Uudesan Puolustusvoimat

Puolustusvoimat

Components Ilmavoimat (Air Force) Merivoimat (Navy) Maavoimat (Army) Rajavartiolaitos (Frontier Guard) Ranks of the Uudestaan Defence Forces Air Force ranks of Uudestaan Naval ranks of Uudestaan Army ranks of Uudestaan Rajavartiolaitos ranks of Uudestaan History of the Uudesan Military Military History of Uudestaan

The Uudestaan Defence Forces or UDF (Puolustusvoimat) is the collective name given to the armed forces of Uudestaan. The UDF was officially created in 2041 (STS) after millennia of individual services. It was hoped that the restructure would make the army more efficient, as modern times required the largely National Service fed personnel to be a more effective fighting force. As before The Dominion Wars Uudestaan was small, and her military even smaller, the UDF’s main role was purely defence of the country’s borders. However, the conflict with the Obsidian Order changed the UDF considerably, but not before nearly destroying it completely. Since the conflict, the UDF has gone through a program of rapid modernisation, recruitment and adaptation, aided by an improving economy and massive increases in spending – though limited slightly by Uudestaan’s slowly recovering infrastructure and resources.

Under the Uudesan constitution, the UDF answers entirely to the ruling Government – the Ministry of Defence to be precise – however unlike other Presidential Republics, the President does not hold the rank of Supreme Commander of the armed forces. He does however effectively fill this role, except in extremely special cases, where Parliament (formerly the King in Uudestaan’s royal times) grants a member of the armed forces, usually a high-ranking General, the title of Marshal of Uudestaan, where the individual assumes the role of Supreme Commander. Historically, the role is only temporary, and is handed out vary rarely – only nine times in nearly four millennia. Ironically, Uudestaan currently does indeed have a Marshal – Jorma Harkonen. A timetable for the relinquishment of this title has not been made, with many thinking that Harkonen will keep the title till he retires from the Military, or possibly till he dies. There is talk that his eventual successor will automatically inherit the powers that the current Marshal has – making the title of Marshal a standard rank, like the similar but less prestigious Marshal of Zedoljev for example. This will give the armed forces greater flexibility, and allow them to fight without the interference of political bias. This would however end a tradition made famous by some of the most memorable figures in the country’s vast history.

Organisation

The UDF is essentially broken down into three sections: The Army (Maavoimat), the Air Force (Ilmavoimat) and Navy (Merivoimat). The country’s eight regions also serve as Military districts, not too dissimilar to the Zedoljan model. The Army possesses several dozen transport helicopters, with a handful of Drone UARVs, making a small Army Air Corp. Uudestaan has only one coastline, so her navy is fairly small. It avoided serious losses during the war, but is under-equipped compared to many neighbouring navies. There are four war fleets, each named after their respective flagships – the most significant of these flagships is of cause the Battleship UML Lapajalas, a slightly aging yet still formidable Morenka-Class. Uudestaan currently does not own a ship capable of carrying fixed-wing aircraft, so has a limited Naval Air Service made up of small maritime helicopters.

All significant military divisions fall under the jurisdiction of just these three branches; for example, Air Defence forces are attached to the Air Force, Paratroopers are attached to the Army, and Marines to the Navy. When the UDF was founded, troop numbers in the Marine and Para were small, and it was considered that a separate military branch was not required. But as the UDF professionalizes and upgrades itself, specialist forces numbers have risen dramatically, and an establishment of an independent Marine or Para Corp may be seen in the near future.

The only other military branch in Uudestaan is the Rajavartiolaitos, who are in peace time, not part of the UDF. They are used directly by the MoD, usually completely regardless of the UDF. Their peacetime activities include border patrol, interdiction and custom duties. They are all however arguable the best trained forces in Uudestaan with expert knowledge of field survival and guerrilla warfare. During the invasion of Uudestaan, Marshal Harkonen deliberately kept the Rajavartiolaitos in reserve, away from the actual border, so that he could use them effectively to cause havoc behind enemy lines. Rajavartiolaitos played a significant and valiant role in the eventual defeat of the Obsidian invasion force.

Resources

As the country firmly believes in National Service, much of society evolves around nearly every man spending two years in the UDF, and this is reflected in welfare and education. This results in a high percentage of the male population at the ages 21-22 being eligible, fit and ready to enter the country’s service. Women are not included in National Service, and are never expected to be members of the infantry. Most women enter as Officers, but in the Maavoimat, they very rarely operate in the field or see any real combat. While there are many female officers in combat duty in the Merivoimat, perhaps the only section of the Uudesan military where women see nearly as much front-line action is the Ilmavoimat, where the are large numbers of female pilots.

However, it is socially accepted that the women in the UDF, especially the Maavoimat, should not see any great deal of fighting, if at all, and even as Uudestaan went through arguably its darkest hour during the Obsidian Invasion, the overwhelming majority of the forces fighting for Uudestaan remained just men. There were several groups of female “Combat Volunteers” that saw action, but they still only made up a small number compared to the rest of the army. It could be said that many more women volunteered than were allowed to fight, as even in the country’s desperation, many officers, being of conservative Loistava stock, refused to buck the socially accepted trend and let the women actually fight alongside the men.

”Modernisation”

As Uudestaan and her armed forces recover from the crippling effects of the Dominion Wars, the country has adopted a “never again” policy, which in part involves significant enlargement of the armed forces, on top of repairing the gaping hole left by the conflict. However, as Uudestaan lacks the resources to do this by herself, she has taken inspiration from experiences she went through during the war. Largely left in awe by mostly Tschazanovite equipment donated to them by their allies, Uudestaan has decided that until she has fully recovered, her armed forces will be bolstered by foreign made equipment – for example, a large percentage of the Ilmavoimat will continue to fly Zedoljan fighter planes, and replace many of its older, home-grown aircraft with other Zedoljan models. There is talk that Uudestaan may try and procure ALK-001s Blaster Rifles from Zedoljev, and/or a large number of MDKCorp’s surplus MR-14s.

This is great news for the armed forces, however it comes to a heavy disappointment to Uudestaan’s own manufacturers who used to be part of a self-contained military market. Many are not convinced that the current trend of buying foreign weapons as a stop-gap measure will not come to an end when Uudesan industry recovers, and on numerous occasions, there have been protests from the Uudesii Tehdasteollisuus Konglomeraatti warning the Government that this trend will force the closure of dozens of manufacturers. However, there is some hope as demonstrated by the brand new P-48 “Marsaalka Juhani” Main Battle Tank, that, while based heavily on the Zedoljan T-85M2 and T-96 tanks, is manufactured entirely in Uudestaan and is set to form the backbone of Uudestaan’s established and newly formed armoured regiments. Zedoljev has also granted the rights for several Uudesan factories, including the main Enkeli Aircraft Corporation facilities, to manufacture MiG designs, boosting the Ilmavoimat without having to sacrifice Uudestaan’s own industry.

Very recently (February 2055 (STS)) there have been angry demonstrations by dock workers over apparent plans by the Uudesan government to obtain an aircraft carrier – Uudestaan’s first – that would be designed and built in Pastocia. Quite how this resolves has yet to be seen.