United Federation of Earth Army

## Background

The United Federation of Earth Army is the branch that is specializes in ground warfare. It is mostly deployed in Earth-Occupied Territories that has atmospheric planets for ground-based defense. It is rarely used for offensive as the offensive tasks are fulfilled by the United Federation of Earth Marine Corps. It has 53 trillion active personnel and 40 trillion reserve personnel, with over 450 billion aircraft. It has taken part in many wars, the latest notable war is the Cold War Crisis between the Communist Union and GATO, where more than 280 million Earth Army and Marines were deployed in GPO9 to assist the Fascists Party of GPO9 and to prevent further spread of communism.

## Structure

Earth Army has 53 trillion active personnel and 40 trillion reserve personnel. It also has the capability to field up to 100.5 trillion personnel in war times. Its active and reserve also includes the Earth National Guard. Earth Army is split into two commands, the Earth Pacific Command (commands the Alpha and Charlie quadrants in the Tripod Galaxy) and the Earth Atlantic Command (commands the Beta and Delta Quadrants of the Tripod Galaxy). It is touted as one of the most technological advanced army in the UW and has a budget of $540 billion. The Earth Army also has a civilian branch where civilian workers work in the command centres to coordinate and organise military operations.

U.F.E. Special Operations (U.F.E.SPEC OPs)
The U.F.E. Special Operations command is in charge of all Earth Army Special Forces involving units such as the Delta Force, Army Rangers and the 82nd Airborne Division. It has a total of 360 million active personnel including 450,000 civilians and a total of 205 million reserve personnel. U.F.E. Special Operations units are currently deployed in Big Ring to fight the Big Ring Insurgency, in FUS and other GATO nations. The U.F.E. Special Operations command has roles ranging from infiltrating deep into hostile territory, tracking and possibly assassinating or destroy high value targets, for deep reconnaissance and many more. It is one of the well-equipped and advanced force of the U.F.E. Armed Forces.
The U.F.E. Army Air Force Command (U.F.E.AAFC) is the branch in the Earth Army responsible for its air operations.

## Infantry and Equipment

A typical Earth Army infantryman carries a M4 Carbine or a M16 Assault Rifle, both equipped with scopes for short to long range engagements, depending on his/her preference. He is also equipped with a pistol, normally a M1911 or M9 pistol, two to three grenades, several rifle magazines, several pistol magazines, flares, torch lights, maps, a PLD (Portable Light Designator), body cameras and night vision goggles. All these are all kept under the maximum weight, which is 22.5 kg. The Portable Light Designator can be used as a binoculars, a laser designator, or a target designator. It can lock onto mechanical targets (tanks, jeeps, etc) and guide aircraft, tanks, missiles, artillery shells or even ground troops to the targets. The primary role of the infantryman is to clear enemy positions and if necessary, provide cover fire for advancing troops. They are armed with assault rifles or carbines so they are not suitable to fight against heavily armored troops like an armored division or armored regiment.

Earth Army machine gunners or squad machine gunners usually carry M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) or the Mk48 Mod D (a variant of the M249), and in some cases, they carry the M240, another variant of the M249, which needs to be fixed to a bipod, tripod or a fixed stand. The primary role of the machine gunners is to provide covering and suppressing fire for the infantryman and other friendly troops so that they can advance forward and eliminate the enemy.

Earth Army engineers are usually equipped with the same loadouts as the infantryman, with the additional equipment such as C4 explosives, claymore trip mines, hammers, airburst rifle, and even rocket launchers when necessary. Their primary role is to destroy enemy barricades, blow up doors and if required, destroy enemy tanks with all available firepower they have. They are also skilled in disarming mines, trip wires and cutting barbed wires.

Earth Army recons are usually equipped with the same loadouts as the infantryman but the weapons are equipped with suppressors to reduce the sound produced when the trigger is pulled. Their primary role is to scout the area in front of the main friendly area for enemy units and report back with information on the enemy. They train as tough as the commandos and are the forefront of any battalion.

Earth Army combat medics are equipped with the same loadouts as the infantryman, but with significantly lesser weapons as they need to carry medical suppliers and a portable stretcher, thus their total weight of their equipment totals up to 35 kg. Their primary role is to assist in wounded troops on the battlefield and ensure that the wounded survive before they could be extracted by helicopter.

Earth Army snipers are mostly part of the Earth Army Rangers and are used to kill HVTs (High Value Targets) or important enemy targets such as a heavy machine gunner etc. Some of them are also "borrowed" from the Marine Corps as the Earth Army Rangers snipers are insufficient for the entire service branch.

It is noted that Earth Army and other service branches do not have a battle or armoured suit to protect them from hostile threats. However, with increased defense budgets, the Earth Department of Defense is coming up with a plan to develop a battle armour from scratch and it will be necessary to protect the troops on the new and adapting battlefields, with the emergence of the Republic of Salome as a new superpower.

## Armour

Earth Army has up to 50 million tanks, the number expecting to reach 360 million by the end of June. The most commonly used tanks are the M1A4 Abrams, M1A3 Abrams and the TBO Tank. The TBO tank is Earth's standard issue tank, with reactive armor plates to deflect enemy shots and is currently undergoing a major upgrade to install shields on it. It has been tested against FUS tanks in the past during experiments and the TBO Tank is equivalent to that of our adversaries. For Earth's most advanced tank, it's the M1A4 Abrams. It has an automated turret which aims at enemy tanks automatically, has an autoloader, has a longer range, has laser-guided and shield piercing rounds. It is reportedly able to beat the Royal Salome Army's Leopard 2 tanks.

## Air Land Battle

The Air Land Batle is often mistaken as a real battle. However, it is indeed not a real battle. Instead, it is a military strategy, to coordinate air units and ground units to fight in a theater-sized battle. For example, fighting in desert terrains, fighting in woodlands or forests etc. It was drafted by the Earth Department of Defense (DOD) in the early 2200s to counter the other hostile nations in the Earth Territory and is currently still in use by the Earth Armed Forces.

## Air Defence

The Earth Army has significant air defenses to protect valuable assets and units. It has approximately 150 million Patriot short-range SAM batteries, 15 to 30 million THAAD missile batteries, 140,000 ground variants of the AMRAAM missile system, 150 billion MANPAD (Man-Portable) Stinger SAMs for ground troopers and at least 15 million vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft missile systems, most notably the Avengers variant of the HMMWV and the LAV-AD variant of the LAV-25. Earth Army's air defense is indeed remarkable and poses threats to superpowers like FUS and Salome and is vital to Earth's defense.

## Aircraft

Earth Army operates a total of 450 billion aircraft, of which 135 billion are combat aircraft, 125 billion are transports and the remainder are training aircraft. Most of the combat aircraft are helicopters, including Apache attack helicopters, UH-60 Black Hawks, MH-60 Black Hawks and AC-130J Spectre for close air support. Transport aircraft mainly includes C-130 and C-130 E. The aircraft maintained and operated by the Earth Army are used for close air support and transport for the ground troops. Most of the other aircraft that are used for unguided bombings, precision bombings and air superiority are operated by the U.F.E. Air Force.

## Support Vehicles

Earth Army has up to 150 million support vehicles in total. It includes HMMWV (Humvees), MRAPs (Mine Resistance, Armoured Protection), trucks, jeeps, medical jeeps, minesweepers, engineer tanks etc. The support vehicles assist in the ground troops and armor to clear away ground mines, build bridges, resupply them with logistics and in some cases, help to coordinate the ground activities in M577 Command Vehicles.

## Engagement and Wars

* GPO9 Diplomatic Crisis

* Galactic War 1

* Galactic War 2

* Galactic War 3

* Galactic War 4
* Big Ring Insurgency
* Zombie War
* United Worlds Cold War Crisis