The army of Azerbaijan has existed since 1918, when the creation of the Separate Azerbaijan Corps was announced by the ADR government, which became the first democratic state in the Islamic East. However, independence did not last long, and its own armed forces were formed in this country only in 1991, after the second acquisition of sovereignty.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a sharp aggravation of interethnic conflicts, which in some regions grew into armed clashes. The states that emerged in the post-Soviet space urgently began to acquire their own armies, and Azerbaijan was no exception.
Since 1991, during the Karabakh conflict, the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan began. It was caused by a contradiction between the desire for self-determination of an autonomous republic, populated mainly by Armenians, and the desire of the Azerbaijani leadership to preserve the territorial integrity of the country by any means.
The army of Azerbaijan, like the Armenian, was armed with Soviet tanks, aircraft and artillery. After a many-year phase of sharp confrontation, a moment of fragile ceasefire came, but the conflict cannot be considered exhausted until the end. Apart from Armenia, not one of the states in the region is a potential adversary of Baku, and therefore the main task that the army of Azerbaijan is solving at the present stage is a military confrontation with Yerevan.
The defense doctrine dictates the size of the armed forces, their weapons, and the size of the budget. The army of Azerbaijan and Armenia is constantly being compared, and its superiority is observed in all quantitative indicators.
The number of personnel is 82 thousand people against 35.5 thousand from a probable enemy. Tanks - 340 and 110, respectively. The comparatively small margin in the number of Grad multiple launch rocket launchers is 60 versus 50, but almost three times superiority in assault and fighter aircraft.
The number of reservists to be mobilized in case of war should also be taken into account. Since Azerbaijan in Armenia sees a potential adversary, the number of reserve troops in two neighboring countries is also subject to calculation. Moreover, their number on the Armenian side is two and a half times less than on the Azerbaijani side.
Military spending also differs significantly. According to 2011 data, the Azerbaijani army cost taxpayers $ 3 billion 200 million, while Armenia spent less than half a billion on defense needs.
The organizational structure of the Azerbaijani army is quite simple and effective, and includes ground forces, combined air force and air defense, the national guard and special forces. The types of troops are operatively subordinate to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, administratively managed by the Ministry of Defense and the President, who is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
The Azerbaijani army, according to foreign experts, has a number of organizational shortcomings, leading to the fact that its overall combat effectiveness is relatively low. The same can be said of the Armenian armed forces.
However, this situation is partially offset by the fact that the airspace of Armenia is completely controlled by the air forces of the Russian Federation, which have an air base on its territory.