The Union Defence Force was established officially as the military of the United Arab Emirates on 27 December 1971 from a directive issued by Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

The United Arab Emirates Armed Forces participated in multiple conflicts, including the ones in the Middle East.

The intervention was followed by UAE ground troops deployment in Southern Yemen focusing on targeting "terrorist" cells such as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Islamic State.

UAE introduced a mandatory military conscription of 16 months for adult males in 2014 to expand its reserve force.

[12] The date of the first death in the line of duty of a UAE soldier was on 30 November 1971 during the Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs which is celebrated annually as the Commemoration Day.

The largest loss of life in the history of the UAE military occurred on Friday 4 September 2015 when 52 soldiers were killed in Marib area of Yemen by a Tochka missile that targeted a weapons cache and caused an explosion.

The report obtained through the Freedom of Information Act revealed that in seven years nearly 280 American military veterans sought federal permission to work for the Emirates.

Experts claimed that the Emirati military was the Arab world's most powerful due to the influx of American veterans.

UAE Armed Forces used their ties to Islam and ability to fund projects to try to reduce the local suspicion of NATO in Afghanistan.

[24] During this war, Emirati special forces conducted an amphibious assault on Aden, which, according to the Economist, impressed observers in the West.

[28] In 2018, the Associated Press in a report mentioned that UAE struck deals with AQAP militants by recruiting them against fighting the Houthis and providing them with money.

[31] The notion of Al Qaeda joining ranks with UAE Armed Forces and the United States holding off drone strikes against Al Qaeda has been denied by The Pentagon with Colonel Robert Manning, spokesperson of the Pentagon, calling the news source "patently false".

[32] According to The Independent, AQAP activity on social media as well as the number of reported attacks conducted by it has decreased since UAE intervention.

[31] On 30 April 2018 the UAE armed forces, as part of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen, landed troops on the island of Socotra.

[33] The Independent newspaper reported that UAE has politically annexed the island and built a communications network, and conducted census and provided Socotra residents with free healthcare and work permits in Abu Dhabi.

A contract worth $1.96 billion was agreed for Lockheed Martin Corp to supply two Thaad anti-missile batteries.

[44] In November 2019, South Africa blocked the supply of arms to United Arab Emirates, Oman, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia following a dispute in the inspection clause of its agreement.

According to a report by Reuters, UAE and the other mentioned countries refused to allow officials from South Africa to inspect their facilities.

UAE began firing trials with China, India, and Serbia to replace the South African RDM as the preferred supplier of ammunition.

A joint venture agreement was signed in Abu Dhabi on 28 November 2007 between Tawazun Holding LLC, an investment company established by the Offset Program Bureau (OPB), Al-Jaber Trading Establishment, part of Al-Jaber Group, and Rheinmetall Munitions Systems, to set up the Al-Burkan munition factory at the Zayed Military City in Abu Dhabi.