Jordan Armed Forces
By 1923, the legion consisted of two infantry companies, three squadrons of cavalry, a machine guns unit, one mountain battery of artillery, a signals section and a military band. Its 750 personnel were combined under the command of Major General Frederick G. Peake.
As the state-building process got underway under the leadership of Emir Abdullah, Jordan’s fragile security and stability was put at risk by cross-border raids from neighbouring territories. The Transjordan Frontier Force emerged in 1926 to shore up border security, with the Arab Legion taking on responsibility for security in urban areas. Four years later, British commander John Bagot Glubb, popularly known as Glubb Pasha, organised a camel-mounted mobile force, known as the Desert Patrol, gleaned mostly from Jordan’s Bedouin communities. Its role was to maintain security and order in Jordan’s vast Badia (desert) regions, from which the frontier force withdrew, and to harden the borders. The Desert Patrol emerged as one of the most effective forces in the Arab Legion, bringing cross-border raiding under control by 1932.
The Arab Legion continued to expand in the run up to World War II and in response to the troubles brewing in Palestine. By 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, the legion had been expanded to a force of about 10,000. A motorised detachment had been added to the Desert Patrol in 1933, and the patrol became the Desert Mechanised Force. Independent companies were established in addition to a regular battalion which emerged as the 1st Brigade. By 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, the Arab Legion consisted of three brigades, two garrisons and six battalions, with the army consisting of an infantry division, an artillery brigade, a mortar battery, an artillery battery, an engineering company, a signal company and a field aid unit.
Although among the smallest and arguably the weakest of the Arab states at that time, the Arab Legion proved itself to be a disciplined fighting force and arguably the most effective Arab military during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It fought with distinction and although outmanned and outgunned by Jewish forces secured Arab control over the West Bank and Jerusalem, including all of the old city.
Following his accession to the throne in 1952, King Hussein led a significant expansion and modernisation of Jordan’s fighting forces, especially the Air Force. Established in 1948 as the Arab Legion Air Force, the force consisted mainly of De Havilland Vampire aircraft and a squadron of helicopters. King Hussein established the Royal Jordanian Air Force in 1955, and by the 1960s, the RJAF had a fleet of Hawker Hunters and Dakota cargo planes and helicopters. Today, the RJAF inventory includes a full complement of fighters, trainers, cargo, tactical and transport aircrafts.
Today, the Jordan Armed Forces is among the most professional militaries in the Middle East, and His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein is leading yet another transformation of the JAF’s capabilities in keeping with Jordan’s strategic environment. The JAF’s traditional structure – two armoured divisions and two mechanised divisions – have been overhauled as more mobile forces based mostly on a brigade structure, while an armoured division has become the core of Jordan’s strategic reserve. Meanwhile, more resources are being devoted to the development of the JAF’s rapid reaction and Special Forces.
Jordan Armed Forces socio-economic role
The Jordan Armed Forces has made a definitive imprint on Jordan’s socio-economic development, most notably in the field of health and medical care through the Royal Medical Services (RMS). RMS operates eight hospitals throughout the Kingdom, including its landmark facility, the King Hussein Medical Centre in Amman, Jordan’s capital. The RMS is known throughout Jordan and the region for its high standards of health care and medical services. Its certified personnel includes doctors, registered and associates degree nurses, paramedics, dentists, pharmacists and other qualified specialists. Patients benefit from the RMS’ extensive regional and international networks with some of the world’s most prestigious medical facilities and research centres, such as the Mayo Clinic in the US.
The RMS has also led the nation in expanding the provisions of health care services to women and children, and in 2010, RMS significantly expanded paediatric care with the opening of the Queen Rania Al Abdullah Hospital for Children. This 200-bed facility, an initiative of Her Majesty Queen Rania and affiliated with the King Hussein Medical Centre, provides an array of paediatric services, including specialised surgical procedures. Outside the capital city, the Women’s Affairs Directorate of the JAF is currently leading an initiative to minimise the gaps in and obstacles to medical services offered to women in Jordan’s rural areas. Currently, an innovative women’s health centre in the southern governorate of Tafilah, where both poverty and a rural environment have challenged women’s access to adequate specialised health care. The JAF has marshalled the support of numerous public and private sector institutions, NGOs and foreign donors to bring this project to fruition and to devise a comprehensive long-term plan for the provision of medical services to women in remote areas. The Tafilah Women’s Health Centre is expected to be complete in mid-2010.
The RMS also runs the largest medical training program in Jordan, attended by RMS doctors, medical students, fellows from Jordanian universities, Ministry of Health personnel, private sector medical personnel and physicians from neighbouring Arab and non-Arab countries. RMS training is recognised by numerous international bodies, including the UK’s Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. RMS houses its own nursing academy, offering a BSc through the Princess Muna College of Nursing affiliated with Mu’ta University and graduates dozens of specialists and technicians each year through the Royal Medical Services College for Allied Health Professions at Al Balqa University. It is a pioneering institution in the field of continuing medical education in the Arab world.
The JAF has also assumed an active role in supporting Jordan’s educational reforms to ensure that Jordan’s young population is a competent, professional and skilled labour force able to drive the country’s development in the years to come. These reforms seek improvements in the quality and quantity of traditional education as well as vocational training. In 2007, the JAF partnered with the Ministry of Labour and several private sector enterprises to initiate a unique job-skills training programme that will give young Jordanians vocational training and practical experience in the building trades – skills that are in high demand as a result of Jordan construction boom and rapid development. The National Company for Employment and Training is administered by military staff in coordination with the Ministry of Labour and private sector institutions, and has the capacity to train 5,000 trainees. Its training facility has 100 classrooms, 100 specialised workshops and 200 trainers in the building trades, and participants collect a salary and enjoy other social benefits, including health insurance, room and board, while passing through the programme. More than 2,500 trainees have been certified in the building trades through the one-year programme since the project’s inception.
The Jordan Armed Forces is also playing a vital role in Jordan’s industrial development and technological advancement through the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau, an independent governmental-military-civilian research and development agency for the supply of defence and commercial security equipment optimised to the requirements of the Middle East. KADDB’s mission is to harness science and technology to fulfil Jordan’s defence needs and assist the nation in creating a sustainable industrial base. KADDB maintains a liaison office with the Royal Scientific Society and has partnered with the Higher Council for Science and Technology to advance the Badia Research and Development Programme.
Jordan Armed Forces around the world
The Jordan Armed Forces plays a prominent international role in international peace-keeping and humanitarian work. It has been an active contributor to UN peace keeping missions since 1989 in Angola. More than 62,000 JAF troops have served internationally since that time, and today the JAF is the eighth largest contributor to UN peace-keeping forces, with 3,651 police and military personnel deployed in 11 conflict zones worldwide. The Jordan Armed Forces also deploys doctors, nurses, medics and technicians to treat civilian victims of conflict and natural disasters. It currently operates field hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Afghanistan, the Congo and Liberia, where the JAF’s field hospital is the largest speciality hospital in Liberia.
By 1923, the legion consisted of two infantry companies, three squadrons of cavalry, a machine guns unit, one mountain battery of artillery, a signals section and a military band. Its 750 personnel were combined under the command of Major General Frederick G. Peake.
As the state-building process got underway under the leadership of Emir Abdullah, Jordan’s fragile security and stability was put at risk by cross-border raids from neighbouring territories. The Transjordan Frontier Force emerged in 1926 to shore up border security, with the Arab Legion taking on responsibility for security in urban areas. Four years later, British commander John Bagot Glubb, popularly known as Glubb Pasha, organised a camel-mounted mobile force, known as the Desert Patrol, gleaned mostly from Jordan’s Bedouin communities. Its role was to maintain security and order in Jordan’s vast Badia (desert) regions, from which the frontier force withdrew, and to harden to the borders. The Desert Patrol emerged as one of the most effective forces in the Arab Legion, bringing cross-border raiding under control by 1932.
The Arab Legion continued to expand in the run up to World War II and in response to the troubles brewing in Palestine. By 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, the legion had been expanded to a force of about 10,000. A motorised detachment had been added to the Desert Patrol in 1933, and the patrol became the Desert Mechanised Force. Independent companies were established in addition to a regular battalion which emerged as the 1st Brigade. By 1948, the year of the first Arab-Israeli war, the Arab Legion consisted of three brigades, two garrisons and six battalions, with the army consisting of an infantry division, an artillery brigade, a mortar battery, an artillery battery, an engineering company, a signal company and a field aid unit.
Although among the smallest and arguably the weakest of the Arab states at that time, the Arab Legion proved itself to be a disciplined fighting force and arguably the most effective Arab military during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It fought with distinction and although outmanned and outgunned by Jewish forces secured Arab control over the West Bank and Jerusalem, including all of the old city.
Following his accession to the throne in 1952, King Hussein led a significant expansion and modernisation of Jordan’s fighting forces, especially the air force. Established in 1948 as the Arab Legion Air Force, the force consisted mainly of De Havilland Vampire aircraft and a squadron of helicopters. King Hussein established the Royal Jordanian Air Force in 1955, and by the 1960s, the RJAF had a fleet of Hawker Hunters and Dakota cargo planes and helicopters. Today, the RJAF inventory includes a full complement of fighters, trainers, cargo, tactical and transport aircraft.
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