Military of Florencia

Union Defense Forces
Banner of the UDF
Motto	"In Defense of the Motherland"
Founded	1866
Current form	1920
Service branches	Union Army Union Navy Union Strategic Weapons Command Air Defense Forces of the Homeland All-Union Marine Corps Union Stellar Forces Command
Headquarters	The Citadel, Saint Vera, Florencia
Leadership
Supreme Commander in Chief of the UDF	Chancellor Maxim K. Tyrol
Secretary of the War Department	Chessa Impala
Personnel
Military age	17
Conscription	6 months minimum; varies by job
Available for military service	12 million, age 17-50 (2019)
Reaching military age annually	2 million (2019)
Active personnel	1.2 million active personnel
Reserve personnel	2.2 million organized reserves 7 million unorganized reserves
Expenditure
Budget	$249 billion
Percent of GDP	3.5%
Industry
Domestic suppliers	Florencia
Foreign suppliers	Zhenia

The Florencian military is at the forefront of the world's armed forces, it is a well oiled, well motivated machine fueled by an extensive military-industrial complex. The Chancellor is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Union Defense Forces (UDF), National Militia (NM), and Scarlet Guards (SG). Together they are among some of the best equipped and well motivated armies in the world.

Military spending is a major aspect of the Union budget, typically around 10% of the GDP is committed to the military. This large budget and a well dedicated arms industry contributes to a cutting edge air force, expanding navy, and robust land force equipped with the most modern small arms, armored vehicles, aviation assets, and naval vessels.

Command and Organization

National Defense Committee and the Stavka

The Department of War (DoW) is an executive office within the cabinet charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the Union concerned directly with national security and the military. Nominal administration of the military establishment is exercised by a civilian advisory board, the National Defense Committee—which includes the chief commissioner of the Commission for Security and Order (ComSec), director of the Office of Strategic Services, directors of nationalized war industries, in addition to representatives and senators from the All-Union Congress with invested expertise in national defense. The Secretary of the War Department is the principle assistant to the Executive Council on all matters relating to the defense of the nation.

Operational authority of the War Department is invested with the Stavka High Command of the Military, the senior uniformed general staff of the armed forces. The chairman of the Stavka is the highest ranking and most senior officer within the Union military and operational commander-in-chief of the Union Defense Forces, National Militia, and the Scarlet Guards. The Chairman's authority of the military is second only to the Chancellor and All-Union Congress.

A popular misnomer in the Florencian public and military itself is colloquially referring to both the Stavka High Command and National Defense Committee collectively as the Stavka.

Athicar National Militia on maneuvers

Structure

The National Defense Act of 1920 established the military system in its present form. Disparate imperial army regiments and revolutionary volunteer militias loyal to the provisional government where synthesized into a new military representing the goals of the revolution. The result was a tripartite system of All-Union, constituent republic, and mass militarized organizations—the Union Defense Forces, National Militia, and Scarlet Guards. These forces are further supplemented by border troops administered by the Department of Justice and internal troops under the Commission of Security and Order.

The military would have been rebuilt from the ground up with the ideology of the 1919 revolution imprinted into the fiber of a traditionally conservative and bourgeoisie orientated organization. Three values in particular would be paramount in the transformation of the Florencian military; an armed populace, universal conscription, and military democracy.

Imperial tyranny had sought to disarm an entire population so as to gain complete autocratic control, an armed nation thus has the right and responsibility to be a bulwark against reactionary oppression, both foreign and domestic. The right to bear arms in the Florencian Union is considered sacrosanct. Reservist militiamen are permitted to safely store appropriate ammunition and service weapons in their private homes, subject to a military audit of course.

The notion of an armed nation goes hand in hand with the universal conscription practiced by the UFR. Every able bodied citizen that has turned 19 or graduated high school is expected to perform a year of service in the Standing Scarlet Guards. The constituent republic organized National Militia, the professional Union Defense Forces, federal managed reserves, and law enforcement agencies recruit volunteers who have graduated from the standing guards. Should a graduate not pursue a vocation in national security, they would be rolled in the Unorganized Scarlet Guards and be free to pursue their life as a civilian, subject to yearly refresher courses or training exercises. Should a citizen be a conscious objector or be unfit for national service would perform alternate, charity, or auxiliary work for a full year.

The ideology of democracy was a leading factor for the revolution and like how such values revolutionized Florencian civil society, so did democracy transform the military. The UFS is unique in it's commitment to military democracy: soldiers's councils, elections of NCO's, and a less rigid code of military discipline characterize this democratic process.

Command Structure

Commands Subordinate to the Stavka

• Stavka Strategic Reserve Command

• Replacement Army

— 52nd Training Area

— 56th Training Area

• Office of Strategic Services to the Stavka

Service Commands

• Union Strategic Weapons Command
• Union Stellar Forces Command
• General Headquarters Union Army
• Republican Navy Main Staff
• Air Defense Strategic Command

Joint Combatant Strategic Directions

• North Allonian Fleet Joint Strategic Command
• Upper Northern Strategic Command
• South Western Strategic Direction
• Heartland Strategic Direction

Branches

The Union Defense Forces (UDF) is the professional standing military of the Florencian Republics and consists of two branches and four independent armed services: the Union Army, Republican Navy, Union Strategic Weapons Command, the Air Defense Forces of the Republics, the All-Union Marine Corps, and the Union Stellar Forces Command. A byproduct of revolutionary values and federalism places the structure of the active professional armed forces separate of the massed reservist levy force in the form of the Scarlet Guards. However given the sole focus of the Scarlet Guards as a ground training contingent, both the Union Air Defense Forces and Republican Navy organize reservist command formations with a pool of former airmen and sailors.

Union Army (UA)

Main article: The Union Army

Soldiers of the 3rd Division “Mud Crunchers”

Army mechanized forces on maneuvers in 2018

The Union Army is the oldest, largest, and most diversified branch within the Union Defense Forces. It traces it's lineage to defected Imperial Army units and rural citizen militias of 1919. In many ways the Union Army is a microcosm of the rest of the Defense Forces, with their own rocketry troops, air defense troops, aircraft, and paratroopers. Originally a loose grouping of patriotic rebels resisting tyranny, the army has grown exponentially in terms of size and power. The mission of the Army is the defense of the Florenian people and territory on the land and air. To fulfill this mission the army maintains extensive commands, deploys a wide range of weapons and vehicles, and makes a great use of special purpose troops.

The Union Army does not administer a reservist formation directly subordinate to All-Union command. The separate conscript training organization that is Scarlet Guards in addition to the professional reservist National Militia fill this void. For all intents and purposes the Scarlet Guards and constituent republican ran National Militias are de facto organized as the reservist formation of the Union Army. Replacements from the guards would replenish regular army units during wartime, national militia units operate alongside their active counterparts, and all forces ultimately fall under operational authority to the Stavka.

For administrative purposes the Union Army is divided into the Army Ground Forces (training and procurement of combat troops and equipment), Army Rear Forces (rear support services that provide the material, infrastructure, and other miscellaneous services), Union Army Air Forces (frontal aviation, strategic bombers, mobile anti-air defense troops) and the Air Descent Troops (mechanized paratrooper and air deployable guerrilla units).

Independent Arms of Service

Air Defense Forces of the Republics (ADF-R)

The Air Defense Forces took to its redefined mission after the dissolution of the independent air force branch with great vigor and dedicated its assets to the job of fighter, bomber, and missile interception. The branch comprises three specialized types of troops to provide for the anti-air defense of Union territory. That being the Radio-technical troops, Anti-Air Defense troops, and Fighter Aviation (FA). The principle role of Air Defense Forces is the interception of enemy bomber forces should they penetrate Union airspace, or intercontinental ballistic missiles on a trajectory for Florencian cities. The Air Defense Corps deploys heavy interceptors, extensively organized SAM sites, and an encompassing expansive radar array for the defense of Union air space.

All-Union Marine Corps (AUMC)

The expeditionary wing of the Defense Forces. The Florencian marines are built around flexible combined arms formations that enable them to conduct seaborne landings and seize hostile territory from sea. By utilizing the sea-lift capability of the Navy the Marine Service is able to operate far from Union shores and respond to emergencies quicker than their Army counterparts. Also charged with both the defense of the Navy vessels and installations on land and sea. Perhaps most known for their unique "esprit de corps", ferociousness in combat, and vulgarity.

Union marines conducting exercises on the coast of the Shinjin SFR

The Scarlet Guards

The Scarlet Guards were formed as an integral part of the Florencian Total National Defense doctrine. It is an entirely separate entity from the Union Defense Forces, but still subordinate to the Department of War and thus the Stavka. During times of peace the Scarlet Guards are organized into regional training brigades where able bodied Florencians of both genders fulfill their service commitment to the state. Draftees in the Scarlet Guard are thus seventeen, eighteen, or nineteen years of age and fresh out of secondary school or slightly older and just now in service to the state after receiving a waver for higher education. Recruits into the guard realize a contract of either six, nine, or twelve months to the state. Service length varies considering the amount of technical training needed in what job a draftee pursues.

All citizens physically capable must serve at least six months in the Scarlet Guards

During their time in the Scarlet Guard a recruit undergoes basic combat training, basic individual job training, partakes in training exercises, and can be in-bedded with the Union Army for technical job experience. The secondary peacetime role of the guard is to act as a work corps and community outreach program. After completing their basic training, a Scarlet Guardsmen can expect to find themselves in the outdoors for weeks at a time during a field training exercise, and then return to civilization to partake in road construction or working within an elderly town home. The conservation and development of Florencia's natural resources along with social work in educational, agricultural, and community programs is paramount to the mission of the guards. And lastly during times of natural disasters Scarlet Guardsmen from the closest training brigade would be among the first arrivals at the scene. In this way the Scarlet Guard acts as not only a conduit for producing a competent rifleman, but also instilling a sense of service to the commonwealth of the Union that isn't just taking up arms for her.

Between 3 and 7 million Florencians between the ages of 17 and 45 could theoretically be called up to fight under Scarlet Guard command as irregular or guerrilla forces in wartime. Those recruits who have finished their training and service and choose not to pursue a vocation in the professional defense forces are enrolled in the inactive Unorganized Scarlet Guards. Subject to yearly training call ups or exercises of course. In peacetime, however, about 1,400,000 drafted guardsmen are involved in training or other activities in what is known as the Standing Scarlet Guard. The duties expected to be carried out by the Scarlet Guard in the event of war are as follows: to be a secondary defense force in the event of invasion, to guard the homeland and free up posts for the Defense Forces overseas, and to act as a guerrilla force in the enemy rear should portions of Florencia be occupied.

Given the mass levy composition of the guards, the organization focuses on easily managed lightly armed infantry units who would be fighting on familiar local terrain. A typical unit is a company or battalion sized detachment. More than 50,000 communities, factories, clubs, universities, and other enterprises organize such units, which would fight in their home areas and thus defending local production complexes essential to the national effort.

The Scarlet Guards are highly decentralized and independent. Guard units are organized and funded by the governments in each of Florencia's constituent social republics, and then at the local level in cities, counties, or chartered by private enterprises.

Office of Strategic Services to the Stavka

The OSS is directly an independent uniformed intelligence gathering and covert espionage apparatus subordinated directly to the Stavka High Command. Despite being apart of the military establishment the service essentially acts as the virtual foreign intelligence service for the whole of the Union government. Uniformed members of the OSS range from deep cover special agents to militarized special purpose operations teams. Responsibilities include more wartime orientated duties such as sabotage, subversion, use of propaganda and any other actives under the umbrella of espionage. Most recently this has included the training of foreign paramilitaries. More wartime orientated activities include the covert surveillance of enemy forces during wartime or commando like operations conducted by OSS special purpose troops. The OSS maintains an extensive amount of spetsnaz reconnaissance groups that largely perform similar roles to their army counterparts. However Union Army Diversionary Troops are primarily concerned with wrecking havoc behind enemy lines, whereas OSS Spetsnaz is more so focused on gathering intelligence and eliminating high valued targets.

In practice with Florencian maskirovka ideology, very little is publicized about the Office of Strategic Services. The size and general scope of the military intelligence collecting branch is kept vague and secretive for a reason. It is speculated that there are OSS operatives serving in nearly every corner of the globe. It can also be reasonably theorized that OSS penetration of foreign nations is so extensive that hidden caches of weapons lie in wait, ready to be used by spetsnaz or foreign guerrillas. The extent and validity of such hearsay is difficult to discern.

Combined Special Operations Center — 450th OSS Special Purpose Group — Union Army: 1st Special Combat Applications Regiment (1st-SCAR/Jessie Scouts) "Saturn Group" — Union Navy: 42nd Naval Special Reconnaissance Detachment "Cascade Group"

The most elite tier one group of operators in the Union belong to the Office of Strategic Service's own spetsnaz Saturn and Cascade. Both groups are the premier special forces of the Union and specialize in hostage rescue, special reconnaissance, direct action, and assassination. While both groups perform the same missions and have the same operational capabilities, the culture of both groups are completely different. Saturn Group recruits exclusively from the army's diversionary troops, whose operators are already veterans of conflict and have several years of experience under their belt. Cascade Group is comprised of a mixture of OSS and navy spetsnaz operators who are fresh out of training and the top of their class.