Aswickan Armed Forces

Aswickan Armed Forces
Service branches	Naval Service Royal Navy Royal Fleet Auxiliary Royal Marines Army Army Reserve Royal Air Force
Headquarters	Ministry of Defence, Winchester
Leadership
Commander-in-chief	King William
Defence Secretary	Richard Bush
Chief of the Defence Staff	Field Marshal Sir Eric Lambert
Personnel
Military age	16
Conscription	No
Active personnel	134,990
Reserve personnel	81,850
Expenditure
Budget	$50.2 billion (2017)
Percent of GDP	2.1%; FY 2018–19
Related articles
History	Military history of Aswick Conflicts involving Aswick
Ranks	Army ranks Navy ranks Air Force ranks

The Aswickan Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military services responsible for the defence of Aswick, its overseas territories and the Crown dependencies. They also promote Aswick's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.

Since the formation of the Kingdom of Aswick (later succeeded by the United Kingdom), the armed forces have seen action in a number of major wars involving the world's great powers, including the Napoleonic wars, the Aquitaynian war of independence, and both great Astyrian wars. Repeatedly emerging victorious from conflicts has allowed Aswick to establish itself as one of the world's leading military and economic powers.

Today, the Aswickan Armed Forces consist of: the Royal Navy, a blue-water navy with a fleet of 75 commissioned ships, together with the Royal Marines, a highly specialised amphibious light infantry force; the Aswickan Army, Aswick's principal land warfare branch; and the Royal Air Force, a technologically sophisticated air force with a diverse operational fleet consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. The Aswickan Armed Forces include standing forces, Regular Reserve, Volunteer Reserves and Sponsored Reserves.

Its Commander-in-chief is the Aswickan monarch, currently King William, to whom members of the forces swear allegiance. The armed forces are managed by the Defence Council of the Ministry of Defence, headed by the Secretary of State for Defence.

Aswick is one of Astyria's recognised nuclear powers, and is a founding and member of the SDI military alliance.

Today

Command organisation

The Ministry of Defence building at Blackhall, Winchester

As Sovereign and head of state, King William is Head of the Armed Forces and their Commander-in-Chief. Long-standing constitutional convention, however, has vested de facto executive authority, by the exercise of Royal Prerogative powers, in the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Defence, and the Prime Minister (acting with the support of the Cabinet) makes the key decisions on the use of the armed forces. The King, however, remains the ultimate authority of the military, with officers and personnel swearing allegiance to the monarch. It has been claimed that this includes the power to prevent unconstitutional use of the armed forces, including its nuclear weapons.

The Ministry of Defence is the Government department and highest level of military headquarters charged with formulating and executing defence policy for the armed forces; it currently employs 56,860 civilian staff as of 1 October 2015. The department is controlled by the Secretary of State for Defence and contains three deputy appointments: Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Minister for Defence Procurement, and Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Responsibility for the management of the forces is delegated to a number of committees: the Defence Council, Chiefs of Staff Committee, Defence Management Board and three single-service boards. The Defence Council, composed of senior representatives of the services and the Ministry of Defence, provides the "formal legal basis for the conduct of defence". The three constituent single-service committees (Admiralty Board, Army Board and Air Force Board) are chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence.

The Chief of the Defence Staff is the professional head of the armed forces and is an appointment that can be held by an Admiral, Air Chief Marshal or General (Or their G-5 ranks in wartime). Before the practice was discontinued in the 1990s, those who were appointed to the position of CDS had been elevated to the most senior rank in their respective service (a 5-star rank). The CDS, along with the Permanent Under Secretary, are the principal advisers to the departmental minister. The three services have their own respective professional chiefs: the First Sea Lord, the Chief of the General Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff.

Personnel

Grenadier Guards Trooping the Colour.

The Aswickan Armed Forces are a professional force with a strength of 149,710 Regulars, 36,480 Volunteer Reserves and 7,960 "Other Personnel". This gives a total strength of 194,140 "Aswickan Service Personnel". As a percentage breakdown of Aswickan Service Personnel, 78.0% are Regulars, 17.9% are Volunteer Reserves and 4.1% are composed of Other Personnel. In addition, all ex-Regular personnel retain a "statutory liability for service" and are liable to be recalled (under Section 52 of the Reserve Forces Act (RFA) 1996) for duty during wartime, which is known as the Regular Reserve. MoD publications since April 2013 no longer report the entire strength of the Regular Reserve, instead they only give a figure for Regular Reserves who serve under a fixed-term reserve contract. These contracts are similar in nature to those of the Volunteer Reserve. As of 2015, Regular Reserves serving under a fixed-term contract numbered 44,600 personnel.

The distribution of personnel between the services and categories of service on 1 April 2018 was as follows:

Service	Regular	Volunteer Reserve	Other Personnel	Total
Navy	32,480	3,600	2,370	38,450
Army	84,270	29,900	4,410	118,580
Air Force	32,960	2,980	1,170	37,110
Total	149,710	36,480	7,960	194,140

Defence expenditure

In September 2011, according to Professor Malcolm Rodgers of the Royal United Services Institute, current "planned levels of defence spending should be enough for Aswick to maintain its position as one of Astyria's top military powers. Its edge – not least its qualitative edge – in relation to rising powers seems set to erode, but will remain significant well into the 2020s, and possibly beyond. The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 committed to spending 2% of GDP on defence and announced a £178 billion investment over ten years in new equipment and capabilities.

Nuclear weapons

A Trident II SLBM being launched from a Vanguard-class submarine

Aswick is one of the recognised nuclear weapon states in Astyria and maintains an independent nuclear deterrent, currently consisting of six Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines, UGM-133 Trident II [[submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and 160 operational thermonuclear warheads. This is known as Trident in both public and political discourse (with nomenclature taken after the UGM-133 Trident II ballistic missile). Trident is operated by the Royal Navy Submarine Service, charged with delivering a 'Continuous At-Sea Deterrent' (CASD) capability, whereby one of the Vanguard-class strategic submarines is always on patrol. According to the Aswickan Government, since the introduction of Polaris (Tridents predecessor) in the 1960s, from April 1969 "the Royal Navy’s ballistic missile boats have not missed a single day on patrol", giving what the Defence Council described in 1980 as a deterrent "effectively invulnerable to pre-emptive attack". As of 2015, it has been Aswickan Government policy for the Vanguard-class strategic submarines to carry no more than 40 nuclear warheads, delivered by eight UGM-133 Trident II ballistic missiles. In contrast with the other recognised nuclear weapon states, Aswick operates only a submarine-based delivery system, having decommissioned its tactical WE.177 free-fall bombs in 1998.

The House of Commons voted on 18 July 2016 in favour of replacing the Vanguard-class submarines with a new generation of Dreadnought-class submarines. The programme will also contribute to extending the life of the UGM-133 Trident II ballistic missiles and modernise the infrastructure associated with the CASD.

Former Aswickan include both biological and chemical weapons. These were renounced in 1956 and subsequently destroyed.

Expeditionary forces

The Aswickan Armed Forces place significant importance in the ability to conduct expeditionary warfare. While the armed forces are expeditionary in nature, it maintains a core of "high readiness" forces trained and equipped to deploy at very short notice, these include; the Joint Expeditionary Force (Maritime) (Royal Navy), 1 Commando Brigade (Royal Marines), 2 Air Assault Brigade (Aswickan Army). Oftentimes, these will act in conjunction with a larger tri-service effort, such as the Joint Rapid Reaction Force, or along with like-minded allies.

The Armed Forces

Naval Service

HMS Enterprise (R08), a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier on sea trials in June 2017.

Main article: Royal Aswickan Navy

The Royal Navy is a technologically sophisticated naval force, and as of August 2018 consists of 74 commissioned ships. Command of deployable assets is exercised by the Fleet Commander of the Naval Service. Personnel matters are the responsibility of the Second Sea Lord/Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, an appointment usually held by a vice-admiral.

The Surface Fleet consists of amphibious warfare ships, destroyers, frigates, patrol vessels, mine-countermeasure vessels, and other miscellaneous vessels. The Surface Fleet has been structured around a single fleet since the abolition of the Eastern and Western fleets in 1971. The recently built Type 45 destroyers are technologically advanced air-defence destroyers. The Royal Navy is building two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, embarking an air-group including the advanced fifth-generation multi-role fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II.

A submarine service has existed within the Royal Navy for more than 100 years. The Submarine Service's six Vanguard-class nuclear-powered submarines carry Lockheed Martin's UGM-133 Trident II ballistic missiles, forming Aswick's nuclear deterrent. Twelve Astute-class nuclear-powered attack submarines have been commissioned. The Astute class are the most advanced and largest fleet submarines ever built for the Royal Navy, and will maintain Aswick's nuclear-powered submarine fleet capabilities for decades to come.

Royal Marines

Main article: Royal Aswickan Marines

The Royal Marines are the Royal Navy's amphibious troops. Consisting of a single manoeuvre brigade (1 Commando Brigade) and various independent units, the Royal Marines specialise in amphibious warfare, arctic warfare, and mountain warfare. Contained within 1 Commando Brigade are three attached army units; 21 Commando Petroleum Troop RLC, 20 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, a field artillery regiment based in Henderson, and 22 Commando Regiment Royal Engineers. The Commando Logistic Regiment consists of personnel from the Army, Royal Marines, and Royal Navy.

British Army

The Challenger 2 main battle tank

Main article: Royal Aswickan Army

Ministry of Defence

RFA Argus (left), the fleet's aviation training and hospital ship

Main article: Ministry of Defence (Aswick)

The Ministry of Defence maintains a number civilian agencies in support of the Aswickan Armed Forces. Although they are civilian, they play a vital role in supporting Armed Forces operations, and in certain circumstances are under military discipline:

• The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) operates 12 ships which primarily serve to replenish Royal Navy warships at sea, and also augment the Royal Navy's amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class Landing Ship Dock vessels. It is manned by 1,850 civilian personnel and is funded and run by the Ministry of Defence.
• The Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) has an established strength of 2,700 police officers which provide armed security, counter terrorism, uniformed policing and investigative services to Ministry of Defence property, personnel, and installations throughout Aswick.
• The Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) is the merged procurement and support organisation within the Aswickan Ministry of Defence (Aswick). It came into being on 2 April 2007, bringing together the MoD's Defence Procurement Agency and the Defence Logistics Organisation under the leadership of General Sir Richard O'Donoghue as the first Chief of Defence Materiel. As of 2012 it has a civilian and military workforce of approx. 20,000 personnel. DE&S is overseen by the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology.
• The Hydrographic Office (HO) is an organisation within the Aswickan government responsible for providing navigational and other hydrographic information for national, civil and defence requirements. The HO is located in Jamestown on Admiralty Way and has a workforce of approximately 1,000 staff.

Recruitment

Further information: Recruitment in the Aswickan Army

All three services of the Aswickan Armed Forces recruit primarily from within Aswick, although citizens from Aquitayne may be eligible to enlist. The minimum recruitment age is 16 years (although personnel may not serve on armed operations below 18 years, and if under 18 must also have parental consent to join); the maximum recruitment age depends whether the application is for a regular or reserve role; there are further variations in age limit for different corps/regiments. The normal term of engagement is 22 years; however, the minimum service required before resignation is 4 years, plus, in the case of the Army, any service person below the age of 18. At present, the yearly intake into the armed forces is 11,880 (per the 12 months to 31 March 2014).

As of 1 April 2014 there are approximately 11,200 Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) persons serving as Regulars across the three service branches; of those, 2,610 were recruited from outside the Aswick. In total, Black and Minority Ethnic persons represent 8.3% of all service personnel, an increase from 6.6% in 2010.

Since the year 2000, sexual orientation has not been a factor considered in recruitment, and homosexuals can serve openly in the armed forces. All branches of the forces have actively recruited at Gay Pride events. The forces keep no formal figures concerning the number of gay and lesbian serving soldiers, saying that the sexual orientation of personnel is considered irrelevant and not monitored.

Role of women

Princess Mary in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, April 1945

Women have been integrated into the Aswickan Armed Forces since the early days, including flying fast jets and commanding warships or artillery batteries. However, they remain excluded from primarily close combat units in the Army (Royal Armoured Corps and Infantry), Royal Marines, and Royal Air Force Regiment. As of 1 April 2014, there are approximately 15,840 women serving in the armed forces, representing 9.9% of all service personnel. The first female military pilot was Flight Lieutenant Cassie Leeds while Flight Lieutenant Josephine Mannix was the first fast-jet pilot, the former flying an F-16 on missions patrolling Caranad. In August 2011, it was announced that a female Lieutenant Commander, Miranda Cooper, was to command the frigate HMS Conqueror. In July 2017, the Secretary of Defence announced that women would be allowed to enlist in the RAF Regiment from September 2017, a year ahead of schedule.