The Zambian Defence Force is the military of Zambia. It consists of the Zambian Army, the Zambian Air Force, and the Zambia National Service. The defence forces were formed at Zambian independence on 24 October 1964, from constituent units of the dissolved Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Armed Forces. During the 1970s and 1980s, it played a key role in a number of regional conflicts, namely the South African Border War and Rhodesian Bush War. Being a landlocked country Zambia has no navy, although the Zambian Army maintains a maritime patrol unit for maintaining security on inland bodies of water. History Background and independence The Zambian Defence Force had its roots in the Northern Rhodesia Regiment, a multi-ethnic military unit which was raised by the British colonial government and had served with distinction during World War II. In 1960, the constituent colonies of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland were amalgamated into a self-governing British dependency known as the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. When the federation was dissolved three years later, the assets and personnel of its armed forces were integrated with those of its successor states, including Northern Rhodesia, which subsequently gained independence as Zambia. For example, Zambia received half the federal armoured car squadron as well as some light patrol aircraft. Zambia also inherited the command structures of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment as well as the Northern Rhodesian Air Wing, which formed the basis for the new Zambian Army and Zambian Air Force, respectively. Relations almost immediately soured between Zambia and Southern Rhodesia, now known simply as Rhodesia, which had issued its own unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) in 1965. Reports that Rhodesian security forces had occupied Kariba Dam prompted Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda to mobilise the ZDF for the first time and deploy troops to the border. The ZDF was withdrawn when Kaunda received a guarantee that Zambia's supply of Kariba power would not be interrupted. Nevertheless, military tension between the two nations remained high, and border incidents resulting in civilian deaths occurred. In November 1966, Rhodesian troops fired across the border and killed a Zambian woman on the north bank of the Zambezi River. In January 1973, Zambian troops fired on a South African police patrol boat on the Zambezi. Shortly afterwards, Defence Minister Grey Zulu ordered that the ZDF return to the border in force. Later in the month Kaunda brought the first of