The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces (, ) are the

military forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

of the

Kingdom of Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. They consist of the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

, the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

, the

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

, the Royal Gendarmerie, and the

Royal Guard A royal guard is a group of military bodyguards, soldiers or armed retainers responsible for the protection of a royal person, such as the emperor or empress, king or queen, or prince or princess. They often are an elite unit of the regular arm ...

. The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces are large, expensive and well-trained with extensive experience in counter-insurgency,

desert warfare In desert warfare, the heat and lack of water can sometimes be more dangerous than the enemy. The desert terrain is the second most inhospitable to troops following a cold environment. The lack of water, extremes of heat/cold, and lack of cover m ...

and combined air-land operations. Further experience has come from participating in

peace-keeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United N ...

operations. IISS 2013, pp. 394

History

The oldest "Moroccan" military forces are those of the Mauri Berber Kingdoms from around 225 BCE.

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding in ...

Ab Urbe Condita Libri The work called ( en, From the Founding of the City), sometimes referred to as (''Books from the Founding of the City''), is a monumental history of ancient Rome, written in Latin between 27 and 9 BC by Livy, a Roman historian. The wor ...

'' 29.30 The Moroccan army has existed continuously since 1088 during the rising of

Almoravid Empire The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that ...

in the 11th-century. During the protectorates period (1912–1955), large numbers of Moroccans were recruited for service in the

Spahi Spahis () were light-cavalry regiments of the French army recruited primarily from the indigenous populations of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The modern French Army retains one regiment of Spahis as an armoured unit, with personnel now ...

and

Tirailleur A tirailleur (), in the Napoleonic era, was a type of light infantry trained to skirmish ahead of the main columns. Later, the term "''tirailleur''" was used by the French Army as a designation for indigenous infantry recruited in the French ...

regiments of the French Army of Africa ( French: ''Armée d'Afrique''). Many served during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During World War II more than 300,000 Moroccan troops (including

goumier The Moroccan Goumiers (french: Les Goumiers Marocains) were indigenous Moroccan soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa, between 1908 and 1956. While nominally in the service of the Sultan of Morocco, they s ...

auxiliaries) served with the

Free French forces __NOTOC__ The French Liberation Army (french: Armée française de la Libération or AFL) was the reunified French Army that arose from the merging of the Armée d'Afrique with the prior Free French Forces (french: Forces françaises libres, l ...

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 of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Moroccan troops formed part of the

French Far East Expeditionary Corps The French Far East Expeditionary Corps (french: Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient, CEFEO) was a colonial expeditionary force of the French Union Army that was initially formed in French Indochina in 1945 during the Pacific W ...

engaged in the

First Indochina War The First Indochina War (generally known as the Indochina War in France, and as the Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam) began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh (Democratic Republic of Vi ...

from 1946 to 1954. The Spanish Army also made extensive use of Moroccan troops recruited in the Spanish Protectorate, during both the

Rif War The Rif War () was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco. Led by Abd el-Krim, the Riffians at first inflicted several de ...

of 1921–26 and the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

of 1936–39. Moroccan ''

Regulares The Fuerzas Regulares Indígenas ("Indigenous Regular Forces"), known simply as the Regulares (Regulars), are volunteer infantry units of the Spanish Army, largely recruited in the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Consisting of indigenous infantry ...

'', together with the

Spanish Legion For centuries, Spain recruited foreign soldiers to its army, forming the Foreign Regiments () - such as the Regiment of Hibernia (formed in 1709 from Irishmen who fled their own country in the wake of the Flight of the Earls and the pena ...

, made up Spain's elite

Spanish Army of Africa The Army of Africa ( es, Ejército de África, ar, الجيش الإسباني في أفريقيا, Al-Jaysh al-Isbānī fī Afriqā) or Moroccan Army Corps ( es, Cuerpo de Ejército Marroquí') was a field army of the Spanish Army that garriso ...

. A para-military gendarmerie, 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, after the French Protectorate was dissolved in 1955. 14,000 Moroccan personnel from the French Army and 10,000 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 the training programs at the military academies of St-Cyr, Toledo and Dar al Bayda produced sufficient numbers of Moroccan commissioned officers. Four years later, the

Royal Moroccan Navy ber, ⴰⴷⵡⴰⵙ ⴰⴳⴻⵍⴷⴰⵏ ⵏ ⵢⵉⵍⴻⵍ , image = , caption = Royal Moroccan Navy Seal , start_date = active since: 11th century current form: 30 Apr ...

was established in 1960. The Moroccan military's first engagement as an independent country in the 20th century was the

Ifni War The Ifni War, sometimes called the Forgotten War in Spain (''la Guerra Olvidada''), was a series of armed incursions into Spanish West Africa by Moroccan insurgents that began in October 1957 and culminated with the abortive siege of Sidi ...

, followed by the

Rif revolt 1958 Rif riots, Rif Revolt or Rif uprising took place in the northern Rif region of Morocco by tribes rebelling against the Moroccan regime, motivated by the region's marginalization. The revolt, led by Sellam Amezian, had a clear set of demands ...

, and then the border war of 1963 with Algeria,Ifni & After
''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...

'', December 16, 1957''Algerian-Moroccan War 1963''
– onwar.com In the early 1960s, Moroccan troops were sent to the Congo as part of the first multifunctional UN peacekeeping operation

ONUC The United Nations Operation in the Congo (french: Opération des Nations Unies au Congo, abbreviated to ONUC) was a United Nations peacekeeping force deployed in the Republic of the Congo in 1960 in response to the Congo Crisis. ONUC was th ...

, The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces fought on the Golan front during the

Yom Kippur War The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...

of 1973 (mostly in the battle for

Quneitra Quneitra (also Al Qunaytirah, Qunaitira, or Kuneitra; ar, ٱلْقُنَيْطِرَة or ٱلْقُنَيطْرَة, ''al-Qunayṭrah'' or ''al-Qunayṭirah'' ) is the largely destroyed and abandoned capital of the Quneitra Governorate in sout ...

) and intervened decisively in the 1977 conflict known as

Shaba I Shaba I was a conflict in Zaire's Shaba (Katanga) Province lasting from March 8 to May 26, 1977. The conflict began when the Front for the National Liberation of the Congo (FNLC), a group of about 2,000 Katangan Congolese soldiers who were vete ...

to save Zaire's regime. After Shaba II, Morocco was part of the Inter-African Force deployed on the Zaire border, contributing about 1,500 troops. The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces also took a symbolic part in the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

among other Arab armies. Between 1975 and 1991, the Moroccan Armed Forces fought a 16-year war against the POLISARIO, an

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n backed rebel national

liberation movement A liberation movement is an organization or political movement leading a rebellion, or a non-violent social movement, against a colonial power or national government, often seeking independence based on a nationalist identity and an anti-imperial ...

seeking the independence of

Western Sahara Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...

from Morocco.''The Sahara War 1975–1991''
– onwar.com From the mid-1980s on, Morocco largely managed to keep POLISARIO troops at bay by building a huge sand wall, staffed by an army roughly the same size as the entire Sahrawi population, enclosing the Southern Provinces within it. The enclosure contained most of the economically useful parts of Western Sahara, including Bou Craa, El-Aaiun, and Smara. The Moroccan army destroyed all the posts created by the Polisario and won decisively the majority of battles, but artillery strikes and sniping attacks by the guerrillas continued, and Morocco was economically and politically strained by the war. In the 1990s, Moroccan troops went to Angola with the three UN Angola Verifications Missions, United Nations Angola Verification Mission I, UNAVEM I, United Nations Angola Verification Mission II, UNAVEM II, and United Nations Angola Verification Mission III, UNAVEM III. They were also in Somalia, with United Nations Operation in Somalia I, UNOSOM I, the U.S.-led Unified Task Force (UNITAF), known by its U.S. codename of 'Restore Hope' and the follow-on United Nations Operation in Somalia II, UNOSOM II, They saw fighting during the Battle of Mogadishu (1993), Battle of Mogadishu to rescue a U.S. anti-militia assault force. Other peace support involvement during the 1990s included United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in Cambodia, and the missions in the former Yugoslavia: IFOR, SFOR, and Kosovo Force, KFOR. On 14 July 1999, the Moroccan Armed Forces took part in the Bastille Day parade on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Champs-Élysées, which was exceptional for a non-French armed forces, at the invitation of then French President Jacques Chirac.

Branches

The modern Moroccan military is composed of the following branches:

The Royal Army

The Royal Moroccan Army is the branch of the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army is about 175,000 troops strong, In case of war or a state of siege, an additional force of 150,000 Reservists and paramilitary forces, including 20,000 regulars of the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie and 30,000 Auxiliary Forces come under the Ministry of Defense command. The Moroccan Army helped with the annexation of Western Sahara which is disputed.

Royal Guard

The Moroccan Royal Guard is officially part of the Royal Moroccan Army, However, it is under the direct operational control of the Royal Military Household of His Majesty the King, The sole duty of the guard is to provide for the security and safety of the King and royal family of Morocco, it's 1,500 personnel strong.

The Royal Air Force

The Royal Moroccan Air Force is the air force branch of the Moroccan Armed Forces, It employs 13,000 personnel and is equipped with more than 300 aircraft, in the 21st century the Royal Moroccan Air Force started a progressive modernization program of its ageing fleet and their technical and operational capacities.

The Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the branch of the Moroccan Armed Forces responsible of conducting naval operations, 7,800 personnel strong Its mission includes the protection of Moroccan territory and sovereignty, as well as the control of Morocco's Exclusive Economic Zone. Given Morocco's significant coastline (2,952 km) and strategic position overseeing the strait of Gibraltar, it (with Spain and the United Kingdom) is deeply involved in the security of this important international waterway.

Royal Gendarmerie

The Moroccan Royal Gendarmerie is the Gendarmerie body of Morocco, the legislation which founded the Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie describes it as a public force designed to guarantee public security and public order and the implementation of laws. This legislation text attaches the Gendarmerie to the Royal Moroccan Army, then constituting a military force in its structure, administration and command forms. It consists of officers and NCOs.

History of participation in peacekeeping operations

Congo 1960–1961

Congo United Nations Operation in the Congo By 20 July 1960 Morocco had deployed 1,250 troops in congo.

Somalia 1992–1994

Somalia United Nations Operation in Somalia I, UNOSOM I, Unified Task Force, UNITAF, United Nations Operation in Somalia II, UNOSOM II

Bosnia and Herzegovina 1996–2007

Bosnia and Herzegovina Implementation Force, IFOR, SFOR, EUFOR Althea

Kosovo 1998-1999

Kosovo Kosovo War Morocco has deployed one company of soldiers to contribute in the NATO-led international peacekeeping force which was responsible for establishing a secure environment in Kosovo.

Haiti 2004–2006

Haiti United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH In 2004, Morocco provided an infantry company as part of a joint Spanish-Moroccan battalion, which was deployed in Fort Liberté, in the northeastern part of Haiti. Disagreements between the United Nations and the Spanish government led to Spain´s withdrawal from the mission, leaving the Moroccans in charge of a much larger area than what was initially designed. The last Moroccan troops left Haiti in 2006, and the sector was covered by a battalion from Uruguay, which had already another unit in the South of the country. About six Moroccan Army officers served in the mission HQ during this period.

Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1999

Congo MONUSCO Morocco has deployed 6 observers, one mechanised infantry battalion and one field hospital to participate in the United Nations Security Council efforts to monitor the peace process of the Second Congo War .

Ivory Coast since 2004

Ivory Coast United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire, ONUCI Morocco has deployed one infantry battalion IISS 2013, pp. 396 to participate in the ONUCI peacekeeping mission whose objective is "to facilitate the implementation by the Ivorian parties of the peace agreement signed by them in January 2003" (which aimed to end the Ivorian Civil War). The two main Ivorian parties here are the Ivorian Government forces who control the south of the country, and the New Forces (former rebels), who control the north. The UNOCI mission aims to control a "zone of confidence" across the centre of the country separating the two parties.

Central African Republic since 2013

Central African Republic United Nations Security Council Resolution 2031, BINUCA, MINUSCA The Moroccan Royal Armed Forces Has sent a contingent on December 25, 2013 for the Central African Republic to be deployed in the UN Integrated Peace building Office (BINUCA). Moroccan authorities also said they stand ready to support the Central African Republic in its path toward peace and stability.

Motto

The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces motto, which graces every military base, banner, and ship, is: "God, The Fatherland, and The King". * God: Creator of all destiny, by His Mercy we draw from, He ordains our choice to right path. * The Fatherland: Land that begets our bounty, from which we sustain ourselves we protect its integrity and defend it from all enemies. * King: Our commander and guide, he guides our renaissance and development, protector of our people's rights."

Gallery

File:Moroccan M109A5 howitzer, 2012-03.jpg, RMA's M109 howitzer, M109A5 howitzer. File:M60 morocco.jpg, Moroccan M60A3 during a 2006 Army expo. File:Lion120051.jpg, US Marines and Moroccan soldiers during exercise African Lion in Tan tan. File:Moroccan Mirage F1CH 7.jpg, Royal Moroccan Air Force Dassault Mirage F1, Mirage F1. File:Floreal Class Frigate.JPEG, Floréal Class Mohammed V. File:Moroccan Eurocopter Puma.jpg, Royal Moroccan Air Force Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma, SA330 Puma.