- State affiliation · United Arab Emirates
- Vigil category device · not official insignia
Identity provenance
State affiliation: United Arab Emirates.
Vigil category device — drawn from this record’s own domain, echelon and role. Not an official insignia.
In brief
The federation's army — the largest Emirati service, equipped with French armour and Russian infantry vehicles, and the force that gave the Emirates the expeditionary record in Yemen that no other Gulf Arab army has.
- Scope
- Structure, role, lineage and links. No subordinate records published.
- Subordination
- Subordination confirmed
- Sources
- 2 on the record
- Record state
- Partial
- Broad area of activity
- UAE territory; historically deployed to Yemen and the Horn of Africa
- Notable history
- The Land Forces are the bulk of the unified federal military created in 1976, organised in armoured, mechanised and infantry brigades with an artillery arm, and equipped from a deliberately mixed supplier base — French Leclerc tanks, Russian BMP-3 infantry vehicles, South African and domestic vehicles. Their distinctive fact is operational: Emirati ground forces fought in Yemen from 2015, took Aden and ran the southern campaign, and withdrew in 2019 with an expeditionary record no other Gulf Arab army has. In the current war the federation is a target and a host rather than a ground belligerent, and this service's role has been territorial; nothing this module has read describes a ground operation.
- Strengths
- Real operational experience by regional standards, modern equipment and the unified command that the Gulf's other divided structures lack.
- Limitations
- A small population base that limits the force's size, the Yemen record's documented costs, and a war in which the relevant Emirati service is the one that owns the air defences. No strength, holdings, basing or readiness are recorded.
Sensitivity: Public · structural Confidence: Moderate Sources: IISS Military Balance↗ · Gulf state official government sources Methodology Corrections
Assessed as of — 2026-09 Last reviewed — 2026-09-09
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