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Air force personnel 11,140 [30th of 49]
Air force personnel (per capita) 0.025 per 100 population [35th of 49]
Allies of World War I > Casualties as % of total personnel 16 % [13th of 14]
Allies of World War I > Killed in action 9,463 [13th of 15]
Allies of World War I > Personnel 136,070 [13th of 15]
Allies of World War I > Total casualties 21,492 [13th of 15]
Allies of World War I > Wounded in action 12,029 [14th of 15]
Armed forces growth -40 [112nd of 132]
Armed forces personnel 63,000 [55th of 166]
Armed forces personnel (per capita) 1.42071 per 1,000 people [120th of 166]
Arms exports > constant 1990 US$ 39,000,000 constant 1990 US$ [20th of 45]
Arms exports > constant 1990 US$ (per capita) 0.832 constant 1990 US$ per 1 [25th of 83]
Arms imports > constant 1990 US$ 606,000,000 constant 1990 US$ [8th of 100]
Arms imports > constant 1990 US$ (per capita) 12.924 constant 1990 US$ per c [23rd of 170]
Army personnel 54,300 [31st of 49]
Army personnel (per capita) 1.22452 per 1,000 people [34th of 49]

Branches
South African National Defense Force (SANDF): South African Army, South African Navy (SAN), South African Air Force (SAAF), Joint Operations Command, Military Intelligence, Military Health Services

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty > Signatures and Ratifications > Ratification 30 MAR 1999
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty > Signatures and Ratifications > Signature 24 SEP 1996
Conscription
No conscription.
Conventional arms exports $35,000,000.00 [24th of 40]
Conventional arms exports (per $ GDP) 0.071 per $1,000 [24th of 40]
Conventional arms exports (per capita) 0.789 per 1 population [27th of 40]
Conventional arms imports $8,000,000.00 [75th of 85]
Conventional arms imports (per $ GDP) 0.016 per $1,000 [84th of 85]
Conventional arms imports (per capita) 0.18 per 1 population [83rd of 85]
Employment in arms production 40,000 [17th of 56]
Employment in arms production (per capita) 902.039 per 1 million people [28th of 56]
expenditure > % of central government expenditure 4.81 % [40th of 88]
expenditure > % of GDP 1.42 % [69th of 145]
expenditure > current LCU 21697250000
Expenditures 1.7 % of GDP [48th of 87]
Expenditures > Dollar figure $3,172,000,000.00 [11th of 111]
Expenditures > Dollar figure (per $ GDP) $14.66 per 1,000 $ of GDP [49th of 111]
Expenditures > Dollar figure (per capita) $68.42 per capita [23rd of 111]
Expenditures > Percent of GDP 1.7% [54th of 154]
Manpower > Availability > Females 11,501,537 [26th of 162]
Manpower > Availability > Males 11,622,507 [26th of 210]
Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49 11,865,300 [27th of 175]
Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49 11,924,500 [27th of 175]
Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49 (per capita) 0.257 per capita [85th of 175]
Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49 (per capita) 267.574 per 1,000 people [45th of 174]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Females 5,471,103 [38th of 162]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Males 6,042,498 [35th of 210]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Males age 15-49 7,247,696 [28th of 174]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Males age 15-49 7,211,080 [28th of 174]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Males age 15-49 (per capita) 0.156 per capita [109th of 174]
Manpower > Fit for military service > Males age 15-49 (per capita) 162.617 per 1,000 people [95th of 173]
Manpower > Military age 18 years of age
Manpower > Reaching military age annually > Females 522,678 [19th of 226]
Manpower > Reaching military age annually > Females (per capita) 10.714 per 1,000 people [75th of 225]
Manpower > Reaching military age annually > Males 529,201 [20th of 226]
Manpower > Reaching military age annually > Males (per capita) 10.848 per 1,000 people [81st of 225]
Manpower available for military service > Females age 18-49 10,626,550 [17th of 120]
Manpower available for military service > Females age 18-49 (per capita) 0.242 per capita [23rd of 120]
Manpower available for military service > Males age 18-49 10,354,769 [19th of 164]
Manpower available for military service > Males age 18-49 (per capita) 0.235 per capita [52nd of 164]
Manpower fit for military service > Females age 18-49 4,609,071 [27th of 119]
Manpower fit for military service > Females age 18-49 (per capita) 0.105 per capita [102nd of 119]
Manpower fit for military service > Males age 18-49 4,927,757 [26th of 161]
Manpower fit for military service > Males age 18-49 (per capita) 0.112 per capita [131st of 161]
Manpower reaching military service age annually > Females age 18-49 506,078 [13th of 91]
Manpower reaching military service age annually > Males age 18-49 512,407 [18th of 157]
Naval officer ranks > Flag Officers > OF-6
Rear Admiral (Junior Grade)(in English)
Skout-Admiraal (JR) (in Afrikaans)
Naval officer ranks > Flag Officers > OF-7
Rear Admiral (in English)
Skout-Admiraal (in Afrikaans)
Naval officer ranks > Flag Officers > OF-8
Vice Admiral (in English)
Vise-Admiraal (in Afrikaans)
Naval officer ranks > Flag Officers > OF-9
Admiral (in English)
Admiraal (in Afrikaans)
Naval officer ranks > Other officers > OF-2 Lieutenant
Luitenant
Naval officer ranks > Other officers > OF-3
Lieutenant Commander
Luitenant-Kommandeur
Naval officer ranks > Other officers > OF-4 Commander
Kommandeur
Naval officer ranks > Other officers > OF-5 Captain
Kaptein
Navy personnel 8,000 [31st of 49]
Navy personnel (per capita) 0.180408 per 1,000 people [36th of 49]

Note
with the end of apartheid and the establishment of majority rule, former military, black homelands forces, and ex-opposition forces were integrated into the South African National Defense Force (SANDF); as of 2003 the integration process was considered complete

personnel 56,000 [68th of 170]
personnel (per capita) 1.194 per 1,000 people [142nd of 171]
personnel > % of total labor force 0.29 % [141st of 168]
Service age and obligation
18 years of age for voluntary military service
US military exports $1,794.00 thousand [34th of 109]
US military exports (per capita) $0.04 thousand per 1,000 peopl [78th of 109]
Weapon holdings 2,671,000 [31st of 137]
Weapon holdings (per capita) 60,233.6 per 1 million people [69th of 137]

WMD > Biological
South Africa’s biological weapons program was one of the two principal components of its covert state-sponsored CBW program, codenamed Project Coast (later Project Jota). Personnel associated with Coast have characterized it as the most sophisticated program of its type outside of the former Soviet Union, but international CBW experts generally consider it to have been considerably less advanced from a scientific standpoint. Although ostensibly created entirely for defensive purposes, since government and Cuban military forces in Angola were reportedly equipped for and planning to use—if not already using—CW agents against the South African Defence Force (SADF), from the outset the program also had offensive features and capabilities. The apartheid-era South African government viewed itself as the target of a “total onslaught” by Soviet-backed Marxist guerrillas or regimes in neighboring states and black nationalists at home, and to meet this all-encompassing “red-black danger” it was apparently willing to use almost any means at its disposal to defend itself. It was in this highly charged political and military context, which precipitated a “bunker” or “laager” mentality, that Coast was secretly initiated in 1981 under the aegis of the SADF Special Forces. The chief facility for researching, producing, and testing BW agents and lethal toxic chemicals was a military front company called Roodeplaat Research Laboratories, located north of Pretoria, and other facilities were established to develop protective clothing and manufacture exotic assassination devices. Project Officer Dr. Wouter Basson also set up an elaborate network of procurement and financial front companies overseas. During its existence Coast scientists tested or developed a wide range of harmful BW agents, including Bacillus anthracis, botulinum toxin, Vibrio cholerae, Clostridium perfringens, plague bacteria, and salmonella bacteria. Some of these pathogens were probably used to assassinate individual “enemies of the state,” and it is alleged that both anthrax bacteria and V. cholerae were each employed on at least one occasion to infect larger populations. The CBW program was officially dismantled in 1993, in the midst of a liberalizing transformation of the regime. There are indications, however, that certain personnel who were intimately involved in the program, including Basson, may have provided technical knowledge, equipment, or materials to “rogue regimes” such as Libya, to foreign intelligence personnel, to unscrupulous black marketers trafficking in dangerous weapons, and perhaps also—if certain journalists can be believed—to elements of a shadowy international network of right-wing extremists. These claims have yet to be fully investigated, much less verified. The extent to which various foreign governments, military establishments, and intelligence agencies secretly monitored or covertly assisted in the development of the program likewise remains an open question.

WMD > Chemical
South Africa’s chemical warfare program was one of the two principal components of its covert state-sponsored CBW program, codenamed Project Coast (later Project Jota). Personnel associated with Coast have characterized it as the most sophisticated program of its type outside of the former Soviet Union, but international CBW experts generally consider it to have been considerably less advanced from a scientific standpoint. Although ostensibly created entirely for defensive purposes, since government and Cuban military forces in Angola were reportedly equipped for and planning to use—if not already using—CW agents against the South African Defence Force (SADF), from the outset the program also had offensive features and capabilities. The apartheid-era South African government viewed itself as the target of a “total onslaught” by Soviet-backed Marxist guerrillas or regimes in neighboring states and black nationalists at home, and to meet this all-encompassing “red-black danger” it was apparently willing to use almost any means at its disposal to defend itself. It was in this highly charged political and military context, which precipitated a “bunker” or “laager” mentality, that Coast was secretly initiated in 1981 under the aegis of the SADF Special Forces. The chief facility for researching and producing CW agents was a military front company called Delta G Scientific, located between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and several other facilities were set up to develop protective clothing, manufacture exotic assassination devices, and “weaponize” irritants (Riot Control Agents such as CS and CR) and incapacitants by placing them in artillery shells, mortar bombs, and grenades. Project Officer Dr. Wouter Basson also set up an elaborate network of procurement and financial front companies overseas. During its existence Coast scientists tested and developed both small quantities of well-known CW agents (including mustard agent, sarin, tabun, BZ, and perhaps VX) and a host of lethal, hard-to-trace toxic chemicals. Several of these latter, above all the toxic organophosphates, were almost certainly employed to assassinate individual “enemies of the state.” Certain CW facilities also carried out research on the suitability of using illegal drugs such as methaqualone (“Quaaludes”), MDMA (“Ecstasy”), LSD, marijuana extract (tetrahydrocannibol), and cocaine as incapacitating “calmatives,” but some of these illegal drugs may have ended up being sold for a profit. The CBW program was officially dismantled in 1993, in the midst of a liberalizing transformation of the regime. There are indications, however, that certain personnel who were intimately involved in the program, including Basson, may have provided technical knowledge, equipment, or materials to “rogue regimes” such as Libya, to foreign intelligence personnel, to unscrupulous black marketers trafficking in dangerous weapons, and perhaps also—if certain journalists can be believed—to elements of a shadowy international network of right-wing extremists. These claims have yet to be fully investigated, much less verified. The extent to which various foreign governments, military establishments, and intelligence agencies secretly monitored or covertly assisted in the development of the program likewise remains an open question.

WMD > Missile
It is not clear when South Africa began ballistic missile-related efforts, but reportedly by the mid-1980s, some missile infrastructure existed in the country. It appears that Israel collaborated with South Africa in development of this program, but the nature and extent of this relationship is unknown. Following a July 1989 flight-test of what Pretoria described as a “booster rocket” in a space-launch program, U.S. intelligence noted striking similarities between this system and Israel’s intermediate-range Jericho-2 ballistic missile. Facing U.S. opposition to missile proliferation and the end of its apartheid government, South Africa abandoned its missile and space launch programs in 1991 and dismantled associated facilities under international observation. South Africa became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 1995.

WMD > Nuclear
In the 1960s, South Africa began to explore the technical utility of "peaceful nuclear explosions" for mining and engineering purposes. In 1973, then Prime Minister Johannes Vorster approved a program to develop a limited nuclear deterrent capability. Ultimately, South Africa manufactured six air-deliverable nuclear weapons of the "gun-type" design. In parallel with decisions to end apartheid, the government halted the bomb program in 1989 and dismantled existing weapons and associated production equipment. South Africa acceded to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapon state in 1991, and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors subsequently verified the completeness of its nuclear dismantlement. South Africa joined the Zangger Committee in 1994 and the Nuclear Suppliers Group in 1995. South Africa was instrumental in winning indefinite extension of the NPT in 1995, and played a leading role in successful conclusion of the 2000 NPT Review Conference as a member of the "New Agenda Coalition" that also included Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, and Sweden. More recently, South Africa began working more closely with the IAEA in 2004, in order to monitor international smuggling of nuclear weapons materials, after investigations of a South African businessman exposed connections to the A.Q. Khan network. In 2004, there was also ample discussion concerning South Africa’s dwindling coal reserves and its need for additional nuclear power generation.

WMD > Overview
South Africa's nuclear, biological, chemical, and missile programs reflected perceptions of internal and external threats stemming from its former government's policy of apartheid, as well as the country's advanced state of technical development. Pretoria developed nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles but relinquished these armaments in the early 1990s. The apartheid government also undertook a chemical and biological weapons (CBW) defense program, which reportedly also included offensive research and use of CBW agents against opponents of that government. While the proliferation legacies of South Africa's nuclear and missile programs were effectively resolved through verified disarmament measures that won international acclaim, dismantlement of the country's CBW capabilities was not verified to a comparable degree of certainty. The post-apartheid government of South Africa implemented its nonproliferation and disarmament policy through the Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction Act (No. 87 of 1993) to control the transfer of sensitive items and technologies. South Africa is the first and, to date, only country to build a nuclear arsenal, and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons program. The South African experience demonstrates that at least under some conditions, unilateral disarmament is not only possible, but can improve a nation’s security.


SOURCES
Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy; Wikipedia: Allies of World War I ; calculated on the basis of data on armed forces from IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies). 2001. The Military Balance 2001-2002. Oxford: Oxford University Press; IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies). 2001. The Military Balance 2001-2002. Oxford: Oxford University Press; World Development Indicators database; All CIA World Factbooks 18 December 2003 to 18 December 2008; Wikipedia: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ; Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, 1997. Data collected from the nations concerned, unless otherwise indicated. Acronyms: Amnesty International (AI); European Council of Conscripts Organizations (ECCO); Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC); International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHFHR); National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO); Service, Peace and Justice in Latin America (SERPAJ); War Resisters International (WRI); World Council of Churches (WCC); SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). 2005. SIPRI Arms Transfers. Database. February. Stockholm.; Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC); CIA World Factbook, 28 July 2005; CIA World Factbook, 14 June, 2007 ; Wikipedia: Naval officer ranks ; Study by David Lochhead and James Morrell; available from the Center for International Policy; The Nuclear Threat Initiative

ALTERNATIVE NAMES
South Africa, Republic of South Africa, rep. of s. africa, SAFRICA

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