Royal Army of Oman


The Royal Army of Oman is the ground forces component of the Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces. It was founded in 1907 as the Muscat Garrison. It has a current strength of 125,000 personnel.

History

Oman has a military history which dates back to the seventh century, when troops from the Alozd tribe were strong enough to help Abu Bakr, companion of the Islamic prophet Mohammed. At the beginning of the seventeenth century there were local forces associated with Ya'ariba dynasty. It was this dynasty, which forced the expulsion of Portuguese from the country in 1650. The Ya'ariba dynasty were responsible for most of the fortified site across what is now th Sultanate of Oman from Musandam in the north to the southern province of Dhofar.
The Royal Army of Oman officially traces its origins back to the formation of the Muscat Garrison in 1907, this local garrison force was developed and became the Muscat Infantry in 1921. An agreement between the Omani and the British governments in 1958 led to the creation of the Sultan's Armed Forces and the creation of formally structured Omani army units. At the same time the United Kingdom promised to provide direct assistance in the development of the SAF and its land forces. During the 1960 and 1970s, army units fought in the Dhofar Rebellion alongside British units and it relied on embedded unit-level British military advisors, who saw combat alongside the units they were very much part of. At the end of the Dhofar Rebellion the Omani army became an independent service known as the Sultan of Oman Land Forces in 1976. In 1990, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said renamed his land forces the Royal Army of Oman. The RAO frequently exercises with the armed forces of fellow Gulf Cooperation Council nations and other strategic defense partners such as the US and UK.

Ground Forces Organisation

According to the latest MoD Telephone Directory published by Omantel, RAO is structured as follows:
Based on locational evidence given in Omantel telephone directory listings, historical recollections of British servicemen and analysis of Google Earth and Google Map imagery and cartographic data the following RAO garrisons have been identified:

Equipment

In 2008 Oman spent 7.7% of GDP on military expenditures.
Oman has one armored brigade equipped with the Challenger 2 and the M60A1 and M60A3 Patton tanks.
Between 2001 and 2004 Oman received 174 amphibious light armored vehicles and more than 80 armored VBL from France.
In May 2013 the United States announced a deal with Oman valued at $2.1 billion to supply a ground-based air defense system.
172 FNSS Pars Armoured combat vehicle ordered for delivery from 2017, total cost $500m
Oman looks to acquire K2 main battle tanks from South Korea. South Korean Defense Company Hyundai Rotem Co. could sell 76 K2 Black Panther Main Battle Tanks to Oman, a deal that could reach an amount up to $884.6 million.

Armoured vehicles