Tanzania Army

Eventually an air force and a navy were established, but for most of the 1960s the army was the only fighting force, and during the 1970s it was by far the largest component of the TPDF. By the late 1970s reasonable estimates placed army strength at about 17,000 out of the total TPDF of 18,600 men and women.

The army at that time was deployed in a regional structure based on several brigades that appeared to be set up for administrative rather than tactical purposes. Four mainland brigades were referred to according to their general locations; the Eastern Brigade was located at Dar es Salaam; the Western Brigade at Tabora; the Southern Brigade probably at Naehingwea, and the Northern Brigade near Arusha. The "Zanzibar contingent of the army may constitute a fifth brigade. Each of the brigades was commanded by a brigadier.

During the Defense Forces Games of 1977 servicemen and women participating in the games were listed as coming from five brigades. Ngoine (Stronghold). Faru (Rhinoceros), Tembo (Elephant), Chui (Leopard) and Nyuki (Bee). The relationship, if any, of these brigades to the army's territorial brigades was unknown. From news reports it was obvious that Ngoine Brigade was from Dar es Salaam. Tembo Brigade was from the southern part of the country, and Nynki Brigade was from Zanzibar. Locations for Faru and Chui brigades were not disclosed. The athletes on the teams making up the listed brigades were both men and women, and some were from the navy and, presumably, some from the air force. In at least one case noted in the news accounts, a member of an army team was actually a national serviceman rather than a soldier.

By the late 1970s the basic combat formation of the Tanzanian army was still considered to be the battalion, as it had beets since colonial times. Observers estimated that there were ten infantry battalions. One artillery battalion, one tank battalion, and one engineer battalion, but how these units were distributed among the terri¬torial brigades was not known. Some reports originating outside of the country alleged that two Tanzanian battalions (approximatelv 1,500 men) were stationed in Mozambique; there was no indication that they had been engaged in combat on the Rhodesian-Mozambique border, however. These reports were neither confirmed nor denied by the authorities in Dar es Salaam. It can reasonably be assumed that the West Lake Region, located on the western shore of Lake Victoria and having Tanzania's only common border with Uganda, had been well garrisoned ever since Amin came to power.

The army does not operate in its command, but consists of infantry brigades directly under the command of the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF). The Army numbers some 25,000 [2005] regular personnel organized into a number of different brigades (although in essence these are battalion groups) and battalions throughout the country. These are constituted as follows:

• 5 X Infantry brigades.
• 1 X tank brigade.
• 2 X artillery battalion.
• 2 X air defence artillery battalion.
• 2 X mortar battalion.
• 2 X anti-tank battalion
• 1 X engineer battalion

The country is one of the few African countries (with South Africa, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Burkina Faso) that maintains large and functioning Reserves. The estimated strength of the reserves is in the region of 80 000 personnel but many of these are no longer active due to the change from one-party to multi-party rule.

Permanent Army bases are located at Arusha, Dar Es Salaam, Dadoma, Mtwera, Tabora and Kigoma although a number of temporary bases have been established in the west and the northwest of the country to deal with the security situation on the DRC and the Burundian borders.

Heavy weapons and major items of military equipment in the 1970s were primarily of PRC origin. Some Soviet artillery pieces were still on hand as well as a few weapons manufactured in various other countries, but the PRC had been the principal supplier, particularly during the 1970s. Included in the army inventory in 1976 were: twenty PRC T-59 medium tanks, fourteen PRC T-62 light tanks, several RTR-40 and BTR-152 armored personnel carriers that were of Soviet design but of PRC manufacture. twenty-four Soviet 76-mm guns, eighteen PRC I22-mm howitzers, thirty PRC: 120-mm mortars, and several 37-mm anti-aircraft guns and 145-mm anti-aircraft machine guns.

One motivation for supplying arms is to gain influence over the policies of the recipient. There is little evidence of this having been a key factor impelling China's arms exports. The 1964 mutiny of the British-trained Tanzanian Army, followed by largely unsatisfactory arms deals with West Germany and Canada, impelled President Nyerere to accept much needed comprehensive Chinese military assistance.

The PRC's endeavors to serve as Tanzania's chief weapons supplier during the 1970's and early 1980's do suggest an expectation (realized) that President Julius Nyerere and his military would be more amenable to Beijing's attempts to transship arms to various liberation movements in Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Furhermore, military assistance was only one aspect of a multidimensional aid program perhaps best symbolized by the Chinese-built 1600-kilometer Tanzania-Zambia railway line, completed in 1976. The intense ideological persuasions of Beijing's leadership during this era resonated with Nyerere's own pan-African aspirations, resulting in a conviction among PRC foreign policy makers that leverage over Dares Salaam was both attainable and useful.

General William E. Ward, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, along with Diane Corner, the United Kingdom's High Commissioner to Tanzania, transferred $9 million worth of U.S. peacekeeping equipment to the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF) on May 12, 2009, for an upcoming deployment to Darfur.

Items transferred included armored personnel carriers. The United Kingdom will help transport the equipment to peacekeeping duties. "Partnerships like this will enable us to succeed," Ward said. "We are all bound by mutual goals to protect the people of our nations. Building security in our regions is no small deed, but we must learn to work together to achieve global security."

Lieutenant Colonel Ally Katimbe, commander of Tanzania Battalion, said, "It's a blessing we have received this equipment, now we can meet a hundred percent of our mission requirements." Tanzania Battalion One made up of 164 men was scheduled to deploy to Darfur in early August 2009. The Tanzanian soldiers will work with the United Nations and the African Union to provide security and stability to the region.