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Cyprus Organization and Equipment
In 1989, the National Guard was commanded by Greek
Lieutenant
General Panayotis Markopoulos. He was responsible to the
minister
of defense and ultimately to President George Vassiliou.
According
to The Military Balance, the National Guard was
organized
into an army headquarters, two divisional headquarters,
and two
brigade headquarters that would be filled out with combat
units
upon mobilization. Its largest active units consisted of
two
mechanized battalions, one armored battalion, an artillery
battalion, and a commando battalion. Reserves were
organized into
six infantry brigades, each with three infantry
battalions, one
light artillery battalion, and one armored reconnaissance
squadron.
These units were maintained only at cadre strength. Greek
Army
forces were organized into one infantry battalion, one
commando
battalion, and a support element.
Foreign military observers considered the Greek Cypriot
and
Greek forces on the southern part of the island to be
seriously
deficient relative to the Turkish Army contingent in the
north,
notably with respect to armored strength. They also had
little
protection against aircraft based on the nearby Turkish
mainland.
During the 1974 fighting, the 200 Turkish tanks ferried to
the
island had proven the determining factor in the collapse
of the
Greek Cypriot defenses. The acquisition of armored
equipment,
antitank weapons, and antiaircraft systems by the National
Guard in
the late 1980s addressed the most conspicuous weaknesses
in the
National Guard's defensive armaments, but still fell short
of
matching the Turkish forces in the north.
The National Guard's armor, which had previously
consisted of
a few Soviet T-34 tanks of World War II vintage and a
small number
of armored personnel carriers (APCs) and obsolete armored
cars, was
significantly augmented beginning in 1987, with the
delivery of
French AMX-30 B-2 tanks mounted with 105mm guns. The total
order of
fifty-four tanks was due to be in service by the early
1990s. A
total of 127 French wheeled APCs had also been acquired;
27 were
fitted with 20mm cannons and the rest with turret-mounted
machineguns. Also on order were 120 EE-9 Cascavel
six-wheeled
armored vehicles from Brazil, equipped with 90mm guns, of
which 40
had been delivered as of 1989. The EE-11 Urutu, a
Brazilian APC,
had been purchased and twenty-eight armored reconnaissance
vehicles, the EE-3 Jararaca, also manufactured in Brazil,
were on
order. It was also reported that 500 vehicles, presumably
unarmored, would be supplied by Greece as aid in 1990, as
part of
a longer term plan to modernize 2,000 vehicles in the
National
Guard inventory
(see table 23).
The National Guard's artillery units were equipped with
75mm to
105mm guns and howitzers and truck-mounted 128mm multiple
rocket
launchers of Yugoslav manufacture. Antitank defenses had
been
stiffened by the purchase of Milan and HOT (high-subsonic,
optically tracked) wire-guided missile systems from
France. Some of
the HOT missiles were fitted to armored vehicles and to
six Gazelle
helicopters acquired from France in 1988.
The air defense capability was strengthened in the late
1980s
by the acquisition of triple 20mm cannons from Yugoslavia
and twin
35mm towed antiaircraft guns from Switzerland, which were
to be
used in conjunction with the Contraves Skyguard
fire-control radar
system. The older 40mm and 94mm antiaircraft guns still in
the
inventory were considered virtually useless against modern
fighter
aircraft. The National Guard had also acquired from Syria
a small
number of Soviet SA-7 shoulder-fired surface-to-air
missiles.
The National Guard air element as of 1989 included
Gazelle
helicopters and one Pilatus Maritime Defender suitable for
coastal
patrol and light transport duties. In mid-1989, the first
of two
Swiss Pilatus PC-9 turboprop aircraft was delivered. These
planes
were intended for advanced training but could be modified
for
combat missions. The National Guard Naval Command, with
330
personnel in 1989, had one coastal patrol craft of 95 tons
mounting
a 40mm gun.
According to press reports in spring 1990, the Greek
Cypriot
government had placed orders for additional Gazelle
helicopters
mounted with HOT missiles, more antiaircraft guns,
medium-range
antiaircraft missiles, and Leonidas armored vehicles from
Greece.
Data as of January 1991
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