Royal Lao Armed Forces

The Royal Lao Armed Forces, best known by their French acronym FAR, were the official military of the Kingdom of Laos, a state that existed from 1949 to 1975 in what is now the Lao People's Democratic Republic. They were first created under the French protectorate of Laos on July 1, 1949 and became responsible for the defence of the kingdom after independence from France in October 1953, until their dissolution on December 2, 1975. The force had an army, an air force and a navy. The formation process was slowed by the First Indochina War, and the National Laotian Army, predecessor of the Royal Lao Army, only began to take shape in 1952. It operated notably during the North Vietnamese invasion of Laos and the Laotian Civil War from 1960 to 1975, and over its existence it received assistance from many countries including France and the United States.