Dulebian Armed Forces
| Dulebian Armed Forces | |
|---|---|
| Вооруженные силы Республики Дулебия | |
 Banner of the Dulebian Armed Forces | |
| Founded | 1724 (as the Imperial Dulebian Army) |
| Current form | 1 December 1995 |
| Service branches |  Army Air Force Navy |
| Headquarters | Ulich, Dulebia |
| Leadership | |
| Supreme Commander |  President Alexey Volodin |
| Minister of Defence | Vladimir Starousov |
| Chief of the General Staff |  General Arkady Kuleba |
| Personnel | |
| Military age | 18 |
| Conscription | Yes |
| Available for military service | 21,077,703 (2021), age 18-32 |
| Fit for military service | 17,083,554 (2021), age 18-32 |
| Active personnel | 76,000 (2021) |
| Reserve personnel | 185,000 (2021) |
| Expenditure | |
| Budget | Ћ46.6 billion (US$20.9 billion)(2020) |
| Industry | |
| Domestic suppliers | Arms industry in Dulebia |
| Foreign suppliers |  Cuthland |
| Annual exports | Ћ0.52 billion (US$0.23 billion) (2018) |
| Related articles | |
| History | Military history of Dulebia |
| Ranks | Dulebian Armed Forces ranks and insignia |
The Dulebian Armed Forces (Dulebian: Вооруженные силы Республики Дулебия, tr. Vooruzhonnye Sily Respubliki Dulebiya) is a collective term describing the combined military forces of Dulebia, consisting of its Army, Air Force and Navy. The coomander-in-chief of the Dulebian Armed Forces is the President of Dulebia (currently Alexey Volodin).
The history of the Armed forces of Dulebia can be traced byck to the reforms of Peter II the Great in the 1720s. Following the establishment of the Dulebian Empire in 1721, he proceeded to reform its armed formations into a modern Berean army - it was rearmed, retrained and structured in a way similar to that of most Berean empires at the time. It also received a western-style command structure, with the first professional military school in Dulebia being established in 1722. This reformed army showed its effectiveness in the upcoming years in the numerous wars against Dulebia's neighbours. Following the Second Dulebo-Gurkhan War Dulebia received its first naval forces, which rapidly expanded in the 19th century and proved their effectiveness in the Karsk Sea War. In the early 20th century the country also established its Air Fleet Corps, the predecessor of the modern Air Force of Dulebia. After the Dulebian Revolution, the military of the country was once again reformed and restructured, with many of its former commanders fleeing the country or being purged in the early years of the Soviet regime in the country. Despite that, the Dulebian armed forces in the 20th century were one of the biggest in Berea, and one of the few to obtain nuclear weapons in the second half of the century. Following the collapse of the socialist regime in Dulebia, its armed forces were reformed and reorganized. The poor economic situation in the country led to a rapid deterioration of its military, as well as a collapse of the defence industry that was constructed in the decades prior.
Today the Dulebian Armed Forces are a small but potent power in Berea. With an annual spending of Ћ46.6 billion (US$20.9 billion), which forms 2.85% of the country's GDP, the country is around the middle of the list of Berean countries by military spending. Despite numerous reforms and spending increase since the early 1990s, the armed forces still remain equipped mainly with outdated 20th century equipment dating back to the People's Republic of Dulebia. The country is cuurently supplied mostly by its own defence industry, which has seen growth in the first decade of the 21st century due to rising foreign interest in Dulebian military export. While plans to modernize the military and switch to a contract army have been announced, the government spending on the military has been dropping ever since the early 2010s, making all these modernization attempts difficult.
History
Dulebian Empire
The history of the armed forces of Dulebia can be traced back to the reforms of Peter the Great. Under the reforms of the first Dulebian Emperor, a professional army was created under the impression of other Berean monarchies. Military specialists from the Cuthish Empire and the Aldish Kingdom were invited to Dulebia. The first military school was opened in Ulich in 1724. The dulebian army was rearmed with Cuthish rifles and cannons, and the first modern arms factories were opened across the country. The reformed army was used with great success by the emperor in the wars against the Gurkhanate and the Kingdom of Aldena in the 1720s. Under Peter II, Dulebia gained sea access and established its naval force in 1732.
In the second part of the 18th century, the Dulebian Empire fought effectively in the War of Haltboruh Succession, and later in the Cuthish Revolutionary War, when Dulebia reached its greatest territorial extend. In the early 19th century, the country established its colonial empire as a result of the defeat of Cuthland. The Dulebian navy became the dominant power in the Karsk sea after its victory over at Cape Harkullia in 1834 against the Second Cuthish Empire. The greatest Dulebian military success came in 1860 in the Karsk Sea War with the defeat of its two biggest rivals, Lavaria and Falland. This triggered a half-a-century arms race between Dulebia and Lavaria, which was one of the main factors triggering the Great War. Dulebia continued its military successes in the start of the 1900s with a major victory in the Third Dulebo-Gurkhan War, when it reached its biggest territorial extend in its whole history.
Great War
The Dulebian Empire was one of the main belligerents in the Great War. Prior to the war, the country had one of the biggest best equipped armies on the continent. As of 1910, every second family had at least one of its members drafted in the army or the navy of the country. Dulebia maintained two fleets, the Karsk sea fleet and the Endotheric fleet, as well as two colonial squadrons in Melasia and Yudong.
The Dulebian Empire fought on numerous fronts during the war. Its main forces were focused on the Western front against Lavaria, and fought there from the first day of the war and until the capitulation of the country due to the Dulebian revolution. Dulebia also fought against Valimia, the Gurkhanate in Berea and against the Mascyllary Empire and its dominions in Melasia and Kenlong. Dulebia also performed the biggest operation in the war, the Bakunin's Breakthrough in May 1913, when more than 5 million Dulebian soldiers were thrown against the Lavarian defences on the Western front. Dulebia suffered one of the heaviest casualties in the war, and the heaviest among the Central Alliance members. The heavy casualties of the country were one of the contributing factors leading to the communist revolution and the following civil war in the country.
The Dulebian navy proved was the most effective naval force of the Central Alliance in the Great War. Dulebian ships inflicted heavy casualties to the Lavarian navy in the Battle of the Karsk Gate, while the Melasian Squadron's victories in the Battle of the Caroline sea and in Yudong forced the Armala coalition to relocate a major naval force from the Berean theatre to protect its colonial assets. Dulebia utilized a large fleet of merchant raiders in the Endotheric sea to disrupt the supply lines between Lavaria and Mascylla and their colonial assets in Pamira and Mavronesia, while the Dulebian submarine fleet harassed the merchant shipping of the Armala coalition in the Agric Ocean.
The civil war in Dulebia prevented its participation in the Treaty of Lehpold. This resulted in no restrictions of the armed forces of the country after the war, but also in an unprecedented isolation of the country in the years after the conflict.
Great game
After the end of the Dulebian Civil War, the military forces of the Dulebian People's Republic were drastically reformed into the Dulebian People's Army (Dulebian: Народная Армия Дулебии). Most of the former officers were either purged, killed during the civil war or expelled from the country. Former imperial military schools were closed. Repressions were performed in the defence industry of the country. The armed forces were put under the direct control of the Dulebian Communist Party already during the civil war, but the reforms of Konev made the Ministry of Defence the formal supervision authority during peacetime.
Following the death of Konev, the Dulebian armed forces were greatly expanded. The reestablishment of diplomatic relations with other Berean states allowed for the flow of technologies and specialists into Dulebia during its industrialization, and numerous secret treaties with Cuthland allowed for Dulebia to modernize its military equipment. Under the policy of the Perekovka Dulebia supported communist movements across the world, and its armed forces intervened directly in the Lavarian Revolution in 1936.
In the 1950s Dulebia became the third country in the world to obtain nuclear weapons. Its military was also ranking among the biggest in the world, with almsot one fourth of the male population serving in the military in one form or another. Dulebia fielded the biggest fleet of strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. During the final decades of the communist regime of the country, its military became underfunded and underequipped. The strategic bomber force was disbanded in 1982, and the Dulebian People's Navy could not perform even patrol duties in the Karsk sea due to systematic underfunding. While on paper it still obtained the third biggest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, by 1990 most of that stockpile was outdated and could not be fielded.
Post-1990
The collapse of the communist regime in the country had a significant effect on its military. The underfunding, which was a major problem in the last years of the communist rule, became even more severe in the early 1990s, when the country experienced a number of major financial crises. The military backed up the separatist movements in the Balkarian War, and played a significant role in the 9-Day War in Ulich in 1993, opposing the pro-communist protesters in the city. In order to gain financial support from the Berean states during the crises of the early 1990s, Dulebia agreed to disband its nuclear forces and dispose of its nuclear stockpile.
After the start of the presidency of Alexey Volodin, numerous reforms of the military forces was performed. Its funding was increased, and the commanding officers, many of whom were placed by the former Beglov administration, were lustrated. Command was taken by former officers of the Dulebian People's Army, many of whom were in turn lustrated in the first years after the collapse of the communist regime. The defence industry of the country, which was almsot destroyed by the crises of the last decade of the 20th century, received governmental funding and was later renationalized.
Despite attempts to replace its equipment, the Dulebian Armed Forces remain underequipped and utilizing equipment dating from the previous century. Furthermore, in the recent years the funding of the military is constantly being reduced, which makes all the reforms of the military almost impossible. In 2018, plans for moving to a volunteer military by 2025 was announced, but almost no action was undertaken ever since.
Equipment
Attempts to modernize the armed forces of the country and overhaul its equipment were undertaken in the early 2000s, but saw only limited success. The large stockpile of vehicles of the country's ground forces was gradually modernized or placed in reserve, but new vehicles began to enter service only in the recent years. The army still utilized a large fleet of mostly outdated vehicles of the communist era, many of which are claimed to be inoperable due to poor maintenance and lack of spare parts. The Dulebian navy suffered the most from underfunding, which became a problem already in the 1980s. While Dulebia still possesses an aircraft carrier, most of its combat ships were commissioned in the second half of the 20th century, with only a small percentage being constructed after the fall of communism. Furthermore, the majority of its newly-commissioned ships are light coast guard vessels and submarines, with the Sovremenny-class guided missile destroyers being the first class of heavy ships ordered since the collapse of the communist regime. The only branch that received substantial funding in the 1990s and early 2000s was the air force. The Dulebian aircraft industry managed to survive the crises of the early 1990s with the assistance of the government, and is currently one of the biggest in Berea. However, due to budget cuts in the 2010s, the Dulebian air force did not manage to replace all of its inventory, and it still operates aircraft dating back to the 1960s.
Manpower
Dulebia continues to field a limited-conscription armed force, with a force of 76,000 active personnel, and 185,000 reserve personnel as of 2021. The conscription in the country is performed among male citizens between the age of 18 and 32. All male citizens reaching the age of 18 can be drafted for military service in the military unless they have been accepted in a higher education institution. As of 2021, approximately 17 million people in the country are seen as fir for military service. Governmental officials have voiced the plans to transfer the country to a volunteer-based armed force by 2025, but no particular actions have been undertaken so far, making this reform more and more unlikely in the recent future. Futhermore, the reservist pool of the country is planned to be increased to 220,000 by 2024, which is contradictory to the plans to abolish conscription.
Other militarized institutions
During the presidency of Alexey Volodin, numerous militarized institutions were created and placed under the direct command of the President of Dulebia. It is worth to mention that most of them are intended as law enforcement organizations inside the country itself. These organizations often have overlapping jurisdiction and are used simultaniously in numerous occassions, for example during protests as riot police. These organizations include:
- Dulebian National Security Service (Dulebian: Служба национальной безопасности, (СНБ); tr. Sluzhba Natsional'noy Bezopasnosti, (SNB))
- National Investigative Bureau (Dulebian: Национальная служба следственных работ, (НССР); tr. Natsional'naya Sluzhba Sledstvennyh Rabot, (NSSR))
- Dulebian National Guard (Dulebian: Национальная гвардия Республики Дулебия; tr. Natsional'naya Gvardiya Respubliki Dulebiya)
- Penitentiary Service of Dulebia (Dulebian: Служба исполнения наказаний Республики Дулебия, (СИН); tr. Sluzhba Ispolneniya Nakazaniy Respubliki Dulebiya, (SIN))
- International Intelligence Service (Dulebian: Служба международной разведки, (СМР); tr. Sluzhba Mezhdunarodnoy Razvedki, (SMR))
- Ministry of Emergency Situations of Dulebia (Dulebian: Министерство чрезвычайных ситуаций Республики Дулебия, (МЧС); tr. Ministerstvo Chrezvychaynyh Situatsiy, (MChS))