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.
History 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 then President of Uzbekistan, began 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. 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.
Organization
Districts 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.Bakhtiyar Kamilov, Formation of Conceptual Approaches to the Problems of Ensuring National Security in Central Asian States - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan
Formation Headquarters LocationNotesNorthwest Military District HQ Nukus Karakalpakstan, Xorazm ProvinceSouthwest Special Military District HQ Karshi Qashqadaryo Province, Surxondaryo Province, Bukhara Province, Navoiy ProvinceCentral Military District HQ Dzhizak Dzhizak Province, Samarqand Province, Sirdaryo ProvinceEastern Military District HQ FerghanaFergana Province, Andijan Province, Namangan ProvinceTashkent Military District HQ Tashkent Tashkent Province, Established 2001
Specialties Source: Airborne Forces Army Aviation Units Army engineering maintenance Army judge advocate Army research and development Army veterinary corps CBRN Defense Units Civil Affairs Units Combat engineer Cyberwarfare Units Electronic warfare Units Explosive Ordnance Disposal Units Field artillery and air defense artillery Finance and comptroller Human resources Military band Military intelligence Military logistics Military medicine Military operation plan Military polices Military working dogs Motor Rifle Troops Units Public Affairs Units Quartermaster Reconnaissance and Surveillance Units Signal Corps Spetsnaz (special forces) Strategic plans and policy functional Tank Forces Topogeodetic survey
List of Formations There are four motor rifle brigades,http://www8.brinkster.com/vad777/sng/uzbekistan.htm , accessed late September 2007 and June 2010 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. 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)
Honor Guard Battalion of the Tashkent Military District Combat Engineering Brigade Special Forces Battalion of the Eastern Military District "Lynx"
Regular Army
Training Regiment (Chirchik) 387th Airborne Training Regiment 17th Air Assault Brigade at Fergana, accessed late September 2007 and June 2010 - Consists of up to 5000 soldiers, was formerly the Soviet 105th Guards Vienna Airborne Division. 1st Motor Rifle Brigade (Chirchik) 2nd Motor Rifle Brigade (Samarqand) 3rd Motor Rifle Brigade (Termez) 25th Motor Rifle Brigade (Karshi, Military Unit No.08579) 37th Motor Rifle Brigade (Andijan)Press-service of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan: Islam Karimov: no one can turn us from our chosen path 13th Artillery Brigade (Kattarkurgan, Central MD)https://www.stanradar.com/news/full/20479-mnogovektornyj-tupik-manevry-uzbekistana-uvodjat-ego-vse-dalshe-ot-rossii.html 15th Independent Special Forces Brigade Tank Regiment (Ahangaran)
Facilities Kattakurgan Training Ground Gurumsaray Training Ground Farish Mountain Training Area Shorsu Training Ground Angren Training Ground Nuristan Training Ground Termez Training Ground Nukus Training Ground
Exercises
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. This was a 3-week NATO sponsored Partnership for Peace training exercise.
Equipment
Reportedly, Uzbek armed forces' small arms include the AKM, AK-74, Dragunov sniper rifle, Makarov PM pistol and PK.
Current equipment Name Photo Origin Type QuantitySmall arms Makarov PM Soviet Union Semi-automatic pistol N/A Fort-12 Ukraine Semi-automatic pistol N/A AKM Soviet Union Assault rifle N/A AK-74 Soviet Union Assault rifle N/A AKS-74U Soviet Union Assault rifle N/A RPK Soviet Union Squad automatic weapon N/A RPK-74 Soviet Union Squad automatic weapon N/A PKM Soviet Union General-purpose machine gun N/A SVD Soviet Union Designated marksman rifleN/AGrenade launchers RPG-7 Soviet Union Rocket-propelled grenade launcher RPG-16 Soviet Union Rocket-propelled grenade launcher SPG-9 Soviet Union Recoilless gunTanks T-72
Soviet Union Main battle tank 70[↑ The International Institute For Strategic Studies IISS The Military Balance 2010. — Nuffield Press, 2010. — С. 373. — .] T-64B
Soviet Union Main battle tank 100 T-62M/MV
Soviet Union Main battle tank 170Infantry fighting vehicles BMP-1
Soviet Union Infantry fighting vehicle 180 BMP-2
Soviet Union Infantry fighting vehicle 270 BMD-1
Soviet Union Infantry fighting vehicle 120 BMD-2
Soviet Union Infantry fighting vehicle 9 BRM-1K
Soviet Union Reconnaissance vehicle 6Infantry mobility vehicles Oshkosh M-ATV
United States MRAP, Infantry mobility vehicle 308 the-military-balance-2016 —Пентагон завершит поставки Узбекистану бронетехники в ближайшее время — 12news.uz, 15.06.2015 International MaxxPro United States MRAP, Infantry mobility vehicle 50 Typhoon-K Russia Armored combat vehicle 45+ Nurol Ejder (4x4 version) Turkey Infantry mobility vehicle 24 received (+1000 in order)Personnel carriers BTR-60
Soviet Union Armoured personnel carrier 24 BTR-70
Soviet Union Armoured personnel carrier 25 BTR-80
Soviet Union Armoured personnel carrier 210 BTR-82A
Russia Armoured personnel carrier 100 BTR-D
Soviet Union Armoured personnel carrier 50Armored car BRDM-2
Soviet Union Armored car 13Rocket artillery BM-21 Grad
Soviet Union 122mm multiple rocket launcher 50 BM-27 Uragan
Soviet Union 220mm multiple rocket launcher 48Anti-aircraft HQ-9 China Long-range surface-to-air missile 1 battery thediplomat.comSelf-propelled artillery 2S1 Gvozdika
Soviet Union 122mm self-propelled howitzer 18 2S3 Akatsiya
Soviet Union 152mm self-propelled howitzer 17 2S9 Nona
Soviet Union Self-propelled 120 mm mortar 54 2S5 Giatsint-S
Soviet Union 152mm self-propelled howitzer 17 2S7 Pion
Soviet Union 203mm self-propelled howitzer 48Logistics and utility vehicles UAZ-469
Soviet Union Light utility vehicle ZIL-131
Soviet Union General purpose truck
References
https://www.ng.ru/cis/2018-11-26/6_7448_training.html - training report from 2018