Field force
A field force in British, Indian Army and Tanzanian military parlance is a combined arms land force operating under actual or assumed combat circumstances,[1] usually for the length of a specific military campaign. It is used by other nations, but can have a different meaning.
United Kingdom use
A field force would be created from the various units in an area of military operations and be named for the geographical area. Examples are:
- Kurram Field Force, 1878
- Peshawar Valley Field Force, 1878
- Kabul Field Force, 1879–1880
- Kabul-Kandahar Field Force, 1880
- Natal Field Force, 1881
- Zhob Field Force, 1890
- Mashonaland Field Force, 1896
- Malakand Field Force, 1896
- Tirah Field Force, 1897
- Yukon Field Force, 1898
- West African Frontier Force, 1900
Australian use
In Australia, a field force comprises the units required to meet operational commitments.[2]
Canadian use
The Canadian Expeditionary Force was considered as a field force created to participate in World War I.
United States use
In the United States, during the Vietnam War the term came to stand for a corps-sized organization with other functions and responsibilities. To avoid confusion with the corps designations used by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and to allow for a flexible organization, MACV and General William Westmoreland developed the "field force" such as I Field Force and II Field Force. Unlike an Army corps, which had a size and structure fixed by Army doctrine, the field force could expand as needed and had other functions such as liaison with South Vietnamese and civil affairs functions and was flexible enough to have many subordinate units assigned to it.[3]
Police field forces
In counterinsurgency type campaigns, select and specially trained units of police armed and equipped as light infantry have been designated as police field forces who perform paramilitary type patrols and ambushes whilst retaining their police powers in areas that were highly dangerous.[4]
Police Field Forces, Paramilitary and Counter-Insurgency Units
A
- Albania
- Afghanistan
- Algeria
B
- Bangladesh
- Belgium
- Belarus
- Brazil
C
- People's Republic of China
- Colombia
- Independent State of Croatia 1941 - 1945
D
- Denmark
E
- Estonia
F
- Vichy France
G and H
- Gambia
- East Germany
- Nazi Germany
I
- Indonesia
- India
- Iran
- Iraq
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italian Social Republic
J and K
- Kenya
L
- Kingdom of Laos
- Latvia
- Lithuania
M
- Malaysia
- Mandatory Palestine
- Mauritius
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Myanmar
N
- Namibia
- Nigeria
- Norway
O and P
- Pakistan
- Peru
- Philippines
- Portugal
Q and R
- Rhodesia
- Russia
S
- Solomon Islands
- South Africa
- South Vietnam
- South West Africa
- Sri Lanka
- Syria
T
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Turkey
U
- Ukraine
V
- Vatican City
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
W, X and Y
Z
- Zimbabwe
List of Intelligence Agencies, Secret Police Field Forces and Paramilitary Units
- Armenia
- Australia
- East Germany
- Kyrgyzstan
- Poland
- Russia
- Soviet Union
- Syria
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- Uzbekistan
See also
References
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