Difference between revisions of "CDF Land Service"

Revision as of 05:43, 13 January 2006

This article is about a branch of the armed forces of Sober Thought. For discussions about armed forces generally, see Category:Armed forces.

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 specialties 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 classification 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 ancillary 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 several 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 simultaneously 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 constituent 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 specialised 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.

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.

Small arms

Small arms divide roughly into three groups: those firing pistol ammunition, those firing rifle ammunition and those firing machine gun ammunition. Military pistols have more or less standarised worldwide at 9 mm, but other standards have proved problematic. While alliance discussions may alter the rifle calibre to conform with a different standard such as 5.56 mm (.219 or .22 inch) or 7.62 mm (.30 inch), the basic design of the weapons will remain unchanged. Similarly, the machinegun calibres are somewhat malleable even if their designs are less so.

Officers and some technical staff are armed with 9 mm pistols with 10 round clips which serve more of a ceremonial or theoretical role on the modern battlefield. The same ammunition, but loaded into twenty or thirty round magazines, is fired from submachine guns which equip other techical staff, naval boarding parties, urban light infantry and other combat soldiers who fight in places where space is at a premium, accuracy is unimportant and range is short.

The most numerous group by far is the 7 mm long arms family with the general outward appearance of a PPSh 43 or AK 47. There are four variants: carbine, assault rifle, sniper rifle and light machine gun, all of which can be fed by 15 or 30 round magazines. The carbine and assault rifle are most similar, both having the capacity for a bayonet to be afixed, the former having a collapsable stock and the latter a fixed one. The sniper rifle has a telescopic sight, longer barrel and bipod. The light machine gun has a carrying handle, a longer barrel with quick-change capability and the same bipod as the sniper rifle, but it is also designed to take 100 round ammunition belts.

The Community Defence Forces' medium machine gun uses 8 mm ammunition with an explosive charge slightly greater than the 7 mm ammunition used in the long arms family. It has a pistol-grip trigger, a stockless receiver with hinged access for loading 200 round belts of bullets, a yoked pin closed by a cotterpin for affixing to mounts, a round fixed sight and a quick-change barrel. The same basic design is fractionally increased by one third (excepting the ergonomic items like the trigger and barrel grip) for the heavy machine gun which fires 12 mm bullets.

Armoured vehicles

The Land Service operates several families of tracked and wheeled armoured vehicles and some orphans designs divided by role of vehicle and type of locomotion. For greater detail, click on the links of interest: tanks, other tracked vehicles and wheeled armoured vehicles. Below is a brief summary.

The biggest punch of the Land Service is packed but its tanks, which by definition, are always fully tracked. A similar punch is packed by armoured cars, which one may regard as tanks with wheels. While it is still true that infantry is the queen of the battlefield, tanks and armoured cars are often indispensible in this exercise of power. These vehicles may be used to bombard enemy positions, attack enemy personnel and vehicles, and to hold territory.

Other armoured vehicles -- whether tracked, half-tracked or wheeled -- may be used to transport infantry onto the battlefield where they may operate jointly with tanks and armoured cars. This is the so-called battle taxi function of armoured personnel carriers (armed only with weapons below 20 mm calibre) and infantry combat vehicles (armed with weapons at least 20 mm calibre). Very specialised armoured vehicles are used to recover damaged vehicles or lay bridges under enemy fire.