MEXICAN ARMY

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The 'Mexican Army' is the land arm of the Mexican Military, and the largest branch of Mexico's armed services. It consists of over 300,000 men and women of the Mexican Army serving Mexico. Since the early 2000's the Army has been steadily modernizing itself to compete with other Latin American countries, and to facilitate a more proactive role in counter-drug actions. Despite its size Mexico maintains a comparatively small army. An interesting display of the Army's recently increased budget is the domestic production of the new FX-05 Assault Rifle.

Contents

Organization

Equipment

Vehicles and other land equipment

Small arms and personal weapons

Artillery

See also

Organization

The Army falls under the authority of the National Defense Secretariat.
There are three main components of the Army: a national headquarters, territorial commands, and independent units. The Minister of Defense commands the Army by means of a very centralized system and a large number of general officers. The Army uses a modified continental staff system in its headquarters.
At present there are 12 Military Regions, which are further broken down into 44 subordinate Military Zones. In both cases, a numbering system is used for designation. There is no set number of zones within a region, and these can therefore be tailored to meet operational needs, with a corresponding increase or decrease in troop strength.
Military zone commanders are appointed by the president, usually on the recommendation of the secretary of national defense. The senior zone commander in a given area also acts as the commander of the military region in which the zone falls. Zone commanders hold jurisdiction over all units operating in their territory, including the Rural Defense Force (see Rurales). They occasionally have served the federal authorities as a political counterweight to the power wielded by state governors. Zone commanders provide the secretary of national defense with valuable intelligence regarding social and political conditions in rural areas, and traditionally have acted in close coordination with the Secretariat of National Defense on resource planning and deployment matters.
The primary units of the Mexican army are six brigades and a number of independent regiments and infantry battalions. The brigades, all based in and around the Federal District (encompassing the Mexico City area), are the only real maneuver elements in the army. With their support units, they are believed to account for over 40 percent of the country's ground forces. According to ''The Military Balance'' , published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the army has six brigades: one armored, two infantry, one motorized infantry, one airborne, and the Presidential Guard Brigade. The one combined military police and engineer brigade has been transferred to the Federal Preventive Police in 1999. The armored brigade is one of two new brigades formed since 1990 as part of a reorganization made possible by an increase in overall strength of about 25,000 troops. The brigade consists of three armored and one mechanized infantry regiment.
Distinct from the brigade formations are independent regiments and battalions assigned to zonal garrisons. These independent units consist of one armored cavalry regiment, nineteen motorized cavalry regiments, one mechanized infantry regiment, seven artillery regiments, and three artillery and eighteen infantry battalions. Infantry battalions, each composed of approximately 300 troops, generally are deployed in each zone. Certain zones also are assigned an additional motorized cavalry regiment or one of the seven artillery regiments. Smaller detachments often are detailed to patrol more inaccessible areas of the countryside, helping to maintain order and resolve disputes.
An interesting topic of note is the subservience of the Mexican Air Force to the Army. Though the Air Force is technically its own branch, its command structure falls under the authority of the National Defense Secretariat, as the Army's does. This position has always been held by Army officers, and Air Force officers rarely rise to any position of power in the hierarchy.

Equipment

Vehicles and other land equipment

★ 50 VAB Armoured personnel carriers (APC)

★ 120 Panhard Lynx 90 6x6

★ 123 Lynx Lynx Tracked

★ 28 LAV 150 Textron 4x4

★ 40 AV-VBL Armored Car 4x4

★ 165 BDX-APC BDE 4x4]]

★ 25 Roland-APC MMAG 4x4

★ 40 Panhard VBL

★ 40 Panhard VCR

★ 40 AMX-10P IFV

★ 409 AMX-VCI

★ 195 BDX APC

★ 40 HW-K 11

★ (3,000+) HMMWV's

★ 40 DN-1 Diesel Nacional

★ 50 DN-3 Diesel Nacional

★ 50 DN-4 Diesel Nacional

★ 50 DN-5 Diesel Nacional

Small arms and personal weapons

★ FX-05 Xiuhcoatl assault rifle

★ Heckler & Koch G3 (Slowly being replaced by the new Mexican made FX-05 Assault rifles)

★ HK21E 7.62 machine gun. Made under license from Heckler & Koch

★ Mk 19 grenade launcher 40 mm .

★ M2 machine gun 12.7 mm .

★ MILAN anti-tank guided missiles.

★ B-300 82 mm light anti-tank rocket.

★ Blindicide 81 mm light anti-tank rocket.

★ M40 106 mm recoilless rifle anti-tank gun mounted on High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.

★ Brandt 60 mm mortars.

★ M29 and M1 81 mm Mortars

★ Brandt 120 mm mortars.

Artillery

★ 80 105 mm M101 howitzer

★ 80 Oto Melara 105 mm Howitzers

See also

★ Military of Mexico

★ Mexican Air Force

★ Mexican military ranks

★ Military history of Mexico

★ Army ranks and insignia of Mexico

★ Rurales

★ Photos of the Mexican Army, National Marine and Air Force