Namibian Special Forces

The Namibian Special Forces are Namibia's Military elite Special Operations grouping. Made up of all the Namibian military's Special Forces and Special Operations capable units. Consisting of Army Commandos, Marine Amphibious Commandos and Airborne Paratroopers. The Commandos from the Namibian Army specialize in airborne and land borne insertion while the Namibian Marine Corps Amphibious Marine commandos specialize in sea borne insertion.

Role

Includes but not limited to:

• Special reconnaissance
• Direct action (military)
• High-value target
• Human intelligence (intelligence gathering)
• High-altitude military parachuting
• Counter-terrorism
• Quick reaction force
• Combat search and rescue

Training

Commando's
Little information is released on the training of the commando operators. Friendly countries are accepting candidates into their training cycles.^[2]

Paratroopers
Pre Selection phase is 6 weeks long during which candidates are tested on military skills, such as Musketry Training, Navigation, Field Craft. After going through the pre selection phase the candidates progress to the Parachute Selection Phase. Both phases are physically and mentally tough. The pass rate for both phases is only 30 percent.^[3] The candidates then progress to the Basic Static Line Jump Course which consists of a 1 week ground phase and 3 weeks of Practical Parachute Jumping. Included in this is 9 Parachute Jumps which of which 5 are Clean Fatigue jumps with Combat Webbing and Weapon jump, a Personal Weapons Container (PWC) jump and a Night jump. After completing this the candidate is officially a paratrooper and is awarded the Parachute jump wings and the maroon beret.^[4] Training takes place at the Namibia Special Forces School at the Grootfontein Air Base^[5]

Amphibious Commando's
The Marine Commandos are trained in Brazil and in Walvis Bay by Brazilian instructors. The amphibious commando training course is a year long .^[6] Only existing Marines are eligible for this training

Units

Commandos
Operators are taken from primarily from the Namibian Army. Most of their details and activities are classified.

Airborne
Parachute infantry are organized as part of the Special Forces and are likely a special operations force. This is likely due to their mobility and rapid deployment capability due to their nature as light infantry. The unit consists of paratroopers and riggers.^[7]

Amphibious Marine Commandos
The amphibious marine commandos are the maritime specialists in Namibia's special operations capability. Trained by Brazilian specialists in Namibia and Brazil. The operators are taken from the Namibian Marine Corps.

Equipment

Known Weapons

Name	Type	Origin	Photo	Notes
AK-47	Assault Rifle			Multiple variants
RPG-7	Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher
PK 7.62×54mmR	General Purpose Machine Gun			Multiple variants
M4 carbine	Assault Rifle
Blaser R93 Tactical	Sniper Rifle

Known Vehicles

	Origin	Type	Acquired	In service	Notes
Agrale Marruá	Brazil	Utility Vehicle	141	--	141 units acquired for the whole Defence Force, total units used by Special Forces is classified.[8]

References