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State armed forces The armed forces of a state are its government sponsored defense and fighting forces and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nations armed forces. In democracies and most other government types, the armed forces are typically linked to the government through a civillian government department. These may be known as a Department of Defence, Department of War, or Ministry of Defence. Services Most militaries are divided into several services (also called branches). The three most common are armies, navies, and air forces. Some nations also organize their marines and their special forces as independent services. A nation's coast guard may also be an independent branch of its military (though in many nations the coast guard is actually a law enforcement or civil agency). The French military structure, which is copied in other nations, includes the three traditional services and a fourth service which is the Gendarmerie. It is worthwhile to make mention of the term joint. In western militaries, a joint force is defined as a unit or formation comprising representation of combat power from two or more branches of the military. Units, formations, and commands It is common, at least in western militaries, to refer to the “building blocks” of a military as units and formations. Generally speaking, the unit is the smallest independent operating element within a military. It may take on the form of a battalion or a ship. Typically, a unit is a homogeneous military organization (ie. pure infantry, pure cavalry, all bombers, etc), and its administrative and command functions are organic (self-contained). Anything smaller than a unit is considered a "sub-unit" (or "minor unit" in some nations). A formation is a grouping of units or smaller formations under a command. Formations include brigades, divisions, wings, etc. However, to confuse things just a slight, different nations (and even different services within a nation) may use the same name to denote different types of organizations. An excellent example is the title "squadron." In most navies this refers to a formation of several ships, in most air forces this refers to a unit, in the U.S. Army it refers to a battalion-sized cavalry unit, and in Commonwealth armies it refers to a company-sized armored sub-unit. In a military context, a command is a collection of units and formations under the control of a single officer. A Command is usually a very high level formation which is responsible to government or the national military headquarters. It is not uncommon for a nation's services to each consist of their own command (such as Land Forces Command, Air Command, and Maritime Command in Canada), but this does not preclude the existence of commands which are not service based. Hierarchy of modern armies This gives an overview of some of the terms used to describe army hierarchy in armed forces across the world. Whilst it is recognized that there will be differences between armies of different nations, it seems that a large proportion are modelled on the British and/or American models. Readers interested in the detailed specifics of a national army (including the British and American) should consult the relevant entry for that country. Rungs may be skipped in this ladder: for example, typically NATO forces skip from battalion to brigade. Likewise, only large military powers may have organizations at the top levels (for example, today, Canada's largest field formation is at the brigade level). Army, army group and theatre are all large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size and hierarchy position. Different arms and countries may also use traditional names, creating considerable confusion: for example, a British or Canadian armoured regiment (battalion) is divided into squadrons (companies) and troops (platoons), whereas an American cavalry squadron (battalion) is divided into troops (companies) and platoons. Hierarchy of modern navies Naval forces are typically arranged into units and formations based on a number of ships (a single ship being the smallest operational unit). Ships may be combined into squadrons or flotillas, which may be formed into fleets. The largest formation size may be a navy or admiralty. Hierarchy of air forces The organization structures of air forces vary between nations: some air forces (such as the United States Air Force and the Royal Air Force) are divided into commands, groups and squadrons; others (such as the Soviet Air Force) have an Army-syle organizational structure. The Royal Air Force and those Commonwealth air forces which have adopted the RAF model use the following structure: See also | |||||||
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