Kiravian Armed Forces

The Kiravian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Kiravian Federacy, comprising the Federal Army (which includes the Army Air Corps and Federal Marine Corps), the Federal Navy, and the Littoral Force.

History
The Kiravian Armed Forces trace their heritage to the Kiravian Republican Army, formed in XXXXX when the Pan-Republican Kurultai resolved to unite the various militias fighting against the Viceroyalties under a common military command headed by General Vasilius? Serotin. After acheiving victory in the Republican Revolution, the KRA was deactivated and for the first decade of its existence, the Confederate Republics of Kiravia had no standing army, instead relying on voluntary contributions of state troops to Confederal officers commissioned on an ad hoc basis to carry out missions of national importance. The Confederate Republics did, however, establish the Kiravian Republican Navy to protect the island nation and its lines of communication to Meridia, Sydona, Wintergen, and the western coastal settlements.

The Kiravian Republican Army was revived as a unified force in order to fight the Continental War against the Aboriginal state of Drail and its allies. After the war and the ensuing constitutional reforms that converted the Confederate Republics into the Kiravian Federacy, the KRA was reorganised as the Army of the Federation or Kiravian Federal Army, a standing army permanently under federal command. Over the next centur(y,ies), the Kiravian Army took part in the colonisation of inland Great Kirav, Kironesia, Slakonian, Woolzistan, Avalonica, Castala, and Intida; the Kiro-Fakolan Wars; some other Ixnay thing. Then the Colour Wars. The Kiravian Navy was instrumental in the acquisition of numerous island colonies, numerous trade-related conflicts with Burgundie, and the protection of the emerging thalassocracy’s overseas possessions, sealanes, and trading interests.

Command Structure
The Prime Executive of the Kiravian Federacy is the ultimate command authority and commander-in-chief of the Kiravian Forces, as stipulated by the Fundamental Statute. In the modern era, the Prime Executive exercises his command authority in consultation with two overlapping bodies: Kiravian High Command, which comprises the general staff of the Armed Forces; and the Strategon, which comprises the senior members of the High Command as well as the cabinet Executives and agency heads with security portfolios, the Prime Executive himself, and a coordinating advisor known as the Polemarch. Administrative responsibility for the military lies with the Chief Defence Executive, who is a member of the Strategon and supervises the High Command. The Chief Defence Executive can issue binding directives to the military (to produce information, take administrative actions, manage personnel, et cetera) but cannot independently give combat orders. However, under current protocols, the Chief Defence Executive is often responsible for relaying and confirming the Prime Executive's orders to military officers. Orders are typically transmitted from the Prime Executive through the Chief Defence Executive to the relevant member of the High Command, who then passes it down to the relevant regional or functional combatant commander, and so forth down the chain of command to field officers for execution. However, the Prime Executive can (and often does) issue orders directly, and orders can be delivered from the civilian authorities to any level of the military command structure while bypassing superior officers if needed.

Kiravian High Command comprises the Field Marshal of the Kiravian Federacy (the highest ranking officer of the Federal Army), the Fararektur (the highest-ranking officer of the Navy, best translated as "Governor of the Seas"), the commanders of each of the regional and functional combatant commands, the High General of the Air Force and High General of the Marine Corps, and (notionally) any officers at or above paygrade O-13. Its chairman holds the rank of Supreme General or Supreme Admiral, with the position alternating every three years between the Field Marshal and the Fararektur.

The current regional combatant commands are Home Islands Command (covering Arcto-Kiravia), Central Ixnay Command (covering Ixnay Proper, Levantia, and the Pelian Ocean), Punth Command (covering Punth and most of the Levantine and Audonian Oceans), West Ixnay Command (covering Crona, Orixtal, Moonlight Cay, and the Atrassic Ocean), Kironesian Command, Pelagic Command, Hamiltonian Command, and Outer Oceanic Command. The functional combatant commands are Global Logistical Command, and Strategic-Orbital Unified Command.

Service Branches
There are three primary branches of the Kiravian Armed Forces: The Federal Army, Federal Navy, and Littoral Force. The Army Aircorps is responsible for military aviation and remains organisationally integrated with the Federal Army, as does the Marine Corps.

Federal Army
The largest of the Kiravian armed forces in terms of personnel and expenditure, the Federal Army operates the Federacy's capabilities for ground, air, and amphibious warfare, as well as most of the Federacy's strategic arsenal, including nuclear and conventional missiles, cyber-warfare, and electronic warfare. As vast ocean distances have protected the Kiravian island continent from most serious threats of invasion for most of history, the Army's role has mainly been expeditionary since the end of the Continental War, with state and territorial forces shouldering much of the burden of suppressing domestic insurrections and securing the homeland. The Army ...large scale expeditionary operations during the Great Oceanic Wars and the Tropical Sea War. Under Kirosocialism, the Army was recast in a more strictly defencive role, undertaking a considerable buildup in manpower and weaponry in order to deter foreign aggression against the Federacy's major land masses. In the post-Kirosocialist era, the Army has seen a few major overseas deployments, including the Echo Islands Wars and the Puritan Cross Intervention, but has increasingly seen its overseas activity limited to brief special forces, aerial, and amphibious operations in support of Kiravian foreign policy and the KATI alliance.

In contemporary times, the Regular Army operates mainly as a colonial and expeditionary force. Since the 21190s, the vast majority of its overseas deployments have been to Punth, where it has been responsible for the defence and expansion of Kiravian colonies and the application of military pressure upon native Punthite states. Although readiness for and deterrence against a conventional ground invasion of Great Kirav is the Army's paramount responsibility, it has come to rely heavily upon and coördinate closely with the various State Defence Forces and the Army Reserve in this area. Meanwhile, increased attention and funding have been given to special operations and rapid-response (the Army Ranger Corps and Army Marine Corps), army aviation, and technological development in C4ISR, cyber-warfare, electronic warfare, and space in order to adapt to the threat environment of the 213th century and anticipate future challenges to Kiravian security.

Aircorps
The Kiravian Army Aircorps (Asûrfestin Kiravix Hérsask) is the nation's. In the postmodern era, air mobility and aerial superiority are crucial to the Federacy's military strategy. The Aircorps' mission profile includes providing air support (logistical, reconnaisance, and tactical) to the Army's ground operations, patrolling Kiravian airspace, projecting power outward from Kiravian territories into the surrounding seas and nearby continents, and providing the Federacy's capacity for strategic strikes and missile defence.

Keeping with the demands of its mission profile, the Aircorps' inventory of combat aircraft is concentrated heavily in long-range bombers and interceptors.

Marine Corps
The Kiravian Army Marine Corps (Festin Kurraxiskya Kiravix Hérsask) or Corps of Currackmen is a specialised force within the Kiravian Army that provides ground combat and other services in support of naval operations. The Currackmens' Corps primary role is, coastal defence, and missions such as that involve man-to-man combat at sea. Currachmen play an important role in protecting the Federacy's far-flung territorial holdings, manning the majority of garrisons in Kiravia's smaller island colonies. They also provide security at Kiravian naval installations.

The name of the corps, Kurraxinya, comes from the Gaelic , referring to the boats used by Coscivian and Gaelic soldiers to attack coastal objectives during the Cromwelute Wars. Foreign marines are referred to by the more generic terms Farabandurya and Faravōlōn ("sea raiders", "sea troops").

Federal Navy
The Kiravian Federal Navy is a tasked with defending Kiravian holdings and interests at sea. The contemporary Navy's primary concerns are defence of the Kiravian overseas colonies; the protection of Ixnayan and interregional sealanes vital to the Federacy's pluricontinental security, energy supply, and commercial navigation; and the projection of military power in support of Kiravian foreign policy. The Federal Navy relies on an extensive network of island bases and cutting-edge naval aviation and naval artillery to maintain a regionwide presence.

Littoral Force
While the Littoral Force is an agency of the Federal Maritime Executive rather than the Federal Defence Executive, it nonetheless remains a component of the Kiravian Forces under the law. The Littoral Force has a diverse mission profile that includes search-and-rescue, immigration/customs, and law enforcement duties in the Federacy's territorial and internal waters, as well as primary garrison responsibility in certain strategic waterways such as the Straits of Ilánova and the Æonara Sound. The Littoral Force trains and plans for combat missions as part of the Federacy's contingency plans for an invasion of Great Kirav.

Relationship with State Forces
The Fundamental Statute preserves the right of individual states to maintain armed forces for their own defence by virtue of dual sovereignty. Subsequent legislation also extends this privilege to territories and the two federal districts. Under the Confederate Republics and early Federacy, voluntary contributions of state forces and militia provided the backbone of Kiravia's military manpower. The relationship between state and federal forces has evolved over the centuries through legislation, changes in practice, and federal-state compacts. Today, state forces form the largest component of the Federacy's military reserves (though a purely federal Army Reserve does exist) and play an integral rôle in its homeland defence planning. Though state forces cannot be forcibly federalised like the US National Guard except in the event of a ground invasion of a major Kiravian landmass, in practice state governors and legislatures will never refuse to contribute forces to a federal operation if asked, and the state forces are closely tied to the federal military and government through financial, training, and equipment transfer arrangements. State forces regularly participate in federal operations overseas, and are highly valued for their terrain specialties. For example, if fighting in a subarctic environment, the Federal Army would call upon the state troops of Meridia or Sakhalin who routinely train in comparable conditions.