ith unpaved runways:
total: 143
914 to 1,523 m: 30
under 914 m: 113 (2004 est.)

Heliports:
1 (2004 est.)

Military Ecuador

Military branches:
Army, Navy (includes Naval Infantry, Naval Aviation, Coast Guard),
Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Ecuatoriana, FAE)

Military service age and obligation:
20 years of age for conscript military service; 12-month service
obligation (2004)

Manpower available for military service:
males age 20-49: 2,792,770 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
males age 20-49: 2,338,428 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 133,922 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$655 million (2004)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
2.2% (2004)

Transnational Issues Ecuador

Disputes - international:
organized illegal narcotics operations in Colombia penetrate across
Ecuador's shared border and caused over 20,000 refugees to flee into
Ecuador in 2004

Illicit drugs:
significant transit country for cocaine originating in Colombia and
Peru; importer of precursor chemicals used in production of illicit
narcotics; attractive location for cash-placement by drug
traffickers laundering money because of dollarization and weak
anti-money-laundering regime, especially vulnerable along the border
with Colombia; increased activity on the northern frontier by
trafficking groups and Colombian insurgents

This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005

======================================================================

@Egypt

Introduction Egypt

Background:
The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled
with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west,
allowed for the development of one of the world's great
civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C. and a series
of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last
native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were
replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who
introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who
ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the
Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the
conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the
completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important
world transportatio