are striving to catch up with information technology. The Africa Endeavour programme pioneered by the United States of Africa Command (AFRICOM) has however served an eye opener to our communications need both within and out. Our data over HF communication platform continue to play a central role in facilitating communication force wide. Equipment Sierra Leone has very limited modern weaponry. The country has a wide variety of used second-hand foreign imported arms. The IISS Military Balance 2020 lists 31 mortars, Carl Gustav recoilless rifles, and three air defence guns in service. Other army equipment may include the Heckler & Koch G3, FN FAL, AK-47, RPD light machine gun, and the RPG-7. Two T-72 tanks were ordered from Ukraine in 1994 and were delivered to Sierra Leone via Poland in 1995. Although briefly serviced and maintained by South African firm Executive Outcomes, their operational status is somewhat doubtful. Freetown's mechanized forces are backed by at least ten ex-Slovak OT-64 and three Casspir wheeled armoured personnel carriers. Naval component The RSLN was an arm of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces that is responsible sea patrol of Sierra Leone's territorial waters. In 2002 it was merged with the other service branches. Today the naval force has about 500 personnel and operates several small patrol craft and barges. Their primary responsibility is to protect and safeguard the territorial integrity of Sierra Leone's sea. Sierra Leone naval officers are trained by British forces. They received financial support from Britain and China. On 25 September 2007, eight Guinean Naval officers were arrested by the Sierra Leone Navy for an act of piracy against locally licensed fishermen inside Sierra Leonean waters. British-trained Sierra Leone naval officers interrupted the high-seas hold-up by armed men in two launches on Sunday, off the capital Freetown inside the country's 200-mile (320-km) economic exclusion zone. One of the attacking speedboats escaped north towards Guinea, while the other was seized. 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. Equipment 7 Type-62 FAC, delivered between 1973 and 2006 3 Pompoli class LSU (delivered from Japan in 1980) Air arm In 1973 the air force was established with Swedish help in the form of two Saab-MFI 15 two seat trainers. Saab also supplied two model 300 (269C) light helicopters for additional training with Ghanaian help, plus another was