Mubende, (UG(:- President Yoweri Museveni, also the Commander-In-Chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) Saturday passed out a total of 627 Officers who successfully underwent company commander and armour basic crew courses at the Mechanized Warfare College, Kalama, Mubende District.
A total of 544 officers underwent a Tank and Motorized infantry crew course while those who undertook the Armour Company Commander’s Course were 83.
“I want to first of all congratulate the trainees of the two courses; the Company Commander’s Course and the crews of the tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. I congratulate you on finishing the courses and I graduate you,” he said.
“Secondly, I thank the army leadership and the Commanders and instructors at the college here for preparing you very well as I saw today.”
President Museveni also briefly lectured the trainees on the history of warfare tanks, saying it was very important for them to know the chronicles of armoured fighting vehicles in order to be able to effectively use them during operations.
He said by the 1800s, the Europeans were fighting on horsebacks with swords and later alone with some rifles to provide mobility.
“However, the problem for the horses came around 1854 during a war in Russia where the British and others had gone to Russia to support Turkey and there was a British horse force. By this time, science had invented machine guns and the horses were mowed down and this was the end of the use of horses in war. The Machine gun was more efficient, it could kill the horses quickly,” he said.
Following the incident, President Museveni explained that during the 1st World War, the British decided to come up with a mobile trench in the form of a tank.
“That is why in the 1st World War, you had a static war; a war of trenches, nobody moved due to the machine guns that could mow you down. Towards the end, that’s when the British thought of inventing a mobile trench, so they got some metal and put it together with an engine. By this time, the car had also been invented,” he said.
“And in order to surprise the Germans, they labelled these mobile vehicles with some protected metal, what you could call armour. They hid them as water tanks, that’s where the name tank came from. They were taken to Belgium and surprised the Germans who were shooting these tanks, and the bullets were not going through. That is how the British gained the initiative and the tank now became a very useful force.”
Gen. Museveni further expounded that the tank has potential but also limitations, that is why there’s a need for combined arms. “I always advise that don’t use the tanks alone, they need supporting forces. That’s why we talk of combined arms. War is like that, you need to mix in order to get a good product.”
On the other hand, President Museveni pledged to improve the infrastructure of the trainees and instructors at the college.
The Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Hon. Jacob Oboth Oboth congratulated the trainees for successfully completing their training.
Hon. Oboth Oboth also commended President Museveni for being consistent in his vision and foresight on the transformation of Uganda. “We want to thank you for prioritizing training in the army. We also want to thank you for your vision to transform the UPDF and Uganda,” the Minister said.
Representing the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Gen. Muhoozi Kaneirugaba, the Commander of UPDF Land Forces, Lt. Gen. Kayanja Muhanga informed the President that the passout is yet another milestone in professionalizing the army.
“Training is very important since it perfects our fighting capabilities. When you train hard, you pour less blood in battle,” he said.
“I want to thank the President and Commander in Chief for always emphasizing this because there’s no other way you can have a professionalized and capable army without training. There’s peace in all four corners of Uganda because there’s an army that is professional.”
The Commandant of the warfare college, Col. Wilson Kabeera said the college is the premier institution for training and developing the armour and combat engineer commanders, instructors and technical personnel with the aim of enhancing warfare lethality and capabilities and executing combined arms operations.
“Your Excellency, our vision is to become a centre of excellence for manoeuvre and land operations. To achieve this vision, our mission is to train agile and adaptive commanders, crews and combat engineers capable of operating in all combat environments,” he said.
“This company Commander course commenced on 7th June, 2024 while the armour basic crew course commenced on 18th December, 2023. They have been undergoing a six-month course and 1 year respectively.”
Col. Kabeera also thanked President Museveni for his strategic leadership that has prioritized training in UPDF, noting that because of that, they now have fully-fledged training institutions from the lowest training unit to the highest National Defence College.
He further thanked the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs for the strategic support provided to the college. “In a special way, I would love to thank the Chief of Defence Forces for his strategic support and guidance to the success of this college.”
He also congratulated the trainees upon their successful completion of their training. “You have been empowered with the skills, techniques and tactics of employing armour to accomplish armour tasks and missions in different operating environments. I’m confident that you will be able to apply the skills and the knowledge obtained from here to employ the superior capabilities of armour to defeat our enemies.”
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