Charnean Army

Charnean Army
ⵉⵖⵔⵓⴷⴰⵏ ⵞⴰⵔⵏⴰ ⴰⵊⵁⴰⵏⴰⵏ Iɤrudan Charna Ajhanan
Flag of the Charnean Army
Motto	Tachyata (Acronym for the phrase Tassɑɤen Charna Yalla Tarmat meaning "Charnean unity is not negotiable")
Founded	1 October 1921 (1921-10-01)
Current form	2023
Service branches	Central Army Army Air Service Border Guards
Headquarters	Agnannet
Leadership
Commander-in-chief	Amina N'Okha
Minister of Defense	Tinkerbas Bekkai
Chief-of-Staff	General Rezkou Goma
Personnel
Military age	18
Conscription	18 months
Active personnel	330,000
Reserve personnel	245,000
Expenditure
Budget	$30 billion (2023)
Percent of GDP	5% (2023)
Industry
Foreign suppliers	Mutul Elatia Onekawa-Nukanoa
Related articles
Ranks	Military ranks of Charnea

The Charnean Army (Tamashek: ⵉⵖⵔⵓⴷⴰⵏ ⵞⴰⵔⵏⴰ ⴰⵊⵁⴰⵏⴰⵏ, Iɤrudan Charna Ajhanan, ICA) is the combined military force of the Charnean state comprising both ground-based and aerial armed forces. Amina N'Okha serves as the formal commander-in-chief of the ICA, while its day to day operations are overseen by Minister of Defense Tinkerbas Bekkai and commanded by ICA Chief-of-Staff Rezkou Goma. The current structure of the ICA is the result of a series of sweeping military reforms that took place following the death of its former commander Martial Martuf Lamine in December 2022 and the ensuing political turmoil which took place within the Army and the broader state defense apparatus. Reforms included a reorganization of the ICA general staff and high command from the ground up, a significant reduction of the officer corps and a consolidation of several previously separate organs into more centralized command and logistics structures. The ICA is currently comprised of the Central Army, incorporating formerly independent bodies such as the Armored Corps and the Counterinsurgency Corps, the Army Air Service which functions as the ICA's aerial warfare and air defense force, and the military Border Guards which make up the lightly armed border patrol and customs enforcement forces. Charnean military intelligence organs such as the ASA fall under the authority of the ICA general staff.

History

Imperial Military System

Charnean cavalryman, 19th century

The military history of Charnea prior to the foundation of the modern Charnean Army functioned along the lines of member clans of a political confederation. Since the times of Ihemod in the 14th and 15th centuries, this was the Kel Kaharna governing body of the Charnean Empire. This was an evolution of the traditional means of waging war among the Tenerians, in which the confederation leader or Amenokal served as overall commander and each tribe or clan which formed part of the confederation contributed a contingent of troops most often with the clan's elder or an appointee of the elder serving as the commander of these troops subordinate to the Amenokal. This system of tribal levy was relatively effective thanks to the riding and archery skills the nomads developed from a young age in order to hunt and protect their herds of goats and camels. Upon uniting the Tenerian confederations into the Kel Kaharna, Ihemod reformed the military levy system by turning each tribe pledged to him into a permanent military unit with its tribal chief as its commander and its youth, women and associated camp and herds as logistical supports. The Tenerian confederation was effectively militarized under these reforms and transformed into a powerful nomadic army of the Ninva, which set about its campaign of conquest across the Scipian continent. This foundational system of the Charnean Empire remained in place more or less unchanged through the centuries, which the commander-clan heads of each unit eventually forming the advisory body of the Agraw Imgharan, the precursor to the modern Charnean legislature.

However, the pre-modern military system of the Charnean Empire suffered from a number of vulnerabilities. With all the nomads of a particular community grouped together in a military unit, severe battlefield losses could result in the male population of whole tribes being lost, effectively resulting in the death of that tribe and its absorption into other tribes. Additionally, the insulated nature of each tribal unit meant that over time the men of any given unit would become more loyal to their tribal leader than to the Amenokal and the Empire. This fostered a deep rooted factionalism in the Imperial Army which greatly hampered its military efficiency and effectiveness thanks to rivalries between commanders and insubordination, particularly in the 17th and 18th centuries. Hereditary commanders likewise impeded the effectiveness of the army, rejecting new military technology and blocking the promotion of talented strategic minds to higher levels of command to preserve their own authority. The strengths of the old Ihemodian army which once threatened the whole of Scipia, adaptability and meritocratic promotion, had become its weaknesses. This was exacerbated by the era of the mining barons in Charnea in the late 19th century, in which the army commanders used their men effectively as private militaries without direction from the central command to secure mineral rich patches of land as the mining boom spread across the Ninva desert, subsequently either selling the seized land for a premium or becoming mining tycoons themselves with the backing of their tribesmen armed at the Empire's expense. The disorder caused by these practices ultimately led to the radical reformation of the army and the Empire itself in the early 20th century.

Foundation of the ICA

ICA Camelry unit, 1936

Due to the tightly knit union of military and civil power in Charnea, it was inevitable that the much needed reform of the Empire would be coupled with a military reform. The modern Charnean Army, the Iɤrudan Charna Ajhanan, was formed out of the abolition of the tribal military system of the old Empire and the rationalization and modernization of military organization, tactics, technology and logistics. The ICA did away with the practices of hereditary commanders and the tribal division of the army altogether, with men from many tribes being sorted into units together and their commanders now being appointed from above on the basis of merit rather than heritage. The old tribal chieftains retained a degree of political power through their seats in the Agraw, and continued to play a role in the Charnean elective monarchy, but no longer held any real military authority. The new leadership of the ICA quickly and enthusiastically embraced a great deal of modern military technology, ranging from artillery to water cooled machine guns and motor vehicles, no longer encumbered by the conservative thinking of the old leadership.

The new Charnean Army was armed primarily with weapons purchased from Alanahr and Latium, but would begin to develop a native military industry thanks to the effects of the civilian reforms of the Empire, which saw the advent of developmentalism and the birth of Charnean industry. The ICA was closely married to these modernizing forces in Charnean society, both as the primary beneficiary and the main enforcement body of new reforms and the policies which developed from the industrialization process. In particular, peacekeeping in the desert communities and the growing conflicts over the water supply from Charnea's underground aquifers, needed badly for the new factory districts and growing urban population yet likewise needed by traditional agricultural communities in the south and east of the country became the ICA's principal areas of concern behind national defense from foreign powers.

Agala War

Main article: Agala War

Ninvite War

Main article: Ninvite War

Manpower

The majority of the peacetime active forces are volunteer professional soldiers hailing from nomadic Tenerian populations indigenous to the Ninva desert. These demographics have historically joined the ICA in large numbers due to the general poverty and lack of work opportunities available to the nomadic communities of the Ninva, deeply influencing the way of life of the nomads as well as the ICA's military culture. The overwhelming majority of nomads in the army are career soldiers for whom service in the ICA is their primary means of income and a represents a lifelong career. Being accustomed to a hardy life in desert conditions with few modern comforts, the Tenerian nomads are thought to be well suited to life in the Charnean Army. However, the nomads in Charnea suffer from a general lack of good education and in particular a dearth the advanced degrees needed to operate sophisticated modern military hardware. This shortfall motivated the foundation of the Charnean Army Vocational School in Awakar City, an institute established to streamline the learning process for nomad recruits to achieve suitable levels of education and technical expertise needed to operate a modern military force. 275,000 of the 330,000 active personnel of the ICA are Tenerian nomads, with an additional 50,000 registered as reservists, accounting for roughly one in three adult male nomads. In the past, major conflicts such as the Ninvite War have seen the mobilization of the entire male population and even portions of the female contingent of the nomads. As a result, the history of modern warfare in Charnea is reflected in the demographic fluctuations of the nomad population.

Approximately one half of the ICA's current total manpower are conscripts called up for a period of compulsory national service between the ages of 18 and 35 and recalled for refresher training every five to eight years. The great majority of ICA reservist forces are made up of these conscripted forces. The nomads are legally except from conscription into the ICA due to their special status and close relationship with the military. Therefore, the conscript forces of the ICA are made up entirely of sedentary, city-dwelling Tenerian populations as well as Charnean minority demographics such as the Ashkans, Deshrians and the Charnean Gharib community.