CDF artillery

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The Artillery Branch of the Community Defence Forces operates guns equal to or greater than 20 mm for Sober Thought's Land Service.

It is subdivided into four subbranches: pack artillery, field artillery, coastal artillery and air defence artillery. An artillery battalion has a support company of 150: battalion HQ (15) plus ordnance (30), supply (30), maintenance (30), administration (25) and medical (20) platoons. In addition, it has three to five gun companies (140) coming from the subbranches described below.


Pack artillery

Sometimes confused with light artillery, this subbranch is designed to support airborne, mountain, light infantry or other troops operating without large numbers of motor transport. Pack artillery guns are designed to be broken down and transported on foot, and use the same 60 mm rounds as those equipping the light tank and armoured infantry combat vehicle.

They form their own numerical sequence of battalions with role noted parenthetically where relevant, e.g., 3rd Pack Artillery Battalion (Mountain), 16th Pack Artillery Battalion (Airborne). Field artillery battalions consist of 540 all ranks: 21 officers, 17 warrant officers and 502 others. There are 27 60 mm pack guns in the battalion.


Field artillery

This subbranch forms the bulk of the troops and guns of the Land Service. They may be reroled as reequipped as required to fit the types. There are scores of field artillery battalions in each wave of one hundred million national population.

Light field artillery is 60 mm and uses the same rounds as the light tank while medium is 100 mm and heavy tank. Heavy artillery is 150 mm and it fires the same armour piercing rounds as the cruiser's main armament.

All motorised, mechanised and antitank artillery battalions appear in the same ordinal sequence with their subbranch noted parenthetically, e.g., 16th Field Artillery Battalion (Antitank). Field artillery battalions consist of 570 all ranks: 22 officers, 18 warrant officers and 530 others. Regardless of the type of ordnance, there are 27 launchers in the battalion.

Types:

  1. Motorised artillery Guns, howitzers and rocket launchers designed to support infantry with direct or indirect fire belong here, as do heavier siege and counterbattery artillery pieces. In all cases, the pieces are towed by motorised vehicles.
  2. Mechanized artillery Self-propelled artillery pieces designed to support armour and heavy infantry.
  3. Antitank artillery Towed or self-propelled artillery pieces specifically designed to pierce armour.


Coastal artillery

This subbranch is under the effective command of the Naval Service. It discourages enemy warships or landing vessels from straying too close to the shores of Sober Thought by subjecting them to heavy artillery barrages.

The CDF raises six coastal artillery battalions in each population wave, numbered sequentially starting with the 1st Coastal Artillery Battalion. Coastal artillery battalions consist of 22 officers, 18 warrant officers and 560 others. These 600 troops operate nine 250 mm fixed coastal guns.


Air defence artillery

The air defence of Sober Thought and its armed forces is mainly the responsibility of the CDF Air Service. This subbranch represents the Land Service's contribution to defending all military units and civilian areas from aerial attack. There are a dozen or so air defence artillery battalions for every one hundred million citizens.

Lowlevel air defence is provided by 20 mm and 40 mm cannon, often in dual or quadruple mounts. Heavy guns are 150 mm. Smallbore and largebore rockets are also used.

Of all the artillery units, AD battalions are the ones most likely to be equipped with rocket launchers than projectile artillery pieces. Like their field artillery counterparts, they always have 570 all ranks. However, the number of pieces varies widely -- 36, 48 and 72 being common -- depending on the weapons with which they are equipped. All battalions form one ordinal sequence, e.g., 6th Air Defence Battalion.