Imperial and Royal Armed Forces

The **Imperial and Royal Armed Forces**, also known as **His Majesty's Armed Forces**, the **Imperial and Royal Predaconian Military**, and officially as **His Imperial and Royal Majesty’s Predaconian Military** are the military services responsible for the expansion, offence, and defence of the Imperium: Predaconia, its autonomous Dominions and Territories, as well as the dependencies. They also promote the Imperium's wider interests, support peacekeeping efforts in neutral areas and provide foreign aid, whether civil or military.

Discipline, professionalism and the bravery of its personnel allows the Imperium to punch above its military weight. When it comes to fighting indigenous peoples, technology invariably provesto be the decisive element. It was a different matter when it came to fighting their fellow space-faring races — although leadership and bravado seems to offer surprisingly consistent advantages. But in the case of major, prolonged wars against rivals, systematic advantages such as industrial and financial muscle, along with native *numeri* generally allow the Imperium to stay the course and deal with multiple adversaries. Over time, the Empire’s legions by itself became a source of strength as more personnel and resources come on stream from the colonies as they develop and mature economically.

Today, the Imperial and Royal Armed Forces consist of: the Imperial and Royal Navy, a blue-water navy with a fleet of various commissioned ships; the Imperial and Royal Army, the Imperium's principal land warfare branch; and the Royal Air Force, a technologically sophisticated Imperial and Royal Armada with a diverse operational fleet consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary, stellar and galactic, defensive and offensive spacecrafts. The Imperial Armed Forces include the standing forces, Regular Reserve, Volunteer Reserves and Sponsored Reserves, as well as the Barbarian squadrons.

Its Commander-in-chief is the Imperial and Royal monarch, the Predaconian emperor, currently Emperor-King Draconicus, to whom members of the forces swear allegiance. The executive military authority, however, is exercised by the Officium Militarius, which is headed by the Magister militum and includes the heads of all the forces.

## The Armed Forces

The Armed forces can be divided multiple ways: by element, by positioning, or function.

### Position

#### **Comitatus Praesentales**

The comitatus praesentales, or imperial escort army, is the name used to describe soldiers recruited for the Holy Predaconian Emperor for personal command. The Imperial Army of the Emperor should not be confused with the Army of the Holy Predaconian Empire, which are commanded by duces and legates. The Imperial Escort Army is a force established by the Emperor, with privileges in the whole of the Holy Empire. The Emperor is not permitted to raise troops in the electoral states, but has *inter alia* the right to recruit soldiers in the imperial cities and in all other territories.

#### **Comitatenses**

The comitatenses are the units of the field forces of the Predaconian Empire. **Comitatenses** is the Latin plural of **comitatensis**, originally the adjective derived from *comitatus* ('company, party, suite'; in this military context it came to the novel meaning of 'the field army'), itself rooted in *Comes* ('companion', but hence specific historical meanings, military and civilian). These include the main troop forces of the Empire, and their positions are in constant fluctuation, as needs arise and dissipate. These include the army, with legions and auxilia, the navy, and the galactic Air Force, as well as various barbarian *numeri*  units.

#### **Limitanei**

The *limitanei* or *ripenses*, meaning respectively "the soldiers in frontier districts" (from the Latin phrase limes, meaning a military district of a frontier province) or "the soldiers on the riverbank", are an important division Imperial and Royal army. The limitanei, unlike the comitatenses, garrison fortifications along both the galactic and terrestrial borders of the Imperium and are not normally expected to fight far from their fortifications. The limitanei are lower-status and lower-paid than the comitatenses. The limitanei include the army, with legions and auxilia, the navy, and the galactic Air Force.

### Element

#### **Naval Service**

##### **Imperial Navy**

The Imperial Navy is a technologically sophisticated naval force, and as of today consists of thousands of commissioned ships. Command of deployable assets is exercised by the Magister Navicum. Personnel matters are the responsibility of the Second Sea Lord/Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, an appointment usually held by a vice-admiral.

The Surface Fleet consists of amphibious warfare ships, destroyers, frigates, patrol vessels, mine-countermeasure vessels, and other miscellaneous vessels. The Surface Fleet has been structured around a single fleet since the abolition of the Eastern and Western fleets after the 2nd Civil War. The recently built Type 45 destroyers are technologically advanced air-defence destroyers.

A submarine service has existed within the Imperial Navy for more than 1000 years. The Submarine Service's four Vanguard-class nuclear-powered submarines carry Lockheed The Magma class are the most advanced and largest fleet submarines ever built for the Imperial Navy, and will maintain the Imperium's nuclear-powered submarine fleet capabilities for decades to come.

##### Royal Marines

The Royal Marines are the Royal Navy's amphibious troops. Consisting of a single manoeuvre brigade (3 Commando) and various independent units, the Imperial Marines specialise in amphibious, arctic, and mountain warfare.

British Army[edit]

The Challenger 2 main battle tank

Main article: British Army

The British Army is made up of the Regular Army and the Army Reserve. The army has a single command structure based at Andover and known as "Army Headquarters". Deployable combat formations consist of two divisions (1st Armoured and 3rd Mechanised) and eight brigades.Within the United Kingdom, operational and non-deployable units are administered by two divisions, Force Troops Command, and London District.

The Army has 50 battalions (36 regular and 14 reserve) of regular and reserve infantry, organised into 17 regiments. The majority of infantry regiments contains multiple regular and reserve battalions. Modern infantry have diverse capabilities and this is reflected in the varied roles assigned to them. There are four operational roles that infantry battalions can fulfil: air assault, armoured infantry, mechanised infantry, and light role infantry. Regiments and battalions e.g.: the Parachute Regiment, exist within every corps of the Army, functioning as administrative or tactical formations.

Armoured regiments are equivalent to an infantry battalion. There are 14 armoured regiments within the army, ten regular and four yeomanry (armoured reserve), of which four are designated as "Armoured", three as "Armoured Cavalry", and six as "Light Cavalry". Army 2020 Refine has seen developments which will further modify the Royal Armoured Corps. with two existing regiments forming the core of two new STRIKE Brigades. These two regiments, along with the Armoured Cavalry will be equipped with the "Ajax" armoured fighting vehicle, a new £3.5 billion procurement programme. The Ajax will be employed in the task organisation and roles of both Armoured Cavalry and Medium Armour. With a slight exception of the Household Cavalry, which maintains quasi-autonomy within the Household Division, armoured regiments and their yeomanry counterparts collectively form the Royal Armoured Corps.

Arms and support units are also formed into similar collectives organised around specific purposes, such as the Corps of Royal Engineers, Army Air Corps and Royal Army Medical Corps.

Royal Air Force[edit]

The Eurofighter Typhoonmultirole combat aircraft

Main article: Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force has a large operational fleet that fulfils various roles, consisting of both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. Frontline aircraft are controlled by Air Command, which is organised into five groups defined by function: 1 Group (Air Combat), 2 Group (Air Support), 11 Group (Air and Space operations), 22 Group (training aircraft and ground facilities) and 38 Group (Royal Air Force's Engineering, Logistics, Communications and Medical Operations units). In addition 83 Expeditionary Air Group directs formations in the Middle East and the 38 Group combines the expeditionary combat support and combat service support units of the RAF. Deployable formations consist of Expeditionary Air Wings and squadrons—the basic unit of the Air Force. Independent flights are deployed to facilities in Afghanistan, the Falkland Islands, Iraq, and the United States.

The Royal Air Forces operates multi-role and single-role fighters, reconnaissance and patrol aircraft, tankers, transports, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and various types of training aircraft. Ground units are also maintained by the Royal Air Force, most prominently the RAF Police and the Royal Air Force Regiment (RAF Regt). The Royal Air Force Regiment essentially functions as the ground defence force of the RAF, optimised for the specialist role of fighting on and around forward airfields, which are densely packed with operationally vital aircraft, equipment, infrastructure and personnel . The Regiment contains nine regular squadrons, supported by five squadrons of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment. In addition, it provides the UK's specialist Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear capability. It also provides half of the UK's Forward Air Controllers and the RAF's contribution to the Special Forces Support Group. By March 2008, the three remaining Ground Based Air Defence squadrons (equipped with Rapier Field Standard C) had disbanded or re-roled and their responsibilities transferred to the British Army's Royal Artillery.