Lebanese Armed Forces
combined military forces of Lebanon

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF; Arabic: القوات المسلحة اللبنانية, romanized: Al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥa al-Lubnāniyya), also known as the Lebanese Army (الجيش اللبناني, Al-Jaish al-Lubnani), is the national military of Lebanon. It consists of three branches, the ground forces, the air force, and the navy. The motto of the Lebanese Armed Forces is "Honor, Sacrifice, Loyalty" (شرف · تضحية · وفاء, Charaf, Tadhieh, Wfe3). In politically unstable Lebanon, the Lebanese army has been described as one of the few state institutions in the country trusted by both the Lebanese population and the international community; and a guarantor of stability in multi-sectarian Lebanon.
Emblem
The Lebanese Armed Forces emblem consists of a Lebanon cedar tree surrounded by two laurel leaves, positioned above the symbols of the three branches: the ground forces represented by the two bayonets, the navy represented by an anchor, and the air force represented by two wings.
General overview
The Lebanese Armed Forces' primary missions include defending Lebanon and its citizens against external aggression, maintaining internal stability and security, confronting threats against the country's vital interests, engaging in social development activities and undertaking relief operations in coordination with public and humanitarian institutions.
The armed forces consist of 90,200 active personnel with the ground force consisting of approximately 80,000 troops, the air force 2,500 personnel and 1,700 in the naval force. The remaining personnel are commanders, advisors, engineers and members of the special forces. The LAF is an all-volunteer force. All three branches are operated and coordinated by the LAF Commander; a position customarily held by a Maronite Catholic Christian, from the ministry of defence which is located in Yarzeh, east of Lebanon's capital, Beirut.
The public source identifies “Lebanese Armed Forces” as combined military forces of Lebanon. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lebanese, Armed and Forces.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1074908. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lebanese Armed Forces” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.