page_title: Austrian Armed Forces
section_title: Organization
hierarchical_section_title: Austrian Armed Forces / Organization
caption_attribution_description: English: Structure of the Austrian Armed Forces since April 2019
context_page_description: The Austrian Armed Forces are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria and the main military organisation responsible for national defence.
  It includes following branches: the Joint Forces, which consists of the Land Forces, Air Forces, International Missions and Special Forces, next to Mission Support and Joint Command Support Centre.
  The military consists of 21,200 active-duty personnel and 950,000 reservists, of which 157,900 are joint-structured and 130,200 unstructured. The military budget is 0.74% of national GDP or €2.85 billion, which includes military pensions.
  Austria, a landlocked country, has no navy; from 1958 to 2006 however the Austrian army operated a naval squadron of patrol boats on the River Danube. That duty has been assumed by the Bundespolizei.
context_section_description: Under the constitution, the President is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. In reality, the Chancellor has the decision-making authority, exercised through the Minister for National Defence. The Chancellor also chairs the National Defence Council, which has as its members a vice-chairman, the minister for national defence, an appointee of this minister, the Chief of the General Staff, and a parliamentary representative. The minister for national defence, acting in co-operation with the minister for interior, coordinates the work of the four major committees under the National Defence Council: the Military Defence Committee; the Civil Defence Committee; the Economic Defence Committee; and the Psychological Defence Committee. The Chief of the General Staff acts as the senior military adviser to the Minister for National Defence, assists the minister in the exercise of his authority, and, as the head of the general staff, is responsible for planning. However, the army commander exercises direct operational control of the Bundesheer in both peacetime and wartime.
  Article 79 of the constitution, as amended in 1985, states that the Army is entrusted with the military defence of the country. Insofar as the legally constituted civil authority requests its co-operation, the army is further charged with protecting constitutional institutions and their capacity to act, as well as the democratic freedoms of the inhabitants; maintaining order and security in the interior; and rendering aid in disasters and mishaps of extraordinary scope. In administering the armed forces, the Ministry for National Defence is organized into four principal sections and the inspectorate general: Section I deals with legal and legislative matters; Section II handles personnel and recruitment matters, including discipline and grievances; Section III is concerned with troop command, schools, and other facilities, and it also comprises departments G-1 through G-5 as well as a separate department for air operations; and Section IV deals with procurement and supply, quartermaster matters, armaments, and ordnance (see fig. 12).
  The general troop inspectorate is a separate section of the ministry with responsibility for co-ordination and fulfilment of the missions of the armed forces. It encompasses a general staff department, an attaché department, and planning and inspection groups.
  The armed forces consist solely of the army, of which the air force is considered a constituent part. In 1993, the total active complement of the armed forces was 52,000, of whom 20,000 to 30,000 were conscripts undergoing training of six to eight months. The army had 46,000 personnel on active duty (including an estimated 19,500 conscripts), and the air force had 6,000 personnel (2,400 conscripts).
caption: Structure of the Austrian Army after the Bundesheerreform 2019
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