Derg Peoples army

The Derg Peoples Army was the army of Derg in Ethiopia.

Army
The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, or the Derg (Amharic "Committee"), was officially announced 28 June 1974 by a group of military officers to maintain law and order due to the powerlessness of the civilian government following widespread mutiny in the armed forces of Ethiopia earlier that year. Its members were not directly involved in those mutinies, nor was this the first military committee organized to support the administration of Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen: Alem Zewde Tessema had established the Armed Forces Coordinated Committee 23 March. However, over the following months radicals in the Ethiopian military came to believe he was acting on behalf of the hated aristocracy, and when a group of notables petitioned for the release of a number of government ministers and officials who were under arrest for corruption and other crimes, three days later the Derg was announced.

The Derg, which originally consisted of soldiers at the capital, broadened its membership by including representatives from the 40 units of the Ethiopian Army, Air Force, Navy, Kebur Zabagna (Imperial Guard), Territorial Army and Police: each unit was expected to send three representatives, who were supposed to be privates, NCOs and junior officers up to the rank of major. According to Bahru Zewde, "senior officers were deemed too compromised by close association to the regime."

The committee elected Major Mengistu Haile Mariam as its chairman and Major Atnafu Abate as its vice-chairman. The Derg was initially supposed to study the grievances of various military units, and investigate abuses by senior officers and staff, and to root out corruption in the military. In the months following its founding, the power of the Derg steadily increased. In July 1974 the Derg obtained key concessions from the Emperor, Haile Selassie, which included the power to arrest not only military officers, but government officials at every level. Soon both former Prime Ministers Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold, and Endelkachew Makonnen, along with most of their cabinets, most regional governors, many senior military officers and officials of the Imperial court found themselves imprisoned.

When the Derg gained control of Ethiopia, they lessened their reliance on the West. Instead they began to draw their equipment and their sources for organisational and training methods from the Soviet Union and other Comecon countries, especially Cuba. During this period, Ethiopian forces were often locked in counter-insurgency campaigns against various guerrilla groups. They honed both conventional and guerrilla tactics during campaigns in Eritrea, and the Ethiopian Civil War that toppled Ethiopian former military dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991 and also by repelling an invasion launched by Somalia in the 1977–1978 Ogaden War.

The Ethiopian army grew considerably under the Derg (1974–1987), and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia under Mengistu (1987–1991), especially during the latter regime. Gebru Tareke describes the organization of the Ethiopian military in early 1990, a year before Mengistu fled the country:


 * Ethiopian ground forces comprised four revolutionary armies organized as task forces, eleven corps, twenty-four infantry divisions, and four mountain divisions, reinforced by five mechanised divisions, two airborne divisions, and ninety-five brigades, including four mechanised brigades, three artillery brigades, four tank brigades, twelve special commando and paracommando brigades &#x2013; including the Spartakiad, which became operational in 1987 under the preparation and guidance of North Koreans &#x2013; seven BM-rocket battalions, and ten brigades of paramilitary forces.

Estimated forces under arms increased dramatically:


 * 1974: 41,000 (Ethiopian Revolution)
 * 1977: 53,500 (Ogaden War)
 * 1979: 65,000
 * 1991: 230,000 (overthrow of Mengistu)

Cuba provided a significant influx of military advisors and troops over this period, with the largest escalation during the Ogaden War with Somalia, supported by a Soviet airlift:


 * 1977–1978: 17,000 (Ogaden War)
 * 1978: 12,000
 * 1984: 3,000
 * 1989: All forces withdrawn

1991 Order of Battle
By 1991, the Ethiopian army under the Mengistu government had grown in size, but the regime was overcome by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ, former EPLF), Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) and other opposition factions during a decades-long civil war. Mengistu's People's Militia had also grown to about 200,000 members. The mechanized forces of the army comprised 1,200 T-54/55, 100 T-62 tanks, and 1,100 armored personnel carriers (APCs), but readiness was estimated to be only about 30 percent operational, because of the withdrawal of financial support, lack of maintenance expertise and parts from the Soviet Union, Cuba and other nations. The army commands consisted of the following:


 * First Revolutionary Army (headquartered at Harar)
 * Second Revolutionary Army (headquartered at Asmera)
 * Third Revolutionary Army (headquartered at Kombolcha)
 * Fourth Revolutionary Army (headquartered at Nekemte)
 * Fifth Revolutionary Army (headquartered at Gondar)

To these armies were assigned the operational forces of the army, comprising:


 * 31 infantry divisions
 * 32 tank battalions
 * 40 artillery battalions
 * 12 air defence battalions
 * 8 commando brigades

Air force of Derg Peoples Army
While its performance during the war with Somalia saved ETAF from the purges inflicted on the army and nearly every other institution in the country, the Derg was determined to keep a close eye on it. To increase its control, the Derg created a three-man committee constituting the force commander, political commissar and representative from the security service to oversee the air force. In addition, adhering to the Soviet advice, the ETAF's organization was replaced by a Soviet-style regimental structure.

The Soviet influence had a major impact on the ETAF. The Soviets offered to train all pilots at a joint training center for all their satellite states leaving ETAF responsible only for operational training. They also offered to train engineers at their own schools. Expecting to realize enormous cost savings, ETAF accepted the offer. As a result, both the flying school and Air Academy were closed in 1980 and all recruits were sent to the Soviet Union after passing aptitude test examination and medical screening.

Dissatisfied with the Soviet-provided training, the ETAF re-activated both its flight training school and Air Academy in 1984. SF260TP propeller aircraft for primary screening and L-39 jets for jet-transition training were acquired from Italy and Czechoslovakia respectively. The Air Academy was reopened using civilian instructors with degree programs in aeronautical engineering, aeronautical administration, and electrical engineering.

This period witnessed the declining of the ETAF's maintenance and engineering centers. Unlike the Americans, the Soviets were unwilling to transfer technical know-how. They insisted that every major repair work be undertaken by them in the Soviet Union. In addition to the logistical nightmare, the cost was prohibitive for the air force already financially stretched supporting the ground forces in the raging civil war. The Soviets relented and agreed to set up a depot level maintenance, repair and overhaul center after the Derg regime took up the matter with the Soviet leadership. However, lack of finance hindered the progress and only minimal work was done by 1991. The project was restarted in 1995 and formally inaugurated in 2004.

The Derg years saw the ETAF embroiled in the civil war. The ETAF played a critical role in the Derg's war effort in the north. It was the main stumbling block the rebels faced from achieving total victory. However, in the late 1980s, many in the air force began questioning the prosecution of the war. Following the failed coup of 1989, in which the ETAF's top leaders participated, its high command was decimated with arrests and executions. As a result, ETAF was suffering from low morale and serious internal rifts. Pilots were defecting in increasing numbers to neighboring countries. The situation on the ground was also becoming hopeless. Eventually, the forces of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) overran the Derg’s army and took control of the country in 1991.

Fighters

 * Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-21
 * Areo L-29

Trainers

 * SIAI-Marchetti SF.260