The Sahrawi[a] People's Liberation Army (SPLA; Arabic: جيش التحرير الشعبي الصحراوي, romanized: Jaysh al-Taḥrīr al-Shaʻbī al-Ṣaḥrāwī; Spanish: Ejército de Liberación Popular Saharaui, ELPS/ELP) is the army of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and previously served as the armed wing of the Polisario Front prior to the foundation of the Republic.

The SPLA's armed units are considered to have a manpower of possibly 20,000–30,000 active soldiers today, but during the war years its strength appears to have increased to 100,000 men.

[citation needed] It has a potential manpower of many times that number, since both male and female refugees in the Tindouf camps undergo military training at age 18.

But its arsenals display a bewildering variety of material, some of it captured from Mauritanian (Panhard AMLs) or Moroccan forces (Eland Mk7s, Ratel IFVs, AMX-13s, SK-105 Kürassiers) and made in France, the United States, South Africa, Austria, or Britain.

In both phases of the war, SPLA units relied on superior knowledge of the terrain, speed and surprise, and on the ability to retain experienced fighters.