Armed Forces

The Armed Forces are the military of the Commonwealth, unified under a single command spanning the country’s sovereign divisions comprising regiments, fleets and squadrons. These divisions are organised under the Consolidated Defence Establishment (CDE), which serves as the fundamental military organisation of the country. Although organised in a defensive posture, any Commonwealth formation may be raised by the Commonwealth Levy for expeditionary purposes abroad, including armed intervention. The Levy also recruits foreigners, making it one of the few standing militaries in the world to do so.

The military is organised through ten geographic consolidated divisions – Boreal, Equatorial, Austral, Occidental, Antillean, Saharan, African, Volcanic, Atlantic and Oriental – which each contain a combined and self-contained formation of regiments, fleets and squadrons anchored to a Fortress home base. These divisions are designed as independent interarmes corps, and are designed so it can transport, equip, train and sustain itself at levied strength without reinforcement.

The organisation of the federal military is supported by five trade establishments – Manoeuvres, Fires, Control, Signals and Supply – which set doctrine, equipment and procurement Commonwealth-wide, but hold no command of their own. Training, certification and promotion likewise fall outside an Establishment’s mandate, and every member advances through the Commonwealth’s single rank structure. Operational command rests with the Ministry of Defence with regards to the defensive service and the Parliament of State with regards to the Levy.

Unlike overseas militaries, Commonwealth defence establishments organise procurement along intentional, conceptual purposes rather than typical administrative ones, and consolidate land, aerospace and naval trades under a single doctrine each rather than distinct domain branch.

• Close combat is organised under the Manoeuvres Establishment. Regiments are typed as Cataphract for armour, Shock for infantry, Commando for elite troops drawn from any service.
• Ranged combat, including types of artillery, is delivered under the Fires Establishment, from field and naval artillery to the strategic deterrent.
• The Control Establishment, the smallest of the five, governs military policing, frontier surveillance and installation hardening, and its Companies typically serve within Fires- or Signals-pattern formations.
• Communications and command infrastructure is governed by the Signals Establishment, and a Picket is a radar or wireless observation site, a Sentry combines machine and personnel observation.
• The Supply Establishment provides logistics, medical support and materiel across every formation, regardless of which Establishment equips its combat elements.

Glossary of Commonwealth Armed Forces

• Division – one of ten geographic commands, a balanced and self-contained formation sized to move, equip, train and sustain itself at Levy strength unaided; the seat of identity, honours and colours
• Establishment – one of the five trades, Commonwealth-wide; sets doctrine, equipment and procurement but holds no command
• Secretariat – a broad region, named by compass point (Boreal, Austral, Oriental, Occidental)
• Department – a narrower region or specialism, locally named (Kalinan, Verdean, Lucayan and similar)
• Regiment or Squadron – the component formation within a division: a regiment on land, a squadron at sea or in the air (a command in security contexts)
• Column, Line, Echelon or File – the formation within a regiment or squadron, equivalent in size to the old battalion, named for the Establishment that mans its elements and not for its domain
• Company – the deployed sub-unit within a Column, Line, Echelon or File, formed of personnel of a common Establishment trade
• Component – the base recruiting block of about a hundred servicemen, raised from a republic as a regular defensive force that may be mobilised by the Commonwealth Levy
• Detachment – the smallest administrative grouping within a Company
• Fortress – a division’s administrative home base; an administrative rather than functional distinction, since a Fortress need not hold the Division’s largest garrison
• Station – an auxiliary base, administratively subordinate to its Division’s Fortress

Every adult liable for service carries a dual reserve registration: a regiment (or squadron) of record, and a component of about a hundred servicemen raised from their home republic. Components fold into their parent regiment when mobilised for the Commonwealth Levy. Mobilising forces of all types beyond a single division is usually conducted by a special directorate arranged for that purpose. This directorate, sometimes referred to as an interarmes group, can be raised by the Parliament of State or, in cases of home defence, by a constitutional trigger through the same system that summons State Secretaries. A directorate will draw detachments from different divisions and assemble them into a single combined element that will last for the duration of its purpose.

The Armed Forces are widely distributed and comprise a series of installations. Stations of various types house and prepare equipment without heavy repair capacity, and Dockyards are able to both produce and repair naval vessels. Fortresses are the administrative home base of a division and usually include a resident garrison and emplaced air-defence or coastal artillery, but the terms describe administrative purpose and not necessarily their capability.