Difference between revisions of "CDF Land Service"

Revision as of 20:12, 11 October 2005

The Land Service is the army of Sober Thought and the core of its Community Defence Forces because ultimately land forces that must occupy a defeated enemy and engage in reconstruction. While separate in peacetime, the Civil Guard is closely integrated with the Land Service, the former of which provides an increasing amount of troops for the latter's nine field divisions.

Branches, sub-branches and types

The Community Defence Forces in general and the Land Service in particular need different kinds of troops to achieve their objectives. These specialities are indicated by insignia on the upper part of defenders' shoulderboards, with the exception of the infantry which needs none as the primary branch of both the CDF and LS.

More than half of the branches extant in the Land Service are common to the CDF as a whole: Intelligence & Reconnaissance, Supply, Justice & Police, Health, Maintenance (electrical and mechanical engineering), Signals & Electronic Warfare (communications & radar jamming), and Search and Rescue. Despite its name, Land Transport exists only as a branch in the Land Service and not as a sub-branch of a Defence Forces-wide branch.

Within the Land Service, the division of labour is recognized by a classifcation of troops into three branches, eleven sub-branches and a dozen or more types. Infantry, artillery and land engineering are the remaining branches in the service. Their sub-branches include, respectively, light infantry, air defence artillery and civil engineering. Similarly, their types include, respectively, mountain infantry, rocket air defence artillery and bridge building.

Branches are the most broad subdivisions in the service, e.g., Artillery covers all firearms equal to or greater than 20 mm as well as rockets. Sub-branches are more specialised, e.g., Pack Artillery covers all firearms equal to or greater than 20 mm which are designed to be carried by soldiers themselves. Movement among sub-branches would require lots of retraining.

Types are even more specialised, e.g., Airborne Artillery covers all firearms equal to or greater than 20 mm which are designed to be delivered by parachute then carried by soldiers themselves. Movement among types would require some retraining, although usually in the ancilliary task rather than on the equipment themselves. For example, the pack artillery pieces are all the same regardless of whether they are in an airborne, mountain or rifle brigade of the light infantry sub-branch; however, rifle battalion gunners would have to learn parachuting, or climbing and skiing, if they were transferring to the other types.

Units and subunits

In the CDF, the term "unit" refers to the largest body of troops formed from a single branch and "subunit" is a wholly subordinate part of a unit. In the Land Service, the most important units and subunits are companies, usually of 100-200 all ranks, and battalions, 400-600. Companies are rarely broken up or augmented, while battalions are more frequently augmented with additional specialist companies.

The basic building block for such specialty and support troops as those in the Engineering and Health Branches is the company. These companies may initially be raised as independent units in one sub-branch only but become dependent sub-units when combined with other companies in different sub-branches to form battalions of serveral types in one branch.

The basic building block for armoured, infantry and field artillery troops is the battalion. With the exception of Marines, these units are only raised in battalions and are rarely broken up. They tend to have a stable organisation and number of companies which then serve as subunits of the battalion unit.

One of these whole battalions which is augmented by company sub-units for a specific purpose is called a battalion group. For example, an infantry battalion might get armoured, artillery and engineering companies attached -- nearly doubling the size of the battalion -- to overcome unusual obstacles or to operate as a battle group or mini-formation.

On a somewhat larger scale, two to five battalions of different combat branches may be more or less permanently grouped together in a brigade. So long as the brigade is not augmented with specialist and support battalions or companies, it functions so: the brigade is unit, the battalion is simultanously a sub-unit of the brigade and the parent unit of the company, and the company is a sub-unit of the battalion. If there significant numbers of support elements are added to a brigade, it becomes a small formation called a brigade group (although retaining the original brigade number) and its commanding officer may be promoted to Chief Commander from Commander.

Formations

When several or many units and their subunits are grouped together in something resembling a balance from the branches, they are called formations. They may be grouped together to complete a specific mission, then dissolved after it is accomplished. Sometimes, the have semi-permanent status, but their constitutent units and subunits might rotate through without any change in the name or command of the formation as a whole.

Headquarters companies of 100 personnel are employed at the army, corps, division and brigade (group) level, and are distinguished by the rank of the Chief Marshal, Marshal, Vice Marshal or (Chief) Commander involved. Large missions typically require at least one division.

The general organisation of a division will remain substantially the same, but the composition of specific brigades and their constituent battalions will vary greatly. Three field brigades (whether infantry, armoured or a mixture) provide the bulk of the fighting strength. In addition to any artillery battalions directly attached to the brigades, the divisional artillery brigade usually includes a few sepcialised battalions for air defence, anti-armour or heavy bombardment operations. Support elements, often divided into separate combat support and service support brigades, typically include one or two additional armoured or infantry battalions, two or so engineering battalions, a medical battalion, one or a few transport and supply battalions, and a security battalion including reconnaissance, intelligence and military police companies.

Independent brigades -- briefly described above in the discussion in brigade groups -- are always beefed up, usually one the basis of approximately one third of divisional troops. Rather than take whole existing battalions from the support, engineering and artillery brigades, composite battalions are made by taking one company each from the parent battalions. E.g., a composite artillery battalion might consist of an HQ, an air defence, an anti-armour and two self-propelled artillery companies.

Formation and unit symbols

The CDF uses symbols similar to their counterparts in NATO or U.S. Army, e.g., an "X" indicates infantry, a small rectangle with rounded corners in the centre armoured, an small circle in the centre artillery, an "E" on the left engineering, etc. The symbols are cumulative, so an X with a rounded rectangle indicates armoured infantry, i.e., infantry soldiers transported in armoured vehicles who fight dismounted.

This chart shows three armoured, three armoured infantry, two infantry and one light infantry division; plus one airborne, two armoured, two armoured infantry, 3 artillery, one security, one engineering and three support brigades or brigade groups of non-divisional troops commanded directly by the corps or army headquarters.

Marine Division

The marines, comprised of one consecutively numbered Marine Division per hundred million national population, are under permanent operational control of the Naval Service. Each division consists of several discrete elements: 1274 marines permanently stationed on warships ranging in size from frigates to cruisers, three battalions of light infantry (one permanently stationed on the aircraft carrier), three battalions of armour and three battalions of armoured infantry (two thirds of the latter of whom are permamently stationed on the nine landing ships), plus divisional artillery, support and engineering brigades on land.

Arms and equipment

The Land Service operates the following major armoured vehicles: a main battle tank armed with a 100 mm gun, a light tank armed with a 60 mm gun, a family of fully tracked armoured vehicles (including armoured personnel carrier, armoured infantry combat, armoured reconnaissance, armoured command and armoured recovery vehicle variants) and a family of wheeled armoured vehicles (same variants except for the ARV).

Major small arms are: a 9 mm pistol for officers and some technical staff, a submachine gun firing the same ammunition for some techical staff and close quarters combat soldiers, a 7 mm long arms family (including carbine, assault rifle, sniper rifle and light machine gun variants) and a family of heavier machine guns (including one firing 7 mm long arms ammunition and another firing 12 mm).