The Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic (Ozbrojené sily Slovenskej Republiky) were divided from Czechoslovak army after dissolution of Czechoslovakia on January 1, 1993. Slovakia joined NATO on 29 March 2004. From 2006 the army transformed into a fully professional organization and compulsory military service was abolished. Slovak armed forces numbered 15,996 uniformed personnel and 3,761 civilians in 2014. Slovakia has 169 military personnel deployed in Cyprus for UNFICYP United Nations led peace support operations.
Slovakia committed to increase the number of its troops in Afghanistan to around 45 men by the end of 2016. Slovakia has 41 troops deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina for EUFOR Althea. Slovak troops were withdrawn from Kosovo because the Slovak Armed Forces set its priority to focus mainly on an Afghanistan NATO led mission. Since the independence of Slovakia in 1993, there have been 60 uniformed personnel deaths in the line of service to the United Nations and NATO (as of April 30, 2018).
