CDF Land Service

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

The Land Service of the Community Defence Forces is the standing army of Sober Thought and is responsible to the federal government. Each of the eight provinces also maintains a military force described as the Civil Guard which the House of the Federation may place on federal service to be integrated with the Land Service.

During peacetime, the Land Service proper and the Civil Guard combined have roughly 12 division equivalents including the marines for every one hundred million national population. The command staffs of battalions, demi-brigades, brigades and divisions in both are doubled and, except for the actual senior officer, duplicated.

Mobilisation

As a standing army, the Land Service formations are ready for combat in a week or less; as a militia, the Civil Guard formations are ready in a month or less. During times of crisis or war, the federal government activates the Civil Guard for national defence duties.

Unlike many real world armies, the CDF imposes no explicit reserve obligation upon discharged soldiers. Nevertheless, during times of actual war, the government may -- and in large conflicts often does -- institute conscription. The duplicated staffs and about a quarter of the platoon and company officers in the Land Service and Civil Guard are hived off to form the command staff second formations.

Naturally, those with previous military service are prime candidates for the draft when conscription is implemented, First up are soldiers, master soldiers and leading soldiers who were discharged honourably and medically fit in the last two years and who are aged no more than 30. These are the trained infanteers, gunners, tankers, engineers, etc. who form the bulk of a unit. They are commanded by officers of the lieutenant ranks who were similarly discharged, but their maximum age is increased to 35. These officers provide the platoon and company commanders, and deputy commanders for battalions through divisions.

The next wave of divisions gets its warrant officers and leading soldiers from those discharged three to five years previously and who are aged no more than 40. Officers ranking vice commander and below are aged no more than 45, while those commander and above are 50. Its soldiers, master soldiers and some leading soldiers are drawn from the ranks of those with no prior military service. These formations are ready in six months or less.

The final wave of divisions is drawn, except for its most senior commanders, from those with no prior military service. In order to accommodate this wave the the previous one, the training command cadre units are tripled for the duration of full mobilisation. These formations take at least a year to become usefully functional, but within six months they can be used in the home defence role to free up better trained units.

The second wave is light on armoured vehicles and artillery, which take some time to manufacture; however, by the third and fourth waves the factories will be churning out arms at phenomenal rate and the second wave can be retroactively brought up to the proper tables of equipment. Combined, this gives an impressive 48 divisions per 100 million population, close to the largest sustainable army that the industrial and demographic base of the country can support.

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

Main article: CDF land units and formations#Sub-units

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

Main article: CDF land units and formations#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

Main article: CDF Naval Service#Marine Division

The marines, comprised of one consecutively numbered Marine Division per hundred million national population, are under permanent operational control of the CDF 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.

Weapons

Main articles: CDF small arms, Community Defence Forces tanks, Community Defence Forces tracked armoured vehicles and Community Defence Forces wheeled armoured vehicles

Soldiers in the CDF carry small arms for personal use on the battlefield. Officers, technical specialists, vehicle drivers and close quarters combat soldiers are armed with 9 mm pistols, 9 mm submachineguns, or both. The majority of troops, however, are armed with one of the long arms family of weapons. The carbine, assault rifle, sniper rifle and light machine gun all fire 7 mm ammunition. The Community Defence Forces' medium machine gun fires explosive 8 mm ammunition and the heavy machinegun 12 mm. In addition to being carried by foot soldiers, they are mounted on vehicles.

Fully-tracked tanks and wheeled armoured cars are the main weapons of the Land Service. However, they must support and be supported by infantry whether in heavily armed armoured infantry combat vehicles, tracked or wheeled armoured personnel carriers, or softskinned trucks.