Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR)
The Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) include Ground Forces, Revolutionary Navy (MGR), Air and Air Defense Force (DAAFAR), Territorial Militia Troops (MTT), and Youth Labor Army (EJT).
The disembarkation of the 82 combatants of the Granma yacht in the South coast of the then Cuban province of Oriente, on 02 December 1956, marks the birth of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, the decisive protagonist of the war of national liberation that lead to the revolutionary victory of first of January 1959. Therefore in that date the Day of the Revolutionary Armed Forces is celebrated every year.
The 200,000-man Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR) enabled Castro to intervene overseas as he effectively demonstrated in Angola in 1975. Few will dispute the fact that Cuban forces were the decisive element in Angola, and since then the Cubans continued to improve their intervention capability. Additional transport aircraft, an impressive airborne-qualified force consisting of special troops, and a landing and assault brigade represent a particularly formidable capability for deployment and employment in the Caribbean Basin. Cuba is also receiving assault landing ships from the Soviet Union. The numerical superiority and combat experience of Cuba’s armed forces give them a significant intervention capability and a decided edge over every nation in the Caribbean Basin except the United States.
The Cuban armed forces have been dramatically reduced since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, dropping from more than 130,000 well-trained active forces in the late 1980s to about half that size by early 1998. All able-bodied males are inducted into the military at the age of 18 (higher education deferments are granted until age 28) and are obligated to attend annual refresher training until the age of 45. The new National Defense Law of 1995 reduced the period of compulsory military service from three years to two years for all services. Two-thirds of the armed forces, roughly 74,500 active duty personnel, are conscripts. The number of reserve troops also has been cut significantly, and most of the armed forces' equipment is unusable.
The military power of the only enemy potential and the relatively small size of the population and the Cuban economy, impose that the national defense cannot be exclusive of a group of people, but a task of all the town. For that reason, one of the main missions of the Active Military Service [Servicio Militar Activo] is to prepare the citizen to fulfill his to have towards the defense of the country from the rows of the Military Service of Reserve [Servicio Militar de Reserva], the Military services of Territorial Troops [Milicias de Tropas Territoriales], the Brigades of Production and Defense [Brigadas de Producción y Defensa] or any other responsibility that are entrusted to him.
The Brigades of Production and Defense constitute the armed organization of which it arranges the Defense council of the Zone to develop the massive participation of the citizens in the the two basic tasks, during the exceptional situations, of production and the defense. In addition they fulfill measures of civil defense and internal procedure. The Brigades of Production and Defense are created from time of peace in the centers of work and the places of residence of the population. They are integrated by the citizens who voluntarily express their desires to participate in the activities of the production and the defense during the exceptional situations and that for different reasons does not belong to the regular troops , to the Military services of Territorial Troops , the organs and units of the Department of the Interior or to the organs of work of the Defense councils . Over 3.5 million citizens are members of more than 60,000 Brigades of Production and Defense.
Another main mission of the Active Military Service is to contribute to the men and women trained and in perfect physical training conditionses, able to fulfill, in composition of the regular troops of the Officers' Revolutionary Armed Forces, the mission of protective shield of the mobilization deployment of the country and vanguard of the great army of the town.
Cuba cannot have solely professional soldiers because the defense is task of all and each Cuban must reach the required military preparation; but in addition, the country does not have the enormous financial resources required to recruit soldiers by means of the economic stimulus.
The Ministry of Interior is the principal entity of state security and control. Officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), which are led by Raul Castro, the President's brother, have been assigned to the majority of key positions in the Ministry of Interior in the past several years.
With the deterioration of the Cuban economy in the 1990s, the Cuban military has become increasingly involved in running agricultural and other business enterprises, such as department stores and tourist resorts. As much as half of the armed forces is dedicated to agricultural activities, and there is said to be a lot of discontent among professional military officers who have been forced to work in the agricultural sector.
The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR) directs, executes and controls the preparation of the country for the defense; the national defense; the preparation and accomplishment of the armed warfare and the supplying with material military. It is the organization in charge of directing, executing and controling the application of the policy of the State and the Government as far as the preparation of the country for the defense; the defense of the sovereignty of the State mainly the national territory, including the territorial sea and the airspace that on these extends; the preparation and accomplishment of the armed warfare; and the hiring, acquisition, production and use of the material military that satisfies the necessities with the defense. It fulfills those obligations with the economic participation of the other organs and state organisms, organizations, social institutions and the citizens.
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