Difference between revisions of "Community Defence Forces"

Revision as of 01:19, 7 October 2005

The Community Defence Forces are the all-environment armed forces of Sober Thought. Service in peacetime is voluntary.

Integrated strategic command

The nominal Commander-in-Chief of the CDF is the Community Conscience of Sober Thought. In practice, control is exercised by the Combined Staff containing the five most senior marshals of the CDF. The five positions are Chief of the Combined Staff, Deputy Chief of the Combined Staff, Chief of the Land Service, Chief of the Naval Service and Chief of the Air Service, and only the latter three must have had their main military experience serving with the environment they represent.

The combined staff is tasked with recruiting, training and organizing troops. It also makes strategic plans, then assigns the operational plans to the command, formation or unit it has designated to execute it. The chief of each of the three environments have only a support role and do not interfere with operations directly.

Integrated operational command

It is a central principle of the CDF that those who make operational plans should execute them. Therefore, the subordinate commanders of the Combined Staff actually make the detailed plans and put them into practice so that staff errors are borne by themselves in combat.

As an integrated armed forces, operational commands may combine air, sea and land elements responsible to a single commander for all services. Furthermore, after the House of the Provinces has voted to make it so, the provincial Civil Guards may be directly integrated into the CDF for tactical or strategic purposes. Formations and task forces of all sizes are quickly created and all elements fall under the command of a single person.

One permanent example of this in action is the Coastal Defence Command, which combines Coastal Defence Air Groups of the Air Service, Coastal Artillery Divisions of the Land Service and Independent Coastal Task Forces of the Naval Service. A landing ship group's vice commander has three principal subordinates and groups of troops: the chief lieutenant of the ship with 100 sailors, the chief lieutenant of the Marine Assault Companies with 250 soldiers and the chief lieutenant of the Composite Helictoper Squadron with 100 fliers.

Land units

Combat units in the land forces are organized on the following basis, listing unit or formation, number of soldiers and commanding officer:

Platoon              20-40          Vice Lieutenant
Company             50-250          Lieutenant or Chief Lieutenant
Battalion          300-800          Chief Lieutenant or Vice Commander
Brigade        1 000-4 000          Commander
Brigade Group  2 000-6 000          Chief Commander   
Division      8 000-18 000          Vice Marshal or Chief Commander
Corps        20 000-70 000          Marshal
Army       120 000-300 000          Chief Marshal
Army Group         400 000+         Chief Marshal or Grand Marshal  

Units are usually permanent groupings of personnel, typically battalions or (less commonly) companies. Formations may be very transient groupings of several or many units.

For every 100 million of Sober Thought's population, there are the following number of Regular Force combat brigades: 12 armoured, 15 infantry brigades (including one each of marine armoured infantry, marine light infantry, airborne and mountain), 16 artillery (including three coastal). Additionally, the provinces' Civil Guards provide 9 infantry (including one mountain) and 1 artillery brigades.

Most of these LS and CG brigades are organized into nine divisions. Disregarding the divisional air wing, four divisions consist entirely of regular troops, one division of Central Province Civil Guards and four divisions of a combination of regulars and Guards. Three divisions plus one armoured or armoured infantry, one artillery and one support brigades are commanded by the corps' marshal. The three corps plus an airborne brigade group, an armoured brigade group, an engineering brigade and two support brigades are commanded by the army's chief marshal.

The marine division exists outside this organization and is operationally responsible to the Chief of the Naval Service. The one battalion of the 1st Marine Brigade (Light Infantry) is permanently embarked on the aircraft carrier (where it is directly responsible to the carrier group's chief commander) while two are ashore. The 1st Marine Assault Contingent of A through R Companies is permanently embarked on the nine landing ships. The contingent, especially after an amphibious assault, may be combined with 915 cadre troops ashore and reconstituted to form the 2nd Marine Brigade (Armoured) and 3rd Marine Brigade (Armoured Infantry). Divisional troops numbering about 5600--comprising the 1st Marine Artillery, Support and Engineering Brigades--remain ashore until the division or brigade groups of it are formed.

Nominally attached to the marine division, but in practice wholly responsibile to their respective ships' captains, are Marine Light Infantry boarding parties on major warships. Each frigate has a squad of 11 marines (totalling 264), each destroyer a platoon of 35 (420) and each cruiser a company of 115 (690).

Air units

The basic fighting unit of the air service is the squadron, except in naval aviation where flights and detachments are more common. When units serve alone, they have the supporting ground crew directly responsible to the squadron (flight or detachment) leader. When units serve together in formations, the ground crew are hived off and the squadron becomes solely a flight unit.

Below are air service units or formations, aircraft, personnel (independent and formation) and commanders:

Detachment          1 aircraft          10-50        1-15     Vice Lieutenant
Flight            2-5 aircraft         30-100        2-50     Lieutenant
Squadron         6-18 aircraft        100-500       6-100     Chief Lieutenant
Wing            15-40 aircraft      200-1 500      18-200     Vice Commander
Air Group      50-100 aircraft    2 000-4 000      50-400     Commander or Chief Commander
Air Division  200-400 aircraft   5 000-10 000   200-2 000     Vice Marshal or Chief Commander
Air Corps     400-600 aircraft  12 000-20 000                 Marshal
Air Force        600+ aircraft  20 000-40 000                 Chief Marshal

The Air Service provides considerable air support to its Land Service and Naval Service counterparts, and these air assests are organized and suborinated to the other services. The "real" air service is called the Strategic Air Corps (or Force, depending on its size).

For every 100 million of population, the Air Service contributes the following squadrons (Strategic Air Corps/Army Air Corps/Naval Air Division):

Jet

6/0/0 bomber
30/3/12 fighter
0/9/0 tank busting
0/4/0 strategic transport
1/0/0 strategic reconnaissance
2/4/0 tactical reconnaissance
1/1/1 strategic airborne warning and control
0/1/0.3 tactical airborne warning and control
1/1/0 radar jamming
0/0/0.3 carrierborne radar jamming
3/1/1 in-flight refuelling tanker
0/0/0.7 carrierborne refuelling tanker 

Propeller

0/3/0 gunship
0/9/0 tactical transport
0/0/3 maritime patrol

Helicopter

0/9/0 ground attack 
0/0/12 naval composite (attack, utility and transport)
0/0/12 naval utility (6 squadrons search and rescue only)
0/12/0 land utility
0/12/0 land transport

The Strategic Air Corps organizes its squadrons into two fighter air divisions, a bomber air group, a reconnaissance wing and tanker wing. The Army Air Corps organizses its squadrons into three corps air divisions and an army air division. Practical control is exercised by the Land Service's corps and army commanders, respectively. The Naval Air Division organizes its squadrons into a carrier air group, a coastal defence air group, a landing ship helicopter group, a naval escort helicopter wing and a naval transport helicopter wing. Practical control is exercised by the Naval Service's senior officer afloat or Coastal Defence Command as applicable.

Naval units

For every one hundred million citizens in Sober Thought, the Naval Service commissions the following (number of ships or boats, type, displacement, total crew (overall ranking officer), naval crew (ranking officer) + embarked air crew (ranking officer) + embarked land (ranking officer):

Combat Ships

1 aircraft carrier, 70 000 tonnes, 4 865 (Chief Commander)
 2 000 (Commander) + 2 300 (Commander) + 565 (Chief Lieutenant)
6 missile cruisers, 11 000 tonnes, 550 (Commander)
 385 (Commander) + 50 (Lieutenant) + 115 (Lieutenant)
12 missile destroyers, 5 400 tonnes, 350 (Vice Commander)
 265 (Vice Commander) + 50 (Lieutenant) + 35 (Vice Lieutenant)
24 anti-submarine frigates, 4 000 tonnes, 230 (Chief Officer)
 189 (Chief Officer) + 30 (Vice Lieutenant) + 11 (Leading Soldier)
24 patrol submarines, 2 400 tonnes (dived), 50 (Lieutenant)
12 attack boats, 400 tonnes, 35 (Vice Lieutenant)
9 minesweeping boats, 800 tonnes, 30 (Vice Lieutenant)

Combined Operations and Support Ships

1 troopship, up to 5500 (Chief Commander)
 500 (Commander) + 80 (Lieutenant) + up to 4 900 (Commander or Chief Commander)
9 landing ships, 2 200 tonnes, 450 (Vice Commander)
 100 (Chief Lieutenant) + 100 (Chief Lieutenant) + 250 (Chief Lieutenant)
9 supply ships, 80 (Lieutenant)
2 boat tenders (frigates hulls), 4 000 tonnes, 150 (Chief Lieutenant)
 120 (Chief Lieutenant) + 30 (Lieutenant)

To the nearest thousand, there are about 17 000 sailors, 5 000 naval fliers and 4 000 marines afloat, plus 35 000, 22 000 and 32 000 ashore totalling 52 000, 27 000 and 43 000.

Civil Guard

Each province maintains its own Civil Guard, which may be directed by the provincial government in times of unrest or emergency. Additionally, the guards may be called upon for service with the CDF in times of war or tension.

Obviously, the size of the civil guard differs as widely as the population of each of the provinces. Listed below is the rank of the head of the Civil Guard and the approximate strength of the guard:

• Central Province, Marhsal, three operational divisions and assorted independent units totalling about 70 battalions
• Hochelaga, Marhshal, two operational divisions totalling about 40 battalions
• Thuvia, Vice Marshal, four operational brigades and a few independent units totalling 26 battalions
• Western Province, Vice Marshal, three operational brigades and a few independent units totally 20 battalions
• Lakes Province, Chief Commander, one operational brigade and two independent units totalling seven battalions
• Plains Province, Chief Commander, one operational brigade and one independent unit totalling six battalions
• South Island, Chief Commander, one operational brigade and one independent unit totalling six battalions
• Capital Province, Commander, four independent battalions with a central staff
• Braunekuste, Commander, four independent battalions with a central staff
• North Island, Commander, three independent battalions with a central staff
• Potato Island, Vice Commander, three independent companies with a central staff in a battalion equivalent

Rank, typical posting

Chief Marshal, serving only on the Combined Staff
Marshal, commanding land corps, land armies, air forces, naval fleets
Vice Marshal, commanding land divisions, air divisions, naval squadrons
Chief Commander, deputy commander of above
Commander, land brigades, air groups, the largest naval ships
Vice Commander, land battalions, air wings, large naval ships
Chief Officer, land companies, air squadrons, smaller naval ships
Officer, deputy commander of above, air flights, naval ship divisions, naval boats
Vice Officer, deputy commander of above, land platoons, naval boats
Chief Warrant Officer (land): Brigade Sergeant Major, Battalion SM, Base SM
Chief Warrant Officer (naval): Fleet Petty Officer, Squadron PO, Base PO
Chief Warrant Officer (air): Group Sergeant, Wing Sergeant, Base Sergeant
Warrant Officer (land): Company Sergeant Major
Warrant Officer (naval): Ship Petty Officer
Warrant Officer (air): Squadron Sergeant
Vice Warrant Officer (land): Platoon Sergeant Major
Vice Warrant Officer (naval): Boat Petty Officer, Division Petty Officer (ships)
Vice Warrant Officer (air): Flight Sergeant
Sergeant (land), Petty Officer (naval), Sergeant (air)
Corporal (land), Leading Sailor (naval), Corporal (air)
Private (land), Sailor (naval), Flier (air)