{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2021 The Defense Industry Sector is an office under the

Ministry of Defense {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

responsible for administering several defense industries in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Its objective is to provide for and support the

Ethiopian National Defense Force The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) ( am, የኢፌዲሪ መከላከያ ሠራዊት, Ye’īfēdērī mekelakeya šerawīt, lit=FDRE Defense Force) is the military force of Ethiopia. Civilian control of the military is carried out t ...

History

The manufacturing of weaponry in Ethiopia was started in the 18th century during the era of

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Tewodros II , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Tewodros II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ቴዎድሮስ, baptized as Gebre Kidan; 1818 – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiopi ...

. Historical records show Emperor Tewodros built a huge mortar called ''

Sebastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

'' in 1868, in

Begemder Begemder ( amh, በጌምድር; also known as Gondar or Gonder, alternative name borrowed from its 20th century capital Gondar) was a province in northwest Ethiopia. Etymology A plausible source for the name ''Bega'' is that the word means " ...

(or Gondar)

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

at a village named Gafat, and took it to the mountain of

Maqdala Amba Mariam (Amharic: ዐምባ ማሪያም) is a village in central Ethiopia. Formerly known as Magdala or Makdala (መቅደላ ''Meḳdelā or Mäqdäla'') during the reign of Emperor Tewodros II (1855-1868). Located in the Debub Wollo Zone ...

. Later, under the reign of Emperor

Menelik II , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew (Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 A ...

, an ammunition factory was established in 1911, which started producing cartridges for Wejigra and Wechefor rifles."FDRE Defense Industry, May 2008 page 8 The basis for modern defense industry was laid with the establishment of the then Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

ammunition factory in 1953 with the cooperation of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. Its objective was to locally manufacture ammunition for light weapons. In 1984, it was expanded with newer technology and more capacity. Due to the serious attention given towards building a strong defense industry, the

Derg The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " c ...

regime set out to build various defense factories with support from the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and other

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

nations. In 1986, the government issued a directive to form a Defense Industry Commission reporting to the council of ministers which would be responsible for administration, production and strategic direction. Experts from the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Industry and Ethiopian Management Institute were drawn to study the establishment of the commission. In 1991, the commission (renamed Basic Materials and Engineering Industry Commission) was administering four production facilities."FDRE Defense Industry, May 2008 page 9 While the number of military production facilities grew, the structure remained unchanged until 2004 when a new body Defense Industry Coordinating Office was created to administer all factories, including those under the Ethiopian National Defense Force. In 2007, the Defense Industry Coordinating Office was renamed Defense Industry Sector and put under the

Organizations

Currently, there are 8 organizations administered by DIS:"FDRE Defense Industry, May 2008 page 8-9 *

Hibret Machine Tools Engineering Complex Hibret Manufacturing and Machine Building Industry (Amharic: ሕብረት ማምረቻ እና የማሽን ግንባታ ኢንዱስትሪ; ''Hibret mamireti ina yemashini ginibata'') is a military-civil engineering complex of the Ethiopian Defense ...

Gafat Armament Engineering Complex Gafat Armament Engineering Complex is one of the military production facilities of the Metals and Engineering Corporation. With its headquarters in Bishoftu, it specializes in producing wide range of infantry equipment that meet the requirement of t ...

Homicho Ammunition Engineering Complex Homicho Ammunition Engineering Complex is the part of Metals and Engineering Corporation and is also one of the military production facilities of the Ethiopian Defense Industry Sector. It specializes in producing wide range of ammunition for use b ...

* Bishoftu Motorization Engineering Complex * Dejen Aviation Engineering Complex * Nazareth Canvass and Garment Factory * Zuqualla Steel Rolling Mill * Branna Printing Enterprise

References

* FDRE Defense Industry, May 2008 *