Military forces:
descriptions and
worldwide comparisons

Land forces

Land forces consist of combat units and support units. Ever since the Germans pioneered in the use of blitzkrieg (lightning war) tactics in 1939, properly-trained and equipped motorized armies have, under ideal conditions, been to advance very rapidly, up to 20 or 30 miles per day. With helicopter-borne airmobile units, even higher speeds can be achieved. The land forces of nearly all countries are organized in roughly the same hierarchical fashion. The basic unit is the division, with an average manpower of about 12,000; U.S. and NATO countries' divisions typically have more. The basic types of combat units are:

• Armored units -- based on tanks and other armored vehicles
• Mechanized infantry -- soldiers move via armored vehicles
• Light infantry -- soldiers move on foot, better suited for rough terrain
• Airborne -- soldiers parachute from aircraft or move via helicopters
• Marine -- soldiers specialized in landing on beaches and emergency deployment
• Commandos -- highly trained soldiers used for covert attacks
• Artillery -- large-caliber field guns ("cannons"), sometimes on armored vehicles
• Cavalry -- formerly used horses, now usually signifies highly mobile units

In addition to combat units, all major military formations have support personnel in such branches as logistics, medical, transportation, communication, etc. Without adequate, trained support it is impossible to sustain an offensive for any length of time because of the law of entropy: military units under fire tend to scatter and even fall apart unless they receive constant attention and replenishment. Most Third World military forces lack good support services, which detracts from the seemingly awesome force some of them (such as Iraq) possess. It requires at least a month for a country to mobilize its forces to prepare for war, and often several months to bring all of its reserve units up to combat readiness. Sustaining an offensive with modern high-technology equipment is prohibitively expensive for poor countries.

Naval forces

Naval forces The primary mission of naval forces is to protect a country's maritime commerce. Landlocked countries such as Austria and Bolivia have only token navies that patrol lakes and rivers. Modern navies consist of the following types of combat vessels:

• Aircraft carriers -- able to support from 20 to 72 fixed wing aircraft plus a number of helicopters; key role in force projection.
• Amphibious assault ships -- essentially small aircraft carriers supporting a battalion (~1,600 men) of Marines.
• Other amphibious ships -- various ships with landing craft supporting a smaller number of Marines and/or their equipment.
• Cruisers -- medium-large vessels with a wide variety of weapons.
• Destroyers -- medium-small vessels, used mainly for escorting other naval and merchant ships.
• Frigates -- small ocean-going vessels that escort other ships, protecting against enemy submarines.
• Littoral combat ships -- a new class of smaller ocean-going ship in the U.S. Navy, designed to fight in shallow waters.
• Missile/patrol boats -- used to defend a country's coast from enemy attack.
• Submarines -- designed to sneak into enemy waters and either sink ships or launch nuclear missiles.

Air forces

Air forces are essential for maintaining effective control of a country's territory in the modern world, since unopposed enemy aircraft could quickly wreck the essential infrastructure of modern life: electric power grids, petroleum refineries, and bridges. Air forces are also critical for supporting land offensives and for protecting naval forces against enemy attack. There are three main types of combat aircraft:

• Fighter planes -- small, high speed, designed for combat with enemy aircraft.
• Ground attack planes (fighter-bombers) -- support a country's land forces.
• Bombers -- larger, slower, longer-range; carry a heavy "payload" of bombs or missiles.

In addition, some countries possess ballistic missiles, some of which can be launched against targets as far as 7,000 miles away; these long-range strategic weapons are called intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). It takes only about 30 or 40 minutes for such a missile to reach its target, so there is virtually no warning, even with the best radar systems. Anti-ballistic missiles were developed by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to defend against missile attacks, but they are severely constrained under the terms of the 1972 ABM treaty. Fear of proliferation of missiles to "rogue" states such as Iraq and North Korea has led to new calls for the United States to build an limited-scale ABM system.