It then remained largely unchanged for 16 years until in 1995 when Defence Headquarters was established and the Sierra Leone Air Wing formed.

The current Chief of Defence Staff of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces is Major General Brima Sesay.

[5] During the state of emergency announced in the country due to the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the Armed Forces aided in protecting quarantine zones for those infected with the virus.

Lansana staged a brief coup, arresting Siaka Stevens, the democratic winner of the election and the army was purged of Northern and Krio officers.

It is not clear what exactly Momoh's title was but it seems likely that he was the senior Sierra Leonean military officer and held the predecessor to the CDS's post.

In 1991, the RUF began to make war against the government, and the army went on the offensive toward the end of the year along with troops from Guinea.

In 1992 the army was expanded to 6,150 under President Joseph Saidu Momoh in a 'poorly designed strategy that eradicated the few remaining elements of cohesion in the military... recruits were mainly drifters, rural and urban unemployed, a fair number of hooligans, drug addicts, and thieves.

'[10] A similar expansion effort after Valentine Strasser took over aimed to build the army to 14,000, using young criminals, school drop-outs, and semi-literate youths.

Today the army is by far the largest Armed Forces branch and is responsible for protection of the state borders, the security of administered territories and defending the national interests of Sierra Leone within the framework of its international obligations.

As a demonstration of this desire, a Peace Support Operations Course was introduced into the curriculum of the Horton Military Academy in Freetown.

The course was intended to enhance capacity building, and to train and prepare officers of the RSLAF for their future role and participation in international peace support operations, and especially for the proposed ECOWAS Standby Force.

'[4] The hoped-for initial operational capability date for peacekeeping slipped until late 2009, when a Sierra Leonean reconnaissance company was deployed to Darfur as part of UNAMID.

([1]) International donors and the Government of Sierra Leone provided the $6.5 million required to equip the unit and build the base camp in-theatre, some 2,300 kilometers inland from Port Sudan.

Despite the enormous resources invested by the UK into security sector reform in Sierra Leone, there are continuing financial pressures.

There are continued serious financial pressures on monthly running costs, with fuel, rations, stationery, and maintenance 'for both equipment and the estate' rarely funded.

In 2010 Robertshawe said that 'living accommodation for soldiers and their families is generally appalling with no running water or ablutions and often is a self-built shack or mud hut.

The IISS Military Balance 2020 lists 31 mortars, Carl Gustav recoilless rifles, and three air defence guns in service.

[29] British-trained Sierra Leone naval officers interrupted the high-seas hold-up by armed men in two launches on Sunday, 18 nautical miles (33 km) off the capital Freetown inside the country's 200-mile (320-km) economic exclusion zone.

The eight men arrested were found with AK-47 automatic rifles and bags of fish, including high-value snapper, taken off the Sierra Leone-licensed vessels.

[31] Saab also supplied two model 300 (269C) light helicopters for additional training with Ghanaian help, plus another was acquired as a presidential transport but was replaced in 1976 by a MBB Bo 105.

[citation needed] In 1978 both the helicopters and light trainers were sold and the air arm disappeared; the Bo 105 was transferred to the civil register in 1985.