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Sudan
Navy
The navy, formed in 1962, was the smallest branch of the country's
military establishment. Its personnel strength was uncertain but
was estimated at 500 officers and men. Headed by a brigadier general
from headquarters in Port Sudan, the service was responsible for
coastal and riverine defense and for deterring smuggling along
the Red Sea coast. A Nile River patrol unit was based at Khartoum.
The navy was formed originally around a nucleus of four armed
coastal patrol boats provided by Yugoslavia. Subsequently, river
patrol boats, landing craft, and auxiliary vessels were also obtained
from Yugoslavia, and a Yugoslav training staff was on hand until
1972. In 1975 the Yugoslav patrol boats were replaced by two seventy-ton
patrol craft and four ten-ton patrol craft transferred from Iran
and armed with machine guns. In 1989 four new 19.5-ton riverine
fast patrol craft armed with 20mm and 7.62mm machine guns were
delivered by Yugoslavia for operations on the White Nile. The
purpose of the new craft was to protect river convoys of supplies
and troops to the south. The operational status of the two large
patrol craft was regarded as uncertain in 1990. The general standard
of efficiency of the navy was considered to be inadequate as a
consequence of a lack of maintenance and spare parts. Most auxiliary
vessels had drifted into a state of total disrepair (see table
15, Appendix).
The navy was assigned two Casa C-212 aircraft, operated by air
force crews, which had a limited capacity to carry out maritime
reconnaissance over the Red Sea. The airplanes were unarmed.
Data as of June 1991
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