then he began to reorganise the armed forces in line with his foreign policy plans. Expansion of the army and amalgamation of the CDF and NSF into the army was the first priority, and by 1970 the force numbered nearly 20,000. Attention was also focused on the Air Force, with the pre-coup strength of 400 personnel and ten Northrop F-5 'Freedom Fighter' jet fighters planned to be supplemented with large-scale purchases of Mirage III fighters from France.

Libyan Arab Republic and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1969–2011)

Main article: Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

A group of young officers and soldiers led by Muammar Gaddafi overthrew King Idris in a coup d'etat on 1 September 1969. The King's nephew and heir presumptive, Crown Prince Hasan, was captured by the rebels and spent several years under house arrest.

The new Libyan Army under Gaddafi's Libyan Arab Republic fought a short border war with Egypt in July 1977, sent several thousand troops to support Idi Amin during the Uganda–Tanzania War in 1972 and again in 1978, and spent a decade trying to annex parts of northern Chad in 1978–1987.

The Libyan army was estimated to have 50,000 total troops as of 2009.

Army equipment

The Libyan ground forces had a large amount of mostly Soviet equipment in service. These numbers do not take into account equipment destroyed or captured during the 2011 Libyan civil war.

The IISS estimated tank numbers in 2009 as 2,025:

• T-55 – 1000+ T-54/T-55
• T-62 – 600; 462 in store;
• T-72 – 150; 115 in store.

Russian official sources reported in 2010 that T-72s would be modernised with help from Russia. 750 BTR-50 and BTR-60s were also reported by the IISS.

The IISS estimated there were 500 BRDM-2 and 700 EE-9 Cascavel reconnaissance vehicles, 1,000 BMP-1s, plus BMDs. Other reported wheeled vehicles in service include 1000 EE-11 Urutu and Czechoslovak OT-64 SKOT.

The IISS estimated artillery in service in 2009 as totaling 2,421 pieces.

444 SP artillery pieces were reported:

• 122 mm – 130 2S1 Carnation;
• 152 mm – 140: 60 2S3 Akatsiya; 80 M-77 Dana;
• 155 mm – 174: 14 M-109; 160 VCA 155 Palmaria.

647+ towed artillery pieces were reported:

• 105 mm – 42+ M-101
• 122 mm – 250: 190 D-30; 60 D-74;
• 130 mm – 330 M-46;
• 152 mm – 25 ML-20.
• 155 mm – ? M114 155 mm howitzer

830 multiple rocket launchers were reported:

• 107 mm Type 63 multiple rocket launcher – an estimated 300;
• 122 mm – 530: ε200 BM-11; ε230 BM-21 Grad; ε100 RM-70 Dana (RM-70 multiple rocket launcher?).

The IISS also estimated that Libya had 500 mortars:

• 82 mm – 428;
• 120 mm – ε48 120-PM-43 mortar;
• 160 mm – ε24 160mm Mortar M1943.

Surface-to-surface missiles reported in service included FROG-7 and SCUD-B (416 missiles).

Anti-tank missiles reported in service included 400 French/German MILAN, and 620+ AT-3, AT-4, and AT-5, all of Soviet manufacture.

In 2009 the IISS estimated that Libya had Crotale, SA-7 Grail, and SA-9/SA-13 surface-to-air missiles, as well as AA guns in Army service. A separate Air Defence Command had SA-2 Guideline, SA-3 Goa, SA-5 Gammon, and SA-8b Gecko missiles, plus guns.

Reported anti-aircraft artillery included Soviet 57 mm S-60, 23 mm self-propelled ZSU-23-4 and ZU-23-2, Czech M53/59 Praga, and Swedish Bofors 40 mm guns.

Small arms reported in service included TT pistol, Browning Hi-Power, Beretta M12, FN P90, FN FAL, SKS, AK-47, AKM and AK-103 assault rifles, the FN F2000, Soviet RPD machine gun, RPK machine gun, PK machine guns, DShK heavy machine gun, KPV heavy machine guns, SG-43 Goryunov, and a number of RPG-type and anti-aircraft missile systems: RPG-2, RPG-7, 9K32 Strela-2.

Transition period (2011–2014)

During the 2011–2014 transition period, the Libyan armed forces consisted mostly of a shifting ensemble of militias being created and dissolved and creating and dropping alliances.

Units

17th Thunderbolt Special Forces Brigade

1. based in Tripoli (2013).

27th Brigade

Leader: Mohammed Buzeiud; trained at Bassingbourn Barracks, UK (2014)

1. based in Tripoli (2013).

Second civil war (2014–2020)

Main articles: Libyan National Army and Libyan Army

As of 2019, since the start of the Second Libyan Civil War in 2014, the Libyan armed forces, composed to a large degree of militias, have been partially led by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, while remaining highly divided between those nominally led by the GNA and those nominally led by Khalifa Haftar in command of the Libyan National Army (LNA) on behalf of the part of the national parliament in Tobruk. The forces included ground forces divided between the GNA-led Libyan Army (including militia coalitions such as the Tripoli Protection Force) and the LNA; the Libyan Air Force also divided between a GNA component and an LNA component; while the naval, and coast guard forces were mostly under GNA control with some coastal patrol boats under LNA control.

Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of the GNA, is nominally the supreme commander of the GNA forces. The military is under the authority of the GNA Ministry of Defense, formerly led by Colonel Al-Mahdi Al-Barghathi from 2016 to 2018, at which point Sarraj took over as defense minister.

During 2015–2018, the LNA under Haftar's control unified many militias into a regular hierarchical structure in the eastern part of Libya and used online social networks to present the image of growing military and political power, while still remaining, as of November 2019, dominated by Salafist militias and foreign members. As of 2019, the LNA consisted of about 7000 regular soldiers and 18000 militia and foreign members.

References

• https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1976TRIPOL01169_b.html - parade 1976