21 Motorised Infantry Brigade (pronounced as ''Two One Motorised Infantry Brigade'') is a brigade of the

Namibian Army The Namibian Army is the ground warfare branch of the Namibian Defence Force. History Development of Namibia's army was fastest of the three arms of Service. The first units of the Army were deployed as early as 1990. The Army was formed when ...

based at Suiderhof,

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

. The prefix "21" is taken from 21 March 1990, Namibia's independence day. The brigade is responsible for the defence of the central areas of

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

. Its subordinate units are situated in the

Khomas Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...

. Apart from its Motorised battalions it also consists of a Mechanized Infantry Battalion. It also provides a ceremonial guard battalion for the

Head of State A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state (polity), state#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' i ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international p ...

Equipment

The Brigade uses the following equipment: *

Toyota Land Cruiser The (also sometimes spelled as LandCruiser) is a series of four-wheel drive vehicles produced by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. It is Toyota's longest running series of models. , the sales of the Land Cruiser totalled more than ...

Toyota Hilux The , stylized as HiLux and historically as Hi-Lux, is a series of pickup trucks produced and marketed by the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The majority of these vehicles are sold as pickup truck or cab chassis variants, although the ...

Ural Trucks The Urals Automotive Plant, an Open Stock Company, (Russian: ''Ура́льский автомоби́льный заво́д, УралАЗ''; translit. Uralskiy Avtomobilnyi Zavod, UralAZ) is a major Russian manufacturer of off-road trucks under ...

* WZ-523 Wheeled Armored Personnel Carrier

Units

The standard Namibian Infantry Brigade consists of a brigade Headquarters, a transport company, logistics company and a

medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practi ...

company supporting three

Infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and m ...

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

s an

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieg ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

and an

air defence Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

regiment. It also has a ceremonial guard battalion attached to it.http://wwwisis.unam.na/theses/shipena2011.pdf The following units are based at the brigade headquarters in

: *21 Ceremonial Guard Battalion *211 Battalion *212 Battalion *213 Mechanized Infantry Battalion *21 Artillery Regiment (

Otjiwarongo Otjiwarongo ( hz, beautiful place) is a city of 28,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital of Otjozondjupa. Otjiwarongo is situated in cen ...

)

21 Ceremonial Guard Battalion

Governor-General visits Africa (10698769574)

21 Ceremonial Guard Battalion is a

guard of honour A guard of honour (British English, GB), also honor guard (American English, US), also ceremonial guard, is a group of people, usually military in nature, appointed to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, o ...

unit of the NDF. It was also responsible for protecting the

President of Namibia The president of the Republic of Namibia is the head of state and the head of government of Namibia. The president directs the executive branch of the Government of Namibia, as chair of the Cabinet and is the commander-in-chief of the armed fo ...

till President

Hifikepunye Pohamba Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born 18 August 1936) is a Namibian politician who served as the second president of Namibia from 21 March 2005 to 21 March 2015. He won the 2004 presidential election overwhelmingly as the candidate of SWAPO, and wa ...

stopped the practice. It has 500 members and is based in the capital where it performs

public duties Public duties are performed by military personnel, and usually have a ceremonial or historic significance rather than an overtly operational role. Armenia Since September 2018, the Honour Guard Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia has ...

. It uses Russian/German

foot drill Foot drill is a part of the training regimen of organized military and paramilitary elements worldwide. "Foot drill" or "Drill" stems from time since antiquity when soldiers would march into battle, be expected to gather in a formation, and r ...

when marching, in part due to the country returning to the traditional

goose step The goose step is a special marching step which is performed during formal military parades and other ceremonies. While marching in parade formation, troops swing their legs in unison off the ground while keeping each leg rigidly straight. The ...

. International leaders that have been honored by the battalion include Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Kenya President

Uhuru Kenyatta Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born 26 October 1961) is a Kenyan politician who served as the fourth president of Kenya from 2013 to 2022. Kenyatta was chosen by Daniel Arap Moi as his preferred successor, but Kenyatta was defeated by opposition ...

and the Chair of the African Union Commission

Moussa Faki Moussa Faki Mahamat ( ar, موسى فكي محمد ', born 21 June 1960) is a Chadian politician and diplomat who has been the elected Chairperson of the African Union Commission since 14 March 2017. Previously he was Prime Minister of Chad from ...

.
/ref>

Leadership

References

{{reflist Military of Namibia Infantry brigades