Zambian Defence Force

The Zambian Defence Force is the military of Zambia. It consists of the Zambian Army, the Zambian Air Force and the Zambia National Service, a third branch that gives basic military instruction to citizens who may be mobilised as reservists. The force was formed at Zambian independence on 24 October 1964 from constituent units of the dissolved Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Armed Forces, and it inherited the command structures of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment and the Northern Rhodesian Air Wing. Zambia is landlocked and has no navy, though the army keeps a maritime patrol unit for inland waters. During the 1970s and 1980s the force played a key part in regional conflicts, namely the South African Border War and the Rhodesian Bush War, after Zambia sheltered liberation movements based in exile. In 1976 it was reorganised under a unified command and renamed the Zambian National Defence Force.