Ashgabat's independence is conditional, like its army
The grouping of the Soviet army, which remained in Turkmenistan after the collapse of the USSR, was somewhat better in quantity and quality of weapons than that which went to Uzbekistan, not to mention Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. On the other hand, Turkmenistan did not and does not have its own military-industrial complex, and the level of combat training of personnel is traditionally low.
The neutrality of Turkmenistan has been elevated to the rank of state ideology, therefore, Ashgabat does not maintain relations with any country that even remotely resemble allied ones. The country is in a state of almost open border conflict with Uzbekistan.
Cannon to the world
The modernization of the existing military equipment and the acquisition of a certain amount of relatively new ones were carried out in Ukraine and Georgia. Recently, the latest models have been purchased in Russia (T-90, BMP-3, BTR-80A, Smerch MLRS, Project 12418 missile boats) and in China (FD-2000 air defense systems) - albeit in very limited quantities. The country has very large funds from the export of oil and gas, but a serious constraint on the development of the Armed Forces is the lack of qualified personnel. It is rather difficult to determine the state of Soviet-made weapons and equipment, so their number is known very approximately.
Ground forces include 9 brigades - 7 motorized rifle and motorized infantry (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 22nd), artillery, anti-aircraft missile. There are also several separate battalions for various purposes.
In service are 10 PU OTR R-17. The tank park includes 10 newest Russian T-90SA, 640 already quite old Soviet T-72, 55 T-80BV, up to 30 modernized T-64BM and 7 very ancient T-62. There are approximately 200 BRMs (from 12 to 51 BRM-1K, up to 100 BRDM-1 and 70 BRDM-2), at least 936 BMP (525 BMP-1, 405 BMP-2, at least 6 BMP-3), over 800 armored personnel carriers (up to 384 BTR-60, 350 BTR-70, 77 BTR-80, including 27 or even more upgraded with the installation of new combat modules, 8 newest BTR-80A and possibly up to 10 BTR-4). Artillery includes 73 self-propelled guns (17 2S9, 40 2S1, 16 2S3), up to 400 towed guns (180-197 D-30, 6 M-46, from 17 to 76 D-1, 72 D-20, 6 2A65, 6 2A36), about 100 mortars (31, 66 PM-38), 131 MLRS (56 BM-21 and 9 Grad-1, 60 BM-27 Uragan, 6 Smerch). There are at least 100 Soviet ATGM "Malyutka", 45 "Fagot", 20 "Konkurs", 25 "Shturm", as well as 4 newest Belarusian-Ukrainian self-propelled ATGM "Karakal" (Ukrainian ATGM "Barrier" on a car chassis). There are also 72 PTO MT-12.
Military air defense includes 1 regiment of Krug (27 PU) and Kvadrat (20 PU) air defense systems, 53 short-range air defense systems (40 Osa, 13 Strela-10), 300 Strela-2 MANPADS, up to 60 Igla-S and possibly up to 20 French Mistral, 48 ZSU-23-4 Shilka, 22 S-60 anti-aircraft guns.
The Air Force has a rather chaotic structure of air bases, regiments and squadrons. Attack aviation has 55 Su-25 attack aircraft (including 6 Su-25U). There are at least 65 Su-17s in storage. Fighter aircraft includes 24 MiG-29s (including 2 UB). 24 MiG-25PD interceptors and from 130 to 230 MiG-23 fighters (including 10 combat training MiG-23U) are in storage. Special aviation is purely symbolic. It includes 5 transport aircraft (1 An-24, 2 An-26, 2 An-74) and 2 training L-39. Another 3-4 training Yak-52s are in storage. There are 10 combat Mi-24, 12-14 multipurpose and transport helicopters (8-10 Mi-8, 4 European AW139).
As part of the ground air defense - the 13th anti-aircraft missile regiment of the S-200 air defense system (12 launchers) and about 40 launchers of the C-75 and C-125 air defense systems. In 2015, it entered service with the FD-2000 air defense system (an export version of the HQ-9, close in performance characteristics to the Russian S-300).
The Navy and the Border Guard include 2 state-of-the-art Russian missile boats of project 12418 (with Uranium anti-ship missiles) and 1 Turkish (with Italian anti-ship missiles Marta), up to 25 patrol boats (from 2 to 10 Soviet project 1400 and Ukrainian Grif -T ", 2 Russian projects 12200, 1 American type" Point ", up to 4 Ukrainian" Kalkan ", 8" Arkadag ") and, possibly, 1 minesweeper of project 1252.
Rated power
Thanks to the latest purchases of Russian equipment, the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan have taken the second place in Central Asia after Kazakhstan in terms of their potential. Nevertheless, due to a very high proportion of obsolete Soviet equipment, the absence of its own military-industrial complex and poor training of personnel, the potential of the Turkmen army remains low. At the same time, the country has no allies, and almost all neighbors are potential adversaries (including even Azerbaijan, with which Turkmenistan has a dispute over the shelf of the Caspian Sea). Some (however, unsuccessful) attempts by Ashgabat to flirt with Washington cause only bewilderment: as the experience of recent years shows, an alliance with the United States does not guarantee the slightest security even to countries that are geographically and ideologically close and useful to America. The gas pipeline currently very closely links Turkmenistan with China, but there should be no illusions here either - Ashgabat depends on Beijing by an order of magnitude more than Beijing on Ashgabat. In addition, the Chinese leadership has not yet been noticed in the desire to give up even a little of their own interests for the sake of helping any foreign country (even if with that, in words, “the most magnificent strategic partnership in history” has been established).
It is not a fact that the Turkmen army will cope even with the Uzbek one: although the former is now better armed, the latter can simply crush the enemy in bulk (Tashkent's human resources are about five times larger). Moreover, the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan will not be able to resist the Armed Forces and the IRGC of Iran. Ashgabat will face very big problems if the pressure of the radical Islamists from Afghanistan increases. The fight against guerrilla and sabotage-terrorist formations is a most difficult task even for the armed forces, which are of better quality than the Turkmen ones. In addition, there is not the slightest certainty that the personnel are resistant to Islamist propaganda and that the army, when trying to suppress them, will not collapse from the inside, starting to go over to the side of the enemy.
Thus, Turkmenistan is in the same geopolitical situation as the rest of the Central Asian countries - one can speak about their security and defense capability only with a very large degree of convention. Only Kazakhstan is in an advantageous position. Firstly, it does not border on Afghanistan, secondly, it has established a fairly close military alliance with Russia, and thirdly, it has good own Armed Forces and a military-industrial complex (for more details - “Seekers of Competence” on page 07). All other countries in the region face very serious challenges for the foreseeable future, which could threaten their very survival.
