AHC: Have as many military branches as possible.

Your challenge is have, with a POD after 1900, to have a military (any country is allowed) with as many independent or semi-independent (a lá USMC) service branches as possible. Separate paramilitary organizations like the SS or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard also count.

Go wild!
 
There isn't much you can do, one branch for each terrain plus an expeditionary branch is about as big as its practical to go n general terms. Oh you might be able to add a ballistic missile group, but only once ballistic missiles become available, and maybe have a separate coastguard, although in most cases this isn't so (state security and law enforcement don't count here).
 
Writing down as many as I can think of/find as potentially possible for military branches or sort of military branches, I got 31.

1. Army
2. Army aviation(have it be a separate branch for giggles)
3. Alpine/mountain warfare forces?
4. Reserves
5. Navy
6. Naval aviation
7. Marines
8. Marine aviation
9. Air Forces
10. Aerial troops
11. Air Defense Forces
12. Space warfare forces
13. Strategic bombardment forces
14. Atomic Forces
15. Chemical forces
16. Biological warfare forces
17. Coast Guard
18. Medical services
19. Support services
20. Cyber/Electronic warfare forces
21. Gendarmerie/Paramilitary forces
22. Special forces
23. Internal oriented special forces
24. Guard unit for leadership
25. [insert royal/republican/national] Guard
26. Scientific research corp
27. Public medical corps
28. Emergency response unit
29. Intervention force
30. Development force (I'm presuming some formalized military role in the economy)
31. Military educational branch

The wonderful thing with having so many services is that even if you don't have any enemy you still have a full scale war going on, just between the different branches. Plenty more if one wants to go full crazy ofc, can always try splitting up the army into infantry/artillery/cavalry/armor, the navy into various units, same for the already heavily split air force, ect. ect.
 
There isn't much you can do, one branch for each terrain plus an expeditionary branch is about as big as its practical to go n general terms. Oh you might be able to add a ballistic missile group, but only once ballistic missiles become available, and maybe have a separate coastguard, although in most cases this isn't so (state security and law enforcement don't count here).

It's not hard . . . Distrust, fear and bureaucracy gone mad can be three factors that can create such a situation. So maybe a communist country? Or a one-party state generally?

You have an army, a navy and an air force. Then you have marines (not part of the army or navy), a coast guard, a border guard, a national guard (could be like the Saudi one - basically a second army), an air defence service (not part of the air force) and an armed civil defence force.

The intention is to not allow any one arm to be too dominant.
 
It's not hard . . . Distrust, fear and bureaucracy gone mad can be three factors that can create such a situation. So maybe a communist country? Or a one-party state generally?

You have an army, a navy and an air force. Then you have marines (not part of the army or navy), a coast guard, a border guard, a national guard (could be like the Saudi one - basically a second army), an air defence service (not part of the air force) and an armed civil defence force.

The intention is to not allow any one arm to be too dominant.

I'm having some pretty intense déjà vu right now; I could swear I've read this exact thread, especially your post right here, before. Not just another thread discussing this topic, this thread.
 
Your challenge is have, with a POD after 1900, to have a military (any country is allowed) with as many independent or semi-independent (a lá USMC) service branches as possible. Separate paramilitary organizations like the SS or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard also count.

Go wild!


Army
Border Guards
Reserve Army
Internal Security Forces
Integrated Support Services
Military Intelligence Command
Presidential Guard
Civil Defence Organization
Airborne Forces
Frontal Aviation
Strategic Air Forces
Air Defence Forces
Strategic Rocket Forces
Navy
Marines
Coast Guard

Basically take the Soviet/Russian model and turn it up to eleven.
 
Writing down as many as I can think of/find as potentially possible for military branches or sort of military branches, I got 31.
Most of these would not count as separate branches, certainly reserves and development couldn't be separate, and paramilitary organisation don't count in this case.
 
Most of these would not count as separate branches, certainly reserves and development couldn't be separate, and paramilitary organisation don't count in this case.

According to wikipedia Madagascar has "Development" as a separate branch, thus my inspiration for it. The idea in my mind was that it would be similar to the emergency response but with more sustained emphasis, in hypothetical country with the military highly involved in civilian affairs. Perhaps as part of said highly militarized country they use draftees for labor on various things and "Development" manages that.

Reserves are also not incompatible as a branch; it could constitute the branch of the military responsible for training conscripts and reserve. In hypothetical country, with an incredibly fragmented array of services, it could make sense to have yet another service for just training, to prevent excessive specialization and the problems of the relatively small size of many of the branches, and fitting in with the idea of the "Medical Service and Support Services", the idea of having administration and rear area action separated from front line services. If not under this system, hypothetical country could be very decentralized, and reserves as they exist might be under the command of states and other administrative sub-units making it up, thus making a centralized organization responsible for their command and utilization practical and desirable.

Also even if the OP didn't state that paramilitary units counted specifically, it is generally acknowledged that they can exist, a la the Gendarmerie Nationale for France or the Carabinieri.
 
You could make it even worse by turning inter-service bickering over who gets what up to eleven, for example making both the army and the air force establish their own airborne units, which over time become their own semi-independent branches. For example the IJA and the IJN both had their own marines, although neither were independent.
 
Go really wild!

Just have individual regiments commissioned by the head of state separately (more a pre 1900 thing but no real reason they cant do it post 1900 in some smaller nation, may not be very effective for large scale war but OK to control a less developed county with lack of trust in anybody) :p
 
State Militia
Conscript Army
Legion [Elite, Professional Army]
Special forces
Guard
Navy
Marines
Naval Air Force
Air Force
Air defense
Cyber forces
Central department of logistics
 
Go Soviet with a bit of Nazi mix

Army, Navy, Air Force of course. Marine Corps and Airborne Forces to provide the expeditionary arm. Air Defence Forces and Strategic Rocket Forces are a natural. Make a Strategic Air Command/Long Range Aviation branch independent, though this might logically subsume the SRF. Add in the Coastguard, Border Guards and Internal Troops, then give the Party its own army similar to the Waffen-SS or Saudi National Guard. I'm the interests of logic and efficiency, centralise air transport under the Military Air Traffic Service. Likewise, create Special Operations Forces as a separate branch of service.

That gets you thirteen or fourteen armed services without trying too hard.
 
According to wikipedia Madagascar has "Development" as a separate branch, thus my inspiration for it. The idea in my mind was that it would be similar to the emergency response but with more sustained emphasis, in hypothetical country with the military highly involved in civilian affairs. Perhaps as part of said highly militarized country they use draftees for labor on various things and "Development" manages that.
Sort of national service uber-FEMA?
For giggles you could also have separate engineering branch (modelled on the US Army Corps of Engineers). Cue epic turf wars with Development and all the other services as the Engineers insist anything involving digging and building is 'theirs', and no soldier can be issued an entrenching tool without their signoff.
 
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