Kedalfaxian Department of Defence

The Kedalfax’ three armed forces – army, navy and air force -- are controlled by the civilian Department of Defence. Some aspects of the department are best considered in an integrated manner rather than in each arm of service.

Tri-service

Kedalfax first demonstrated its nuclear capabilities on 7 June 1992, each arm of service has a slice of the nuclear pie under the direct control of the President and Defence Secretary. The Airforce’s static land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles are by far the most important part of the nuclear triad, followed by the Navy’s strategic submarine-launched ballistic missiles and the Army’s tactical nuclear artillery.

The ranks are inspired by the Dutch pattern, but much modified by domestic and other (especially British) usage. To aid in cross-service and cross-country comparison, all three services’ officers and other ranks are listed by listed by NATO rank code. OF-1O ranks are created only during wartime when the armed forces are greatly expanded. There are no equivalents to the NATO OR-9 rank, typically created for the most senior figurehead non-commissioned or warrant officers in an arm of service.

Army

The land force traces its history back to the colonising Dutch and British empires, but really earned its reputation and elevated status after the 1891-93 Mid-Simtropolis War. Building upon this history of citizen-soldiers defending their rights, the full-time regular army is supported by a large part-time voluntary militia. The emotional heart of the army is found it its regiments which give a sense of history, continuity, pride and institutional memory; but the physical muscle of the army is found in its brigades which are formed strictly for utilitarian purposes.

Organisation

The central planning staff under the command of the top general is located with its civilian masters at the Department of Defence. However, most of the less politically-charged and more mundane work is done at one of the dozens of major and minor army bases. Regimental headquarters (variously described as depots, armories, barracks or casernes) perform some of the most mundane work on personnel and historical records.

The Kedalfax Army has a relatively small number of combat, combat support and logistics support regiments, each of which may raise one or more field battalions of regulars or militia. Once raised from the regiments, these battalions are organised as required into large formations like brigades, divisions and corps. This gives continuity and flexibility since regiments -- some of which trace their origins to the 17th century -- can raise or disband battalions as the military situation requires.

The combat, i.e., armoured and infantry, regiments are named after heroes of the war of independence, areas of the country, antiquated and contemporary weapons, and honourifics like “Guards” and “Commonwealth.” In the rare instances of compulsory military service during a major, prolonged war, the army raises numbered battalions of conscripts outside regiments. When these are disbanded in the post-war period they leave no regimental history, unit awards or battle honours. Most regiments have several regular army battalions and perhaps a third as many militia battalions. Armoured regiments are almost all re-roled cavalry regiments, bearing anachronistic designations like hussars, lancers, dragoons and cuirassiers with no regard to the tanks and armoured cars with which they are equipped.

Combat support (e.g., field artillery, field engineers, military police, etc.) and logistics support (e.g., transport, mechanical engineers), regiments are typically straightforwardly named after their function. A few still manage to retain some quaint earlier title, e.g., the Kedalfaxian Horse Artillery which is really equipped with mechanised self-propelled guns rather than equines and the Kedalfaxian Artificers which is really responsible for maintaining contemporary rather than obsolete weapons.

The brigade, commanded by a colonel or brigade general, is the basic field formation. It consists of two to six battalions raised from combat, combat support or service support regiments. Two to five brigades form a division commanded by a major general. Two to five divisions form a corps commanded by a major general or lieutenant general. Two to five corps form a field army commanded by a lieutenant general or full general.

Equipment

The army uses conventional artillery and rockets as its heavy arms in air defence, armoured defence and bombardment roles. Battlefield nuclear weapons can be delivered by special 200 mm guns or, more commonly, by a variety of short and intermediate range missiles. Among the more common conventional calibres are 200, 150, 100, 40 and 20 mm. Personal firearms range from the largely ceremonial 9 mm pistol to the deadly 12.7 mm machine gun, but most being members of the 7.62 mm longarms family.

Armoured motor vehicles are purchased abroad or manufactured domestically by government factories and the military division of Kedalfax Motor Corp. Self-propelled artillery, main battle tanks, light tanks, mechanised infantry combat vehicles and armoured personnel carriers are all full tracked. Armoured cars, armoured reconnaissance vehicles and wheeled APCs are armoured but not tracked.

Unarmoured motor vehicles are mostly militarised versions of Cremmel Motor Corp. or Hastor Corp. products. The light truck or jeep function is fulfilled by the DTC Emerson 3500 which has proved unpopular in the civilian market. The heavy truck and logistics functions are fulfilled by Hastor makes and DTC 4500 through 9500 models.

Navy

The navy was second to develop after the army, hence its placement here as the second most senior service. However, the development of air power has eclipsed sea power to such an extent that the real power of the navy is in the air – nuclear missiles, jet strike aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters.

Organisation

The individual ship or boat forms the most obvious unit of organisation in the navy, but there are many other levels of organisation. The central administrative and planning staff of the navy is located in the capital of Rosendale as part of the Department of Defence, all under a full admiral or admiral of the fleet. Shore commands are closer to the sea at one of the three major naval bases, each commanded by at least a vice admiral. Naval reserve units exist at all major seaports as well as many smaller ports, the bases commanded by a variety of officers ranking commodore or below depending on the size and importance.

For service afloat, an appropriate number and variety of ships are selected by the shore commanders to fill an operational need and constitute a naval formation. A fleet contains a large number of capital and supporting ships and is typically created for long-term, long-distance operations. A squadron performs a similar function as a fleet but with fewer ships (not necessarily any capital ships), and it may exist as part of a fleet or on its own. A flotilla performs a similar function as a squadron but with small ships only, and is invariably permanently attached to another formation or base. A vice admiral or even a full admiral commands a fleet, a rear admiral or commodore a squadron and a commodore or captain (1st or 2nd class) a flotilla.

Ships

Most navies have prefixes for its ships, e.g., RL Royal Navy of Britain uses HMS for His or Her Majesty’s Ship or Submarine for its combatant vessels and RFA for Royal Fleet Auxiliary for its logistics vessels. In similar circumstances (and in the government National Ship Registry), the Kedalfaxian Navy uses K/S for Kedalfax Ship for its warships and H/S for Hospital Ship for its non-combatant medical relief ships as defined by United Nations Resolution 152. Up to three digits of the NSR number also serves as the hull or pennant number for combatant and hospital ships.

The navy is divided in the submarine, naval aviation, surface combatant and logistics services. Besides the nuclear armed submarines used for strategic deterrence, the submarine service includes diesel-electric submarines which are used against other submarines, warships and merchant ships. Although their supply ships cannot dive, they are classified as part of the service because they are designed to re-fuel, re-equip and re-arm the U-booten quickly and with the minimum amount of surfacing.

After the SLBMs of the submarine service, naval aviation is the most important and potentially destructive part of the navy. A naval squadron based around an aircraft carrier can call up a dozen or more warships of all sizes, up to a hundred aircraft and up to a couple of thousand marines. Naval aviators also guard the coastline by conducting search and rescue, maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine, and maritime air defence operations. Most warships have at least a helicopter pad, if not a permanent naval aviation detachment.

The largest number of ships in the navy are surface combatants, and this is what people normally think of when they think of the navy. Besides carriers, cruisers are the navy’s capital ships and as such they include a balance of defensive and offensive weapons. Smaller destroyers are optimised for anti-aircraft roles while smaller still frigates are optimised for anti-submarine roles. Lesser vessels include corvettes, patrol boats, mine sweepers and minelayers.

The logistics service includes the most diverse range of vessels. Most warlike are its landing craft which are used for amphibious landings under fire while least warlike are its container ships which are used for transporting goods to friendly ports. Outside theses extremes are hospital ships, oilers, troop ships, weather ships and auxiliaries.

Airforce

Like most armed forces, this is the last of the three services to develop. Even so, air power developed later than usual, in the late 1920s and 1930s, and modeled itself more on the British than the Dutch. Despite the air force’s late start, it quickly overtook the older navy and, if one counts its land-based nuclear missiles, army in importance.

Organisation

The central procurement and planning staffs are located in the capital with the rest of the civilian Department of Defence. Various functional and territorial air commands are located in dozen or so exclusive air bases located in Kedalfax proper and a few in other parts of the Commonwealth. Fifteen of the twenty two civilian airports have attached military sections used by the regular and reserve components of the Kedalfaxian Airforce.

If the regiment is the foundation of the Kedalfaxian Army and the ship is that of the Kedalfaxian Navy, then the squadron is the foundation of the Kedalfaxian Airforce. It tends to be smaller than many similar-named forces, rarely exceeding twelve aircraft and often enough half that, and always commanded by a squadron leader. Two to five squadrons combined form a wing under a wing commander, while four to twelve squadrons combined form an air group under a group captain. Note that in size – whether counting aircraft, personnel or subunits – a wing can be larger than its nominally senior air group.

Above the level of air group, this disparity is even more pronounced since the name of the air formation reflects more relative importance of role than absolute standards of size. An air division consists of two or more air groups under an air commodore or rear air marshal. An air corps consists of two or more air divisions under a vice air marshal. An air force consists of two or more air corps under an air marshal.

Aircraft

Since its founding in 1940, the Devinson Aircraft Corporation is the sole domestic warplane manufacturer. And since legislation in 1955, this has been on a non-profit, cost recovery basis. However, when the military aviation division of Devinson sells military aircraft to the Department of Defence it can recoup its research, development and production line costs which frequently benefit the civil aviation division. Combat aircraft are all jet propelled have no civilian equivalents, however they frequently use a single airframe as the basis for two or more aircraft with different roles. Common types include:

• F-40 fixed-wing land-based fighter and variants (FR-2 light reconnaissance, FB-2 light bomber, FA-2 ground attack, FE-2 light electronic warfare)
• F-35 swing-wing ship-based fighter and variants (FR-35, FB-35, FE-35), similar to F/A-18 Hornet
• A-12 vertical/short take off and landing ground attack, similar to AV-8 Harrier
• A-20 fixed-wing ground attack, similar to A-10 Thunderbolt
• B-4 fixed wing heavy bomber, similar to B-1

Support aircraft (civilian designations):

• EX-500, jet passenger (up to 580), RL Boeing 747
• ML-166, jet cargo, passenger (up to 180) and electronics platform; cargo, tanker, passenger, AWACS and electronic warfare variants
• MP-100, turbopropeller medium cargo and (up to 100) passenger transport, comparable to the real world C-130
• E-20/16, jet light (16 passengers) transport, comparable the the RL Gulfstream executive jet series

Reserve Officers' Training Corps

The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) is a college-based, commissioned officers recruitment program. It is designed as a college elective that focuses on leadership development, problem solving, strategic planning, and professional ethics.

Students at certain accredited colleges in Kedalfax may sign up for the program. Students who sign up are required to keep in good academic standing, specifics of which are decided on a college-to-college basis, and must attend training sessions and meetings on a basis determined by the college's ROTC commanding officer, who is usually of an OF-3 or OF-4 rank. The DoD will pay in full for the college tuition of the student at the time of enrollment in the program. However, if the student drops out of the program for any reason barring death or injury, the cost must be repaid.

Abbreviations often include the initial of the branch; AROTC for the Army, NROTC for the Navy, and AFROTC for the Airforce.