Commonwealth Army Structure and Organisation

The Commonwealth Army's tactical and operational formations reached their current structure after the military reforms of the early-1960s. it drew together lessons learnt from the mechanised battles of the 1940's wars and the advent of tactical nuclear weapons. Theorists hypothesised that, in an environment characterised by the massed usage of weapons of massed destruction (or, in the contemporary environment, precision-guided munitions), large concentrations of forces which stay together for too long a period of time are liable to be detected and consequently suffer the murderous effects of the deadly new weapons. As such, dispersion, concealment and mobility are the most important contributors towards survivabilty, with concentration only achieved just before a major engagement and rapidly reversed immediately afterwards. In an environment with low force density and the absence of fixed front lines, war will be characterised by duels between mobile combined arms groups which can maneouvre at will, placing a premium on aggressive leadership and initiative from the lowest levels of command. Overall, Arthuristan ground forces organisation and doctrine are completely optimised for high intensity operations against peer great powers, making no compromises for asymmetrical warfare.

While combined arms divisions form the basic building-block of the army, divisions will fight as autonomous brigade groups (ABGs), each in turn subdivided into task-organised battalion battle groups (BBGs), with divisional HQ allocating support where needed and corps and army HQ doing the same at their levels as needed. The result, the planners hoped, was a system which possesses both the virtue of flexibility and the ability to rapidly concentrate combat power at the decisive schwerpunkt in a massed mechanised battle under the doctrine of Integrated Mobile Operations.

Order of Battle

As a maritime power, Arthurista relies on a very small professional army in peacetime, with roughly half of its heavy combat forces stationed in South Ottonia. However, in wartime, the army would be able to mobilise Territorial personnel in order to augment the regular forces with light infantry and support functions.

The regular army is capable of deploying up to 9 maneouvre brigade group in peacetime, six of them heavy brigades. It may also assume operational command over the Commonwealth Marines where necessary.

A chart showing the full order of battle of the regular army may be found here. The chart excludes from its purvieew the Territorial and reserve forces of the army.

Divisions

The full strength of a division typically ranges between 18,000 personnel. It normally consists of three manoeuvre brigades and a number of supporting elements.

Arthuristan maneouvre units fight in the form of all-arms brigade groups. Combat support elements such as artillery, engineer, air defence and logistics are organic to the brigade group itself, rather than devolved from a 'divisional pool'. A divisional headquarters functions at the operational tier, directing its manoeuvre brigade groups, forming the linkage between brigade groups and corps headquarters in a major theatre war.

Brigade Groups

Maneouvre brigade groups are the primary tactical unit of the Commonwealth Army. They consist of between three battalions or battalion-sized regiments of the primary combat arm, together with various combat support and combat sustainment elements. Each manoeuvre brigade group is capable of independent operations on its own logistical resources for up to 72 hours.

The modern Arthuristan brigade group is networked with the latest C4I technology, armed with precision-guided munitions, and generally much more nimble than its earlier ad hoc counterpart. It has been calculated that a well-supported brigade group can hold roughly as much ground as a 1940's-era division, monitor a greater area with its reconnaissance assets and UAVs and is much more lethal in combat utilising both its organic armaments and supporting fires, which it is significantly more capable in coordinating.

Brigade groups are responsible for generating from within its units a 'Brigade Patrol Group', comprised of spare Battleaxe utility cars from within its order of battle, and enhanced with thermal imaging equipment. These semi-permanent groupings of vehicles provide a significant measure of organic reconnaissance capability to their parent formation, acting as a link between the divisional cavalry and the constituent battle groups' own reconnaissance elements.

Armoured Brigade Groups and Armoured Infantry Brigade Groups

An Arthuristan heavy Brigade Group is a combined arms formation, equipped with armoured fighting vehicles and optimised for force-on-force engagements on open terrain against a similarly-equipped opposing force.

These units are traditionally built around heavy armoured combat vehicles, i.e. the Boudicca Main Battle Tank (armoured regiments), Claymore Infantry Fighting Vehicle (armoured infantry battalions), FV430 Bulldog armoured personnel carriers (mechanised infantry battalions) and Ultima Self Propelled Howitzer (self-propelled artillery regiments).

In action, the armoured regiments and infantry battalions would exchange squadrons and companies to form combined arms battlegroups. Each is typically supported by an artillery battery and other elements to form an autonomous combat team.

Motorised Infantry and Parachute Brigade Group

Light infantry units are predominantly motorised units, transported with the Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle. They are primarily intended to support the heavy mechanised units of the Commonwealth Army by providing additional dismounted infantry strength to seize and hold rough and urban terrain. The regular army possesses two regular motorised infantry brigade, whilst the Territorial Army, which is comprised of part-time civilian reservists who volunteer to train a number of weekends per year, form a number of reserve infantry brigades.

The elite of the Commonwealth Army's light infantry is the 6th Parachute Brigade, which contains the three battalions of the Parachute Regiment, trained and equipped for airborne operations, although in reality they are more often employed as air assault infantry.

The navy's Commonwealth Marines provide a similar highly-trained 'shock troop' capability. Whilst not capable of parachuting, they are trained in amphibious warfare, as well as operation in hostile environments such as subarctic or mountainous conditions.

High-level combat support elements

Artillery and Ballistic Missiles

Each maneouvre brigade group has an organic artillery regiment (equivalent to a 'battalion' in international parlance). A Divisional Artillery Group consists of a brigade HQ, an ISTAR company, a heavy artillery regiment (with two batteries of MLRS and two batteries of 203mm howitzers), a medium range SAM regiment and a support regiment.

Army Aviation

Army aviation assets almost always attached to higher operational commands. Each of the four heavy divisions are supported by an attack helicopter regiment, with 32 attack helicopters in four squadrons plus a medium drone squadron.

Support

Each Brigade Group has a support regiment, allowing it to conduct independent operations when separated from its parent division for a time. However, it is an austere formation which is not meant to provide for sustained, high intensity operations. For instance, it is estimated that an armoured brigade group can only maintain independent operations on its own for 72 hours without additional support from higher headquarters.

As such, Force Support Brigades can be found at the divisional and corps levels. These are flexible units which can provide logistical support for between one to ten brigade groups, depending on the number of support regiments under its command. In addition, it may contain units of military intelligence, military police, engineering, maintenance, medical, CRBN defence or other support services as and when required. A corps or theatre commander has the option of massing all divisional or corps Force Support Brigades under his purview and set up a centralised sustainment command (expeditionary) or theatre sustainment command to take charge of logistics and combat support throughout the theatre of operations.