Army of the Czech Republic

Military history of the Czech people dates back to the Middle Ages and the creation of Duchy of Bohemia and Kingdom of Bohemia. During the Hussite Wars, Jan Žižka became a military leader of such skill and eminence that the Hussite legacy became an important and lasting part of the Czech military traditions.[17][18] European wars of religion once again wrecked the Czech lands, and at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, Czech freedom was lost to the Habsburg monarchy. Throughout the centuries of foreign rule, the Czechs were subjected, at times, to intense Germanization. Nevertheless, Czechs maintained their ethnic identity and seized the opportunity for independence during World War I. Czechs and Slovaks deserted the armies of Austria-Hungary in large numbers to form the Czechoslovak Legion.[17]

Official military names since 1918:

1918–1950 - Czechoslovak Armed Forces (this official name was given to the Czechoslovak Army on March 19, 1920 on the basis of the Armed Forces Act

1950–1954 - Czechoslovak Army

1954–1990 - Czechoslovak People's Army

1990–1992 - Czechoslovak Army

since 1993 - Army of the Czech Republic (ACR)

The Czechoslovak Armed Forces were originally formed on 30 June 1918 when 6,000 members of the Czechoslovak Legion in France, which had been established in 1914, took oath and received a battle banner in Darney, France, thus preceding the official declaration of Czechoslovak independence by four months. There were also 50 000 legion soldiers in Russia at that time. The military achievements of the Czechoslovak legions on the French, Italian and especially Russian front became one of the main arguments that the Czechoslovak pro-independence leaders, especially for T. G. Masaryk in America,[19] could use to gain the support for the country's independence by the Allies of World War I.

In 1938, servicemen of the Czechoslovak Army and the State Defense Guard fought in an undeclared border war against the German-backed Sudetendeutsches Freikorps as well as Polish and Hungarian paramilitary forces. As a result of the Munich Agreement, areas heavily populated by ethnic German speaking people were incorporated into the Third Reich and military aged men living there were subject to being drafted into the Wehrmacht. In 1939, after the Slovak State proclaimed it's independence and the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia was occupied and annexed by Hungary, the German occupation of the Czech Lands followed and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed after the negotiations with Emil Hácha. The Protectorate's government possessed its own armed force, the Government Army (6,500 men), tasked with public security and rearguard duties. On the other side of the conflict, a number of Czechoslovak units and formations served with the Polish Army (Czechoslovak Legion), the French Army, the Royal Air Force, the British Army (the 1st Czechoslovak Armoured Brigade), and the Red Army (I Corps). Four Czech and Slovak-manned RAF squadrons were transferred to Czechoslovak control in late 1945.

Croatian Army soldier discusses patrol routes with a Czech Army soldier (left)

From 1954[20] until 1990, the Army was known as the Czechoslovak People's Army (ČSLA).[21] Although the ČSLA, as formed in 1945, included both Soviet- and British-equipped/trained expatriate troops, the "Western" soldiers had been purged from the ČSLA after 1948 when the communists took power. The ČSLA offered no resistance to the invasion mounted by the Soviets in 1968 in reaction to the "Prague Spring", and was extensively reorganized by the Soviets following the re-imposition of communist rule in Prague.

Of the approximately 201,000 personnel on active duty in the ČSLA in 1987, about 145,000, or about 72 percent, served in the ground forces (commonly referred to as the army). About 100,000 of these were conscripts.[22] There were two military districts, Western and Eastern. A 1989 listing of forces shows two Czechoslovak armies in the west, the 1st Army at Příbram with one tank division and three motor rifle divisions, the 4th Army at Písek with two tank divisions and two motor rifle divisions. In the Eastern Military District, there were two tank divisions, the 13th and 14th, with a supervisory headquarters at Trenčín in the Slovak part of the country.[23]

During the Cold War, the ČSLA was equipped primarily with Soviet arms, although certain arms like the OT-64 SKOT armored personnel carrier, the L-29 Delfín and L-39 Albatros aircraft, the P-27 Pancéřovka antitank rocket launcher, the vz. 58 assault rifle or the Uk vz. 59 machine gun were of Czechoslovak design.

Czech BVP-2 firing in Afghanistan

Czech Army Soldiers to participate in exercise Combined Resolve at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany

The Army of the Czech Republic was formed after the Czechoslovak Armed Forces split after the 1 January 1993 dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Czech forces stood at 90,000 in 1993. They were reduced to around 65,000 in 11 combat brigades and the Air Force in 1997, to 63,601 in 1999,[24] and to 35,000 in 2005. At the same time, the forces were modernized and reoriented towards a defensive posture. In 2004, the army transformed itself into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished. The Army maintains an active reserve. Paradoxically, the extent of this centralised structure is not recognised by applying the 50-30-20 NATO rule on sustainable military budget.[25]

The Czech Republic is a member of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. At the 1999 Washington summit, the Czech Republic joined NATO. Since 1990, the ACR and the Czech Armed Forces have contributed to numerous peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, including IFOR, SFOR, and EUFOR Althea in Bosnia, Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Albania, Turkey, Pakistan and with the Coalition forces in Iraq.

Current deployments (2019):

• Lithuania: NATO Operation (NATO Enhanced Forward Presence) - 230 soldiers
• Latvia: NATO Operation (NATO Enhanced Forward Presence) - 60 soldiers
• Afghanistan: NATO Operation (Resolute Support Mission) - 390 soldiers
• Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: NATO Operation (Baltic Air Policing) - 95 soldiers, 5x Jas 39 Gripen
• Kosovo: NATO Operation (KFOR) - 9 soldiers
• Mali: EU military training mission (EUTM Mali) - 120 soldiers
• Mali: UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA) - 5 soldiers
• Somalia: EU Operation Atalanta (NAVFOR) - 3 soldiers
• Sinai: International peacekeeping force (MFO) - 18 soldiers
• Iraq: Military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (OIR) - 31 soldiers (air advisory team), 12 soldiers (chemical unit)
• Mediterranean Sea: EU military operation (EU Navfor Med) - 5 soldiers
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Military deployment to oversee the military implementation of the Dayton Agreement (European Union Force Althea) - 2 soldiers
• Golan Heights: UN peacekeeping mission (UNDOF) - 3 soldiers
• DR Congo: UN peacekeeping mission (MONUC) - 2 military observers
• Mali: UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA) - 2 military observers
• Kosovo: UN peacekeeping mission (UNMIK) - 2 military observers
• Central African Republic: UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) - 3 military observers

Active Reserve (in Czech Aktivní záloha) is a part of the otherwise professional Army of the Czech Republic. This service was created to allow the participation of citizens with a positive attitude to the military.

A volunteer needs either to have completed the compulsory military service (which ended in 2004) or to attend 6 week training. Then the reservists have to serve up to three weeks a year and can be called up to serve two weeks during a non-military crisis. They are not intended to serve abroad, but individuals may volunteer to do so. The Reserve presents itself on events like BAHNA, a military show.