AAF

General Staff of the Armed Forces

General Staff of the Armed Forces is the highest military organizational structure in the Armed Forces and exercises unique command over the Armed Forces of the Republic of Albania. It is responsible for the formation of a joint and unified combat force with the Land, Navy and Air Force, capable of fulfilling the constitutional mission of the Armed Forces.

General Staff serves as the joint headquarters for the Land, Navy, and Air Force and is responsible for the joint preparation and training of all three components to accomplish all their tasks including addressing threats and risks to national security, defense programming in support of missions, operations, training, and exercises; conducting strategic threat and risk assessment and implementing measures to address them; preparing, directing, and commanding military actions; overseeing the Armed Forces, providing logistical support, drafting requirements for the development and equipping of the three services of the Armed Forces, ensuring the effective use of defense resources to make them interoperable and capable of carrying out missions in international military operations; fulfilling obligations arising from cooperation agreements, coordinating with NATO; coordinating joint exercises, and developing command, direction, communication and data reporting systems within the Armed Forces.

In times of war, the General Staff serves as headquarters for the President, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Chief of General Staff

The Chief of the General Staff reports to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Defense, and is responsible for the overall command of the Armed Forces. This role includes leading the preparation and operational readiness of the Armed Forces, overseeing recruitment through the Integrated Defense Staff and the Personnel Recruitment Center, and directing both military and non-military operations.

Intelligence Directorate (J-2)

The Directorate of Intelligence is the second directorate within the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Its mission is to provide intelligence and security support to the Chief of the General Staff, the General Staff, and the Albanian Armed Forces as a whole.

Operations and Training Directorate (J-3/7)

The Directorate of Operations and Training is both the third and seventh directorate within the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Its mission is to plan the preparation and operational deployment of the Armed Forces in support of combat and non-combat missions. It is also responsible for monitoring and assessing the operational readiness, preparedness, and training levels of key Armed Forces structures.

Logistics Directorate (J-4)

The Directorate of Logistics is the fourth directorate within the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Its mission is to plan, develop, and oversee the logistical support of the Armed Forces, ensuring the operational logistics capabilities needed to support military activities both at home and abroad, in times of peace, crisis, and war. The Directorate is also responsible for developing logistical support concepts, resource management policies, and setting standards for logistics support functions.

Defense Planning and Monitoring Directorate (J-5/8)

The Directorate of Defense Planning and Monitoring is both the fifth and eighth directorate within the General Staff of the Armed Forces.

Its mission is to plan, design, integrate, and oversee defense development plans and programs aimed at the growth, modernization, and enhancement of the Armed Forces’ military capabilities to fulfill their mission and duties. The Directorate is also responsible for coordinating activities with NATO structures and ensuring the smooth implementation of bilateral and multilateral military cooperation with both NATO member states and partner countries.

J-5/8 provides recommendations on the use of defense resources to achieve operational capabilities and drafts budgetary requirements based on defense programs.

Within the framework of the Ministry of Defense, the directorate contributes to the preparation of key strategic documents of the Armed Forces, including the Military Strategy, the Long-Term Development Plan, the Defense Directive, and others such as the Strategic Defense Review. It manages the Defense Planning Process in alignment with NATO’s planning system and leads the drafting of periodic documents and progress reports submitted to NATO structures regarding the modernization and development of the Armed Forces.

Liaison Directorate (J-6)

The Liaison Directorate is the sixth directorate in the Armed Forces Headquarters.
The Liaison Directorate is responsible for the planning, organization, development and modernization of Liaison and Information Systems (LIS) to support Command and Control (C2) in the Armed Forces, as well as ensuring interoperability for communication with the communication and information systems of national institutions as well as international institutions such as NATO, the EU, OSCE and the UN.

Civil-Military Cooperation Directorate (J-9)

The Civil-Military Cooperation Directorate is the ninth directorate in the Armed Forces Headquarters.
The Civil-Military Cooperation Directorate is responsible for the coordination and cooperation of the Armed Forces with local authorities, civilian entities, governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations in support of the implementation of the objectives of the Armed Forces and the conduct of missions and operations inside and outside the country. J9 is responsible for the organization and implementation of the protocol aspects of the activities of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces inside and outside the country.