Central America and the Caribbean > Cuba > Military

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Armed forces growth	-64		[125th of 132]
Armed forces personnel	58,000		[60th of 166]
Arms imports > constant 1990 US$	96,000,000 constant 1990 US$		[41st of 100]
Branches Revolutionary Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, FAR): Revolutionary Army (ER; includes Territorial Militia Troops, MTT), Revolutionary Navy (Marina de Guerra Revolucionaria, MGR; includes Marine Corps), Revolutionary Air and Air Defense Force (DAAFAR), Youth Labor Army (EJT)
Conscription Conscription exists (AI and NISBCO).
Expenditures	3.8 % of GDP		[17th of 87]
Expenditures > Dollar figure	$572,300,000.00		[37th of 111]
Manpower > Availability > Females	3,024,876		[62nd of 162]
Manpower > Availability > Males	3,094,388		[66th of 210]
Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49	3,120,700		[66th of 175]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Males age 15-49	1,929,370		[71st of 174]
Manpower > Military age	17 years of age
Manpower > Reaching military age annually > Males	79,945		[86th of 226]
Note the collapse of the Soviet Union deprived the Cuban Army of its major economic and logistic support, and had a significant impact on equipment numbers and serviceability; the army remains well trained and professional in nature; while the lack of replacement parts for its existing equipment and the current severe shortage of fuel have increasingly affected operational capabilities, Cuba remains able to offer considerable resistance to any regional power
personnel	76,000		[62nd of 170]
personnel > % of total labor force	1.41 %		[56th of 168]
Service age and obligation 17-28 years of age for compulsory military service; 2-year service obligation; both sexes subject to military service
Tanks	420 tanks		[21st of 22]
Weapon holdings	2,490,000		[33rd of 137]
WMD > Overview Fidel Castro spearheaded Cuba's communist revolution by leading a rebel army to victory in 1959. Relations between Washington and Havana deteriorated rapidly; the United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960 (which is still in effect today) and broke diplomatic relations in January 1961. Taking advantage of Cuba's fear of U.S. armed aggression against the island, the Soviets persuaded Cuba into adopting closer economic and political ties, including military and defense arrangements; later that year, Castro formally embraced Marxism. Tensions between the United States and Cuba peaked during the October 1962 missile crisis. Under Castro, Cuba became a highly militarized society. Massive Soviet military assistance enabled Cuba to upgrade its military capabilities and expand its military presence abroad, spending millions of dollars in exporting revolutions, most visibly in Angola, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua. Cuba's support for these guerrilla movements, its Marxist-Leninist government, and its alignment with the USSR led to its isolation in the hemisphere. Cuba does not possess nuclear weapons, and there are no credible reports of Cuban efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. In 2002, Cuba acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), ratified the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (Treaty of Tlatelolco), and has an Additional Protocol with the IAEA. Cuba is not reported to possess chemical weapons (it acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention [CWC] in 1993), nor are there credible reports of Cuban possession of long-range ballistic missiles. Cuba is generally regarded as having a program of research on biological warfare (BW) agents, though the scope and focus of this effort remains obscure and controversial. Numerous US administrations have claimed that Cuba possesses a limited offensive biological weapons program and has provided dual-use biotechnology to other nations—suspicions that stem from Cuba's possession of one of the most advanced biomedical industries in Latin America and its large-scale production of pharmaceuticals and vaccines. Cuba has been a member of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) since 1976. In 1990, Cuba's Air Force, with about 150 Soviet-supplied fighters, including advanced MiG-23 Floggers and MiG-29 Fulcrums, was probably the best equipped in Latin America. In 1994, Cuba's armed forces were estimated to have 235,000 active duty personnel. Cuban military power has been sharply reduced by the loss of Soviet subsidies. By 1999, the Revolutionary Armed Forces numbered about 60,000 regular troops.

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