Ireland Defense Forces - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Branches: Army, Naval Service, Army Air Corps

Military manpower: males 15-49, 852,000; 698,000 fit for military service; about 27,000 reach military age (17) annually

Major ground units: 4 infantry brigades and 2 independent battalions

Supply: UK and France are the principal suppliers of army materiel; UK provides I05-mm light guns and Scorpion light tanks, and France provides MILAN antitank missiles and Panhard reconnaissance vehicles; Sweden also provides weapon systems, including RBS-70 surface-to-air missiles, recoilless rifles, and armored personnel carriers

Military budget: for fiscal year ending 31 December 1985, $256,955 million; about 2.5% of the central government budget

NOTE: the Arab territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war are not included in the data below; as stated in the 1978 Camp David Accords and reaffirmed by the President’s 1 September 1982 peace initiative, the final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, their relationship with their neighbors, and a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan are to be negotiated among the concerned parties; Camp David further specifies that these negotiations will resolve the location of the respective boundaries; pending the completion of this process, it is US policy that the final status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has yet to be determined (see West Bank and Gaza Strip “Factsheet”); on 25 April 1982 Israel relinquished control of the Sinai to Egypt; statistics for the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are included in the Syria “Factsheet.”

NOTE: The information regarding Ireland on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Ireland 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Ireland 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.