The Royal Moroccan Army is the branch of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces
responsible for land-based military operations.
The army is about 175,000 troops strong, In case of war or state of siege, an
additional force of 150,000 Reservists and paramilitary forces, including
20,000 regulars of the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie and 30,000 Auxiliary Forces
come under the Ministry of Defense command.
Army forces from Morocco have taken part in different wars and battles during the
twentieth century, from World War I, to the recent Central African Republic
conflict. History
The Moroccan army has existed continuously since the rising of
Almoravid Empire in the 11th-century. During Colonisation and the
protectorates period, large numbers of Moroccans were recruited for service in
the Spahi and Tirailleur regiments of the French Army of Africa. Many served
during World War I. During World War II more than 300,000 Moroccan troops served
with the Free French forces in North Africa, Italy, France and Austria. The
two world conflicts saw Moroccan units earning the nickname of "Todesschwalben"
by German soldiers as they showed particular toughness on the battlefield.
After the end of World War II, Moroccan troops formed part of the French Far
East Expeditionary Corps engaged in the First Indochina War from 1946 to 1954.
The Spanish Army also made extensive use of Moroccan troops recruited in the
Spanish Protectorate, during both the Rif War of 192126 and the Spanish Civil
War of 193639. Moroccan Regulares, together with the Spanish Legion, made
up Spain's elite Spanish Army of Africa. A para-military gendarmerie, known as
the "Mehal-la Jalifianas" and modelled on the French goumieres, was employed
within the Spanish Zone. The Royal Armed Forces were created on
14 May 1956, after French Morocco, a French Protectorate, was dissolved.
Fourteen thousand Moroccan personnel from the French Army and ten thousand
from the Spanish Armed Forces transferred into the newly formed armed
forces. This number was augmented by approximately 5,000 former guerrillas
from the "Army of Liberation". About 2,000 French officers and NCOs remained
in Morocco on short term contracts, until crash training programmes at the
military academies of Saint-Cyr, Toledo and Dar al Bayda produced sufficient
numbers of Moroccan commissioned officers.
The first wars that Moroccan troops have taken part in the 20th century as an
independent country were the Ifni War and Sand War.
In the early 1960s, Moroccan troops were sent to the Congo as part of the first
multifunctional UN peacekeeping operation, ONUC. But the Moroccan Armed
Forces were mostly notable in fighting a 25-year asymmetric war against the
POLISARIO, an Algerian backed rebel national liberation movement seeking the
independence of Western Sahara from Morocco.
The Royal Moroccan Army fought during the Six-Day War and on the Golan front
during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and intervened decisively in the 1977
conflict known as Shaba I to save Zaire's regime. After Shaba II, Morocco
was part of the Inter-African Force deployed on the Zaire border,
contributing about 1,500 troops. The Armed Forces also took part in the Gulf
War with a Mechanized Battalion and an infantry battalion in the Omar and Tariq
Task Forces. In the 1990s, Moroccan troops went to
Angola with the three UN Angola Versification Missions, UNAVEM I, UNAVEM
II, and UNAVEM III. They were also in Somalia, with UNOSOM I, the U.S.-led
Unified Task Force, sometimes known by its U.S. codename of 'Restore Hope,' and
the follow-on UNOSOM II. They saw fighting during the 34 October 1993
confrontation in Mogadishu to rescue a U.S. anti-militia assault force. Other
peace support involvement during the 1990s included United Nations
Transitional Authority in Cambodia in Cambodia, and the missions in the former
Yugoslavia: IFOR, SFOR, and KFOR. Recent United Nations deployment in
Africa and elsewhere have included the United Nations Organization
Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UNOCI, BINUCA
and MISCA Other missions have included:
Perejil Island crisis International Security Assistance Force
Joint Command Operation Scorched Earth
MINUSTAH United Nations Supervision Mission in
Syria Algeria, Morocco, and other Maghreb
states affected by the GSPC insurgency have been assisted in fighting Islamist
militants by the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, when
Operation Enduring Freedom Trans Sahara began.
Army of Liberation The Army of Liberation was a force
fighting for the independence of Morocco. In 1956, units of the Army
began infiltrating Ifni and other enclaves of Spanish Morocco, as well as
the Spanish Sahara. Initially, they received important backing from the
Moroccan government. In the Spanish Sahara, the Army rallied Sahrawi tribes
along the way, and triggered a large-scale rebellion. In early 1958,
the Moroccan king reorganized the Army of Liberation units fighting in the
Spanish Sahara as the "Saharan Liberation Army".
The revolt in the Spanish Sahara was put down in 1958 by a joint French and
Spanish offensive. The king of Morocco then signed an agreement with the
Spanish, as he asserted control over the rebellious southern border areas, and
parts of the Army of Liberation was absorbed back into the Moroccan armed
forces. Nationalistic Moroccans tend to see the
Army of Liberation battles in Western Sahara as a proof of Western Sahara's
loyalty to the Moroccan crown, whereas sympathizers to the Polisario Front view
it only as an anti-colonial war directed against Spain. Sahrawi veterans of the
Army of Liberation today exist on both sides of the Western Sahara conflict,
and both the Kingdom of Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
celebrate it as part of their political history.
Forces today = Situation and equipment =
From the beginning of 21st-century, the Moroccan army began a modernisation
program that included the purchase of modern equipment and the transformation
into a more professional army performing multiple exercises with allied's armies,
as a Major non-NATO ally, member of the initiative 5+5 and other cooperation
agreements. The army's modernisation program took shape with the acquisitions
of weapons such as the Chinese VT-1A and MRLS AR2, American M1A1 Abrams, the HAWK
air defense system or the M109A5 Self-Propelled Howitzer.
The organisation and structure of command remained the same:
General Command HQ Northern Command
Southern Command Formations are 10 Independent Armored
battalions, 3 Mechanized Brigades with 19 battalions, 35 Independent Infantry
Battalions, 6 Light security Brigades, 2 Cavalry and 3 Camel Corps battalions, 2
Paratroops Brigades, 2 Airborne battalions, 4 Commando battalions and 13
Artillery battalions, Air defence is included in the Artillery structures and
divisions. Armored units are mostly deployed in
eastern and southern provinces, all along Algerian border and Moroccan wall.
More than 600 tanks are in service: 150 VT-1A, 148 T-72B and 427 M60A3/A3TTS
Patton. Some M48 Pattons were retired from active service and stored as
reserve with the 1991 cease-fire, the SK-105 Krassiers had the same fate. In
Addition, 200 ex-US M1 Abrams Abrams are expected to be delivered after
refurbishement and modernization to the M1A1SA "Special Armor" Configuration.
The mechanized brigades and Cavalries, equipped with Light Armored Carrier,
armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles for transport, combat
and recon missions, are equipped with, more or less: 1,200 M113 in different
variants, 60 Ratel 20/90, 395 VAB VCI/VTT, 110 ex-Belgian AIFV, 175 AML
90/60 and 110 AMX 10 RC. Other APCs are part of other corps as the Auxiliary's
UR-416, or the recent purchase of 88 Lenco BearCat for the Royal Moroccan
Gendarmerie. The Artillery, grouped in GARs, includes
Self-Propelled Howitzers, towed Howitzers, MRLS and Air Defense Systems,
mortar carriers are part of the RIMZ. The equipment includes: 213 155mm M109
SPH in different versions, 60 203mm M110A2 SPH, received as EDA from USA,
and 100 155mm Mk F3 remain in service. Note that only 155mm towed howitzers are
deployed all along the Moroccan Wall, that includes 140 155mm, 18 130mm and 54
105mm are deployed in different regions. 2 Battalions of MRLS are also listed as
part of RMAs inventory, the first with 36 122mm BM-21 and the second with 36
300mm AR2. Moroccan Anti-Aircraft Warfare have been
based basically on Self Propelled Air Defense Systems, waiting the arrival of
MIM-23 Hawk XXI HIMAD SAM. In its inventory we find 72 MIM-72 Chaparral,
12 Tunguska M1, 90 ZSU-23-4 and 115 M163 VADS, in addition of The MANPADS used by
the infantry are the 9K32 Strela-2, 9K38 Igla. Other systems include AAG
as M1939, ZU-23-2 or M167 VADS, usually mounted on LUVs and CUCVs. For base
protections 100 Type-90 were purchased from China, and recently, vehicles part
of the AF902 FC5/35mm AA Gun Air Defence System has been seen in Moroccan roads.
= International projection = The Kingdom of Morocco is part of
multiple international organisations, is a Major non-NATO ally, part of the Arab
League, and has established military cooperation with different countries
such as USA, Russia, Portugal, Tunisia, China, Qatar, Italy, France, Spain, UAE
or Turkey. As part of the UN, Moroccan Army participed in different
Peacekeeping missions. Moroccan troops were sent as part of SFOR, KFOR,
MINUSTAH or the more recent UNSMIS in Syria. It has also responded the call of
its allies, taking part of conflicts such as Shaba I, Battle of Mogadishu,
the Gulf War or the Operation Scorched Earth, among others. Morocco has
dispatched several field hospitals to conflict zones and areas affected by
natural disasters, the latest contributions were at Libyan Civil War,
the Syrian civil war. and in the Gaza strip after Operation Pillar of Defense.
The Royal Moroccan Army also performs annual training exercise called "African
Lion" with the United States Marine Corps. The exercise is a regularly
scheduled, combined U.S. - Moroccan military exercise designed to promote
improved interoperability and mutual understanding of each nation's tactics,
techniques, procedures, unit readiness and enhancing foreign relations.
Morocco has also been the venue for Exercise Jebel Sahara since September
2000, taken 10 times since, and gathering elements from 33 Squadron, 230
Squadron, 18 Squadron, 27 Squadron, Joint Helicopter Force HQ from RAF
Benson, 1st Battalion Royal Gibraltar Regiment and 2nd Brigade dInfanterie
Parachutiste of the Royal Moroccan Army. The aim of the Exercise was to increase
the Support Helicopter warfighting capability in desert hot and high
conditions and foster good relations between the UK and Morocco. To achieve
this, the scenario consisted of a joint counter insurgency operation in the
desert and mountain foothills to re-establish control and authority
within a troubled region of North Africa. Another exercises were the
Jebel Tarik, with the Moroccan contribution of service personnel to an
annual bilateral deployment of two companies of the Royal Gibraltar
Regiment to the UK, on seven occasions since 2003. Desert Vortex, a one-off
bilateral helicopter exercise which is run between 16 May and 30 June 2009.
This was a UK training exercise with objectives set by Joint Helicopter
Command and run concurrently with Moroccan Air Force annual helicopter
crew training. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment ran an
exercise with the Moroccan 2e Brigade d'Infanterie Parachutiste in late 2008.
The Royal Armed Forces also take part of different international exercises as
Leapfest [7], Flintlock [8], Blue Sand [9], and occasional military operations
exercises with Belgium, U.A.E., Spain, France and others.
Ranks Militaires du rang / Enlisted
Soldat de deuxime classe / Private Soldat de premire classe / Private
First Class Caporal or Brigadier / Lance corporal
Caporal-chef or Brigadier-chef / Corporal
Sous-officiers / non-commissioned officer
Eleve Sous-Officier / candidat at Non-Commissioned Officers School
Sergent / Sergeant Sergent-chef / Staff Sergeant
Sergent-major / Sergeant First Class Adjudant / Warrant officer
Adjudant chef / Chief Warrant Officer Officiers subalternes / Junior officers
Eleve Officier Officer Cadet Aspirant / Aspirant
Sous-lieutenant / Sub-lieutenant Lieutenant / Lieutenant
Capitaine / Captain Officiers suprieurs / Senior officers
Commandant / Major Lieutenant-Colonel/ Lieutenant Colonel
Colonel / Colonel Colonel Major / Colonel Major
Gnraux / General officers Gnral de brigade / Brigadier General
Gnral de division / Major General Gnral de corps d'arme / Lieutenant
General Gnral de l'arm et commandant en chef:
General of the Army and Commander-in-chief Retained by His
Majesty the King of Morocco. In 2009, the Moroccan army had:
24 Generals 80 Colonel-Major
200 Lt-Colonel Equipment
Uniform The most common service uniform of the
Royal Moroccan Army is olive drab, but you can also see Moroccan troops with
other types of uniforms such as the Desert lizard, Red Lizard and Camouflage
Centre Europe uniforms. See also
Royal Moroccan Armed Forces Royal Moroccan Navy
Royal Moroccan Air Force Moroccan Royal Guard
Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie Auxiliary Forces
References Further reading
Anthony Cordesman, 'A Tragedy of Arms' John Keegan "World Armies" ISBN
0-333-17236-1 R. Hure "L'Armee d' Afrique 1830-1962"
