At the late 1970s when the Rhodesian Bush War was entering its final phase, the Rhodesian Security Forces (RhSF) were faced with an escalation towards conventional warfare when they learned that a mechanised built-up was being undertaken by the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) guerrilla organisation based in neighbouring Zambia with material assistance from the Soviet Union. Eventually, by mid-1979 ZIPRA had brought to strength a fairly sizeable armoured corps trained by Cuban advisers, which aligned five BRDM-2 reconnaissance armoured cars, six to ten &lt;a href="T-34"&gt;T-34/85&lt;/a&gt; tanks and fifteen BTR-152 wheeled APCs.