Military unit
The
Uzbek Ground Forces
are the land component of the
Armed Forces of the Republic of Uzbekistan
. Operating since the collapse of the
Soviet Union
in 1991, the army is made up of former
Soviet Army
units that were in the territory of Uzbekistan. As of 2006, it had around 40,000 active personnel. Much of the equipment it uses is also old Soviet material, and the
government of Uzbekistan
has not given much effort to replace it with modern equipment.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
The armed forces were created in 1992, and along with the army, the
air and air defense forces
,
national guard
, and
border service
were created.
Islam Karimov
, the
President of Uzbekistan
, had begun calling native Uzbeks in the
Soviet Armed Forces
back to Uzbekistan to fill the ranks of the newly created ground forces, though many refused to return and renounced their citizenship.
Russians
made up the majority of the officer corps, while the enlisted personnel were mainly Uzbek.
Uzbekistan then became the only Central Asian state that did not allow
Russian Federation
citizens to serve in the army, and began to replace the
Slavic
officers with ethnic Uzbeks. At independence, Slavic officers made up the command of the army, and thus an effort was made to give Uzbeks higher positions, giving Slavics lower ranks. The Slavs who stayed in Uzbekistan accepted
Uzbek passports
.
Three major Soviet military academies, the
Tashkent Higher All-Arms Command School
, the
Chirchiq Higher Tank Command and Engineering School
, and the
Samarkand Higher Military Automobile Command School
, were located in Uzbekistan. This caused the government to not send Uzbek officers to Russia for training. In 1994, they established the joint Armed Forces Academy, to train officers of all branches. Though the Uzbek language was becoming more in use by the army,
Russian
remained the main language used in training officers, due to the fact that most manuals were in Russian and that the Central Asian Turkic languages did not have proper military vocabulary.
In 1997, the United States CENTRASBAT program paid over $5 million to fund a training exercise between Uzbek and American troops that were going to be stationed in the country. Later in 1998, a US
general
attended an Uzbek base that had a unit which took part in the training. After asking for a show of hands of who took part in it, only two raised them. Most Uzbek soldiers leave the service when their mandatory conscription ends. The US forces have found this to be the case in
Kyrgyzstan
and
Kazakhstan
as well. The army was similarly run to the Soviet one, in terms of command, service, and equipment. Senior commanders gave strict orders that allowed little freedom of decision.
In 2003, the
defense ministry
announced that the conscription time was lowered from 18 months to 12, and those who attended officer schools only had to serve nine months. It was encouraging higher ranking personnel to serve longer. Many young Uzbeks bribed recruitment officials to not draft them into the army, as
dedovshchina
was widespread.
[1]
Organization
[
edit
]
Districts
[
edit
]
The Army includes five military districts, the Northwest at Nukus, the Southwest Special Military District at
Karshi
, the Central Military District at
Dzhizak
, and the Eastern Military District at Ferghana. In 2001, the Tashkent Garrison was transformed into the Tashkent Military District.
[2]
Specialties
[3]
[
edit
]
- Motor Rifle Units
- Tank Forces
- Special Operations Forces
- Reconnaissance
- Engineering
- Chemical units
- Signals
- Electronic warfare units
- Logistics
- Topogeodetic
List of Formations
[
edit
]
There are four motor rifle brigades,
[4]
and the 17th Air Assault Brigade at
Fergana
(the former 387th Airborne Training Regiment of the
Soviet Airborne Forces
). Motorized brigades are located around
Bukhara
,
Samarqand
,
Termez
,
Nukus
, and
Andijan
.
[5]
The subordinate
brigades
listed below have been attributed to the various military districts either because they are located in the same city as the military district headquarters or are clearly within the military districts' area of responsibility.
Army Headquarters (Tashkent)
[
edit
]
Regular Army
[
edit
]
Facilities
[
edit
]
- Kattakurgan Training Ground
[11]
[12]
[13]
- Gurumsaray Training Ground
[14]
- Farish Mountain Training Area
[15]
- Shorsu Training Ground
[15]
- Angren Training Ground
[15]
- Nuristan Training Ground
[15]
- Termez Training Ground
[15]
- Nukus Training Ground
[15]
Exercises
[
edit
]
Uzbek troops participated in
Partnership for Peace
Exercise Cooperative Osprey '96 at
Camp Lejeune
in
North Carolina
, hosted by the
United States Marine Corps
. They then participated as well in Exercise Cooperative Osprey '98.
In September 2004, the (then)
Royal Welsh Regiment
(now 3rd Bn
The Royal Welsh
) of the
British Army
participated with the Uzbek Army Peacekeeping Battalion in "Exercise Timurlane Express" in the Farish Mountain Training Area.
[
citation needed
]
This was a 3-week
NATO
sponsored
Partnership for Peace
training exercise.
Equipment
[
edit
]
Reportedly, Uzbek armed forces' small arms include the
AKM
,
AK-74
,
Dragunov sniper rifle
,
Makarov PM
pistol and
PK
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Uzbekistan- Army"
.
- ^
Bakhtiyar Kamilov,
Formation of Conceptual Approaches to the Problems of Ensuring National Security in Central Asian States - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan
- ^
"История Вооруженных Сил Республики Узбекистан"
.
Министерство Обороны Республики Узбекистане
. 2018-02-14. Archived from
the original
on 2021-05-16
. Retrieved
2021-05-16
.
- ^
http://www8.brinkster.com/vad777/sng/uzbekistan.htm
Archived
2007-10-18 at the
Wayback Machine
, accessed late September 2007 and June 2010
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2009-03-26
. Retrieved
2013-03-25
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
"Узбекистан ? Десантура.ру - Узбекистан"
.
desantura.ru
. Retrieved
2020-12-23
.
- ^
"Спецназ вооруженных сил Узбекистана"
.
sof-mag.ru
. Retrieved
2020-12-23
.
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2009-03-26
. Retrieved
2013-03-25
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
"Web Hosting, Free Web Site Builder & Domain Name, Web Hosting Made Easy by Brinkster"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-18
. Retrieved
2007-09-29
.
, accessed late September 2007 and June 2010
- ^
Press-service of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan: Islam Karimov: no one can turn us from our chosen path
Archived
2012-09-10 at
archive.today
- ^
akbaryusupov.
"Uzbekistan's largest military training ground commissioned in Kattakurgan"
.
tashkenttimes.uz
. Retrieved
2020-12-21
.
- ^
"Открыт крупнейший военный полигон Узбекистана (+фото)"
.
Газета.uz
(in Russian). 2019-11-07
. Retrieved
2020-12-21
.
- ^
"Открыт крупнейший военный полигон Узбекистана"
.
www.securex.uz
. Retrieved
2020-12-21
.
- ^
akbaryusupov.
"Joint Uzbek-Tajik military drills held at Gurumsaray training ground"
.
tashkenttimes.uz
. Retrieved
2020-12-21
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"≪Мы мирные люди, но…≫ В Узбекистане прошли масштабные учения национальных ВС"
.
Ритм Евразии
. Archived from
the original
on 2022-08-23
. Retrieved
2021-06-07
.
- ^
RPG.16
(Report). Forecast International. September 1996. p. 4.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
[↑ The International Institute For Strategic Studies IISS The Military Balance 2010. ? Nuffield Press, 2010. ? С. 373. ?
ISBN
978-1-85743-557-3
.]
- ^
[1]
Archived
2016-06-14 at the
Wayback Machine
the-military-balance-2016 ?
- ^
Пентагон завершит поставки Узбекистану бронетехники в ближайшее время
Archived
2015-07-19 at the
Wayback Machine
? 12news.uz, 15.06.2015
- ^
"Turkey has delivered 24 Ejder Yalcin armored vehicles to Army of Uzbekistan | August 2019 Global Defense Security army news industry | Defense Security global news industry army 2019 | Archive News year"
.
- ^
[2]
thediplomat.com