Military of the Azure Coast
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| Azurenne Defense Services | |
|---|---|
| Services Défense Azurenne | |
 Crest of the SDA | |
| Founded | August 25, 1935 |
| Current form | September 26, 1976 |
| Service branches | Grande Azure Legion Azurenne Air Force Azurenne Navy |
| Headquarters | Belcastel, Lehideux |
| Leadership | |
| President | Rémy Soyer |
| Premier | Céleste Auberjonois |
| Minister of Defense | Obert Terreaux |
| Chief of General Staff | Mar. Aurélien Rossignol |
| Manpower | |
| Military age | 18-40 years old |
| Conscription | Yes |
| Active personnel | 112,295 |
| Reserve personnel | 45,679 |
| Expenditures | |
| Budget | $5.49 billion |
| Percent of GDP | 1.12% |
The Azurenne Defense Services (Gaullican: Services Défense Azurenne), commonly referred to as the SDA is the official military services of Côte d'Azur, the Sovereign Republic of the Azure Coast. Headquartered at Sanctum Major in Belcastel, Comté de Lehideux, the SDA fields a force of over 110,000 personnel, distributed across three individual branches: the Grand Azure Legion (Army), the Azurenne Air Force and the Azurenne Navy. The commander-in-chief of the SDA forces is the President of the Republic, who issues orders thru the Chief of the General Staff at the bequest of the Premier. The current (and twelfth) Chief of the General Staff, Marshal Aurélien Rossignol assumed the position on January 1, 2022. The Ministry of Defense is the principal civilian body through which military policy is created and administered; Obert Terreaux currently serves as the country's Minister of Defense, having ascended to the position at the outset of the Auberjonois administration in January 2022. The SDA is the smallest standing military in Asteria Inferior.
The SDA traces its founding to the end of the Great War following the capture and capitulation of the Continental Colonial Guard of the Azure Coast in January 1934. Following the forced extraction of Côte d'Azur from the Gaullican Empire, the occupying forces of the Grand Alliance pressed – as their last official act before vacating the occupied territory – the remaining elements of the Continental Colonial Guard into the new Azurenne Defense Services. The SDA was an instrumental part of the ensuing Azurenne Civil War (1937-1947), representing the monarchist and republican forces against the Councilist Vague Rogue. The victory of the SDA over the Vague Rogue having been achieved in 1947, the military continued to be a major presence in the lives of Azurennes through the military dictatorship of General Alban Serreau. Upon Serreau’s exile and the end of the junta during the Blue Revolution in 1973, the military was once again reconfigured into its current constitution, having remained so since 1976.
Since the completion of its reconfiguration in 1976, the Azurenne Defense Services have been engaged primarily in counterinsurgency operations in the Brindamour Federal Territory in the northwest of the country, where continued harassment by the remnants of the defeated-Vague Rogue still operate in the thick foliage of the Sythes-Joada Basin. With its combat doctrine heavily focused on riverine defense and its counterinsurgency operations in the northwest, the military has come under heavy criticism internally for being outdated in its technology and capabilities. More recent administrations, including the Auberjonois government have begun reaching out to foreign military contractors about upgrading the country’s defensive capabilities.