Armed Forces Command (Commando de las Fuerzas Militares): Army (Ejercito), Navy (Armada, includes marines), Air Force (Fuerza Aerea) (2021)
Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic (Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina): Argentine Army (Ejercito Argentino), Navy of the Argentine Republic (Armada Republica; includes naval aviation and naval infantry), Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Argentina, FAA); Ministry of Security: Gendarmería Nacional Argentina (National Gendarmerie), Prefectura Naval (Coast Guard) (2021)
Military service age and obligation
18 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; conscript service obligation is 12 months for Army, 24 months for Navy; volunteers for the Air Force must be younger than 22 years of age with a secondary school diploma (2016)
18-24 years of age for voluntary military service; conscription suspended in 1995; Argentinians can still be drafted in times of crisis, national emergency, or war, or if the Defense Ministry is unable to fill all vacancies to keep the military functional (2019)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP
1% of GDP (2019)
0.9% of GDP (2018)
0.9% of GDP (2017)
1% of GDP (2016)
1.1% of GDP (2015)
0.7% of GDP (2019)
0.7% of GDP (2018)
0.9% of GDP (2017)
0.8% of GDP (2016)
0.9% of GDP (2015)
Military - note
as of late 2020, the armed forces were principally focused on the Paraguayan People's Army (Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, EPP), a Marxist-nationalist insurgent group operating in the rural northern part of the country
the Argentine military focuses primarily on border security and counter-narcotics operations; in 2018, the government approved a decree allowing greater latitude for the military in internal security missions, with a focus on logistics support in border areas
Military and security service personnel strengths
the Armed Forces of Paraguay have approximately 14,000 active personnel (9,000 Army; 3,000 Navy; 2,000 Air Force) (2021)
information varies; approximately 83,000 active duty personnel (50,000 Army; 18,000 Navy (includes about 3,000 marines); 15,000 Air Force); est. 20,000 Gendarmerie (2021)
Military equipment inventories and acquisitions
the Paraguayan military forces inventory is comprised of mostly older equipment from a variety of foreign suppliers, particularly Brazil and the US; since 2010, Paraguay has acquired small quantities of mostly second-hand military equipment from Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Taiwan, and the US (2020)
the inventory of Argentina's armed forces is a mix of domestically-produced and mostly older imported weapons, largely from Europe and the US; since 2010, France and the US are the leading suppliers of equipment; Argentina has an indigenous defense industry that can produce air, land, and sea systems (2020)
