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Qatari Emiri Land Force

Date: Issue 98 - April 2020

The Qatari Emiri Land Force is the largest branch of the Qatar Armed Forces 

Personnel: Some 15,000

Major Units: 

Royal Guard Brigade with 3 Infantry Battalions

Qatari Army with 1 Special Forces Battalion, 4 Mechanised Infantry Battalion and 1 Artillery Battalion

Armored Brigade with a Mortar Company, Tank Battalion, Mechanised Infantry Battalion and an Anti-Tank Battalion

Equipment:

MBTs: 62 x Leopard 2A7+ and 30-44 AMX-30 (being withdrawn and replaced by Leopard 2A7+ MBTs)

AIFV and APCs: KF-41 Lynx, Dingo Heavy Duty (4x4) APCs (including Armoured Ambulance version), RG-41 MRAP, Marauder 4x4, 32 x Fennek 4x4 light armoured reconnaissance vehicles, 6 x Wisent 2 Support Vhecles, 36 x MOWAG Piranha Mk-II 8x8 CCTS-90mm turret, 4x MOWAG Piranha ARVs, 40 x AMX-10P IFVs, 158 Renault Trucks VAB 6x6 APC, 4 x Renault Trucks VAB/VPM-81 4x4 Mortar Carrier with 81mm mortar, 24 x Renault Trucks VAB 4x4/6x6 VCAC “Mephisto” with a pair of HOT ATGM launchers, 27 x Renault Sherpa 2 light tactical vehicles, 12 x Nexter Systems AMQ-10RC 105mm 6x6 ARVs, 8 x Cadillac LAV V150 Commando 4x4 APC, 16 x VBL 4x4 APC, 32 x EE-9 Cascavel 90mm 6x6 ARVs, 342 x EJDER YALÇIN 4x4 MRAPs, 214 x NMS/YÖRÜK APCs/IFVs (150 of them are fitted with Aselsan’s SERDAR ATGM Launching System that able to launch Russian Kornet-E and the Ukrainian Skiff ATGMs), 90 x KİRPİ 4x4 MRAPs and 35 x AMAZON APCs 

Artillery: 22 x AMX-F3 155mm SPHs (being withdrawn and replaced by PzH 2000 SPHs), 24 x PzH 2000 SPHs and 12 x G5 155mm Towed Howitzerz (being withdrawn and replaced by PzH 2000 SPHs)

Mortars: 15 x Brandt 120mm heavy mortars, and 30 x 81mm mortars

MLRS: 4 x Astros II MLRS and 7 x M142 HIMARS MLRS (with 60 M57 MGM-140 ATACMS Block 1A T2K TBFs with unitary warhead and 360 M31A1 GMLRS guided artillery rockets with unitary warhead)

ATGMs: 48 x MBDA HOT ATGM launchers with 1,000 missiles, 100 x MBDA MILAN ATGM launchers with 630 missiles and 50 FGM-148 Javelin ATGM launchers with 500 missiles

SAMs: Some 20 x SA-7s, 10 x Blowpipe (with 50 missiles), 24 x Mistral (with 500 missiles) and 12 x Stinger (with 60 missiles)

SRBMs: At its national day parade held in Doha 0n December 17, 2017, Qatar displayed two of its newly purchased SY 400/BP-12A Short Range Ballistic Missile (SRBM) launchers accompanied with two loaders. The Chinese SY-400 is typically mounted on an 8x8 Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL), like the one which was shown in the parade, is capable of carrying both BP-12A and SY-400 missiles. The BP-12A can carry a 480 kg conventional payload over a 280 km range, while the SY-400 can carry a 200 kg conventional payload over a 200 km range. The Qatari SY-400 launchers are appeared to be modified to carry two larger caliber BP-12A canisters instead of eight SY-400 canisters. The display of SY-400 launchers at the parade apparently represented an effort to demonstrate to the Saudi-UAE led bloc Qatar’s capabilities to resist pressure.

NB: In December 2017, the Qatari Minister of State for Defense Affairs signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Nexter for the procurement of up to 490 VBCI IFVs with a value of €2 Billion. But due to the crisis between Paris and Doha the decision on the procurement was frozen in November 2019. On December 18, 2018 a brand new KF-41 Lynx AIFV took part during the National Day Parade of Qatar Armed Forces, held in Doha, Qatar. It is believed that Rheinmetall sold unknown amount of KF-41 Lynx AIFVs to Qatar, with this sale Qatar becomes the first operator of the vehicle. On February 5, 2019 Turkish MoND Hulusi AKAR, formerly Chief of the Turkish General Staff, disclosed that Turkey has recently signed a contract with Qatar for the sale of FIRTINA Self Propelled Howitzers (SPHs). MoND AKAR did not share any figures about the number of FIRTINA SPHs (20 estimated) to be delivered to the Qatar Armed Forces. It is believed that the contract is covering the New Generation FIRTINA (also dubbed FIRTINA-II) SPHs, which are under production at the 1st Main Maintenance Factory Directorate located in the Sakarya province of northwest Turkey.