Ethiopian Navy
This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: The Ethiopian Navy was re-established.(September 2020) |
Ethiopian Navy | |
---|---|
የኢትዮጵያ ባህር ኃይል | |
The Ethiopian Navy (
Ethiopia acquired a coastline and ports on the Red Sea in 1950 when the United Nations decided to federate Eritrea with Ethiopia. In 1955, the Imperial Ethiopian Navy was founded,[1] and its first (and primary) base — the Haile Selassie I Naval Base — was established at Massawa in 1956. The navy took delivery of its first ship in 1957.[1] By the early 1960s, workshops and other facilities were under construction at Massawa to give it complete naval base capabilities.
Organization
In 1958, the navy became a fully independent service, organized as one of the three Ethiopian armed services – alongside the
Training and education
The Imperial Ethiopian Navy's personnel were among the best trained in the world.
Forces
Personnel
By 1958, the Imperial Ethiopian Navy had 129 personnel, increasing to 1,200 in 1970.[1] At its peak, the Imperial Ethiopian Navy had a force of 11,500 personnel. All enlisted men served seven-year enlistments as volunteers.
Ships
The navy operated a mix of patrol boats, torpedo boats, and small submersible boats transferred from the United States Navy and the navies of European countries.
The Imperial Ethiopian Navy's first ship was a former U.S. Navy PC-1604-class submarine chaser, ex-USS PC-1616, transferred to Ethiopia on 2 January 1957 via a loan scheme involving Italy and transferred to Italy on 3 May 1959.[2] The Ethiopian ship was named after Zerai Deres,[3][4] famous national patriot considered a folk hero.
In 1962 the
Bases
The Imperial Ethiopian Navy established four bases: Massawa was the site of the naval headquarters and enlisted training facilities; the naval air station and naval academy were at Asmara; Assab was the site of a naval station, enlisted training facilities, and a repair dock; and there was a naval station and communications station on the
Communist era (1974–1991)
Haile Selassie was deposed in 1974, and during the Communist-run governments of the Provisional Military Administrative Council or
The turn to the Soviet Union meant that the navy became a largely Soviet-equipped force. Although Ethiopia continued in her role as a training ship and remained Ethiopia's largest naval vessel, the United States ceased arms sales to Ethiopia in 1977, and Soviet-built patrol boats and missile boats began to replace other ships. By 1991, the Ethiopian Navy had two frigates, eight missile craft, six torpedo craft, six patrol boats, two amphibious craft, and two support and training craft, mostly of Soviet origin.
After the Derg seized power, the navy's six UH-1 helicopters were transferred to the Ethiopian Air Force. At some point, the post-Imperial navy reportedly acquired two Soviet-made – perhaps Mil Mi-8 (NATO reporting name "Hip") or Mil Mi-14 (NATO reporting name "Haze") – helicopters.[2] The navy also operated a coastal defense brigade equipped with two truck-mounted P-15 Termit (USDoD designation "SSC-3"; NATO reporting name "Styx") coastal defense antiship cruise missile launchers.
Operations
Eritrean opposition to Eritrea's inclusion in Ethiopia broke out in a full-scale rebellion after the Derg took power in 1974, and this left the Ethiopian Navy in the difficult position of having all of its bases deep in rebel territory and on the front line of the Eritrean War of Independence. In April 1977, the navy lost the Cape-class patrol boat P-11, with reports blaming the loss both on a storm and on an attack by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). If she was lost to EPLF action, P-11 was the only Ethiopian Navy ship ever lost in combat.[2]
The Ethiopian Navy contributed nothing to Ethiopia's victory over
The Ethiopian Navy lost both its main port and its highway connection to the Ethiopian interior when the EPLF captured Massawa in March 1990, forcing the navy's headquarters to move inland to Addis Ababa. The Eritrean rebellion spread to the Dahlak Islands, where the EPLF damaged the Petya II-class frigate F-1616 beyond repair. EPLF successes left Ethiopian Navy bases increasingly isolated as 1990 wore on. By the spring of 1991, the navy's ships had begun to use ports in Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen because of the danger of returning to their home bases. In late May 1991, the EPLF captured Asmara and surrounded Assab, where fire from its ground forces sank seven Ethiopian Navy ships in port. On 25 May 1991, the 14 Ethiopian Navy ships capable of putting to sea fled Assab, ten of them steaming to Yemen and the others to Saudi Arabia, leaving behind seven ships and a variety of small craft. Assab fell to the EPLF soon after.[2]
The Ethiopian Civil War and Eritrean War of Independence both ended in 1991 soon after the fall of Assab, and Eritrea became independent, leaving Ethiopia landlocked. The Ethiopian Navy remained in existence, left in the curious and unusual position of having no home ports. Nonetheless, directed by its headquarters in Addis Ababa, it continued occasional patrols in the Red Sea from ports in Yemen. In 1993, Yemen finally expelled the Ethiopian ships; by then some had deteriorated too much to be seaworthy, and the Ethiopians left them behind in Yemen. Ethiopia had become a hulk after arriving in Yemen in 1991 and was sold for scrap in 1993; other Ethiopian ships were also scrapped or scuttled.[2]
Those ships which could get underway from Yemen in 1993 moved to Djibouti. For a time it was thought that the Ethiopian Navy might survive, based at Assab in Eritrea or at Djibouti, and Ethiopia even requested that Eritrea lease it pier space at Assab from which to operate the surviving Ethiopian Navy. Eritrea refused the request. Proposals also were made for Eritrea and Ethiopia to divide the ships, with ships manned by both countries operating from Eritrean ports as a kind of successor to the Ethiopian Navy, but Eritrea soon expressed a desire to organize an entirely separate Eritrean Navy.[2]
By 1996, Djibouti was tired of having a foreign navy in its ports. The Ethiopian Navy had fallen behind in paying its harbor dues, and under this pretext Djibouti seized all of the remaining ships on 16 September 1996 and put them up for auction to pay the back dues. Eritrea expressed interest in 16 of them, but finally limited itself to purchasing only four of them – an Osa-II class missile boat and three Swiftships Shipbuilders patrol craft – in order to avoid exacerbating an international crisis with Yemen. The rest of the ships were scrapped.[2]
Later in 1996, the Ethiopian Navy's headquarters in Addis Ababa disbanded, and the Ethiopian Navy ceased to exist. Its only remnant was the patrol boat GB-21; moved inland to
Revival (2018–present)
In June 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called for the eventual reconstitution of the Ethiopian Navy as part of a wider program of security sector reforms, saying that "we should build our naval force capacity in the future".[5]
In March 2019, Abiy Ahmed signed defense accords with France's Emmanuel Macron, including on support in establishing a naval component.[6][7]
The Ethiopian Navy is based in Djibouti, and its headquarters is in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.[8][9]
Commanders
See also
- Ethiopian National Defense Force
- Ethiopian training ship Ethiopia (A-01)
References
- ^ ISBN 0-87021-919-7, p. 304.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harpoon Headquarters: Ethiopian Naval Forces
- ^ "February 1, 1956". Ethiopia Observer. 1956.
- ^ Addisalem Mulat (11 December 2016). "Ethiopia's Navy Founder". The Ethiopian Herald. citato in Allafrica.com
- ^ "Ethiopia, France Sign Military, Navy Deal, Turn 'New Page' in Ties". Voice of America. Addis Ababa: Reuters. 13 March 2019. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
- ^ Forrester, Charles (13 March 2019). "France, Ethiopia sign defence accords to create navy". Jane's 360. London. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
- ^ "Ethiopia's navy will be based in Djibouti". 3 December 2019.
- ^ "Ethiopia Navy to be based in Djibouti, command HQ in Bahir Dar (Report)". 3 December 2019.
- Blackman, Raymond, V.B., M.I., Mar. E, M.R.I.N.A. Jane's Fighting Ships 1962-1963. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1962. No ISBN.
- Sharpe, Richard, Capt., OBE, RN. Jane's Fighting Ships 1991-1992. Alexandria, Virginia: Jane's Information Group, 1991. ISBN 0-7106-0960-4.
- Sharpe, Richard, Capt., OBE, RN. Jane's Fighting Ships 1992-1993. Alexandria, Virginia: Jane's Information Group, 1992. ISBN 0-7106-0983-3.
- Sharpe, Richard, Capt., OBE, RN. Jane's Fighting Ships 1993-1994. Alexandria, Virginia: Jane's Information Group, 1993. ISBN 0-7106-1065-3.
- Sharpe, Richard, Capt., OBE, RN. Jane's Fighting Ships 1996-1997. Alexandria, Virginia: Jane's Information Group, 1996. ISBN 0-7106-1355-5.
- Sharpe, Richard, Capt., OBE, RN. Jane's Fighting Ships 1997-1998. Alexandria, Virginia: Jane's Information Group, 1997. ISBN 0-7106-1546-9.
- Ethiopian Military: The Ethiopian Navy under Haile Selassie Archived 22 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- Ethiopian Military: Ethiopian Navy in the Communist era