The Field Armies
The Field Armies, numbered 1 through 5, are organised by geographic districts within Xuande-Xiphoi.
The structure of each Field Army is identical. Each Field Army consists of a headquarters and support unit, six identically organised Corps, and an Army Reserve Corps. The use of six Corps is designed to ensure there is, at all times, one Corps available to each Field Army in each category of readiness.
Each regular Corps consists of a Headquarters & Direct Reporting Unit Command, and four combat Divisions. Each of the four divisions has a specific task focus:
The structure of each Field Army is identical. Each Field Army consists of a headquarters and support unit, six identically organised Corps, and an Army Reserve Corps. The use of six Corps is designed to ensure there is, at all times, one Corps available to each Field Army in each category of readiness.
Each regular Corps consists of a Headquarters & Direct Reporting Unit Command, and four combat Divisions. Each of the four divisions has a specific task focus:
- The first Division is organised as a Rapid Enhanced Division, which chiefly consists of highly deployable light units such as infantry equipped with the Titan unmanned ground vehicles and light unarmoured vehicles.
- The second Division is organised as a Peltast Division, which chiefly consists of self-deployable equipment including tiltrotor V-22 aircraft.
- The third Division is organised as a Mechanised Division, which chiefly consists of medium-weight, rapid mobility armoured vehicles.
- The fourth Division is organised as an Armoured Division, which consists of the Army's heaviest armoured vehicles.
Categories of Readiness
THE REST PERIOD
The rest period is used to provide a Corps with an opportunity to confidently give their personnel an extended period of leave. This period allows for a great deal of administrative work to be done, utilising the support of Armed Services Civilians, and is the most directly structured of the readiness periods across the
At the end of the Rest Period, the Corps is to be equipped with all of it's required equipment, an an additional 5% excess of personnel. Armed Services Civilians are employed to perform a huge amount of maintenance and upgrade works to the unit's facilities and equipment, and to stocktake and resupply the unit's consumables.
There are five phases to the Rest Period.
Phase 1 goes from Week 1 to Week 14. Personnel are generally entitled to take leave throughout the entire period. However during this time, soldiers are in the best position and receive preference to receive training in the form of promotion to higher ranks training, and to attend special qualifying courses (such as parachute training or advanced skills training.)
Phase 2 includes Week 15 and Week 16. This is a period of return to the unit, with a focus on personnel administration and quality assurance of a unit's facilities, equipment, and supplies. As new subunits, such as companies and platoons, are being formed, it is also a teambuilding period.
Phase 3 includes Week 17 to Week 21. This phase is the Basic Individual Skills Qualifications. In Week 19, new recruits who are on their first posting are introduced to the unit, recognising that their skills have been qualified and tested as part of individual training. The "BISQ" period is used to test individual personnel in their basic skills including; individual combat drills, combatant basic medical skills, navigation, CBRN defence, and equipment handling.
Phase 4 includes Week 22 to Week 24, and is a continuation of Phase 3, focusing on Basic Team Skills Qualifications, such as operations as a crew, section, platoon, company, and other formations.
Phase 5 includes Week 25 and Week 26, with Week 25 being a week-long field exercise entitled Exercise CORPS SPAR. This exercise is designed to emulate the basic combat functions of the Corps as an overall functional unit, with every member of the Corps being reviewed for their performance to ensure each person and unit meets the basic requirements to advance into the readying phase. Any retraining required is delivered in Week 26, which in turn culminates in a Corps Parade, where each Regimental Banner is presented to the Corps Commander, who ceremonially sends the banners 'into the field' to prepare for the training phase ahead. From now, personnel are locked in to service in the Corps for a full cycle of rotations, the next two and a half years.
THE INDIVIDUAL READYING PERIOD
In the same way that the basic soldiering skills and basic team skills are checked in the Rest Period in order, they are enhanced in order as part of this Period.
Other than job training specific to the individual, training in these modules is delivered during this period.
COMBAT MINDSET:
THE TEAM READYING PERIOD
This period combined the advanced skills developed over the last 26 weeks by the individual soldiers and applies them to real life, teamed operations. Units continue training, however there is increased focus on training that delivers unit-wide outcomes. The culmination of all training is evaluated by the Army's Readiness Testing Group in a division-wide exercise - Exercise BATON.
Exercise BATON is a seven week long exercise. Divisions travel to the their region's BATON Training Area, an area of 100 square kilometres. Each site is a massively advanced replicate of a non-nation specific region, consisting of a littoral zone, inland hills and a plain land, and complemented by small towns and a regional central city. Infrastructure in the area includes replicated office towers, a seaport, airports, military bases, underground tunnels, and important infrastructure. The Divisions, under direct command of their Corps Commander, are given the mission of stabilising the area.
The BATON Training Area is home to the dedicated Army's Opposition Forces. While the design of the AOPFORS has changed over the decades as technology and nations of interest do, their mission is two-fold. Their mission is to be an extraordinarily accurate representation of a talented enemy, as soldiers assigned to AOPFOR have often spent years training and winning in their Training Area, and they know it back to front.
They begin each operation as a genuine military opposition - the Ormdraean Armed Forces, OAF - and, once destroyed, they return as members of the insurgent Ormdraean People's Army for Liberation, OPAL. Civilians are represented by actors, occupying positions in society ranging from street cleaner to dictator. Medical experts, special effects experts, and makeup artists are employed to simulate chaos and to simulate serious medical casualties. Additionally, exercises are filmed with covert equipment, which is used for after-action review for units alongside their Observer Coaches.
At all times, Xuande-Xiphoians and 'Ormdreans' must wear the MILES simulation equipment, which uses lasers from weapons that accurately depict the accuracy of fire and 'injure' or 'kill' the wearer if they are hit. Soldiers are incentivised to train like they fight - except for where they are directed to be a casualty, Xuande-Xiphoian soldiers who are 'injured' or 'killed' by the enemy are taken aside by the Observer Coaches Physical Training Sections - who lead the casualities through a tough hour-long combat PT session, with a big focus on fireman carries and similar casualty evacuation techniques.
Following the exercise, the unit is subject to a Readiness Review and mistakes and issues in training are identified. Each Division must be assessed as Ready for the next periods of readiness. The Corps is returned to their home base, and then take on their position as the Low Readiness Corps.
THE LOW READINESS PERIOD
During the Low Readiness Period, all elements of the Corps must be ready to deploy in full force by air, land, or sea within 144 hours. Low readiness units can be ordered into a high readiness position equivalent to the High Readiness Period if required. Unit and individual training continues during the high readiness period, however units have a reduced risk tolerance for injuries in training. Deployable personnel also receive a pay increase during this six month period.
THE HIGH READINESS PERIOD
During the High Readiness Period, all elements of the Corps must be ready to deploy in full force by air, land, or sea within 40 hours. Within each Regiment there should also be duty units, who are able to respond in a rapid period to calls to duty - this varies depening on unit type, as a light infantry company is for instance expected to mobilise faster than an armoured infantry company. When Xuande-Xiphoi needs to deliver a combat capability, the high readiness units are the first called into action.
Unit and individual training continues during the high readiness period, however, units have a reduced risk tolerance for injuries in training. Deployable personnel also receive a pay increase during this six month period. During this period, training focuses on maintaining combat skills and preparing for Operations Other Than War.
THE OOTW PERIOD
Following a year of readiness requirements, the Corps moves out of a readiness posture and commits to serving the Xuande-Xiphoian Government's Operations Other Than War doctrines. OOTW may include:
This phase ends with a Leave Parade.
The rest period is used to provide a Corps with an opportunity to confidently give their personnel an extended period of leave. This period allows for a great deal of administrative work to be done, utilising the support of Armed Services Civilians, and is the most directly structured of the readiness periods across the
At the end of the Rest Period, the Corps is to be equipped with all of it's required equipment, an an additional 5% excess of personnel. Armed Services Civilians are employed to perform a huge amount of maintenance and upgrade works to the unit's facilities and equipment, and to stocktake and resupply the unit's consumables.
There are five phases to the Rest Period.
Phase 1 goes from Week 1 to Week 14. Personnel are generally entitled to take leave throughout the entire period. However during this time, soldiers are in the best position and receive preference to receive training in the form of promotion to higher ranks training, and to attend special qualifying courses (such as parachute training or advanced skills training.)
Phase 2 includes Week 15 and Week 16. This is a period of return to the unit, with a focus on personnel administration and quality assurance of a unit's facilities, equipment, and supplies. As new subunits, such as companies and platoons, are being formed, it is also a teambuilding period.
Phase 3 includes Week 17 to Week 21. This phase is the Basic Individual Skills Qualifications. In Week 19, new recruits who are on their first posting are introduced to the unit, recognising that their skills have been qualified and tested as part of individual training. The "BISQ" period is used to test individual personnel in their basic skills including; individual combat drills, combatant basic medical skills, navigation, CBRN defence, and equipment handling.
Phase 4 includes Week 22 to Week 24, and is a continuation of Phase 3, focusing on Basic Team Skills Qualifications, such as operations as a crew, section, platoon, company, and other formations.
Phase 5 includes Week 25 and Week 26, with Week 25 being a week-long field exercise entitled Exercise CORPS SPAR. This exercise is designed to emulate the basic combat functions of the Corps as an overall functional unit, with every member of the Corps being reviewed for their performance to ensure each person and unit meets the basic requirements to advance into the readying phase. Any retraining required is delivered in Week 26, which in turn culminates in a Corps Parade, where each Regimental Banner is presented to the Corps Commander, who ceremonially sends the banners 'into the field' to prepare for the training phase ahead. From now, personnel are locked in to service in the Corps for a full cycle of rotations, the next two and a half years.
THE INDIVIDUAL READYING PERIOD
In the same way that the basic soldiering skills and basic team skills are checked in the Rest Period in order, they are enhanced in order as part of this Period.
Other than job training specific to the individual, training in these modules is delivered during this period.
- COMBAT MINDSET Training (3 weeks) [provide link] - delivered at the start of this period to most personnel
- Exercise CHARCOAL (2 days) - CBRN defence and exercises
- Exercise MUDFOOT (1 week) - combat fieldcraft, navigation, and basics of Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE)
- Exercise BERTH (1 week) - establishing and operating in a Containerised Company FOB
- Exercise DYNAMO (2 days) - basics of civil-military operations in a dynamic urban environment
- Exercise CHALLENGER 1 (2 weeks) - general all-skills exercises
- Exercise CHALLENGER 2 (2 weeks) - general all-skills exercises
COMBAT MINDSET:
- Combatant Mindset Training - a state of mind that prepares combatants to kill the enemy and survive, then continue the fight. It identifies the combatant, not their tools, as the weapon. This mindset is executed through Combat Behaviours: intuitive responses, or immediate action drills prompted by actions in the battlespace. These Combat Behaviours fall neatly across the continuum, unifying critical programs to optimally prepare combatants for conflict.
- Armed Services Combatives Program. The program has three levels: Level 1 (ab initio), Level 2 (All Corps) and Level 3 (Infantry). Through these levels, a coherent and minimised suite of drills and movements are taught..
- Close Combat Shooting Program. Close combatants are taught to employ the in-service rifle and the in-service pistol seamlessly in a firefight. The Enhanced Combat Shooting Course (for infantry combatants) provides these skills. A bias for situational awareness, judicious lethality and precise drills to ensure survivability is ingrained—achieving not just competence, but proficiency.
- "Combat Marksmanship Program provides the platform to perfect Combat Behaviours taught in earlier programs. This program evolves the Live Fire practices into Rifle Practices 1 to 6, with a separate 3A and 6A as the assessment practices.
- The Combat Marksmanship Program is unique in a number of ways. Firstly, serials are initiated with fire control orders and realistic and reactive targetry is employed. Then, threats present across multiple distances and in multiples; presenting a dilemma for combatants. Successful combatants achieve high scores in accuracy and do so while demonstrating Combat Behaviours. This enables combatants to hone the Combat Mindset rather than conduct target practice."
THE TEAM READYING PERIOD
This period combined the advanced skills developed over the last 26 weeks by the individual soldiers and applies them to real life, teamed operations. Units continue training, however there is increased focus on training that delivers unit-wide outcomes. The culmination of all training is evaluated by the Army's Readiness Testing Group in a division-wide exercise - Exercise BATON.
Exercise BATON is a seven week long exercise. Divisions travel to the their region's BATON Training Area, an area of 100 square kilometres. Each site is a massively advanced replicate of a non-nation specific region, consisting of a littoral zone, inland hills and a plain land, and complemented by small towns and a regional central city. Infrastructure in the area includes replicated office towers, a seaport, airports, military bases, underground tunnels, and important infrastructure. The Divisions, under direct command of their Corps Commander, are given the mission of stabilising the area.
The BATON Training Area is home to the dedicated Army's Opposition Forces. While the design of the AOPFORS has changed over the decades as technology and nations of interest do, their mission is two-fold. Their mission is to be an extraordinarily accurate representation of a talented enemy, as soldiers assigned to AOPFOR have often spent years training and winning in their Training Area, and they know it back to front.
They begin each operation as a genuine military opposition - the Ormdraean Armed Forces, OAF - and, once destroyed, they return as members of the insurgent Ormdraean People's Army for Liberation, OPAL. Civilians are represented by actors, occupying positions in society ranging from street cleaner to dictator. Medical experts, special effects experts, and makeup artists are employed to simulate chaos and to simulate serious medical casualties. Additionally, exercises are filmed with covert equipment, which is used for after-action review for units alongside their Observer Coaches.
At all times, Xuande-Xiphoians and 'Ormdreans' must wear the MILES simulation equipment, which uses lasers from weapons that accurately depict the accuracy of fire and 'injure' or 'kill' the wearer if they are hit. Soldiers are incentivised to train like they fight - except for where they are directed to be a casualty, Xuande-Xiphoian soldiers who are 'injured' or 'killed' by the enemy are taken aside by the Observer Coaches Physical Training Sections - who lead the casualities through a tough hour-long combat PT session, with a big focus on fireman carries and similar casualty evacuation techniques.
Following the exercise, the unit is subject to a Readiness Review and mistakes and issues in training are identified. Each Division must be assessed as Ready for the next periods of readiness. The Corps is returned to their home base, and then take on their position as the Low Readiness Corps.
THE LOW READINESS PERIOD
During the Low Readiness Period, all elements of the Corps must be ready to deploy in full force by air, land, or sea within 144 hours. Low readiness units can be ordered into a high readiness position equivalent to the High Readiness Period if required. Unit and individual training continues during the high readiness period, however units have a reduced risk tolerance for injuries in training. Deployable personnel also receive a pay increase during this six month period.
THE HIGH READINESS PERIOD
During the High Readiness Period, all elements of the Corps must be ready to deploy in full force by air, land, or sea within 40 hours. Within each Regiment there should also be duty units, who are able to respond in a rapid period to calls to duty - this varies depening on unit type, as a light infantry company is for instance expected to mobilise faster than an armoured infantry company. When Xuande-Xiphoi needs to deliver a combat capability, the high readiness units are the first called into action.
Unit and individual training continues during the high readiness period, however, units have a reduced risk tolerance for injuries in training. Deployable personnel also receive a pay increase during this six month period. During this period, training focuses on maintaining combat skills and preparing for Operations Other Than War.
THE OOTW PERIOD
Following a year of readiness requirements, the Corps moves out of a readiness posture and commits to serving the Xuande-Xiphoian Government's Operations Other Than War doctrines. OOTW may include:
- Armed Services Aid to the Civil Power (ASACP), which includes supporting police operations or other government operations within Xuande-Xiphoi.
- Counter-smuggling and counter-narcotics operations
- Counter-terrorism and anti-terrorism
- Critical national infrastrcutre protection, which is the protection of sites inside Xuande-Xiphoi.
- Enforcement of sanctions
- Enforcing Exclusion Zones and Demilitarized Zones
- Evacuation operations
- Humanitarian Assistance, which are operations that relieve or reduce the results of natural or manmade disasters or other endemic conditions such as human pain, disease, hunger outside Xuande-Xiphoi.
- National Emergency Service, responding to emergencies in Xuande-Xiphoi in a wide variety of functions.
- Peacekeeping operations, which may be part of a World Assembly mission.
- Recovery operations, which include recovery operations are conducted to search for, locate, identify, rescue, and return personnel or human remains, sensitive equipment, or items critical to national security.
- Show of Force Operations, involving deployments overseas to demonstrate the capability of the Xuande-Xiphoi Armed Services.
- Supporting Freedom of Navigation and Flight.
This phase ends with a Leave Parade.