Bahrain United Arab Emirates
Background
General Norman H. Schwarzkopf, commander in chief, United
States Central Command, with Brigadier General Muhammad ibn Abd
Allah Al Attiyah of Qatar, whom he presented with the Legion of
Merit for his role in Operation Desert Storm
Courtesy United States Air Force
General Norman H. Schwarzkopf speaks with Lieutenant
General Khamis ibn Humaid ibn Salim al Kilbani, chief of staff,
Royal Oman Land Forces, while touring As Sib Air Base during
Operation Desert Storm.
Courtesy United States Air Force
The numerous treaties that Britain concluded with the
several
gulf amirates in the nineteenth century provided, inter
alia,
that the British were responsible for foreign relations
and
protection from attack by sea. Until the early 1950s, the
principal military presence in the Trucial Coast states
(sometimes referred to as Trucial Oman) consisted of
British-led
Arab security forces and the personal bodyguard units of
the
ruling shaykhs. In 1951 the British formed the Trucial
Oman
Levies (later called the Trucial Oman Scouts) under a
British
commander who reported to the British political agent of
the
gulf. By the time the United Arab Emirates (UAE) became
independent on December 2, 1971, the scouts had become a
mobile
force of about 1,600 men, trained and led by about thirty
British
officers assisted by Jordanian noncommissioned officers
(NCOs).
Arabs from the Trucial Coast made up only about 40 percent
of the
strength; Omanis, Iranians, Pakistanis, and Indians made
up the
remainder. Organized as light armored cavalry, the scouts
used
British weapons, trucks, and armored cars in carrying out
police
functions and in keeping peace among the tribes of the
various
amirates. During its approximately two decades of
existence, the
unit was respected for its impartial role in maintaining
public
order on the coast.
At the time of independence and federation, the Trucial
Oman
Scouts became the nucleus of the Union Defense Force
(UDF),
responsible to the federal minister of defense, the
Supreme
Council of the Union, and--ultimately--to the president of
the
federation, Shaykh Zayid ibn Sultan Al Nuhayyan, ruler of
Abu
Dhabi, who continued to fill this office in 1993. Separate
amirate forces are also authorized by the provisional
constitution, and the separate entities of the
union--especially
Abu Dhabi--have made clear that they intend to maintain
their own
forces. Drawing on tremendous oil wealth accumulated in
the early
1960s, the amir of Abu Dhabi gave high priority to the
development of the Abu Dhabi Defense Force (ADDF) when the
British withdrawal from the gulf was announced. The
ADDF--with
15,000 men and primarily British and Jordanian officers--
consisted of three army battalions, an artillery battery,
twelve
Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers, and a sea defense wing of
four
fast patrol boats. Dubayy had a much smaller force of
2,000, Ras
al Khaymah had 900, and Sharjah had even fewer.
Personnel for the UDF and separate amirate forces were
recruited from several countries of the region, but soon
after
independence enlistments from Dhofar region in Oman and
from the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY, also seen as
South
Yemen) were curtailed out of fear that personnel from
these areas
might spread dangerous revolutionary doctrines. As the
largest in
territory, the most populous, and by far the richest of
the
amirates, Abu Dhabi has borne the brunt of funding the
federation's military establishment. A major step toward
unification of forces occurred in 1976 when Abu Dhabi,
Dubayy,
and Ras al Khaymah announced the merger of their separate
armed
forces with the UDF. Sharjah had previously merged its
police and
small military units into the UDF.
Despite the promises and pledges of 1976, true
integration
and unification of the UAE armed forces has not occurred.
The UDF
is seen by some, particularly the amir of Dubayy, as
merely an
extension of Abu Dhabi power. Individual amirs view their
forces
as symbols of sovereignty no matter the size or combat
readiness
of the units. The separate forces therefore continue as
they had
earlier, but they are called regional commands, only
nominally
part of the UDF. Shaykh Zayid ibn Sultan's attempt to
install his
eighteen-year-old son as commander in chief in 1978 shook
the
fragile unity of the UDF. Although the appointment was
rescinded,
Dubayy's resolve strengthened to maintain the autonomy of
the
Central Military Command, its own regional military
command.
As of 1992, the commander in chief of the UDF was Zayid
ibn
Sultan. The crown prince, Lieutenant General Khalifa ibn
Zayid Al
Nuhayyan, held immediate command as deputy commander in
chief.
The chief of staff with operational responsibilities was
Major
General Muhammad Said al Badi, a UAE national who replaced
a
Jordanian general in the post in the early 1980s. His
headquarters is in Abu Dhabi. The minister of defense is
Shaykh
Muhammad ibn Rashid Al Maktum, son of the ruler of Dubayy.
The
ministry, located in Dubayy, concerns itself primarily
with
administrative, personnel, and logistic matters and
apparently
has little influence on operational aspects of the UDF.
In data published by the Department of State in
mid-1991, the
total strength of the UDF with responsibility for defense
of six
of the seven amirates was estimated at 60,000. Dubayy
forces of
the Central Military Command with responsibility for the
defense
of Dubayy were given as 12,000. The Department of State
estimated
that there were 1,800 in the UDF air force and 1,000 in
the navy.
Estimates of ground forces given in The Military
Balance,
1992-1993 were significantly lower.
The Military Balance stated that perhaps 30
percent of
the armed services consist of foreigners, although other
sources
claim that the forces had a much higher proportion of
non-UAE
nationals. Omanis predominate in the enlisted ranks, but
there
are also many Pakistanis among the more than twenty
nationalities
represented. Well into the 1980s, many mid-level officers
were
Britons under contract, as well as Pakistanis and Omanis.
By 1991
the officer corps was composed almost exclusively of
amirate
nationals, according to the Department of State. The UAE
lacks a
conscription system and is unlikely to adopt one. It was
announced in 1990 that all university students would
undergo
military training as a requirement for graduation.
Although
adopted as a reaction to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the
UAE
authorities reportedly are considering continuation of the
requirement as a possible prelude to reservist training.
Data as of January 1993
|