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Chad — Military File
Rankings · Power · Military

Chad — Military File

Armed forces, personnel, equipment, deployments: the complete military file on Chad.

Active personnel (est.)40,000
World rank by personnel#76 / 162

Magna assessment

POWER 20.32/100 — The Magna Power score is our 0–100 composite of structural national power — five dimensions, 100+ indicators. It is the Bureau's own assessment, not a mirror of World Bank or CIA figures.

Momentum 0 — Quarterly momentum: the Bureau's read on the country's trajectory over the last quarter, from −10 (deteriorating fast) to +10 (accelerating).

Steadiness was the quarter's defining trait: no rupture, no windfall, no surprise strong enough to move the score.

The trajectory remains set by fundamentals that change over years, not quarters — and this quarter changed little.

Armed forces

Chadian National Army (Armee Nationale du Tchad, ANT): Ground Forces (l'Armee de Terre, AdT), Chadian Air Force (l'Armee de l'Air Tchadienne, AAT), Chadian National Gendarmerie; General Direction of the Security Services of State Institutions (Direction Generale des Services de Securite des Institutions de l'Etat, GDSSIE) Ministry of Public Security and Immigration: National Nomadic Guard of Chad (GNNT) (2025)

Personnel strength

estimated 35-40,000 active Chadian National Army personnel (2025)

Equipment

the ANT has a mix of older, secondhand, and some more modern armaments from a variety of suppliers, including Brazil, China, France, Russia/former Soviet Union, Türkiye, Ukraine, and the UAE (2025)

Service age & obligation

18-25 for voluntary service; men subject to 18-36 months of compulsory service at age 20; women are subject to 12 months of compulsory military or civic service at age 21 (2025)

Deployments

note: Chad has committed approximately 1,000-1,500 troops to the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against Boko Haram and other terrorist groups operating in the general area of the Lake Chad Basin and along Nigeria's northeast border; national MNJTF troop contingents are deployed within their own territories, although cross‐border operations are conducted periodically

Note

internal security is the primary focus of the Chadian National Army, and it is actively engaged in counterinsurgency operations against multiple terrorist and rebel groups; the terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in West Africa operate in the Lake Chad Basin area; meanwhile, a number of anti-government militias operate in northern Chad, some from bases in southern Libya, including the FACT (Front pour le Changement et la Concorde au Tchad), the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic (le Conseil de Commandement Militaire pour le salut de la République or CCSMR), the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (le Union des Forces pour la Démocratie et le Développement or UFDD), and the Union of Resistance Forces (le Union des Forces de la Résistance UFR); former Chadian President Idriss DEBY was killed in April 2021 during fighting between the FACT and government forces (2025)

Related

Power indexMilitary indexLargest armiesChad — FactbookChad — RankingsLeader: Chad

Across the Bureau

Chad — Country ProfileDid Chad acquire 28 David armoured vehicles + 10 trucks + other equipment?Did Chad acquire Aksungur UAV?What are the main airports of Chad?Does Chad have oil and gas pipelines?History of Chad — TimelineMahamat Idriss Déby — Leader of ChadChad Ranking — Magna Country Rankings