Latvian National Armed Forces (NAF) Nacionalie brunotie speki

The goal of the National Armed Forces (NAF) is to defend the Republic of Latvia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to protect its residents against military aggression. Our main task is to ensure the inviolability of the State territory, territorial waters and airspace, participate in international military operations, ensure NAF and reserve personnel training and participate in operations to avert national threat situations. In emergency situations, the NAF units also assist the civil defence system. Professional soldiers and Zemessardze (National Guard) members follow the motto “It is an Honour to Serve Latvia!” when carrying out the above tasks and other tasks in their daily lives.

Command of the armed forces is carried out by the NAF Commander who is directly subordinated to the Minister of Defence. The NAF Commander defines the strategic aspects of the armed forces and is responsible for the NAF command and control. The NAF Deputy Commander and the NAF Headquarters are responsible for the implementation of the national and international tasks, training of the units and their readiness for the international military missions at the operation command level.

Kinds of the National Armed Forces carry out the tasks of the tactic command. Commanders of the kinds of armed forces, National Guard, Military Police and Commands are responsible for training and combat and operation readiness of their units, as well as for preparing the units to participate in the national and international operations. Logistics Command is responsible for the provision and logistics of the NAF, as well as training and combat and operation readiness of their units. Training and Doctrine Command is responsible for developing of the military doctrines, recruitment of personnel, individual training and education.

The new NAF structure does not have a separate structure for war and peacetime, as it was before. The efficiency of the new structure is characterised by an ability to command and if needed – to activate the NAF units in peace, threat or war situations without any structural changes. The quality of the peacetime tasks of the armed forces is very much dependant on its structure. Structure determines the efficiency of command, co-operation, planning and resource expenditure.

The mission of the NAF structure in peacetime is to prepare the troops for conducting the military operations to defend the national land territory, airspace and territorial waters. After joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, this mission will be extended to include participation in the international operation abroad as a part of the Alliance’s contingent. There is as requirement set to the NATO states to have at least 40% of their national military personnel and units prepared to participate in the international operations abroad within the NATO forces. Therefore, there are units included in the NAF structure who are envisaged to be ready to participate in the collective security activities and military operations abroad as requested by NATO.

Being a NATO member state, Latvia will in the event of threat receive the military support of the allies, as stated in the security guarantees defined by the NATO Treaty. In order to be able to host the Alliance’s troops in the Latvian territory, it is necessary to provide a system for host-nation’s support. It means that the readiness of the Latvian military forces must be NATO-compliant also when operating within the Latvian territory and receiving the assistance of the troops of other countries, when they are deployed, operate or transit the territory of Latvia. The Host-nation’s Support Plans and the National Capability Catalogue (database containing information on available host-nation’s infrastructure and its capabilities) must be produced for this purpose. At the same time, the NAF units prepared for these tasks will also be able to provide support to the state institutions, municipalities and the ordinary public in the events of natural catastrophes and emergencies.