Reserve component of the Union Defence Forces

The Union Defence Forces (UDF) are the regular military forces of the Arab Union. In addition to the three active service branches (the Army, Navy and Air Force), there are five reserve components (Arabic: عناصر الاحتياطي ‘anāṣir al-iḥtiyāṭī; sg. عنصر الاحتياطي unṣur al-iḥtiyāṭī). Each reserve component is a corps of mostly part-time personnel trained in either army, naval or air force roles and existing to provide a significant reserve of military-trained personnel in the event regular forces personnel have been depleted and require assistance and replacement.

Reserve forces are not to be confused with the National Guard, which, like reserve forces, mostly employs part-time personnel, but which comes under the authority of the National Guard leadership of one of the 20 republics rather than directly under federal Ministry of Defence control.

Below are the five reserve forces currently overseen by the Ministry of Defence's Reserve Forces Directorate:


 * Arab Army Primary Reserve
 * Arab Army Secondary Reserve
 * Arab Army Tertiary Reserve
 * Arab Naval Reserve
 * Arab Air Reserve