Military branch

Military branch (also service branch or armed service) is according to common standard the subdivision of the national armed forces of a sovereign nation or state. In classical NATO terminology, the three basic military branches are the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

Specialized branches[]

Countries which do not have access to any of the high seas or any oceans generally do not have a national navy.

In some countries there might be other military branches. In addition to the above-mentioned military branches, examples are:

In France the National Gendarmerie
In Germany the Joint Medical Service and the Joint Support Service
In Italy the Carabinieri
In Norway the Home Guard and the Cyber Force
In Poland the Special Forces
In Russia the Aerospace Defence Forces, Airborne Troops and the Strategic Missile Troops
In South Korea the Marine Corps (Haebyeongdae)
In Taiwan the Military Police (Xiànbīng)
In the United States the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Emblems of some countries

Historical development[]

The military branches came into being in line with military technical progress and have been developed permanently. With that background, the air force was established early in the 20th century as one of the latest armed service.

The army is traditionally the oldest – and in many countries the biggest armed service.

References[]

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on this wikiNo language provided for the interwiki translation template!

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Military branch and the edit history here.