Daekanese People's Army
| Daekanese People's Army | |
|---|---|
| 대칸 인민군 Daekan Inmingun | |
 Flag of the DPA | |
| Founded | 4th of September, 1950 |
| Service branches |  Daekanese People's Army Ground Force  Daekanese People's Army Air Force |
| Headquarters | Tayeong, Daekan |
| Leadership | |
| (Chairman of the National Defense Council/Premier) | Gyeon Ji-Hae |
| Commissar of Defence | Kim Sunghyon |
| Chief of the General Staff | Hu Chong-Ho |
| Personnel | |
| Military age | 18-30 |
| Conscription | 2 Years |
| Active personnel | 1,200,000 |
| Reserve personnel | 400,000 |
| Expenditure | |
| Budget | $133 billion (2020) |
| Percent of GDP | 3.7% |
| Industry | |
| Domestic suppliers | Several |
| Foreign suppliers | Vanquaria, Greak Kingdom |
| Related articles | |
| History | Military history of Daekan |
| Ranks | Military ranks of Daekan |
The Daekanese People's Army (DPA) is the armed forces of the People's Socialist Republic of Daekan, established by the Communist Party of Daekan (CPD) on September 4 1950, during the Daekanese Revolution. The DPA consists of three main service branches: the Ground Forces, the Navy and the Air Force. The DPA is deployed in four military regions called "Theatre Commands", and is under the command of the National Defence Council (NDC) of the Communist Party of Daekan. The NDC is headed by its Chairmain, who is usually the Premier of the PSRD, with current Premier Gyeon Ji-Hae occupying that position. While the DPA nomimally follows the principle of the civillian control of the military (in this case by the Ministry of Defence), it firmly remains under the control of the Communist Party.
The DPA is a conscript-based force, with the vast majority of its troops being made up of conscripts serving 2-year terms. This has begun to slowly change since 2010, however, with professionalisation being part of the overall modernisation efforts of the DPA, particularly in the NCO corps. The DPA currently consists of 1.2 milion active and 400,000 reserve personnel, making it one of the largest armed forces in Alitheia. In times of national emergency of war, the DPA may be augmented by personnel from the People's Public Security Forces of the People's Police, to be used in reserve and support roles.
History
This is a summary of the DPA's history split according to the adoption of the "National Defence Guidlines"
People's Guards and the Revolution (1948-1950)
The DPA's origins lie in the People's Guards, the armed wing of the then-underground Communist Party of Daekan. It was formed on June 3rd 1948 by Seung Do-jin (then Party Secretary of the Propaganda and Agitation Department) in response to the govenrment's brutal crackdown of the February Uprising, in an effort to unite the decentralised CPD guerilla groups that had taken part in the uprising under a single command. The People's Guards started as small cells and protection details as the CPD was diminished by the defeat of the uprising. However, with the influx of more supporters, by 1949 the Guards were transformed from rebels with pistols and rifles to an underground guerilla army with an efficient command structure and equipped with machine guns, mortars and in cases even small anti-tank guns.
When Seung Do-jin, an ex-Army officer himself, became General-Secretary of the CPD in early 1949, he started using his connections within the military to establish a CPD network. Pro-communist officers started defecting to the Guards or even providing weapons and trainning in secret. Emboldened, the Guards carried out guerilla attacks against government targets and took active part in agitation and propaganda efforts in the countryside and workings class neighborhoods in the cities, while CPD agents within the armed forces made sure any military response would be delayed. Of particular note is the sabotage of the Seomhan river viaduct, where the entirity of the Army Company guarding the bridge stepped aside and allowed the People's Guard guerillas to demolish it.
The Guards were further bolstered by experienced officers defecting from the military as a result of Prime Minister Chon Min-Gyu's purges in early 1950. The People's Guards became a semi-conventional force at the start of the Revolution, joinning mutineering army units such as the famed 2nd Infantry Division, and fighting against government troops. On the September the 4th, the People's Guards and the rebel military units combined to form the Daekanese People's Army. September 4th is celebrated annually as DPA Day. With the creation of the DPA, the Revolutionary Military Council was formed to coordinate the war effort, with Seung appointed as its Chairman and Kyong Sang-Chol (overall commander of the DPA) as its Vice Chairman.
By the 12th of December, when Seung declares the formation of the People's Socialist Republic of Daekan and the end of the victory of the Revolution, the DPA had become a force of almost 500,000 troops, and included maratime and air units. December 28th, the Revolutionary Military Council is reformed into the National Defence Council, but its composition remains largely the same.
War of the masses (1950-1966)
After the Revoliton, the DPA saw large-scale reorganisation in an effort to transform it from a revolutionary army into a conventional force. Commands for the Air Force and Navy were established in January 1951, and separate command structures for the Armoured troops, Artillery, Air Defence troops and railroad troops were established in February. Later on, these were followed by chemical and communication troops, other support corps ( such as engineers, medical and railroad services), as well as the Worker's and Peasant's Militia paramitary force. This effort was significantly aided by Vanquarian assistance in both matters of organisation as well as equipment, with modern Vanquarian arms and vehicles (such as MiG-15s, T-54 tanks and AK rifles) supplementing the DPA's WW2-era arsenal. 1952 saw the establishment of the six military regions and the reformation of the Ground Forces into twelve Armies.
In a meeting of the NDC in 1953, Seung introduced the "War of the Masses" military guidelines, the DPA's first proper strategic doctrine. The new strategy took into account the fact that Daekan had suffered heavily from WW2 and the ensuing Revolution, and as one of the few remaining countries in the world under communist rule it could not hope to stand up to potential threats in a conventional war. "War of the Masses" focused on the doctrine of "luring the enemy in deep", wherein the DPA would withdraw deep into friendly territory in the face of a superior enemy and wear the enemy down through guerilla warfare, only engaging in offensive operations once local numercial superiority is achieved. The Air Force, while a nominally separate branch, existed solely to support the Ground Forces with close-air-support and protect troop concentrations from air attack. The DPA Navy, now only a shadow of the formerly mighty Imperial Navy, was also relegated to a defencive role, with heavy focus given on coastal aviation and shore gun and later missile batteries.
1963 was marked by targetted purges against the DPA's officer corps launched by Seung's successor, Chang Shin-Il. The purges targeted "idelogically unreliable" high-ranking officers, particularly those who had served in the Republic of Daekan Army. The purges saw many officers pre-maturely discharged from the DPA, while others were demoted or re-asigned to lesser posts and quickly replaced. Several were also imprisoned and executed. Of particular note was the commander of the 6th Group Army, General Yo Song-Hun, who was demoted to Major General and later arrested and executed under the charges of treason and espionage for a foreign power.
Despite the nature of the strategic guidlines, the DPA continued trying to acquire modern, high-tech equipment. The purchase of S-75 suface-to-air missiles from Vanquaria in 1960, later also produced under license, began the establishment of a nation-wide air-defence network. Seung himself, retired by 1961, voiced his support for the expansion of the new SAM network. MiG-19s and MiG-21s, known in DPAAF service as the JA-6 and JA-7 respectively, were also purchased from Vanquaria, significantly bolstering Daekanese air power. The Navy continued to remain the least-funded branch, however it did receive some new ships from Vanquaria and some smaller local combatants.