Military history of the United Arab Emirates

[1] The current United Arab Emirates military was formed from the historical Trucial Oman Levies which was established on 11 May 1951.

The Union Defence Force was established officially as the military of the United Arab Emirates on 27 December 1971 from a directive issued by the UAE's founding father and first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

[3] Although initially small in number, the UAE armed forces have grown significantly over the years and are presently equipped with some of the most modern weapon systems, purchased from a variety of outside countries, mainly France, the US and the UK.

The date of the first death in the line of duty of an Emirati soldier was on 30 November 1971 during the Seizure of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs as is celebrated annually as the Commemoration Day.

The highest loss of life in the history of the UAE military occurred on Friday 4 September 2015, in which 52 soldiers were killed in Marib area of central Yemen by a Tochka missile which targeted a weapons cache and caused a large explosion.

[4] All the names of Emirati soldiers who died in the line of duty are inscribed in the UAE Armed Forces memorial, the Oasis of Dignity, in the capital Abu Dhabi.

The UAE Armed Forces is also the only Arab country to commit troops to maintain security and participate in humanitarian aid missions to Afghanistan.

The Emirati special Forces, the Presidential Guards, were deployed to maintain security in War in Afghanistan against the Taliban.

The intervention was followed by Emirati ground troops deployment in Southern Yemen mainly focusing on targeting terrorist cells such as the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State.

The national service duration is for 11 months and is intended to bolster the United Arab Emirates military reserve force.