The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is the largest Ulster loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during the Troubles. For most of this time it was a legal organization. Its declared goal was to defend Ulster Protestant loyalist areas and to combat Irish republicanism, particularly the Irish Republican Army (IRA). In the 1970s, uniformed UDA members openly patrolled these areas armed with batons and held large marches and rallies. Within the UDA was a group tasked with launching paramilitary attacks; it used the covername Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) so that the UDA would not be outlawed. The United Kingdom outlawed the "UFF" in November 1973, but the UDA itself was not proscribed as a terrorist group until August 1992.