The Libyan Army was the branch of the Armed Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Libyan Arab Republic and the Libyan Kingdom responsible for ground warfare. The army was decimated in the Libyan civil war and ceased to function as the army of Libya.In 2009 the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the Ground Forces of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya numbered 25,000 with an additional, estimated, 25,000 conscripts (total estimated 50,000). The IISS estimated that the Ground Forces were organised into 11 Border Defence and 4 Security Zones, one regime security brigade (the 32nd Khamis Brigade), 10 Tank Battalions, 10 Mechanised Infantry Battalions, 18 Infantry Battalions, 6 Commando Battalions, 22 Artillery Battalions, 4 SSM Brigade and 7 Air Defence Artillery Battalions.Doctrine is a mixture of Egyptian doctrine which was adopted after the 1969 coup and socialist principles derived from the concepts of a People’s Army.When Libya gained its independence in 1951, veterans of the original Sanusi Army formed the nucleus of the Royal Libyan Army. Though the Libyan army has a large amount of fighting equipment at its disposal, the vast majority was bought from the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s and was largely obsolete at the time of the Libyan Civil War. A high percentage remains in storage and a large amount of equipment has also been sold to various African countries. The Libyan Army was generally regarded as neither efficient nor well trained.
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Military unit size
40,000
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