Done some lovely research on this little army. The CNG is about 14000 strong with 9000 active reserve. Paper reserves number as high as 90000 men.
The Cyprus National Guard is the most interesting and bizzarely erratic armed force in the world, and is regularly the focus of antics that frighten the UN, annoy the USA and utterly infuriate the Turkish Government and its northern “state” in Cyprus.
Anyone familiar with the S-300 crisis will no doubt understand.
The CNG, which comes complete with its own Air Force and Navy, is very well funded, and very well equipped.
Recently, 12 brand new Mi-24VK Hinds arrived on the island, and there is talk of 4 more coming by next year. This is a big big increase in tank-busting potential for the CNG, which already has an enormous quantity of anti-tank weaponry in its infantry arsenal.
The Turkish Government also accused the Cypriots of planning to “buy” a small fleet of Mirage-F1CG warplanes (19 operational + 12 spare) from Greece.
Personally, as a Cypriot, I think this is a bad idea, as the planes are quite old and probably require a lot of maintenance. They are also not that useful for air-defence, and would probably need MICA missile systems if they were to survive against Turkey’s F-16’s.
I think – screw that. Buy a batch of 8 brand new Su-30M Flankers and a few Su-27’s for ground-attack.
Will post some nice pics soon.
By: Rabie - 29th October 2002 at 00:24
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
i know but i didn’t have an greek f4 or for taht mater typoon to hand when i was making a quickjoket at his expense }> 😀 }>
great pics though
rabie :9
By: frankvw - 28th October 2002 at 08:54
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
Small remark about the F-4 pic: it’s an RAF example, presumably over Germany.
By: Arabella-Cox - 28th October 2002 at 02:28
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
Nice website of National Guard with photo galleries of all declassified equipment. NB/ no photos of Mi-35E Hinds or MM-110 and M-107 howitzers.
http://www.army.gov.cy/en/homeeng.asp
Launch at Twilight – “Thermal Crossover”
By: Arabella-Cox - 3rd August 2002 at 20:42
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
See! All this confusion with US-made aircraft. Buy Russian! You can’t go wrong.
ps. err…well actually you can. But either way, a big fat Su-30Mk, armed with Adder, Alamo and Archer, and a big belly full of fuel (to run to Greece) would be a nice addition, and not an uneconomical one. I could have bought 5 or 6 for the price of an entire S-300 battery.
By: Rabie - 3rd August 2002 at 14:36
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
i know what you mean but that was rather simplistic what you said.
turkey as f5, f4 and f-16s while greece has f4, f16, f1, M2ks, a-7.
both sides are looking very hard at te JSF and the typoon is still ossible.
IMHO cyprus should bother with a fighter force at alll – spend the money on the navy and army and choppers
rabie :9
By: ad0nis - 2nd August 2002 at 20:10
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 02-08-02 AT 08:12Â PM (GMT)]What i should have said is and you know what i meant Rabies is that they have no significant hi-tech 2 engined jets (F4 even with Icurus 2000 upgrade in my opinion is still lax!!) and even the F5 is in its infancy in the threat it would have to face of a Turkish assault.
Greek eurofighter project is still pending and unconfirmed and JSF is still a rumour at this point in time.
regards
By: Rabie - 2nd August 2002 at 14:18
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
“even Greece (Cyprus’s protectarate) has any two engined jets fighters.“
are you sure ???
the f4 is still in use, they did have the f5 and have typoons on order
rabie :9
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By: ad0nis - 1st August 2002 at 17:33
RE: Cyprus National Guard – tanks n’ tourists
Potentially bad idea if cyprus has aspirations of joining EU, but i agree with you twilight that such powerful weaponary would significantly increase Cyprus’s defence, but wouldn’t the SU-30Mk be too big for a small island like Cyprus??? not even Greece (Cyprus’s protectarate) has any two engined jets fighters.
regards
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July 30, 2002 at 10:04 pm