1.
Self-propelled artillery
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Self-propelled artillery is artillery equipped with its own propulsion system to move towards its target. Within the term are covered self-propelled guns and rocket artillery and they are high mobility vehicles, usually based on continuous tracks carrying either a large howitzer, field gun, a mortar or some form of rocket or missile launcher. They are usually used for long-range indirect bombardment support on the battlefield, in the past, self-propelled artillery has included direct-fire vehicles, such as assault guns and tank destroyers. These have been heavily armoured vehicles, the former providing close fire-support for infantry, modern self-propelled artillery vehicles may superficially resemble tanks, but they are generally lightly armoured, too lightly to survive in direct-fire combat. However, they protect their crews against shrapnel and small arms and are usually included as armoured fighting vehicles. Many are equipped with guns for defense against enemy infantry. The key advantage of self-propelled over towed artillery is that it can be brought into action much faster, before the towed artillery can be used, it has to stop, unlimber and set up the guns. To move position, the guns must be limbered up again, by comparison, self-propelled artillery can stop at a chosen location and begin firing almost immediately, then quickly move on to a new position. This shoot-and-scoot ability is useful in a mobile conflict and particularly on the advance. Conversely, towed artillery was and remains cheaper to build and maintain and it is also lighter and can be taken to places that self-propelled guns cannot reach. Since the Vietnam War, heavy transport helicopters have also used for rapid artillery deployment. So, despite the advantages of the artillery, towed guns remain in the arsenals of many modern armies. During the Thirty Years War, early 17th century experiments were made with early types of horse artillery, batteries towed light field guns where most or all of the crew rode horses into battle. The gunners were trained to quickly dismount, deploy the guns and provide instant fire support to cavalry, the Russian army organized small units of horse artillery that were distributed among their cavalry formations in the early 18th century. While not forming large batteries and employing only lighter 2- and 3-pound guns, they were still effective and this inspired Frederick the Great to organize the first regular horse artillery unit in 1759. The British Gun Carrier Mark I was the first example of a self-propelled gun and it was based on the first tank, the British Mark I and carried a heavy field gun. The gun could either be fired from the vehicle, or removed, in effect, the carrier replaced the use of a separate horse team or internal combustion engine powered artillery tractor, and allowed a new way for the gun to be used. The next major advance can be seen in the Birch gun developed by the British for their motorised warfare experimental brigade after the end of the War
2.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
3.
Yugoslav Wars
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The Yugoslav Wars were a series of ethnically-based wars and insurgencies fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The wars are considered to be a series of separate but related military conflicts which occurred in. The wars ended through peace accords, involving full international recognition of new states, as a result, the JNA began to lose Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosniaks, and ethnic Macedonians, and effectively became a Serb army. According to the 1994 United Nations report, the Serb side did not aim to restore Yugoslavia, other irredentist movements have also been brought into connection with the wars, such as Greater Albania and Greater Croatia. Often described as Europes deadliest since World War II, the conflicts have become infamous for the war crimes involved, including cleansing, crimes against humanity. These were the first European conflicts since World War II to be formally judged genocidal in character, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by the UN to prosecute these crimes. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the deaths of 140,000 people, the Humanitarian Law Center estimates that in the conflicts in former Yugoslav republics at least 130,000 people lost their lives. The war have alternatively been called, Wars in the Balkans Wars/conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, third Balkan War, a term suggested by British journalist Misha Glenny in the title of his book, alluding to the two previous Balkan Wars fought 1912–13. In fact, this term has been applied by some historians to World War I. Yugoslavia Civil War/Yugoslav Civil War/Yugoslavian Civil War/Civil War in Yugoslavia, the nation of Yugoslavia was created in the aftermath of World War I, and was composed mostly of South Slavic Christians, but the nation also had a substantial Muslim minority. In the 1980s, relations among the six republics of the SFRY deteriorated, Slovenia and Croatia desired greater autonomy within the Yugoslav confederation, while Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. As it became clearer that there was no solution agreeable to all parties, although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that proved decisive. In the midst of hardship, Yugoslavia was facing rising nationalism among its various ethnic groups. By the early 1990s, there was no authority at the federal level. The Federal Presidency consisted of the representatives of the six republics, the communist leadership was divided along national lines. The representatives of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were replaced with loyalists of the President of Serbia, Serbia secured four out of eight federal presidency votes and was able to heavily influence decision-making at the federal level, since all the other Yugoslav republics only had one vote. While Slovenia and Croatia wanted to allow a multi-party system, Serbia, led by Milošević, demanded a more centralized federation. This prompted the Croatian and Slovene delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, the first of these conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War, was initiated by the JNA on 26 June 1991 after the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991
4.
Kosovo War
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The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 5 March 1998 until 11 June 1999. After attempts at a diplomatic solution failed, NATO intervened, justifying the campaign in Kosovo as a humanitarian war and this precipitated a mass expulsion of Kosovar Albanians as the Yugoslav forces continued to fight during the aerial bombardment of Yugoslavia. The war ended with the Kumanovo Treaty, with Yugoslav and Serb forces agreeing to withdraw from Kosovo to make way for an international presence, Kosovos borders did not precisely match the areas of ethnic Albanian settlement in Yugoslavia. Kosovos formal autonomy, established under the 1945 Yugoslav constitution, initially meant relatively little in practice, the secret police cracked down hard on nationalists. In 1956 a number of Albanians went on trial in Kosovo on charges of espionage, the threat of separatism was in fact minimal, as the few underground groups aiming for union with Albania had little political significance. Demaci himself was imprisoned in 1964 along with many of his followers, Yugoslavia underwent a period of economic and political crisis in 1969, as a massive government program of economic reform widened the gap between the rich north and poor south of the country. Student demonstrations and riots in Belgrade in June 1968 spread to Kosovo in November of the same year, however, Tito conceded some of the students demands—in particular, representative powers for Albanians in both the Serbian and Yugoslav state bodies and better recognition of the Albanian language. The University of Pristina was established as an independent institution in 1970, the lack of Albanian-language educational materials in Yugoslavia hampered the Albanisation of education in Kosovo, so an agreement was struck with Albania itself to supply textbooks. In 1974 Kosovos political status improved further when a new Yugoslav constitution granted a set of political rights. Along with Vojvodina, Kosovo was declared a province and gained many of the powers of a fully-fledged republic, power was still exercised by the Communist Party, but it was now devolved mainly to ethnic Albanian communists. Titos death on 4 May 1980 ushered in a period of political instability, worsened by growing economic crisis. The disturbances were quelled by the Presidency of Yugoslavia proclaiming a state of emergency, sending in riot police and the army, hard-liners instituted a fierce crackdown on nationalism of all kinds, Albanian and Serbian alike. Kosovo endured a heavy secret-police presence throughout most of the 1980s that ruthlessly suppressed any unauthorised nationalist manifestations, according to a report quoted by Mark Thompson, as many as 580,000 inhabitants of Kosovo were arrested, interrogated, interned or reprimanded. Thousands of these lost their jobs or were expelled from their educational establishments, during this time tension between the Albanian and Serbian communities continued to escalate. Such concerns did attract interest in Belgrade, stories appeared from time to time in the Belgrade media claiming that Serbs and Montenegrins were being persecuted. There was a perception among Serbian nationalists that Serbs were being driven out of Kosovo, in addition to all this, the worsening state of Kosovos economy made the province a poor choice for Serbs seeking work. Albanians, as well as Serbs, tended to favor their compatriots when hiring new employees, Kosovo was the poorest entity of Yugoslavia, the average per capita income was $795, compared with the national average of $2,635. 33 nationalist formations were dismantled by Yugoslav police, who sentenced some 280 people and seized arms caches, in Kosovo an increasingly poisonous atmosphere between Serbs and Albanians led to wild rumors being spread and otherwise trivial incidents being blown out of proportion
5.
First Chechen War
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The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. The official figure for Russian military deaths is 5,732, although there are no accurate figures for the number of Chechen forces killed, various estimates put the number at about 3,000 to 17,391 deaths and missing. The conflict led to a significant decrease of population due to violence. Following long local resistance during the 1817−1864 Caucasian War, Imperial Russian forces defeated the Chechens, in 1936, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin established the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The official pretext was punishment for collaboration with the invading German forces during the 1940–1944 insurgency in Chechnya, eventually, Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev granted the Vainakh peoples permission to return to their homeland and restored their republic in 1957. Russia became an independent nation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, while Russia was widely accepted as the successor state to the USSR, it lost a significant amount of its military and economic power. In the Soviet period, some of Russias approximately 100 nationalities were granted ethnic enclaves that had various formal federal rights attached, relations of these entities with the federal government and demands for autonomy erupted into a major political issue in the early 1990s. Boris Yeltsin incorporated these demands into his 1990 election campaign by claiming that their resolution was a high priority, there was an urgent need for a law to clearly define the powers of each federal subject. In almost all cases, demands for autonomy or independence were satisfied by concessions of regional autonomy. The treaty outlined three basic types of subjects and the powers that were reserved for local and federal government. The only federal subjects that did not sign the treaty were Chechnya, neither Yeltsin nor the Chechen government attempted any serious negotiations and the situation deteriorated into a full-scale conflict. The storming caused the death of the head of Groznys branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Vitaly Kutsenko and this effectively dissolved the government of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic of the Soviet Union. In the following month, Dudayev won overwhelming support to oust the interim administration that was supported by the central government. He was made president and declared independence from the Soviet Union, in November 1991, Yeltsin dispatched Internal Troops to Grozny, but they were forced to withdraw when Dudayevs forces surrounded them at the airport. The newly created republic of Ingushetia then joined the Russian Federation, from 1991 to 1994, tens of thousands of people of non-Chechen ethnicity left the republic amidst reports of violence and discrimination against the non-Chechen population. During the undeclared Chechen civil war, factions both sympathetic and opposed to Dudayev fought for power, sometimes in pitched battles with the use of heavy weapons, in March 1992, the opposition attempted a coup détat, but their attempt was crushed by force. A month later, Dudayev introduced direct rule, and in June 1993. To prevent the invasion of Chechnya, he did not provoke the Russian troops, in August 1994, the coalition of the opposition factions based in north Chechnya launched a large-scale armed campaign to remove Dudayevs government
6.
Russo-Georgian War
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The Russo-Georgian War was a war between Georgia, Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The war took place in August 2008 following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important Transcaucasia region, which borders the Middle East and it was regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in early 1991 as the Soviet Union began to fall apart, following the war, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian troops was stationed in the territory. Meanwhile, a stalemate developed in the region of Abkhazia. By August 1,2008, Ossetian separatists began shelling Georgian villages, to put an end to these deadly attacks and restore order, the Georgian Army was sent to the South Ossetian conflict zone on 7 August. Georgians took control of most of Tskhinvali, a separatist stronghold, Georgia later stated it was also responding to Russia moving non-peacekeeping units into the country. Russia accused Georgia of aggression against South Ossetia, and launched a land, air. Russian and Ossetian forces battled Georgian forces in and around South Ossetia for several days, Russian and Abkhaz forces opened a second front by attacking the Kodori Gorge held by Georgia. Russian naval forces blockaded part of the Georgian coast and this was the first war in history in which cyber warfare coincided with military action. An active information war was waged during and after the conflict. President of France Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated an agreement on 12 August. Russian forces temporarily occupied the Georgian cities of Zugdidi, Senaki, Poti, the South Ossetians destroyed most ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and were responsible for an ethnic cleansing of Georgians. Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as separate republics on 26 August, in response, Russia mostly completed its withdrawal of troops from Georgia proper on 8 October. In the aftermath, Russias international relations were largely unharmed, the war displaced 192,000 people and while many returned to their homes after the war,20,272 people remained displaced as of 2014. Russia has, since the war, occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia in violation of the agreement of August 2008. In the tenth century AD, Georgia for the first time emerged as a concept in the territories where the Georgian language was used to perform Christian rituals. After the Mongol invasions of the region, the Kingdom of Georgia eventually was broken up into several kingdoms, in the nineteenth century, the Russian Empire gradually annexed the Georgian lands
7.
Libyan Civil War (2011)
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The protests escalated into a rebellion that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi establishing an interim governing body, the National Transitional Council. In early March, Gaddafis forces rallied, pushed eastwards and re-took several coastal cities before reaching Benghazi, a further UN resolution authorised member states to establish and enforce a no-fly zone over Libya, and to use all necessary measures to prevent attacks on civilians. The Gaddafi government then announced a ceasefire, but fighting continued, throughout the conflict, rebels rejected government offers of a ceasefire and efforts by the African Union to end the fighting because the plans set forth did not include the removal of Gaddafi. On 16 September 2011, the National Transitional Council was recognised by the United Nations as the representative of Libya. Muammar Gaddafi remained at large until 20 October 2011, when he was captured and killed in Sirte, the National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya and the official end of the war on 23 October 2011. In the aftermath of the war, a low-level insurgency by former Gaddafi loyalists continued. A much greater issue has been the role of militias which fought in the civil war and these unresolved issues led directly to a second civil war in Libya. Muammar Gaddafi was the head of the Free Officers, a group of Arab nationalists that deposed King Idris I in 1969 in a bloodless coup and he abolished the Libyan Constitution of 1951, considering it a neocolonial document. From 1969 until 1975 standards of living, life expectancy and literacy grew rapidly, in 1975 he published his manifesto The Green Book. He officially stepped down from power in 1977, and subsequently claimed to be merely a figurehead until 2011. Under Gaddafi, Libya was theoretically a decentralized, direct democracy state run according to the philosophy of Gaddafis The Green Book, according to Freedom House, however, these structures were often manipulated to ensure the dominance of Gaddafi, who reportedly continued to dominate all aspects of government. WikiLeaks disclosure of confidential US diplomatic cables revealed US diplomats there speaking of Gaddafis mastery of tactical maneuvering and this extended even to his own sons, as he repeatedly changed affections to avoid the rise of a clear successor and rival. Both Gaddafi and the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, however, officially denied that he held any power, while he was popularly seen as a demagogue in the West, Gaddafi always portrayed himself as a statesman-philosopher. According to several Western media sources, Gaddafi feared a coup against his government. The Libyan Army consisted of about 50,000 personnel and its most powerful units were four crack brigades of highly equipped and trained soldiers, composed of members of Gaddafis tribe or members of other tribes loyal to him. One, the Khamis Brigade, was led by his son Khamis, local militias and Revolutionary Committees across the country were also kept well-armed. By contrast, regular units were poorly armed and trained. By the end of Gaddafis 42 years rule, Libyas population had a per capita income of $14,000, a broadly secular society was imposed
8.
Syrian Civil War
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The Syrian Civil War is an armed conflict taking place in Syria. Syrian opposition groups formed the Free Syrian Army and seized control of the area surrounding Aleppo, over time, some factions of the Syrian opposition split from their original moderate position to pursue an Islamist vision for Syria, joining groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL. In 2015, the Yekîneyên Parastina Gel joined forces with Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Russia and Hezbollah militarily engaged in support of the Syrian government, while beginning in 2014, a coalition of NATO countries began launching airstrikes against ISIL. International organizations have accused the Syrian government, ISIL, and some groups of severe human rights violations. The conflict has caused a major refugee crisis, over the course of the war a number of peace initiatives have been launched, including the March 2017 Geneva peace talks on Syria led by the United Nations, but fighting continues. Syria became an independent republic in 1946, although democratic rule ended with a coup in March 1949, a popular uprising against military rule in 1954 saw the army transfer power to civilians. From 1958 to 1961, a union with Egypt replaced Syrias parliamentary system with a highly centralized presidential government. The secular Baath Syrian Regional Branch government came to power through a successful coup détat in 1963, for the next several years Syria went through additional coups and changes in leadership. In March 1971, Hafez al-Assad, an Alawite, declared himself President, on 31 January 1973, Hafez al-Assad implemented a new constitution, which led to a national crisis. They labeled Assad the enemy of Allah and called for a jihad against his rule, the government survived a series of armed revolts by Sunni Islamists, mainly members of the Muslim Brotherhood, from 1976 until 1982. Upon Hafez al-Assads death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected as President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma, a Sunni Muslim born and educated in Britain, initially inspired hopes for democratic reforms. The Damascus Spring, a period of social and political debate, the Damascus Spring largely ended in August 2001 with the arrest and imprisonment of ten leading activists who had called for democratic elections and a campaign of civil disobedience. In the opinion of his critics, Bashar al-Assad had failed to deliver on promised reforms, Syrian Arabs, together with some 600,000 Palestinian Arabs, make up roughly 74 percent of the population. Syria Muslims are 74 percent Sunnis, and 13 percent Shias,3 percent were Druze, not all of the Sunnis are Arabs. Bashar is married to a Sunni, with whom he has several children and he is affiliated with the sect that his parents belong to, the minority Alawite sect which comprises an estimated 8-12 percent of the total population. Assyrians, an indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Christian Semitic people, numbering approximately 500,000, are mainly in northeast Syria. A larger population lives over the border in northern Iraq, other ethnic groups include Armenians, Circassians, Turkmens, Greeks, Mhallami, Kawliya, Yezidi, Shabaks, and Mandeans. Socioeconomic inequality increased significantly after free market policies were initiated by Hafez al-Assad in his later years, the country also faced particularly high youth unemployment rates
Algeria – 145
Angola
Armenia – 20
Azerbaijan – 81 2S1 and unknown number of UR-77
Bosnia and Herzegovina – 5
Belarus – 246[5]
Bulgaria – 506
Cuba – 150
Croatia – 9 (to be used alongside 15 Panzerhaubitze 2000 from German Army stock.)
Eritrea – 20[6]
Ethiopia
Finland – 72 (known as 122 PsH 74)
Georgia 48
India – 110 (to be replaced)
Iran
Iraq
Kazakhstan – 10
Libya
Poland – 324 (to be replaced by SMK Rak and AHS Krab)
Russia – 622[7]
South Ossetia
Serbia – 72
Slovakia – 49
Syria – 400
Turkmenistan – unknown number in service as of 2016[8]
Ukraine – 638[9]
Uruguay – 6
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen
Republic of Moldova
Transnistria
Czech Republic – Phased out in early 2000s (decade)
East Germany – Phased out in 1990 after German reunification
Hungary – Phased out in 2004. Original there were 144 pieces of Gvozdikas.
ISIL – Reported. Currently probably all destroyed.
Romania – 48 reserve status since 2005
Slovenia – 8 reserve status
Soviet Union – Passed on to successor states
Yugoslavia – Passed on to successor states.
