Royal Bhutan Army
From Bhutannica
The Royal Bhutan Army (RBA), formed in 1950, is the all-volunteer army of the Kingdom of Bhutan. Besides the RBA, there is also the Royal Body Guards (RBG) an elite branch responsible for the King's security, VIP protection and counter insurgency warfare, the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), responsible for civil law enforcement and order, the National Militia, responsible for the guarding of infrastructure, and the Forest Guards, an environmental protection and also border patrolling unit. It used to be customary, but not obligatory, for one son from each Bhutanese family to serve. In addition, the militia may be recruited only during emergencies.
Bhutan has a strong warrior tradition going back many centuries, and a lengthy history of bloodily repelling Tibetan, Mongolian, Nepalese and British invaders. A nineteenth century British lieutenant with an expeditionary force from India wrote of his relief that the Bhutanese had no firearms, as he had lost fifty-seven of his sepoys to arrows. The country has never been conquered.
The RBA is a mobile infantry force lightly armed with weapons supplied by India, engaged mainly in border security, including security at Paro Airport and other important installations. It may, from time to time, be called on to assist the RBP. Numbers are not published (one estimate is 6,000), but there are four operational wings strategically located through the country, each possibly of regimental strength.
Soldiering is one of Bhutan's few pensionable occupations. Welfare funds for army pensioners are raised through the sale of alcohol products produced at Army distilleries and breweries.
The RBA relies on Indian air and ground support and works closely with the Indian Army, which has a training mission in Bhutan (IMTRAT). Officers are usually trained at Indian military schools. An engineering division of the Indian Army, DANTAK, uses contract Indian labour to maintain highways in Western Bhutan, which have a strategic value as well as a more obvious economic benefit.
Army troops were in action in late 2003 in the south-eastern dzonkhags, in Operation All Clear against Indian separatists groups United Liberation Front of Asom, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamatapur Liberation Organization (KLO), that had built a network of permanent camps and outposts in the dense southern jungles. The guerrillas, numbering about 3000 heavily armed rebels were all captured, killed or driven back across the border, at the cost of some Bhutanese deaths and injuries, which according to Kuensel, the National newspaper is 11 and 35 respectively. Militia were trained during the months leading up to the conflict to guard vital installations away from the area of conflict.