Chilean Armed Forces

Chilean Armed Forces
Chilean Armed Forces
Fuerzas Armadas de Chile
	Flag of Ministry of National Defense of Chile
Founded	1810
Service branches	Chilean Army ; Chilean Navy ; Chilean Air Force
Headquarters	Santiago
Leadership
Commander-in-chief	Gabriel Boric
Minister of Defense	Maya Fernández Allende
Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	José Nogueira León
Personnel
Military age	18
Active personnel	80,000
Reserve personnel	40,000
Expenditure
Budget	US$5.58 billion (2022)
Percent of GDP	1.9% (2021)
Industry
Domestic suppliers	FAMAE ; ENAER ; ASMAR; DTS; SISDEF; DESA; LINKTRONIC; Detroit Chile
Foreign suppliers	Australia ; Brazil ; Canada ; Czech Republic ; France ; Germany ; Israel ; Italy ; Poland ; Sweden ; Taiwan ; United Kingdom ; United States
Related articles
Ranks	Military ranks and insignia of Chile

Last updated April 20, 2025

The Chilean Armed Forces (Spanish : Fuerzas Armadas de Chile) is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Minister of Defence. In recent years and after several major reequipment programs, the Chilean Armed Forces have become one of the most technologically advanced and professional armed forces in Latin America.^[4] The Chilean Army is mostly supplied with equipment from Germany, the United States, Brazil, Israel, France, and Spain.

Structure

Army

The current commander-in-chief of the Chilean Army is General de Ejército Sr. Javier Iturriaga del Campo. The 46,350-person army is organized under six military administrative regions and six divisional headquarters.^[1] The forces include one special forces brigade, four armoured brigades, one armoured detachment, three motorized brigades, two motorized detachments, four mountain detachments and one aviation brigade.^[1] The army operates German Leopard 1 and 2 tanks as its main battle tanks, including 170+ Leopard 2A4 and 115 Leopard 1.^[1] The army has approximately 40,000 reservists.^[1]

Navy

Admiral Juan Andrés De La Maza Larraín directs the 19,800-person Chilean Navy, including 3,600 Marines.^[5] Of the fleet of 66 surface vessels, eight are major combatant ships and they are based in Valparaíso. The navy operates its own aircraft for transport and patrol; there are no fighters or bomber aircraft but they have attack helicopters. The Navy also operates four submarines based in Talcahuano.

Air Force

General Hugo Rodríguez González heads 11,050-strong^[6] Chilean Air Force. Air assets are distributed among five air brigades headquartered in Iquique, Antofagasta, Santiago, Puerto Montt, and Punta Arenas. The Air Force also operates an airbase on King George Island, Antarctica.

Citations

1 2 3 4 5 6 IISS 2019, p. 404.
↑ Global Firepower. "2022 Chile Military Strength".
↑ "Military expenditure by country as percentage of gross domestic product, 1988-2020" (PDF). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute . Retrieved 25 October 2022.
↑ Bawden, John R (2016). 'The Pinochet Generation: The Chilean Military in the Twentieth Century'. University of Alabama. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-8173-1928-1.
↑ IISS 2019, pp. 405–406.
↑ IISS 2019, p. 406.

References

IISS (2019). The Military Balance 2019. Routledge. ISBN 978-1857439885.
Nevaer, Louis E.V. (26 January 2011). "Latin America Divided Over Ties with China". New American Media. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014.

External links

(in Spanish) Ejército de Chile (Army)
(in Spanish) Armada de Chile website (Navy)
(in Spanish) Fuerza Aérea de Chile website (Air Force)

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[FOOTNOTEIISS2019404-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 IISS 2019, p. 404.

[2] Global Firepower. "2022 Chile Military Strength".

[3] "Military expenditure by country as percentage of gross domestic product, 1988-2020" (PDF). Stockholm International Peace Research Institute . Retrieved 25 October 2022.

[BAWDEN-4] Bawden, John R (2016). 'The Pinochet Generation: The Chilean Military in the Twentieth Century'. University of Alabama. pp. 218–219. ISBN 978-0-8173-1928-1.

[FOOTNOTEIISS2019405–406-5] IISS 2019, pp. 405–406.

[FOOTNOTEIISS2019406-6] IISS 2019, p. 406.

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v t e Chilean Armed Forces
Ejército de Chile (Army) Armada de Chile (Navy) Fuerza Aérea de Chile (Air Force)
Leadership	Chief of the Joint Chiefs Army Commander Navy Commander Air force Commander
Ranks	Army ranks Navy ranks Air force ranks

v t e Militaries of the Americas
Sovereign states	Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Bahamas Barbados Belize Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Paraguay Peru Saint Kitts and Nevis Suriname Trinidad and Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela
Dependencies and other territories	Anguilla Aruba Bermuda British Virgin Islands Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) Cayman Islands Curaçao Falkland Islands French Guiana Greenland Guadeloupe Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico Saint Barthélemy Saint Martin, (Collectivity of) Saint Pierre and Miquelon Sint Maarten South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Turks and Caicos Islands United States Virgin Islands
Sovereign states of Costa Rica, Dominica, Grenada, Panama, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have no military and thus are not included in the list. The dependent territory of Federal Dependencies of Venezuela (Venezuela) is not listed. The integral area of Ascension Island (United Kingdom) is not listed. The uninhabited islands of Bouvet Island (Norway), Clipperton Island (France) and Navassa Island (United States) are not listed. The uninhabited disputed territories of Bajo Nuevo Bank and Serranilla Bank are not listed.