CDF land transportation

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The Transportation Branch of the Community Defence Forces' Land Service of Sober Thought is designed to move personnel and supplies, whether military or civilian, by pack animal, motor vehicle and rail to and from combat zones and occupied territories. Air transport is the responsiblity of various air of transport squadrons and sub-units. Water transport is the responsibility of various Community Vessels.

Animal transport

While this is the most basic form of transportation besides walking itself, its importance in all RL and RP countries has declined dramatically with the innovation of the internal combustion engine. However, it still has a niche in covering rugged terrain such as mountains and deserts.

Many animals can be suitable, but horses, mules, donkeys and camels are the most common, depending on the landforms one wishes to traverse. Sober Thought's current Order of Battle for each wave of one hundred million population lists one battalion of three horse and one mule companies devoted to the mountain division.

These four field companies are rounded out by a support company comprised of:

  • Headquarters Squad, for the command and communications staff
  • Animal Accoutrement Platoon, with three farrier and one leatherworking squads
  • Fodder Platoon, for delivering feed to the animals
  • Veterinary Platoon, for assuring animal health
  • Motor Platoon, including livestock trailers and mechanical engineers
  • Administration Platoon, including clerks and human food cooks
  • Medical Squad, for assuring human health.


Motor transport

The standard softskinned truck in the inventor of the Land Service is one with a cab and covered box sharing the same chassis, capable of moving three tonnes of material or 35-40 troops and their personal weapons. This is by far the most common vehicle in land motor transport battalions, which comprise a headquarters and four field companies.

Separately organised CDF maintenance engineering staff repair the trucks, and the divisional maintenance battalion is often shared back and forth between the engineering and logistics demi-brigades. Separately organised but collocated CDF land supply battalions provide the goods to be transported, and the personnel are provided by the division's field brigades. Of course, current and former civilian refugees and internal displaced persons can also be transported.

For bigger loads there are also military operated transport trucks to which flatbed (capable of taking large motor vehicles or irregularly shaped loads) or enclosed refrigerated (for food and medical perishables) trailers are attached. Sober Thought has taken intermodal transport to extremes, so the flatbeds have attachments for both typical shipping containers and new intermodal tanks for transporting liquid fuels, edibles or wastes. The liquid intermodals do not interchange their loads, so a gasoline tank is always a gasoline tank, a diesel a diesel, a potable water a potable water, a milk a milk, a liquid sewage a liquid sewage, etc.

For smaller loads, the Transportation Branch uses one tonne medium trucks. There is also the ubiquitous quarter tonne light truck which resembles the old Jeep or Land Rover more than the modern Humvee. As a utility vehicle, it can move moderate loads short distances, but it is mostly used for driving around officers, command staff and military specialists.


Rail transport

It is widely but wrongly believed that military rail transport is the exclusive domain of the CDF engineering branches. This is encouraged by the reality that most railway units do in fact bear the designation of engineering battalions, and by the description of the driver of railway engines. Nonetheless, railways narrowly construed are part of the Transportation Branch and not the Engineering or Maintenance Branches.

Railways are extremely useful for moving large quantities of troops and goods quickly and efficiently. However, they are also extremely vulnerable to network disruptions whether caused by mechanical failure or intentional destruction. Therefore, a considerable amount of the efforts spent by rail transport units is spent on replacing, repairing and maintaining the large investment of physical capital needed for this type of transportation infrastructure.

A typical railway battalion at the corps, army or superformation level consists of one company each of headquarters, station, train, track construction, rollingstock maintenance and track maintenance soldiers. Thus, 60% of the field companies are engineers but from two different branches, so the Community Defence Forces hieroglyphics symbol uses the element indicating engineers generally combined with the element indicating rail transport.

The two administrative companies, HQ and station, are divided by the scope of their work. The HQ company deals with personnel and command matters quite separate from that of the station company which schedules, dispatches and loads people and products in the train stations and depots. The train company includes the staff who are actually on moving trains: drivers, rail attendants, dining car cooks, caboose staff, etc.

The remaining three companies -- track construction, rollingstock maintenance and track maintenance -- are all engineers, with the different but interrelated goals of keeping the engines and cars running, the tracks and associated bridges in good repair, and replacing those of the latter which need it.

Because railway battalions operate in foreign lands which may have different railway standards, the rollingstock maintenance companies actually assemble the engines, passenger cars, freight cars and cabooses. They start by choosing the wheel bogeys of whatever rail gauge is required, attach the universal chassis, then select (if applicable) the appropriate engine (gas, diesel, electric of whatever amperage, etc.), and top it off with the body suited for the specific piece of rollingstock's role. Again, the freight cars all work with the standard intermodal shipping containers. These assembly operations are assisted by an organic crane or, in a pinch, armoured recovery vehicles.

It is these vital but often unsung roles that give the overall unit its identity as a composite engineering battalion which has confounded casual observers ever since. The rail troops of the CDF maintain regular official and unofficial contact with STferro, the Community corporation which runs the domestic rail network. Many retired rail troops end up taking jobs at the corporation since nearly all of their skills are transferable, and their work ethic and leadership skills are legendary among STferro managers.