In Austria, the military’s primary responsibilities are national defense and protecting Austria’s neutrality; it also has some domestic security and disaster response responsibilities and contributes to international peacekeeping and humanitarian missions; Austria has been constitutionally militarily non-aligned since 1955 but is an EU member and actively participates in EU peacekeeping and crisis management operations under the EU Common Security and Defense Policy; Austria is not a member of NATO but joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace framework in 1995 and participates in some NATO-led crisis management and peacekeeping operations; it has provided troops to international peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EU), Kosovo (NATO), and Lebanon (UN) in recent years; more than 100,000 Austrian military and civilian personnel have taken part in more than 50 international peace support and humanitarian missions since 1960

the Land Forces comprise the bulk of the military, and they are organizationally divided between territorial and operational forces; each of the nine federal states has a military command that provides a link between the military and civil authorities; the main tasks of these commands include providing military assistance during disasters and supporting security police operations; these military commands have an infantry battalion, a militia battalion (Vienna has two), and typically a militia engineer/pioneer company at their disposal; the operational Land Forces are four combat brigades: a rapid reaction/”fast forces” (schnelle kräftewith) brigade with mechanized and motorized forces, an armored/mechanized infantry (panzer grenadier) brigade, a mountain infantry brigade (gebirgsbrigade), and a light infantry brigade (jägerbrigade) that includes airborne and air assault troops; the military also has separate special operations and cyber defense forces; the Air Forces have a small number of European-made multipurpose fighter aircraft (2024)