Armed Forces of the Principality

The **Armed Forces of the Principality**, or **Fürstliche Streitkräfte**, are the armed forces of the Principality of Teressien. Formally, Fürst Alrich III. is the Supreme Commander, but that is delegated to Admiral Naya Findehoof as Highest Soldier. There are three major branches, the Landwehr, the Heer des Fürsten and the Marine des Fürsten. There is no compulsory military service in peace time.

For the structure, see Structure of the Armed Forces of the Principality in 2020. Vessels carry the prefix *FFS*, *Fürstliches Flottenschiff*, Princely Fleet-Vessel.

## History

### The Great War

In 1940, on the eve of the Great War, the Teressian Armed Forces had a total manpower of 150,000 officers and men, plus another 350,000 reservists, the latter mostly belonging to the Landwehr and the Heer.

The Navy had a total of 25,000 officers and men under arms. In total, the Navy had three Large Cruisers, three Battlecruisers, two aircraft carriers, four heavy cruisers, ten light cruisers, twenty destroyers, forty frigates, twenty submarines, three seaplane tenders, six monitors and seventy-five submarine chasers and patrol vessels of various descriptions. One of the major problems of the Marine der Fürstin was, that any enemy could relatively easily blockade the major harbours along the coasts of the Gulf of Brucalla. In 1934, Fürstin Emilia sanctioned the expansion of several smaller harbours along the southerns shores, especially in Galjäss, officially to enhance the capability of the harbours for trade and commerce, unofficially for these harbours to also act as military harbours.

### See also

* Structure of the Armed Forces of the Principality in 1940.
* Equipment of the Princess' Army in 1940.
* List of Armoured Cars in Service with the Armed Forces of the Principality.
* Structure of the Armed Forces of the Principality in 2020.
* Sailing Vessels of Teressien in the Early Era of the House of Hochheyde (1630-1782).

## Doctrine

Traditionally, Teressien warfare is a relies on infantry, both light and heavy, and less on cavalry. Together with the defensive alignment of the Teressian armed forces, that shaped the focus of military thinking until deep into the 20th century.

By the time the Great War broke out, the Armed Forces employed a doctrine of Elastic Defense.

### The Era of Elastic Defense

This meant, that the Armed Forces sought to delay the advance of an enemy, sappig his strength until he has lost momentum and counterattacks can be started. From there on, defeats in detail can take out the spread-out enemy, further stresses can be placed on the enemy by attacks on the logistics of the enemy, stressed already by the more ground it needs to cover. The front line will be breached - only for the attack to peter out in successive layers of defense and to be thrown back.

This had two important prerequisits: Mobility of the Armed Forces as well as pre-prepared positions.

The latter require to be designed to sap the enemy of his strength, but also to be too strong to be assaulted by the enemy, thus making him bypass them - and either bind troops by pocketing these strongpoints or exposing his rear. Mutually supporting strong points are able to defend themselves all around.

The former was a bit harder to arrange for a military traditionally relying on infantry, but the development and perfection of the internal combustion engine and the diesel engine solved some of the problems. From the introduction of the first standardised trucks, the Armed Forces began to experiment with motorized infantry, first as quick-reaction mobile response forces, starting around 1935 as the mainstay of the infantry. At the same time as the first trucks appeared, the Armed Forces experimented with armouring these vehicles, as well as creating vehicles, which could provide direct fire support - the Armed Forces of the Principality were starting to invest more and more into light armoured cars.

## Uniforms

The Armed Forces have a number of uniforms for a variety of occasions, the most usually seen is the Service Dress.

Another uniform is the office dress, usually worn by the civilian office workers of the Streitkräfte - it is the uniform one usually sees in the barracks, when one has a paper to be filled out.

The Full Dress Uniform of the Navy is uniform, but many of the regiments of the Army, especially the older ones, maintain a strict identity and, based on that, own uniforms, sometimes with miniscule details differing. Any plans of the Army to abolish the Regimental Full Dress have been refuted,

Another matter is the Fürstliche Garde,

There are also a number of camouflage patterns in service.

### Uniform Gallery

Admiral Findehoof, with two of her Granddaughters, Enya Findehoof and Kiah Findehoof, during a photo shoot, in Service Dress of the Navy.Jette Haschenke in Civilian Employee Office Dress with a K-2 Carbine.Full Dress Uniform of the Fürstliche Marine. From left: Roderich Lank, Arvid Schling and Mailo Gher.Captain Altje Hallmbard in full uniform of the Fürstliche Garde.Soldiers in woodland camo, with SLK-29 Assault Rifles and SLP-21 Handguns.

### Awards and Decorations

* Black Cross/Schwarzes Kreuz: Often confused with the Iron Cross, the Black Cross is not a decoration for bravery, but a decoration signifying, that the holder held a position of command during a battle or confrontation with the enemy, which was lost. It serves as a constant reminder of the loss and shame,

## Equipment

*Also see: Past and present equipment of the Fürstliche Streitkräfte.*
The mechanized forces of the Fürstliche Streitkräfte rely on armoured cars of various models, namely the KavWa-12, PläWa-11, DraWa-10 and DraWa-11. Another vehicle family in heavy use are the vehicles and platforms of the Zampano Vehicle Family, a number of army vehicles based on the same chassis (a Zampano is an allrounder), introduced in 2015. Since the 1980s, the Armed Forces of the Principality utilize the HMW GW-130 as Light Utility Vehicle.

The Fürstliche Streitkräfte plan to replace their SLK-29 Assault Rifles with SLK-36 Assault Rifles by 2021. Main machine gun is the SLG-35 Machine Gun, while marksmen swear upon the PSG-19 Marksman Rifle. The submachine gun of choice is the SLP-30 Submachine Gun. In 2020, the Fürstliche Streitkräfte got the first units of the Briseorumar Anti-Tank Missile System from the Free Lands.

    The Heeresluftwaffe and the Marineluftwaffe, Teressien's small air forces, are focused on defense, which is reflected in their fighterbombers, the HMW-Flugzeugwerke HMW-FW 109 Adlerschwaib Fighter-Bomber being ideal for interception and interdiction. The 109 is supplemented by a number of lighter aircraft like the Volgler V-25 Geier VTOL-Fighter, the HMW-Flugzeugwerke HMW-FW 110 Feuerbergadler Ground-Attack Aircraft and its successor, the HMW-Flugzeugwerke HMW-FW 150 Froscheule Ground-Attack Aircraft. Over the last few decades, the Armed Forces invested more and more into drones, for reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, target acquisition, but also for air support and, in one case, aerial refuelling.

The Flugwerft Elms-Sytzerheim produces the majority of the turboprop aircraft and drones in use with the Armed Forces, of which there are quite a few, especially in patrol and AWACS roles.

    In 2010, the Fürstliche Streitkrafte commissioned the HMW-Flugzeugwerke HMW-FW 88 Gryffe Helicopter, a hybrid attack-transport helicopter, a license production of the KAF-210 Midrab Gunship. Due to the Gryffe not filling the attack helicopter role to the extend the Fürstliche Streitkräfte want it to, the Fürstliche Streitkräfte are a part of the development group behind the KAF-140 Qatara, but then decided for license-producing its successor, the Ochse VTOL Attack Craft.

The Navy, or Fürstliche Marine, shrunk a lost since the 40s and while it still maintains a sizable fleet, it is mostly geared towards protection of the territorial waters, maritime infrastructure and sea lanes of communication (including against piracy). Secondary missions are peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The largest ships of the fleet are the two Admiral vom Kyrschsee-class Guided Missile Cruisers, but the mainstay of the fleet are the Jollenhof-class Frigates, Adasheim-class Frigates and Lattenzaun-class Corvettes.

The Fürstliche Streitkräfte have and maintain a number of museums all over the Principality, the largest of them being the Streitkräftemuseum Dorch, which also houses a number of museum ships - among them FKB-31 (a FKB-30-class River-Gunboat) as well as the Raycbucht-class Large Cruiser *FFS Wißenthenland*. In 1981, the Streitkräftemuseum Dorch raised the Streitkräftemuseum Dorch Sensha-Do Team, which is to be staffed exclusively by civilians and members of the Landwehr.

## See also

* In Kyrenaia: The Sultan's Navy, The Armies of the Five Deserts.
* In The Free Lands: SDF-Army, SDF-Navy.