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| Royal Moroccan Army | |
|---|---|
| Arabic:القوات البرية الملكية المغربية Standard Moroccan Tamazight:ⵜⴰⵙⵔⴷⴰⵙⵜ ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⴰⵏⵜ | |
 Flag of the Royal Moroccan Army | |
| Founded | 1088 |
| Country |  Morocco |
| Allegiance | King of Morocco |
| Branch | Army |
| Role | Land force |
| Size | 200,000[1] |
| Part of | Royal Moroccan Armed Forces |
| Motto(s) | God, Homeland, King Arabic:الله ,الوطن ,الملك Standard Moroccan Tamazight:ⴰⴽⵓⵛ, ⴰⵎⵓⵔ, ⴰⴳⵍⵍⵉⴷ |
| Anniversaries | 14 May |
| Engagements | Ifni War Sand War |
| Commanders | |
| Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces | Mohammed VI of Morocco |
| Minister-Delegate of the Administration of Defense | Abdellatif Loudiyi |
| General Inspector of the Armed Forces | Mohammed Berrid |
| Notable commanders | Ahmed Dlimi |
| Insignia | |
| Army Insignia |  |
TheRoyal Moroccan Army (Arabic:القوات البرية الملكية المغربيةAl-Quwwat al-Bariyah al-Malakiyah al-Maghribiyah,Standard Moroccan Tamazight:ⵜⴰⵙⵔⴷⴰⵙⵜ ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⴰⵏⵜtasrdast tagldant) is the branch of theRoyal Moroccan Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations.
The Royal Moroccan Army is about 215,000 troops strong and consists of 195,000 professional soldiers and 20,000 conscripts.[2] In case of war or state of siege, an additional force of 150,000 Reservists[citation needed] and paramilitary forces, including 24,000 regulars of theRoyal Moroccan Gendarmerie and 30,000Auxiliary Forces come under the Ministry of Defense command.
Army forces from Morocco have taken part in different wars and battles during the twentieth century, fromWorld War I, to the recentCentral African Republic conflict.[3]
The Moroccan army has existed continuously since the rising ofAlmoravid Empire in the 11th-century. During the protectorate period (1912–1955),[4] large numbers of Moroccans were recruited for service in theSpahi andTirailleur regiments of the FrenchArmy of Africa (French:Armée d'Afrique). Many served duringWorld War I. During World War II more than 300,000 Moroccan troops (includinggoumier auxiliaries) served with theFree French forces in North Africa, Italy, France and Austria. The two world conflicts saw Moroccan units earning the nickname of "Todesschwalben" (death swallows) by German soldiers as they showed particular toughness on the battlefield. After the end ofWorld War II, Moroccan troops formed part of theFrench Far East Expeditionary Corps engaged in theFirst Indochina War from 1946 to 1954.
TheSpanish Army also made extensive use of Moroccan troops recruited in theSpanish Protectorate, during both theRif War of 1921–26 and theSpanish Civil War of 1936–39. MoroccanRegulares, together with theSpanish Legion, made up Spain's eliteSpanish Army of Africa. A para-militarygendarmerie, 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, afterFrench 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 ofSaint-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 theIfni War andSand 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 most notable in fighting a 25-year asymmetric war (Western Sahara War) against thePOLISARIO, anAlgerian backed rebel nationalliberation movement seeking the independence ofWestern Sahara from Morocco.
The Royal Moroccan Army fought during theSix-Day War and on the Golan front during theYom Kippur War of 1973 (mostly in the battle forQuneitra) and intervened decisively in the 1977 conflict known asShaba I to save Zaire's regime.[5][6][7] After Shaba II, Morocco was part of theInter-African Force deployed on the Zaire border, contributing about 1,500 troops.[8] The Armed Forces also took part in theGulf 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, andUNAVEM III. They were also in Somalia, withUNOSOM I, the U.S.-ledUnified Task Force (UNITAF), sometimes known by its U.S. codename of 'Restore Hope,' and the follow-onUNOSOM II. They saw fighting during the3–4 October 1993 confrontation in Mogadishu to rescue a U.S. anti-militia assault force. Other peace support involvement during the 1990s includedUnited Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in Cambodia, and the missions in the former Yugoslavia:IFOR,SFOR, andKFOR.
Recent United Nations deployment in Africa and elsewhere have included theUnited Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), theUNOCI,BINUCA andMISCA (2014)
Other missions have included:[citation needed]
Algeria, Morocco, and other Maghreb states affected by theGSPC insurgency have been assisted in fighting Islamist militants by the United States and the United Kingdom since 2007, whenOperation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara began.
The Army of Liberation (Arabic:جيش التحرير,Standard Moroccan Tamazight:ⴰⵙⴻⵔⴷⴰⵙ ⵏ ⵓⵙⵍⴻⵍⵍⵉ) was a force fighting for theindependence ofMorocco. In 1956, units of the Army began infiltratingIfni and other enclaves ofSpanish Morocco, as well as theSpanish Sahara. Initially, they received important backing from the Moroccan government. In the Spanish Sahara, the Army ralliedSahrawi tribes along the way, and triggered alarge-scale rebellion. In early 1958, the Moroccan king reorganized the Army of Liberation units fighting in the Spanish Sahara as the "Saharan Liberation Army"[citation needed].
The revolt in theSpanish Sahara was put down in 1958 by a jointFrench and Spanish offensive. Theking 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 thePolisario Front view it only as an anti-colonial war directed againstSpain. Sahrawi veterans of the Army of Liberation today exist on both sides of the Western Sahara conflict, and both theKingdom of Morocco and theSahrawi Arab Democratic Republic celebrate it as part of their political history.
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 armies, and as aMajor non-NATO ally of the US, and member of the initiative 5+5[10] 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:
Formations are as follows:
The Kingdom of Morocco is part of multiple international organisations, is aMajor non-NATO ally, part of theArab League, and has established military cooperation with different countries such as USA,[11] Russia,[12] Portugal,[13] Tunisia,[14] China, Qatar, Italy, France,[15] Spain,[16] UAE or Turkey. As part of theUN, Moroccan Army participated in differentPeacekeeping missions. Moroccan troops were sent as part ofSFOR,KFOR,MINUSTAH or the more recentUNSMIS in Syria. It has also responded the call of its allies, taking part of conflicts such asShaba I,Battle of Mogadishu (1993), theGulf War or theOperation Scorched Earth, among others. Morocco has dispatched severalfield hospitals to conflict zones and areas affected by natural disasters, the latest contributions were atLibyan Civil War,[17] theSyrian civil war.[18] and in the Gaza strip afterOperation 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 d'Infanterie 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.[19] Another exercises were the "Jebel Tarik", with the Moroccan contribution of service personnel to an annual bilateral deployment of two companies (up to 180 personnel) of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment (RG) to the UK, on seven occasions since 2003.[20] "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 (JHC) and run concurrently with Moroccan Air Force annual helicopter crew training.[21]
TheRoyal Gibraltar Regiment ran an exercise with the Moroccan 2e Brigade d'Infanterie Parachutiste (2e BIP) in late 2008.[22]
The Royal Armed Forces also take part of different international exercises as Leapfest,[23] Flintlock,[24] Blue Sand,[25] and occasional military operations exercises with Belgium, U.A.E., Spain, France and others.
| Rank group | General / flag officers | Senior officers | Junior officers | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Royal Moroccan Army[26] |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||||||
| Maréchal | Général d'armée | Général de corps d'armée | Général de division | Général de brigade | Colonel-major | Colonel | Lieutenant-colonel | Commandant | Capitaine | Lieutenant | Sous-lieutenant | |||||||||||||
| Rank group | Senior NCOs | Junior NCOs | Enlisted | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Royal Moroccan Army[26] |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adjudant-chef | Adjudant | Sergent-major | Sergent-chef | Sergent | Caporal-chef | Caporal | Soldat de première classe | Soldat de deuxième classe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In 2009, the Moroccan army had:[27]
The most common service uniform of the Royal Moroccan Army isolive drab, but you can also see Moroccan troops with other types of uniforms such as theDesert lizard,Red Lizard andCamouflage Central-Europe uniforms.The uniform has been changed into a newer and modern one :
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