| Military branches | Ministry of Defense: Iraqi Army, Army Aviation Command, Iraqi Navy, Iraqi Air Force, Iraqi Air Defense Command, Special Forces Command National-Level Security Forces: Iraqi Counterterrorism Service (CTS; a Special Forces Division aka the "Golden Division"), Prime Minister's Special Forces Division, Presidential Brigades Ministry of Interior: Federal Police Forces Command, Border Guard Forces Command, Federal Intelligence and Investigations Agency, Emergency Response Division, Facilities Protection Directorate, and Energy Police Directorate Popular Mobilization Commission and Affiliated Forces (PMF); Ministry of Pershmerga (Kurdistan Regional Government) (2020) note: the PMF is a collection of approximately 50 paramilitary militias of different sizes and with varying political interests |
| Military service age and obligation | 18-40 years of age for voluntary military service; no conscription (2019) |
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 4% of GDP (2020 est.) 3.9% of GDP (2019) 2.9% of GDP (2018) 3.9% of GDP (2017) 3.5% of GDP (2016) |
| Military and security service personnel strengths | information varies; approximately 200,000 personnel under the Ministry of Defense (190,000 Army/Aviation Command/Special Forces; 5,000 Navy; 5,000 Air/Air Defense Forces); approximately 25,000 National-Level Security Forces (10,000 Iraqi Counterterrorism Service; 10,000 Presidential Brigades; 5,000 Prime Minister’s Special Forces Division); est. 100-160,000 Popular Mobilization Forces; est. 150,000-200,000 Peshmerga Forces (2020-21) |
| Military equipment inventories and acquisitions | the Iraqi military inventory is comprised of Russian and Soviet-era equipment combined with newer European- and US-sourced platforms; since 2010, Russia and the US are the leading suppliers of military hardware to Iraq (2020) |
| Military - note | as of early 2021, Iraqi military and security forces continued to conduct counterinsurgency and counter-terrorism operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS) terrorist group, particularly in northern and western Iraq Shia militia and paramilitary units from the Popular Mobilization Committee and Affiliated Forces (PMF) have fought alongside the Iraqi military against ISIS since 2014, but the majority of these forces continue to largely ignore the 2016 Law of the Popular Mobilization Authority, which mandated that armed militias must be regulated in a fashion similar to Iraq’s other security forces and act under the Iraqi government’s direct control; the Iraqi prime minister legally commands the PMF, but most of the militia brigades take orders from associated political parties and/or other government officials, including some with ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps the Kurdish Peshmerga are formally recognized as a legitimate Iraqi military force under the country’s constitution and have operated jointly with the Iraqi military against ISIS militants, but they also operate outside of Iraqi military command structure; the Peshmerga report to the Kurdistan Regional Government or Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan parties instead of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on September 18, 2021
