The Arms of the United Commonwealth Army

Dear hypothetical readers, due to my own limited knowledge as to the inner machinations of the Armed Forces, I have enlisted the assistance of my son to help me fill out the sections of this journal about the Army. Now, I'll let him fill you in.

Dear "readers",
For whatever reason, my father has decided to start a journal, and has since filled it with enough classified material to make sure that should it ever see the light of day, he, alongside with myself for writing this, will likely be arrested. I assume it may have something to do with his advanced age, since I understand that people don't function quite so well after their first century...
However, since I've already agreed to this, I might as well actually provide some important information, both to him and to whatever (hopefully authorised) individual happens to read this. I shall start of by going over the fighting Arms of he United Commonwealth Army, partially since this information has already been made public.

What is an "Arm" of the Army?

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The "Arms" of the army refer broadly to cover the specific duties and training that anyone serving within the Army will undergo over the course of their careers. In particular, most branches have their own specific schools training that branches specific syllabus and courses. For example, I myself started off in the Infantry Arm, which involved passing through the conventional Officer Selection School, choosing to join the Infantry, getting assigned to lead a mechanised infantry platoon, and then immediately getting thrown into battle since this was about the time the First Great War started. The experience of younger officers is likely to differ, unless we go to war with another large nation again, and start rapidly firing, losing to combat, or promoting officers.
Almost every soldier in the Army is in one Arm or another. An Infantry Officer is in the Infantry Arm, a Sapper is in the Engineer Arm, a Gunner is in the Artillery Arm, and so on.
It should be noted that just because you've chosen an Arm, doesn't mean you won't get to work with those from the other Arms. Obviously, despite starting in Infantry, I still lead a variety of soldiers, from every Arm in the Army.
Now, onto the Arms themselves. They are broadly broken up into three categories: Combat Arms, Combat Support Arms, and Service Support Arms.

The Combat Arms

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Infantry

The Infantry Arm is, by personnel, the largest of the Combat Arms of the U.C. Army. Under this Arm falls everything from Airborne Skyjumpers, those idiots who jump out of aircraft, to Armoured Infantry like my old platoon, driven around in Armoured Infantry Transports like the now retired "Hoplite" Armoured Infantry Transport .
It is generally stated that the best use of Infantry is in holding ground already taken, reinforcing defensive positions, securing an area, and taking advantage of their superior situational awareness to help screen other units.
Last I checked, there were a few hundred battalions, of various types, in active service. While this may sound large, them being spread out across the 12 Worlds rather limits their abilty to concentrate force at any one place, though the same is true of the Army as a whole.

Armour

The Armour Arm is the branch of the Army overseeing the units of Armtracks and other cavalry vehicles within the Army. This branch provides armoured capabilities to Army formations, which tend to be faster and more powerful than even mechanised infantry. Armour units typically serve as the pushers of the frontline, advancing deep through weakpoints in the enemy lines. However, as in the case of my Corp, Armour can take on a more defensive role, mostly revolving around destroying enemy armour, and quickly responding to enemy advances.
Cavalry, on the other hand, will often serve as both a reconnaissance force, keeping tabs on enemy positions, intent, force, etc., and as a screening force, basically preventing the enemy from doing the former to us, and providing warning of enemy intrusion.

Army Aviation

The Aviation Arm is is the main aircraft operating branch of the Army, after those pompous airheads at the Army Air Service declared independence and started the U.C. Air Force.
These folks mostly operate the various Aerium lifted Aeroships within Army Service, such as the "Gryphon" Aero-gunship, along with fleets of transport and reconnaissance Aeroships.
The precise purposes of Army Aviation units varies depending on the airframes assigned to them. Recce units scout alongside cavalry, transports move supplies to friendly frontlines, soldiers behind the enemy's, and casualties to field hospitals, and gunships move into to annihilate anything in reach.

Army Special Action Service

The Army Special Action Service is the Arm of the Army responsible for the training of the special forces units of the United Commonwealth Army.
These units are then handed over to the Special Action Command of the Army, in the form of 12 Special Activities Groups, one per World.
The soldiers of the ASAS are, quite frankly, the most well trained, intelligent, and dangerous individuals in the Army. Chosen for physical and mental aptitude, with most of them also having Skyjumper training.
The main duties of the ASAS are generally kept very, very quiet, but there is some material on it. During the Great Wars, they engaged in a campaign of destruction and chaos across enemy territory, blowing up bridges, dams and factories.

The Combat Support Arms

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Artillery

The Artillery Arm is the branch overseeing the artillery assets of the Army. This includes all the Strike Missile, Armoured Howitzer and Field Artillery batteries, the batteries of Air Defence missiles and guns, as well as all of observation and detection equipment that allows all that ordnance to find and hit a target.
The Artillery mainly supports the operations of the Infantry and Armour, through suppressing and pinning enemy forces, destroying important assets in their rear, and by other methods, including the use of smoke shells.

Engineer

The Engineer Arm's main units are the Combat Engineers, which are in charge of the fields of 'military engineering'. This includes the creation and destruction of defences, the breaching of obstacles, the disposal of explosive ordnance such as mines and bombs, the provision and operation of bridging equipment, and the construction of certain military installations, among a list of others.
All "Sappers", as they are called, also have at least one other speciality, such as geographical surveying, and carpentry, among many others.

Signals

The Signals Arm of the Army is in charge of supplying, and training people in the use of, the neccessary communications technology the Army relies on to get anything done. The "Signallers", as they are called, are highly trained in the technical and military aspects of communication and general technology, and are relied upon to assist commanders and other soldiers in the use of the equipment.

Intelligence

The Intelligence Arm of the Army is generally said to have two purposes. The first is the collection and provision of accurate, timely information to the rest of the Army, often by collating and analysing the information provided by reconnaissance forces. The second is its status as the source of personnel for the Military Intelligence Command. While it obviously isn't uncommon for Army agencies to gain personnel from the Arms of the Army, the MIC is a particularly unique agency, due to its seat on the Security and Intelligence Committee.

The Service Support Arms

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The Service Support Arms of the Army are sufficiently vast in number that I can neither write them down in one sitting, nor remember what they all are in the first place. However, I will attempt to list the ones I do remember.

1. The Technical Engineer Arm, which is in charge of the observation, modification, maintenance, repair and recovery of the the vast amount of mechanical, electronic and optical equipment the Army utilises.
2. The Logistics Arm, which is in charge of ensuring that the logistical requirements of Army units are met. This generally includes providing fuel, ammunition, food and water to forces both in combat deployment or peace-time duty, as well as spare parts and other material.
3. The Adjudant General's Corp, which contains most of the administrative staff work of the Army, overseeing the paperwork required for soldier's pay, the recording and handling of any service related documentation, the control over the Military Police units, the collation of financial documents, and much more that I either do not know or have forgotten.
4. The Army Medical Arm, which oversees the training and provision of the necessary dental, medical and nursing services of the Army, keeping all of us in reasonably good health and in sufficient shape to do our jobs. The Medical Arm itself is comprised of four 3 subordinate Corps, which correspond to the 3 main roles of the Medical Arm, namely, the Army Medical, Dental and Nursing Corps.

As I noted, this is an incomplete list of the many, many parts of the Army, all of which work together to create and sustain a powerful force, capable of doing its job of defending the people of the United Commonwealth.

Training Level

Elite

Veterancy Level

Veteran

Parent Organization

The United Commonwealth Directorate of the Army

Related Items

• The Infantry Anti-Armour Missiles of the United Commonwealth Armed Forces