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Austria NEUTRALITY AND THE ARMED FORCES
Under the State Treaty of 1955, a number of restrictions were
imposed that affected the buildup of the Bundesheer. Under
Article 13 of the treaty, Austria was prohibited from possessing
"any self-propelled or guided missiles or guns with a range of
more than thirty kilometers." On October 26, 1955, the government
passed a law in which Austria declared of its own free will its
permanent neutrality. The law further specified that "Austria
will never in the future accede to any military alliances nor
permit the establishment of military bases by foreign states on
her territory." The Austrian government asserted that it alone
was competent to define Austrian neutrality.
Austria has interpreted its posture as a neutral state in
Europe in somewhat the same terms as Switzerland. It has
deliberately adopted a more active policy of involvement in
international peacekeeping and humanitarian matters, in
particular those it could perform in conjunction with other
members of the UN or at the behest of the UN. In 1960 the army
sent a medical team to the Congo (present-day Zaire) and has
provided other medical units, military police, and observers to
Cyprus and other areas in the Middle East since 1964. By the
early 1990s, some 30,000 Austrians had served in UN missions. As
of 1993, one battalion of 350 troops was deployed with the United
Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) patrolling the
buffer zone between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish forces. Another
battalion of 450 troops was on the Golan Heights in Syria as part
of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). Seven
observers were with the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer
Mission (UNIKOM), and seventeen observers were attached to the
United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in
Cambodia.
Austria did not participate directly in the UN-backed action
in 1991 to drive the Iraqi invasion forces out of Kuwait. It did,
however, provide financial assistance to states suffering from
dislocation caused by the invasion. In addition, the United
States was granted expanded overflight authority for troops and
supplies in connection with Operation Desert Shield and Operation
Desert Storm. This action, a departure from Austria's former
posture of strict neutrality, was interpreted as a gesture to
help demonstrate that Austria's neutral status need not be a
barrier to future membership in the European Union
(EU--see Glossary).
In the same vein, Austria announced that it would
grant NATO permission to use its airspace for airborne warning
and control system (AWACS) aircraft as "an expression of
solidarity within the framework of pan-European security."
With the exception of the prohibition on guided missile
systems, restrictions in the State Treaty on the acquisition of
particular weapons have not inhibited Austria's defense buildup.
Austria refrained for many years from the purchase of modern
antiaircraft and antitank guided missiles in spite of the fact
that such weapons have been accepted as essential elements of
defense in all modern armies. Short-range weapons of this type
had not been developed when the treaty was concluded.
Nevertheless, in 1988 when Austria sought a reinterpretation of
Article 13 by the other signatories to justify purchasing such
weapons, its attempt was not successful.
In 1989, however, Austrian authorities reached a decision to
acquire surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and antitank missiles on
the understanding that they were intended solely for defensive
purposes. The changed security situation in Europe made it
possible for Austria to take such a step without fear of
provoking countries that belonged to the Warsaw Pact. As of 1993,
Austria was accepting delivery of BILL (Bofors, Infantry, Light
and Lethal) antitank missiles from Sweden and was also planning
to purchase larger antitank missiles from France or the United
States. Its Draken interceptor aircraft will be armed with
Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and its ground-based antiaircraft
missile defense will be equipped with French Mistral missiles.
Data as of December 1993
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