Rwanda Defense Force (RDF): Rwanda Army (Rwanda Land Force), Rwanda Air Force (Force Aerienne Rwandaise, FAR), Rwanda Reserve Force (2021)
National Defense Forces (Forces de Defense Nationale, FDN): Army (includes maritime wing, air wing), National Police (Police Nationale du Burundi) (2020)
Military service age and obligation
18 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription; Rwandan citizenship is required; enlistment is either as contract (5-years, renewable twice) or career (2019)
18 years of age for voluntary military service; the armed forces law of 31 December 2004 did not specify a minimum age for enlistment, but the government claimed that no one younger than 18 was being recruited (2019)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP
1.2% of GDP (2019)
1.2% of GDP (2018)
1.2% of GDP (2017)
1.2% of GDP (2016)
1.2% of GDP (2015)
1.8% of GDP (2019)
1.9% of GDP (2018)
1.8% of GDP (2017)
2.2% of GDP (2016)
2.1% of GDP (2015)
Military and security service personnel strengths
the Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) has approximately 33,000 active personnel (32,000 Army; 1,000 Air Force) (2021)
the National Defense Forces (FDN) have approximately 25,000 active duty troops, the majority of which are ground forces (2020)
Military equipment inventories and acquisitions
the RDF's inventory includes mostly Soviet-era and older Western - mostly French and South African - equipment; Rwanda has received a limited supply of imports since 2010 from a variety of countries, including China, Israel, Russia, and Turkey (2020)
the FDN is armed mostly with weapons from Russia and the former Soviet Union, with some Western equipment, largely from France; since 2010, the FDN has received small amounts of mostly second-hand equipment from China, South Africa, and the US (2020)
Military deployments
1,370 Central African Republic (MINUSCA); 1,125 Sudan (UNAMID); 2,750 South Sudan (UNMISS) (2021)
note - in mid-2021, Rwanda sent about 1,000 combat troops to Mozambique to assist the Mozambique Government in combating an insurgency
750 Central African Republic (MINUSCA); 5,400 Somalia (AMISOM) (Feb 2021)
