As the Transatlantic relationship with the US lays in tatters and NATO slowly crumbles, many European nations have begun wondering who will defend them in the event of an invasion. Friday’s disastrous meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office was a reminder that Washington D.C. no longer views Europe as a strategic priority.
European political figures like France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, have doubled-down on calls for a pan-European army. The UK’s Keir Starmer went a step further when he pledged British peace-keeping troops in Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
But can Europe really defend itself? For this small but well-known European nation, defending itself would appear practically impossible. And that is because Luxembourgh’s Armed Forces has only 939 active personnel, according to 2018 figures.
This tiny European state also has a lacklustre two helicopters in its arsenal. Both are Airbus H145s, which are typically marketed as being useful for passenger transport, corporate transport, emergency medical services (EMS) and search and rescue.
To make matters worse, the army has been a voluntary force since 1967. It has a total budget of approximately $389 million (£309m) or 0.57per cent of GDP in 2021, according to NATO. The army is under civilian control with the Grand Duke of Luxembourg as its commander-in-chief and its voluntary force is about 6,300-strong.
In 1999, the army was integrated into the Force Publique (Public Force), which included the Gendarmerie and the Police. This landlocked country, nestled between Germany, France and Belgium, has no navy and has not had an air force since 2021.
It has only four compagnies (companies) with one – Compagnie A – normally integrated into Belgian forces during operations. Company A consists of a command group and three reconnaissance platoons of four sections each. Each section is equipped with two armoured M1114 HMMWVs, each armed with a .50 caliber M2 Browning machine gun.
There are only two rifle companies. Compagnie B, known as the Reconversion Service, is the education unit of the army. Compagnie C is the main military training unit while Compagie D is the second rifle company. Compagnies A and D train with NATO and EU forces.
Luxembourg has instead been financially supporting international peacekeeping missions since 1991. Peacekeeping forces have been deployed to conflicts in Former Yugoslavia, Kosovo and Afghanisatan.
The country’s military can be traced back to a 1817 law passed by William the First, Grand Duke of Luxembourg. It was used in November 1918 to quell two small communist rebellions. During World War Two, Luxembourg was occupied by Nazi Germany.
During the occupation, the forces were moved to Weimar in Germany and trained as German police.
