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I have an interest in the use of all kinds of animals during wartime.
Dogs and horses have always fascinated me the most.
Today I was wondering if there are any armies out there who still use horses? I am not talking 3rd world countries and I am not talking about using them for ceremonies or transport but more of a "modern cavalry" if you well.
Also, if you have any good sources on animals used in war, I'd be delighted to have them.
I remembered an episode of the old Combat series where they used pigeons to deliver messages. Here are a couple of sites that can give you info on the use of pigeons during war.
There is one NATO country which still utilises horses for transport, and that country is Albania.
For "war horses", the most common one is probably the Leopard 2A4/5/6 which is in use in many countries. Another "war horse" would be the BMP-2, also used by numerous countries.
Sir Nils Olav is a colonel in the Norwegian Royal Guard, now stationed in Edinburgh Zoo. Here he inspects the Guard:
Dogs were - unfortunately - very successfully used during WWII by Red Army as tank destroyers and mine sweeps.
Many countries trained dolphins for warfare. Either as mine carriers or scouts.
You are not interested in 3rd world countries but, as most warfare right now is actually in them, there are many areas where even the best ATV won't go. Mountains, jungles, swamps, etc. Horse, mule, donkey and camel are still irreplaceable for those areas.
Dogs were - unfortunately - very successfully used during WWII by Red Army as tank destroyers and mine sweeps.
That's an urban legend. Dogs as tank destroyers were a total disaster in WWII. Though well trained, they were afraid of the moving tanks, and ran back to their owners, detonating their time-fused bombs in their own trenches. This concept was quickly abandoned.
As minesweepers the dogs were equally useless. A four-legged dog's weight per m2 was insufficient to trigger the mines which were designed to implode with the weight per m2 of a human. So the Soviets used penal battalions to clear minefields.
I have an interest in the use of all kinds of animals during wartime.
Dogs and horses have always fascinated me the most.
Today I was wondering if there are any armies out there who still use horses? I am not talking 3rd world countries and I am not talking about using them for ceremonies or transport but more of a "modern cavalry" if you well.
Also, if you have any good sources on animals used in war, I'd be delighted to have them.
There were many armies who continued to use cavalry post-WW2 in the role of a dragoon force (basically mounted infantry, not 'cavalry' per se). Many European countries used them heavily in the various colonial wars in Africa during the 60's and 70's.
Active horse regiments were popular in South America well into the 1990's, especially given the extremely difficult terrain.
As others mentioned, US special forces have made use of horses in their various actions in modern times.
However, there are two non-3rd world armies that maintain cavalry units.
The 61st Cavalry Division of the Indian Army is completely non-mechanized. While primarily dedicated to ceremonial duties, if activated, they go to war on horseback. They were last deployed during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War where they undertook mounted patrols on the border regions. The fact that they can be activated as horse cavalry separates them from units like the Household Cavalry which are purely ceremonial.
The Chinese PLA maintains cavalry squadrons for border work and operations in rugged terrain. These are full on modern mounted dragoons. Mongolia maintains similar units as well.
The Separate Special Battalions 1-4 of Finland are all fully horse/dog/cat/rabbit/foot powered, but they need helicopters or airplanes to drop them behind the enemy lines first, so I guess that doesn't count.
Interesting to learn that some armies still uses horses as a 'fighting vehicle'.
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