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49-698: The Namibian Special Forces is a special operations command of the Namibian Defence Force responsible for special forces component commands army and marines. The command consists of Namibian Army Commando and Paratrooper, and the Namibian Marine Corps Amphibious Special Operations Unit. The Army Commando specialize in air assault and airborne operations, capture or kill high-value targets, counterterrorism, direct action, hostage rescue, insertion behind enemy lines, executive protection, and special warfare operations, while

98-559: A Pathfinder Sub-unit and Headquarters element. A Commando Regiment is gradually expanding its capability to include a maritime capability. The Amphibious Special Operations Unit (part of the Marine Corps Infantry Battalion) is based at Walvis Bay with the Navy . Pre-Selection phase is 6 weeks long during which candidates are tested on military skills, such as Musketry Training, Navigation , Field Craft. After going through

147-598: A Personal Weapons Container (PWC) jump and a Night jump. After completing this the candidate is officially a paratrooper and is awarded the Parachute jump wings and the maroon beret . Training takes place at the Namibia Special Forces School at the Grootfontein Air Base . The training cycle continues for paratroopers and undergo further courses depending on their roles and ranks. Paratrooper Officers in

196-521: A low of 230 mm (9.1 in) during the 2010s drought in 2018/19. The town has a hot semi arid climate (Koppen:BSh). "Ministry of Works & Transport: Tabulation of Climate Statistics for Selected Stations in Namibia" (PDF) . 2012. Grootfontein is governed by a municipal council that has seven seats. The 2015 local authority election was won by Namibia's ruling SWAPO party which gained five seats and 2,019 votes. One seat each went to

245-520: A potential land zone and set it up before the larger parachute unit is dropped there making them the eyes and ears of the parachute unit. The Commando unit is the principal counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and special warfare operations whose primary role is direct action, counterterrorism, hostage rescue, long-range penetration, special operations, and special reconnaissance by inserting using unconventional parachute techniques to achieve an objective. The Amphibious Special Operations Unit

294-510: A qualified paratrooper having completed the Basic Static Line Parachute Jump Course. The Commando operators course covers Pre-Selection and Selection, Bush Craft, Tracking and Survival Escape and Evasion, Minor Tactics, Kayak Handling, Basic Photography, Basic Signals, Basic Urban, Basic Demolitions. Friendly countries including South Africa and Russia also accept candidates into their basic training cycles. After passing

343-569: A security arm of the former South African administration. The British formulated the force integration plan and began training the NDF, which consists of five battalions and a small headquarters element. The United Nations Transitional Assistance Group (UNTAG)'s Kenyan infantry battalion remained in Namibia for three months after independence to assist in training the NDF and stabilize the north. Martin Shalli and Charles 'Ho Chi Minh' Namoloh were involved in

392-520: Is 12 months after which the successful marine is then given the Operators badge and an Amphibious Commando patched to wear on their left arm. Only existing Marines are eligible for this training. Namibian Defence Force The Namibian Defence Force ( NDF ) comprises the national military forces of Namibia . It was created when the country, then known as South West Africa , gained independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990. Chapter 15 of

441-591: Is 8 weeks long Pathfinder Selection covers Bush Craft, Tracking and Survival, Escape and Evasion, Minor Tactics, Basic Photography, Basic Signals, DZSO (Drop Zone Safety Officer), Helicopter and Fixed Wing Landing Zones. The Commando operators basic course is 9 months long. Training takes place at the Special Forces School in Grootfontein . To qualify for the Commando operators Course the student should already be

490-533: Is also maritime special operations whose main role amphibious warfare, direct action, long-range penetration, maritime counterterrorism and hostage rescue, special reconnaissance, underwater demolition, and vbss operations, they were mostly used for the amphibious reconnaissances, direct action behind enemy lines, and underwater demolition support before a larger marine units are deployed. The special operations roles include but not limited to: A Paratrooper Unit Consisting of at least 3 rifle Companies, support company,

539-586: Is based at the Grootfontein Air Force Base . Here students from all service branches are training to qualify as Parachute specialists. The school was set up with help by the South African private military parachute training company Chute Systems who are training Namibia's airborne forces and associated staff e.g. parachute riggers. Established on 22 November 2009, the Naval Training School

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588-571: Is responsible for force deployment in the Military. [REDACTED] The Chief of the Defence Force (Namibia) is always a commissioned three star General/Air/Flag Officer from the officer corps. The first chief of the NDF was Lieutenant-General Dimo Hamaambo . He was previously the leader of PLAN, and a survivor of the Battle of Cassinga . Lieutenant-General Hamaambo was the first to be laid to rest at

637-455: Is responsible for the supplying materiel to the force. The first Director for Logistics was Colonel Peter Nambundunga The Defence Inspector General 's Directorate is responsible for maintaining the efficiency and effectivennes of the Force. It also investigates both internal and external complaints. The current Defence inspector General is Brigadier General Fiina Amupolo . NDF ranks are based on

686-562: Is the highest appointment a Non-Commissioned Officer may receive. Duties of the NDF Sergeant Major include making sure that discipline, drills, dressing code, performance standards, and morale of the non-commissioned officers are maintained. The current NDF Sergeant Major is Warrant Officer Class 1 (WO1) Leonard Iiyambo. He had succeeded WO1 Albert Siyaya, who in turn took over from retired Namibian Navy WO1 Isak Nankela. Previous Sergeant Majors are: The Joint Operations Directorate

735-498: Is the highest-ranking officer and exercises overall executive command of the force. Service chiefs are two-star general officers , air officers and flag officers in command of their respective arms of service. NDF directorates are led by one-star general officers, air officers and flag officers. The exception, however, is the Joint Operations Directorate, whose head is a major general. The Joint Operations Directorate

784-712: Is the main training and academic unit of the Namibian Defence Force. It offers Officer Cadets and NDF officers an opportunity to get a military-oriented academic qualification. Training and teaching in the institution ranges from Basic Military Training to technical mechanical training. The Namibia Command and Staff College offers the Junior Staff Course (JSC) and the Senior Command and Staff Course (SCSC). It provides staff training to prepare students for staff appointments. The force's parachute airborne school

833-445: Is the only directorate headed by a two star Flag/Air/General Officer. Its role is to coordinate and conduct combined Operations, implement plans and doctrines in the force. The first Director of Operation in 1990 was Brigadier General Martin Shalli. The Force's Defence Health Services provides medical services to service personnel, it operates sick bays at all bases and units as well the military hospitals. The Logitistcs Directorate

882-600: The Constitution of Namibia establishes the NDF and defines its role and purpose as, " ... to defend the territory and national interests of Namibia" . Namibia's military was born from the integration of the formerly belligerent People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), military wing of the South West African People's Organization , and the South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) –

931-654: The Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 546 votes) and to the All People's Party (APP, 154 votes). SWAPO also won the 2020 local authority election , obtaining 1,727 votes and gaining four seats. The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020, obtained 653 votes and gained two seats. The remaining seat went to the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM, the new name of

980-789: The Dorsland trekkers , they were heading towards Angola . When that territory fell under Portuguese control, they turned back and established the Republic of Upingtonia at Grootfontein. Abandoned by 1887, it became the headquarters of the South West Africa Company in 1893. In 1908 the Roman Catholic church established a mission in Grootfontein as the basis of their eventually successful attempt to establish missions in Kavango . Like all

1029-559: The Heroes' Acre memorial outside Windhoek, a few days after its official opening in 2002. Lieutenant-General Solomon Huwala replaced Hamaambo as Chief of the NDF on Hamaambo's retirement. After Lieutenant-General Huwala retired in October 2006, Lieutenant General Martin Shalli headed the NDF. President Hifikepunye Pohamba suspended Lieutenant-General Shalli from his post as Chief of Defence Force in 2009 over corruption allegations, dating back to

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1078-548: The Maritime Warfare Branch has been slow, and the force was only formally established in 2004, 14 years after independence. Today, it numbers over 1100 personnel and deploys a small number of lightly armed patrol vessels. Extensive Brazilian aid assisted in its development. The Joint Headquarters is an Arm of Service level institution in the Defence Force and is created by the Minister of Defence in terms of section 13 of

1127-683: The Second Artillery Corps and two PLA Military Region chiefs of staff. Chen also met President Pohamba that day. In 2012, NDF officials announced the suspension of its recruitment campaign due to a lack of "accommodation facilities" for new personnel for a two-year period. The suspension, however, did not include the recruitment of specialist personnel as the Namibian Navy in 2013 had a recruitment exercise for sailors(officers and men) and marines. In 2014, recruitment resumed after accommodation issues were resolved. The Chief Of Defence Force

1176-468: The 1st Battalion, about 1 000 men strong, accompanied by 5 BMATT Advisors, had deployed to the northern border. By November 1990, only four months later, the 5th Battalion had deployed and in early 1991 the 21st Guards Battalion had also been formed, four staff courses had been run, support weapons and logistics training was well advanced (indeed a logistics battalion deployed as early as July 1990) and an operational test exercise had been conducted. In addition

1225-600: The Angola accords were signed in Luanda on 22 December 1988. In November 1989 SWAPO won 57% of the votes in the Namibian General Election and immediately requested the help of a British Military Advisory and Training Team following independence on 21 March 1990. The team, initially 55 strong, was duly deployed on 26 March 1990 and the first leaders cadre, for the 1st and 2nd Battalions, was run from 17 April to 2 June. By 1 July,

1274-579: The Chief of Staff for Defence Intelligence. Warrant Officer Class 1 Appointments Any warrant officer class 1 could be posted to substantive posts, including The Landward Arm of service for the Defence force is the Namibian Army , it is also the largest of the NDF's service branches. The Aerial Warfare branch is small, but was bolstered with deliveries of some fighter jets in 2006 and 2008. Development of

1323-615: The Commonwealth rank structure. There is no approved four-star general rank in the NDF. The Chief of Defence Force is a singular appointment that comes with an elevation to the rank of lieutenant general for an Army officer, air marshal for an Air Force officer and vice admiral for a Navy officer. Arms of services commanders i.e. Army, Air Force and Navy commanders, have a rank of major general, air vice marshal and rear admiral. The rank of brigadier has also been transformed into brigadier general. Directorate heads are always brigadier generals, i.e.

1372-616: The DTA) with 309 votes. Previously the German school Regierungsschule Grootfontein had been in Grootfonten. In 1965 it had 4 teachers and 117 learners and was supported by the German government. Nowadays, Grootfontein is home to four high schools, Grootfontein Secondary School, Otjiwanda High School Friedrich Awaseb Senior Secondary School, and a private school named Karstveld Academy. Further

1421-590: The Defence Act. Defence spending and percentage of GDP included $ 90 million in 1997/98, 2.6% of GDP. The 73.1 million figure in 2002 was 2.4% of GDP. These figures are almost certainly CIA World Factbook estimates. Major General A W Dennis, CB, OBE (rtd), British Army , previously Director of Military Assistance Overseas, made the following comments on the initial phase in Namibia at a conference in Pretoria, South Africa on 6 August 1992: You will no doubt recall that

1470-507: The Defence Act. Situated at the Oshivelo Army base, the school offers units and battle groups to test their combat fighting skills in conventional and non-conventional warfare. The school also offers courses such as: Established in 2011 the technical centre impart students with knowledge repair and maintain army systems and installations. The centre was commissioned on 27 February 2015. The Namibian Defence Force Training Establishment

1519-460: The Defence force qualifications ranging from Bachelor of Science Honors degrees in the field of nautical, Army and Aeronautical, to a post-graduate diploma in Security and Strategic studies, and a Master of Arts in Security and Strategic Studies (MA-SSS). The School of Signals provides training to all personnel wishing to specialize in the communications field. The signals school was formed in 2015 from

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1568-704: The General Staff Department of the People's Liberation Army and member of the Central Military Commission, met Charles Namoloh and Peter Nambundunga, acting commander of the Namibian Defence Forces, in Windhoek . At their meeting, the two sides had in-depth discussions on further strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the two armed forces. Chen was accompanied by the chief of staff of

1617-577: The Hercules C130, as well as commercial passenger aircraft. The Grootfontein Show , an annual agricultural exhibition that has taken place since 1911, is the second largest annual entrepreneurial exhibition in the country, after the Windhoek Show . Grootfontein receives an annual average rainfall of 557 millimetres (21.9 in), with a high of 956 mm (37.6 in) in the 2010/2011 rainy season, and

1666-527: The Marine Corps Amphibious Special Operations Unit specialize in amphibious warfare, direct action, executive protection, insertion behind enemy lines, maritime counterterrorism and hostage rescue, naval boarding, naval special warfare operations, operating that originate from a river, ocean, swamp and delta, and underwater demolition. The army units receive training assistance from former South African Special Forces (Recces) and

1715-629: The Ministry of Defence, a mixture of civilian and military personnel, was operating as a department of state. No-one would pretend that everything was working perfectly, nevertheless, a great deal had been achieved in the first year following independence. Most people would probably agree that at some 7 500 strong the Army is unnecessarily large, but sensible plans will need to be made for the employment of any surplus soldiers before they are discharged. Integration has not been easy to achieve, at least in part, because of

1764-801: The course of their careers undertake courses like the Airborne Battle Handling course and the Paratrooper Company Commanders And Second-In-Command Courses. Senior Non Commissioned officer's undertake courses like the Paratrooper Company Warrant Officer 's/Quartermasters Course which includes aspects like how to build a field base and Battlefield replenishment are taught. Pathfinders are taken from existing Paratroopers. A Pathfinder student should be Basic Static Line Parachuting and Basic Free Fall Parachuting qualified. The Pathfinder course

1813-542: The departure of most white South African and SWATF officers. But the Government's intentions seem clear in that it decided to split the four MOD directorates evenly, appointing two white and two black (ex PLAN) directors. In all this, BMATT Namibia has played a role remarkably similar to that of BMATT Zimbabwe. In August 1999, a separatist Lozi faction in the Caprivi Strip launched a coup attempt (see Caprivi conflict ) which

1862-423: The largest naturally occurring mass of iron known to exist on the planet's surface. Grootfontein is a railhead on TransNamib , the national railway and transport system. The next station to the west is Otavi . Grootfontein is also home of Namibia's main military base which housed several units of the now departed South African Defence Force . It has an airfield that can handle large transport carriers such as

1911-622: The marine corps from the Brazilian Marine Corps . The units regularly participate in Southern African Development Community (SADC) special forces exercises. The roles vary according to the unit. The Parachute Battalion role is to be dropped to an objective via static line parachuting. The Pathfinder unit is a special reconnaissance unit of the Parachute Battalion, its role is to deploy small units to search

1960-450: The need to use several interpreters to cope with the wide variety of languages involved. Battalions are made up of approximately 70% ex-PLAN and 30% ex-SWATF. This mixture could have proved explosive but hounded by their BMATT instructors they united in a common task (or perhaps in the face of a common enemy!) and soon realised that they could work well together. At the higher levels, integration has been more patchy, at least in part because of

2009-515: The negotiations that allowed the Kenyan infantry battalion to remain for that period. The main roles of the Namibian Defence Force are to ensure the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country by guarding against external aggression, both conventional and unconventional; prevent violation of Namibia's territorial integrity; and provide assistance to civil authorities in guarding and protecting government buildings and key installations as provided in

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2058-533: The old Signals Training Wing and Computer Training Centre of the military school. The school is co-located with the military school. It consists of four wings, one administration wing, and three training wings. The school offers the following courses: Grootfontein The place was known to the Herero under the name Otjivanda . In 1885, 40 Boer families from the north-west of South Africa settled at Grootfontein. Part of

2107-773: The operators course the student is then awarded the Special Forces Dagger. The advanced training cycle then starts for the operator for another 36 months in order to become a fully qualified Commando specialist. The specialist training cycle covers Advanced Signals, Small Boats (Kayaks), Combat Photography, Sharp Shooter, Advanced Demolitions, Advanced Urban, Combat Swimming, Scuba Diving, Attack Diving, Commando Team Leaders, Fast-roping and Rappelling, Basic Mountaineering and Advanced 4x4 Driver Skills. The Amphibious Special Operations Unit are trained in Walvis Bay by Brazilian instructors. The amphibious commando basic training course

2156-584: The pre selection phase the candidates progress to the Parachute Selection Phase. Both phases are physically and mentally tough. The pass rate for both phases is only 30 percent. The candidates then progress to the Basic Static Line Jump Course which consists of a 1-week ground phase and 3 weeks of Practical Parachute Jumping. Included in this is 9 Parachute Jumps which of which 5 are Clean Fatigue jumps with Combat Webbing and Weapon jump,

2205-523: The time when Shalli served as Namibia's High Commissioner to Zambia. During the time of the suspension, Army Commander Major General Peter Nambundunga acted as Chief. Shalli was eventually forced to retire in January 2011; the post of Chief of the NDF was given to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah . Ndaitwah served until 31 December 2013 when the NDF Chief's position was given to Maj Gen John Mutwa. NDF Sergeant Major

2254-444: The town. These produced zinc and vanadium but have since closed. Namibia is a dolomite country and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts of the mine have yielded interesting fossils of simian or pongoid creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved. Twenty four kilometres west of Grootfontein lies the huge Hoba meteorite . At over 60 tons, it is the largest known meteorite on Earth, as well as

2303-514: The towns in the Otavi Triangle, Grootfontein is green in summer but drier in winter. In spring, jacaranda and flamboyant trees bloom in profusion. The town has an old German Schutztruppe fortress from the year 1896, which today houses a museum that expounds on the local history. The economic mainspring of the area were for many decades the Berg Aukas and Abenab mines to the north east of

2352-565: Was commissioned by President Hage Geingob on 22 July 2016. It is administratively divided into two sections, Sailors Training Wing and Marine Training Wing. It offers the following courses: The School of Air Power Studies is run in conjunction with the Namibia Aviation Training Academy, which trains pilots and technicians. The School of Military Science , run in conjunction with the University of Namibia , offers officers in

2401-526: Was summarily put down by the Namibian Defence Force. The army has conducted security operations along the northern border with Angola . In the process of these operations, there were allegations in 2001 that the army has tortured people suspected of being UNITA sympathisers. IRIN reported that the Ministry of Defence had admitted that two Namibian soldiers died fighting suspected UNITA rebels in southern Angola in July 2001. On 24 May 2010, Chen Bingde , Chief of

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