Following the Cuban Revolution, the revolutionary military forces was reconstituted as the national army of Cuba by Fidel Castro in 1960.

The Cuban Constitutional Navy was involved in the Battle of the Caribbean during World War II supported by the United States.

An idea of this structure can be seen from a Jane's depiction (in error) dated 1996:[4] Units included: In the late 1980s and early 1990s the Western Army was deployed in the capital and the provinces of Havana and Pinar del Río: In the 1980s–1990s the Central Army was deployed in the provinces of Matanzas, Villa Clara, Cienfuegos and Sancti Spiritus: In the 1980s–1990s the Eastern Army was deployed in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Guantánamo, Granma, Holguín, Las Tunas, Camagüey and Ciego de Avila: The International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in The Military Balance 1994–95 that "the Cuban Army is undergoing major reorganisation; ..strength has been reduced by 60,000 to some 85,000 and is now structured on a brigade as opposed to a divisional basis."

A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment in the first half of 1998 said that the army's armour and artillery units were at low readiness levels due to 'severely reduced' training, generally incapable of mounting effective operations above the battalion level, and that equipment was mostly in storage and unavailable at short notice.

[7] The same report said that Cuban special operations forces continue to train but on a smaller scale than beforehand, and that while the lack of replacement parts for its existing equipment and the current severe shortage of fuel were increasingly affecting operational capabilities, Cuba remained able to offer considerable resistance to any regional power.

Soldiers in tank, military police, and special forces units are also allowed to wear berets with this uniform.