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Austria - Bundesheer - History

During the Cold War the Austrian General Staff did not consider occupation of Austrian territory to be a primary objective for potential aggressors. Rather, it regarded Austria in terms of its value as an avenue of approach to objectives in a theater of operations elsewhere (e.g. Germany). The General Staff, however, saw little prospect for a successful defense along Austria's borders; it therefore adopted a strategy of "dissuasion" (Abhalte-strategie). The goal of this strategy was simply to dissuade a potential aggressor by threatening to inflict an unacceptably high price in terms of men, materiel, time, and loss of surprise. To implement this strategy, at the end of the Cold War the General Staff envisioned an unconventional war of small-unit actions in key zones to impede or disrupt an enemy advance. To this end Austria relied on a small, active-duty army of approximately 50,000 professional and conscript soldiers; however, the brunt of the defense effort would fall to the militia, which by the late 1980s was expected to number some 300,000 troops by the mid-1990s. The militia soldier, organized and equipped to fight as light infantry, was trained to execute a number of missions on key terrain close to his home.

The beginnings of the armed forces of the Second Republic reach back to mobile units of the constabulary, which were founded as the so-called B-Constabulary in the beginning of the 1950ies and which became the core of the newly created armed forces after the occupying powers had withdrawn and the national sovereignty had been achieved. In July 1956 the Office of Defence became a Ministry of its own. In the "Army Structure 56” the concrete organisation was put down with three groups, each consisting of nine brigades in reality, but the goal of 60.000 men was soon found out to be too ambitious.

In the beginning of the 1960s a reform became necessary due to the lack of commissioned soldiers and recruits, which aimed at creating smaller and more employable armed forces. The "Army Structure 62” resulted in the creation of two armoured and five infantry brigades which, on the one hand could be supported territorially by nine newly established regional commands, and on the other hand - with regard to personnel - could be filled by three special training regiments. In 1968 the relationship of tension between the organisation’s size and the personnel revenue led to another change of the organisation, which ended in a reduction of size without reforming the structures. In the end of the 1960ies the armed forces consisted of four infantry brigades, three armoured infantry brigades, and three reserve brigades which could be mobilized. In addition to that there was the newly created territorial organisation in the form of 20 territorial reserve formations, which were attached to the regional commands.

The development of the territorial defence concept, by which the deterring effect of the armed forces was supposed to be seriously enhanced, resulted from the discussion about the shortening of the military training period and from the recollection of the state of defence. In the course of the "Army Structure 72” an army headquarters was created, which was directly subordinated to the ministry at first and rose to become a directorate general of its own in 1978; the group headquarters were given up and were replaced by two corps headquarters. The readiness forces existed next to the territorial reserve which could be mobilised, maintaining the territorial defence concept, and the regional headquarters acted as territorial commands.

Under the area defense strategy, which had determined the army's organizational structure until 1993, the army was divided into three principal elements: the standing alert force (Bereitschaftstruppe) of active units, including the air division; the mobile militia (Mobile Landwehr), organized as eight mechanized reserve brigades to be deployed to key danger spots in the event of mobilization; and the stationary militia (Raumgebundene Landwehr) of twenty-six reserve infantry regiments organized for territorial defense. Both the mobile militia and the stationary militia were brought up to strength only in times of mobilization or during periods allotted for refresher training, usually three weeks in June. Training of conscripts was conducted by twenty-eight training and equipment-holding regiments (Landwehrstammregimenten). On mobilization, these regiments would disband, with their cadre reassigned to lead reserve units or form replacement regiments and battalions.

At the army level were a headquarters, guard, and special forces battalions and an artillery battalion at cadre strength. Two corps headquarters, one in the east at Graz and one in the west at Salzburg, would, on mobilization, command the provincially organized units in their respective zones. Each corps included artillery, antitank, antiaircraft, and engineering battalions and a logistics regiment, all on a cadre basis.

Each of the nine provincial military commands supervised the training and maintenance activities of their training and equipment-holding regiments. On mobilization, these nine commands would convert to a divisional headquarters commanding mobile militia, stationary militia, and other independent units.

The only active units immediately available in an emergency were those of the standing alert force of some 15,000 career soldiers, supplemented by eight-month conscripts. The force was organized as a mechanized division consisting of three armored infantry brigades. Each brigade was composed of one tank battalion, one mechanized infantry battalion, and one selfpropelled artillery battalion. Two of the brigades had antitank battalions equipped with self-propelled weapons. The divisional headquarters was at Baden near Vienna; the three brigades were based in separate locations, also in the northeast of the country.

Austria practiced armed neutrality. It organized a unitary, militia-based system of defense (with universal male conscription) similar to that of Switzerland. Fully mobilized, as of 1991 Austria could field approximately 200,000 soldiers. The active-duty cadre, around 40,000 strong, was organized around one mechanized infantry division, armed with US-made tanks and howitzers as well as indigenous combat vehicles, and an air division equipped with Swedish jet interceptors (Saab Drakens), helicopters, and air defense artillery. The militia was primarily a lightly armed force with responsibility for defending specific geographical areas or fighting from fixed installations.