Orange Free State Defence Forces

Orange Free State Defence Forces (in Afrikaans: Oranje Vrystaat Weermag) are responsible for the defence of Orange Free State. It is a cadre army of 20,000, of which 15,000 are professional soldiers (officers), extended with conscripts and reservists such that the standard readiness strength is 65,000 people in uniform (50,300 Army and 3,000 Air Force). A universal male conscription is in place, under which all men above 18 years of age serve for either 8 or 13 months. Alternative non-military service and volunteer service by women (about 500 chosen annually) are possible. The army consists of a highly mobile field army backed up by local defence units. The army defends the national territory and its military strategy employs the use of the heavily forested terrain and numerous lakes to wear down an aggressor, instead of attempting to hold the attacking army on the frontier. Recent peacekeeping actions by the Free State military include an expeditionary force to Jumaania in order to cease hostilities amongst different native groups and the Tirnreich citizens, and bring peace to the region. The Orange Free State has also provided extensive contributions to United Nations and African Union peacekeeping operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi.

History
Although the last time Orange Free State has participated in a major military conflict, it's Defence Forces are still regarded as highly effective.

Foundation
The Free State military evolved within the tradition of asymmetric warfare fought by Boer kommando forces against the British and African tribes in the 19th century. The current form of the Orange Free State Defence Forces was established in 1939 at the break of the Second World War, it was influenced by the Boers' historical distrust of large standing armies though. Although the army has not fought in any wars, the apartheid policies led to frictions with neighbouring states that helped to spark the border conflicts in South West Africa, now Namibia, from 1966 onwards, where the Orange Free State Special Forces aided the South African Army. During the 70's the counter-insurgency war against black liberation movements intensified and Orange Free State took it as a policy of attacking guerrilla-bases and safe houses of the ANC (African National Congress), PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) and SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization) in southern African countries beginning in the late 1970s. These attacks were in retaliation for acts of terror such as bomb explosions, massacres and guerrilla actions (like sabotage) by ANC, PAC and SWAPO guerrillas in the Free State, South Africa and Namibia. The country also aided organisations in surrounding countries who were actively combating the spread of communism in southern Africa. The role of the Army has not changed much by the upheavals of the 1980s, although it is now becoming increasingly involved in peacekeeping efforts in southern Africa, often as part of wider African Union operations. The results of these policies included:

Orange Free State Defence Force (OFSDF) hit-squad raids into "front-line" states. Air and commando raids into Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana occurred the same day, against selective ANC targets. An assassination attempt on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on 18 December 1981 with South African Special Forces. A full-scale invasion of Angola: this was partly in support of UNITA, but was also an attempt to strike at SWAPO bases. Bomb attacks in Lesotho. Targeting of exiled ANC leaders abroad: Joe Slovo's wife Ruth First was killed by a parcel bomb in Maputo, and 'death squads' of the State Security Bureau (BvS) and the Directorate of Military Intelligence attempted to carry out assassinations on ANC targets in Brussels, Paris, Stockholm and London. In 1985, Mozambican president Samora Machel signed the Nkomati Accord with Orange Free State's president P.W. Botha, in an attempt to rebuild Mozambique's economy. Orange Free State agreed to cease supporting anti-government forces, while the MK was prohibited from operating in Mozambique. This was a setback for the ANC. Two years later, President Machel was killed in an air crash in mountainous terrain in South Africa near the Mozambican border after returning from a meeting in Zambia. South Africa and Orange Free State were accused by the Mozambican government and U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz of continuing its aid to RENAMO and having caused the accident by using a false radio navigation beacon to lure the aircraft into crashing. This conspiracy theory was never proven and is still a subject of some controversy, despite the South African Margo Commission finding that the crash was an accident. A Soviet delegation that did not participate in the investigation issued a minority report implicating South Africa as sole responsible for it.

Infantry weapons

 * AG 88 (license built SIG SG 550) 5.56mm assault rifle (Orange Free State)
 * H&K 416 D14.5RS 5.56mm carbine rifle (Germany)
 * Vektor SS-77 7.62 mm general purpose machine gun (South Africa)
 * Milkor MGL-MK1 six round 40 mm grenade launcher (South Africa)
 * Heckler & Koch HK417 20" 7.62mm designated marksman rifle (Germany)

Combat vehicles

 * main battle tank
 * Rooikat 76 an 8 wheeled armoured fighting vehicle (South Africa)
 * XA-185 GPD a 6 wheeled armoured personnel carrier (Finland)