MILITARY OF MONGOLIA
The Mongols, who once ruled much of the world, had no real army to speak of in the 1980s, when the Soviet Union had a large military presence in Mongolia. The Soviet military pulled out in 1992. About 60,000 Soviet troops were stationed in Mongolia in 1990. When they left they left behind 36 MiG jets and a large number of tanks. Many of the old Soviet military posts have been abandoned and are now ghost towns. A law passed in 2002, defined the Mongolian military’s primary missions as border patrol, disaster relief and participation in international peacekeeping missions.
Population in military: 0.34 percent (compared to 4.6 percent in North Korea and .50 percent in the United States). Number of people in the military: 10,000 (compared 73,000 in Argentina and 2,285,000 in China. This is about a forth of the size of its force in the Soviet era. [Source: World Almanac]
Military branches: Mongolian Armed Forces (Mongol ulsyn zevsegt huchin): Mongolian Army, Mongolian Air and Air Defense (2015). As Mongolia is landlocked, it doesn’t have or need a navy. [Source: CIA World Factbook =]
Manpower available for military service: males age 16-49: 898,546; females age 16-49: 891,192 (2010 est.). Manpower fit for military service: males age 16-49: 726,199; females age 16-49: 756,628 (2010 est.). Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually: male: 30,829; female: 29,648 (2010 est.). =
Military expenditures: 1.12 percent of GDP (2012), 0.99 percent of GDP (2011), 1.12 percent of GDP (2010), country comparison to the world: 90. =
Mongolia has declared itself a nuclear-free zone. It has an unknown number of mines, many of which were planted when tensions were high between China and the Soviet Union in the 1960s, when Mongolia served as a buffer between the two giants.
Military Service and Training in Mongolia
Military service age and obligation:18-25 years of age for compulsory and voluntary military service; 1-year conscript service obligation in land or air defense forces or police; a small portion of Mongolian land forces is comprised of contract soldiers; women cannot be deployed overseas for military operations (2015). [Source: CIA World Factbook]
The law regulating civil and military service specifies that all male citizens between 18 and 25 years of age are subject to one year of compulsory military service, and there is no exception on religious grounds or for conscientious objectors. There is a provision for alternative service, however, including service with the Border Forces, the National Emergency Management Agency, or a humanitarian organization, or paying the cost of one year’s training and upkeep for a soldier. [Source: International Religious Freedom Report for 2014, Mongolia, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, International Religious Freedom - U.S. Department of State]
United States special forces have provided training to government forces in things like tracking down political opponents, mounting surprise helicopter attacks, employing "close quarters" urban combat techniques and improving their killing efficiency.
Weapons and Military Hardware in Mongolia
The Ground Forces possess over 410 tanks, 650 Infantry Fighting Vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 500 mobile anti-aircraft weapons, more than 700 artillery and mortar and other military equipment. Most of them are old Soviet Union models designed between the late 1950s to early 1980s. There are a smaller number of newer models designed in post-Soviet Russia. [Source: Wikipedia +]
After the end of the Cold War and the advent of the Democratic Revolution, the air force was effectively grounded due to a lack of fuel and spare parts. However, the government has been trying to revive the air force since 2001. The current Armed Forces maintains an Air Forces Defense Command, under the command of the General Staff. The country has the goal of developing a full air force in the future. +
In 2011, the Ministry of Defense announced that they would buy MiG-29s from Russia by the end of the year.[18] In October 2012 the Ministry of Defense "Returned" Airbus A310-300 to MIAT Mongolian Airlines. In 2007 – 2011 all of MiG-21s are "Reduced". In 2013 Mongolian Air Force is looking at buying three C-130J transport airplanes, manufactured by Lockheed Martin. +
Mongolian Military in the 1980s
Armed Forces: Mongolian People's Army — 21,000 (17,000 conscripts); Mongolian People's Air Force — 3,500, in 1988. Military Units: Four motorized rifle divisions; one air fighter regiment; two transport squadrons; one helicopter squadron. Military Budget: US$249.44 million (1987).[Source: Library of Congress, June 1989 *]
Equipment: T-54, T-55, T-62 main battle tanks; 100mm antitank guns; 120mm, and 160mm mortars; 122mm, 130mm, and 152mm, towed artillery; 14.5mm, 37mm, and 57mm air defense guns; 122mm, 132mm, and 140mm multiple rocket launchers; SA-7 surface-to-air missiles; MiG-21 fighters; An-2, An-24, An-26, and An-32 transports; Mi-4 and Mi-8 helicopters.*
Auxiliary Forces: Paramilitary force (responsible for border patrol, guard duty, and immigration) of 15,000 under jurisdiction of Ministry of Public Security; also militia (internal security troops) and 200,000 army reservists. *
History of the Mongolian Military
The rich Mongol military tradition reached its highest point during the thirteenth century, when a vast empire stretching across Asia and into Europe was established and sustained by well-organized, disciplined Mongol cavalry. Although Mongol political power soon waned, and the empire disintegrated, the reputation of the prowess of the Mongol cavalry remained well into the nineteenth century. [Source: Library of Congress, June 1989 *]
Modern Mongolian military practices trace their origin to the 1921 Mongolian Revolution, in which Mongolian rebel forces, under the leadership of Damdiny Sukhe Bator and Horloyn Choybalsan, joined with a major detachment of the Russian Fifth Red Army to defeat Chinese and Russian White Guard forces. This alliance marked the beginning of a long and close relationship between the Mongolian and Soviet armed forces.*
In the 1930s, Mongolian forces once again joined with Soviet forces to suppress internal rebellion and to guard their borders against Japanese incursions. In July and August 1939, Mongolian armed forces with their Soviet allies accomplished their proudest feat: defeating Japanese forces and ending Japanese provocations along the border. Mongolia takes pride in its economic support of Soviet military forces during World War II and its part in the August 1945 defeat of Japanese forces in Manchuria.*
Links Between the Mongolian and Soviet Militaries
Mongolia's national security is intimately linked with that of the Soviet Union. The armed forces have a rich historical tradition in the legacy of the great khans — an era of Mongolian history still resented by the Soviets — and their more immediate revolutionary forbearers of the 1910s and 1920s. The Mongolian People's Army was established in 1921, when the new provisional national government was proclaimed. As in all aspects of modern Mongolian organization, Soviet influence has predominated.
Soviet Red Army troops remained in Mongolia at least until 1925 and were brought back in the 1930s to help quell anticommunist rebellions. They have had a major military presence since then, first poised against the Japanese and later against the Chinese threat. Up through the 1940s, Mongolian troops had had fighting experiences against White Russians, Chinese warlord armies, Mongolian rebels, the Japanese, and Chinese Guomindang (Nationalist) forces. [Source: Library of Congress, June 1989 *]
Soviet military support greatly increased during the 1960s and the 1970s, following the Sino-Soviet split and increased Mongolian concern over the Chinese threat. Although Soviet military support decreased significantly in the 1980s, when SinoSoviet and Sino-Mongolian relations improved, exclusive defense ties with the Soviet Union continued, as did Soviet military training and the acquisition of Soviet military equipment.*
Withdrawal of the Soviet Military from Mongolia in the 1980s and 90s
In the early 1980s, despite improved Sino-Soviet relations, Mongolia maintained its traditional distrust of Beijing and was unwilling to reduce its own armed forces or the level of Soviet forces stationed in Mongolia. By 1985 Soviet troops in Mongolia still numbered 75,000; they included two tank and three motorized infantry divisions. China insisted that Soviet forces in Mongolia be withdrawn as a condition for improved Sino-Soviet relations. [Source: Library of Congress, June 1989 *]
Soviet communist party general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev responded to that demand in a July 1986 Vladivostok speech in which he offered to withdraw Soviet troops from Mongolia. Two weeks later, the Mongolian government gave its support for "the withdrawal of a considerable part of the Soviet troops from Mongolia...to promote the establishment of the overall Asian and Pacific security and serve the cause of strengthening trust and good neighborliness in Asia." Between April and June 1987, the Soviet Union announced the withdrawal of one full-strength motorized rifle division and several separate units, which reduced Soviet forces in Mongolia to approximately 55,000. *
Mongolia's relations with China also improved during this period; the exchange of government, trade, and friendship delegations culminated in the November 1988 signing of a Mongolian-Chinese border treaty. In December 1988, Mongolia's first deputy minister of foreign affairs, Daramyn Yondon, commenting on a Soviet offer to withdraw the majority of its troops stationed in Mongolia within two years, stated that "if relations with China continue to improve, all Soviet troops will be withdrawn." In February 1989, official Mongolian news sources quoted Mongolian military leaders as calling for a reduction in the size of the Mongolian armed forces. Mongolia's concern over the Chinese threat, although by no means eliminated, was at its lowest level in nearly thirty years. *
The Soviet Union withdrew three-quarters of its 65,000 troops stationed in Mongolia. The partial pullout began in May 1990 and was completed by the end of the year. The last Russian troops left Mongolia in 1992 in accordance with an announcement made in 1990s. In March 1990, Reuters reported: “The Soviet Union announced after talks in Ulan Bator that it will withdraw the last of its troops from Mongolia over the next two years.The official news agency Tass said remaining Soviet combat troops would be pulled out in 1991 and military units supervising the withdrawal of military hardware would leave the year after. "Under an agreement between the Soviet and Mongolian governments, the Soviet Union will withdraw all its troops from Mongolia in 1991-1992," Tass said in report from Ulan Bator on the Soviet-Mongolian talks. [Source: Reuters, March 3, 1990]
Mongolia Sends Soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan
n 2002, a law was passed that enabled Mongolian Army and police forces to conduct UN-backed and other international peacekeeping missions abroad. In August 2003, Mongolia contributed troops to the Iraq War as part of the Multi-National Force – Iraq. Mongolian troops, numbering 180 at its peak, were under Multinational Division Central-South and were tasked with guarding the main Polish base, Camp Echo. Prior to that posting, they had been protecting a logistics base dubbed Camp Charlie in Hillah. There were no Mongolian casulties. [Source: Wikipedia +]
Sam Knight wrote in The Times, “When he was 19 Garbold Azzaya left his grandparents and their cattle and sheep in the foothills of Bulgan in northern Mongolia and joined the army. Two years later, when he was a sergeant in the 150th Peacekeeping Battalion, he flew from a sub-zero Ulaanbaatar to the 40C (105F) heat of al-Hillah, near the ruins of Babylon, to man the guard towers of Camp Charlie, the headquarters of the multinational division in Iraq. [Source: Sam Knight, The Times, July 16, 2007 |=|]
“Sixteen days after he arrived Sergeant Azzaya, armed with an AK47 six years older than he was, saw a blue car too close to the wall at the southeast corner of the base. “I shouted, ‘Go back’,” he said. “I said it in Iraqi, ‘Erja!’.” And the car drove off. Less than a minute later a bomb destroyed part of the wall and a suicide attacker, driving an explosives-filled lorry, was rumbling towards him. “I didn’t have time to communicate,” Sergeant Azzaya said. “I thought, ‘I need to shoot that truck to stop it.’ I first shot directly the driver – three bullets – and after my last shoot the truck blew up. No stopping, nothing, it just blew up.” |=|
“That was the only occasion he fired his weapon in anger during a six-month tour. The rest of the time he learnt English from the Americans, played table tennis and read novels. His bravery won him Mongolia’s third-highest military award and a Silver Star from the Polish Army, which was in charge of the base, and made him a minor celebrity at home.” |=|
In 2009, Mongolia sent 114 troops as part of the International Security Assistance Force to Afghanistan. The troops were sent, backing the U.S. surge in troop numbers. Mongolian forces in Afghanistan mostly assist NATO/International Security Assistance Force personnel in training on the former Warsaw Pact weapons that comprise the bulk of the military equipment available to the Afghan National Army. +
Peace Dividend From Mongolia’s Involvement in Iraq
Sam Knight wrote in The Times, “Sergeant Azzaya, now a student in the staff training college in Ulaanbaatar, his blue uniform a salad of decorations, is not the only Mongolian beneficiary of the war in Iraq. The country as a whole, which has just sent its 995th soldier to the Middle East and is yet to suffer a casualty, is emerging as one of the few winners of the four-year-conflict and is now looking for an exit before something goes wrong.[Source: Sam Knight, The Times, July 16, 2007 |=|]
“In cash terms Mongolia has come out on top. According to Lieutenant-General Tsevegsuren Togoo, Chief of Mongolia’s General Staff, the war in Iraq has cost Mongolia 2.84 billion Tugriks (about $2 million) since it agreed to join the invasion in 2003. In return its soldiers are fed, given new uniforms, battle armour and night-vision equipment when they arrive in Iraq and President Bush has promised Mongolia $14.5 million to renovate its Armed Forces. The country’s readiness to fight in Iraq was also key to winning it a highly sought-after first-round place in Washington’s $5 billion Millenium Challenge Account. Mongolia will receive between $170 million and $300 million to help to fund its railways, health and education services when President Enkhbayar visits the White House this autumn. |=|
“The combat experience of Iraq has also enabled Mongolia to qualify for lucrative UN peacekeeping operations. The army receives $1,028 per soldier per month from the UN when it offers its troops – a figure that dwarves their monthly pay of $160. And since the first wave of Iraq veterans returned, the country has volunteered them with alacrity, sending 750 soldiers to Sierra Leone as well as contingents to Kosovo and the Western Sahara. As a result, the G8 will rebuild an old Soviet base near Ulaanbaatar to become a north Asian training facility for UN operations. “One of the main focuses for the military, when we were making the decision to send our first rotation, was to acquire some real-world experience that would be usable for UN peacekeeping missions,” said General Togoo. “So, overall, the military has achieved its goal [in Iraq]. We have opened the door to the UN peacekeeping world. The military cannot think of themselves alone. We have to consider the national interest as a whole.” |=|
Mongolian Peacekeepers
Mongolian armed forces have been performing peacekeeping missions in South Sudan, Chad, Georgia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Congo, Western Sahara, Darfur Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Sierra Leone under the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia. [Source: Wikipedia +]
In 2005/2006, Mongolian troops also served as part of the Belgian KFOR contingent in Kosovo. From 2009 to 2010 Mongolian Armed Forces deployed its largest peace keeping mission to Chad and completed the mission successfully. In 2011, the government decided to deploy its first fully self-sustained forces to the United Nations Mission UNMISS in South Sudan. Since then Mongolian Infantry battalion has been conducting the PKO tasks in Unity State of Republic of South Sudan. In addition, Mongolian Staff officers deployed at the Force Headquarter and Sector Headquarters of the UNMISS mission. First general officer deployed in this mission as Brigade Commander in 2014.
Image Sources:
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, U.S. government, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated April 2016