Savorian Strike and Defence Force (prior to April 1049)

For the new article: Savorian Strike and Defence Force (since April 1049)

The decision to create the Savorian Strike and Defence Force was already made in 1044 despite the disagreement of the Savorian National Army (SNA) who felt distrusted by the Savorian government because of this decision. Orginally it was planned that the first units of the Savorian Strike and Defence Force would be battle ready in 1045 already. However the SNA tried everything they could to avoid the creation of the SSDF and refused any sort of cooperation which was necessary to build the foundation of the new branch of the Savorian military. Since June 1046 a conflict between Savoria and the Zoran Union was slowly escalating and finally heated up after the Zoranian invasion of Malden in 1047. This made it impossible for the SNA to keep their resistance up and they finally agreed to spare old equipment and training personnel in order to get the first SSDF units battle ready as soon as possible. SSDF forces got involved into the defense and counterattack of the Savorian forces during the invasion of Malden which marks their first participation in combat action. Since then the SSDF and their new commanders are attempting to build the SSDF up and expand it in order to serve the purpose they were originially created for.

Purpose of the SSDF
In past conflicts and military operations the Savorian National Army, Savorian Air Force and Savorian Navy have performed well overall. Still there was some issues and weaknesses that showed in certain situation and when either of the branches were tasked with anything that required a more specialised ability. The Savorian Strike and Defence Force are supposed to be smaller in size than either of the 3 branches but able to support all of them and combine all their unique abilities in to one force. They´re supposed to be able to take part in conventional and unconventional warfare and internal as well as external special operations. In order for that it would require a lot of funding and very specialised soldiers that are able to perform a variety of tasks and take different roles as required. As well as dedicated leaders that are able to lead their soldiers regardless of radical changes of the environment, situation or even mission tasks. Unlike the other branches the SSDF doesn´t have dedicated Divisions, Corps or Armies but instead they form, reform and disband task forces of various sizes as required. They still attempt to keep the same soldiers together permanently at least on a company level even though that isn´t always possible. This requires extremly well organised logistics in order to move soldiers and equipment as fast as it is required in order for this flexible system to be succesful.

The final goal is that the SSDF is able to operate completly independent from any of the other branches and to take on tasks that fully conventional forces are simply not trained and equipped for or to support them in doing so. If neccasary the SSDF is supposed to be able to take part in conventional warfare without needing support from other branches in order to be efficient.

Structure
The Savorian Strike and Defence Force is an ever growing force but in its current state, is comprised of about 40,000 personnel. Being a very diverse fighting force, this number is represented not only by infantry troops of course, but by all support personnel, and other combat personnel as well, such as pilots, engineers, medical staff, and administrative professionals as well. Despite the well rounded nature of the SSDF, its core focus is on ground warfare, so a large portion of its structure is dedicated to a certain type of unit, the combat unit. Combat units can be organized in many different ways, utilizing conventional infantry, mechanized infantry, armor, and artillery to name just a few. These combat units use their specialties to wage war on enemy forces with the intent of dealing as much damage to the enemy as possible while minimizing the amount of friendly casualties taken. The combat units and their many different organizations and specialties are what makes the SSDF such a diversified force that can fight across many different terrains and in many different combat situations.

3rd Combat Regiment
The 3rd Combat Regiment is just one combat regiment of many within the SSDF. However, this regiment has undeniably been involved in some of the SSDF's most difficult conflicts and some would say is the most battle-hardened regiment in the entire force. The regiment was led by Command Major Stephen R. Hansen, who had led the regiment since the creation of the SSDF up until the SSDF was disbanded in early 1049. Hansen was a seasoned veteran of the Savorian National Army and served as an officer for an infantry unit before deciding to help lead the newly founded 3CR upon formation of the SSDF. Second-in-command to CMAJ Hansen was Command Sergeant Paul Malikowski, another veteran of the SNA. Although it is just by chance, the 3CR has been said to have some of the best leadership in the entire SSDF, which is why it is a unit that the SSDF is very proud of and always recognizing. They are known best for their usually lower casualty rates and their ability to complete almost all objectives ordered to them. Many believe their success is due to great leaders, highly skilled and experienced soldiers, and outstanding morale.

1st Battalion
1st Battalion of the 3CR was made up of roughly 1620 personnel, which equals about 5 companies. 1st Battalion was led by Major John C. Hatcher and Senior Master Sergeant Christopher K. Leeds. It is also home to Malden company, one of the original, and most widely known company in the SSDF. Other companies within the battalion include...

Malden Company
Malden Company is worth mentioning separately because of its history with the SSDF. Although there are vast amounts of combat companies within the whole force, this company has been one of the most recognized out there, for reasons both good and bad. Malden Company has found itself in some very controversial situations since its inception, and for this reason, some would be hesitant to trust its leadership or ability to follow orders. However, when looking at statistics, they are shown to be one of the most able-bodied companies within the 3CR, and even the SSDF as a whole. Their casualty rate was lower than that of other companies even within their own battalion, and their mission successes far exceed their mission failures. Malden Company is led by two veteran SNA soldiers, Captain Lee M. Carson, and Senior Master Sergeant Jax R. Spinelli.

Voodoo Platoon
Voodoo Platoon is one of four platoons making up Malden Company. They are worth mentioning as they specifically were at the heart of some of the most crucial and controversial events that the SSDF were ever a part of. Led by Lieutenant David Schneider and Sergeant Class 1 Tyler Roberts, they quickly earned the trust of their company leadership and above and Voodoo Platoon was tasked with many objectives that other platoons were not trusted with. This is likely because of their excellent leadership and high morale of the soldiers serving in the platoon. It is extremely important to note that Specialist Class 1 Frank Dormont, also known as "White Rabbit", served in Voodoo Platoon at the time of his information leak to the government regarding the wrongdoings of the platoon. SP1 Dormont is attributed by many as the sole person that started the civil war in Savoria, and ultimately to the disbanding of the SSDF in early 1049.

Recruitment, Programs, Contracts and Benefits
The Savorian Strike and Defence Force is the only Savorian military branch that is open to recruits all over the world. While recruits from Savoria only have to go through the same security checks as they would have to for any other branch, foreign recruits have to go through extended security checks and expose much more information about themselves.

Recruitment procedure
The Savorian Strike and Defence force offers a variety of Programs, Contracts and Benefits for recruits that join the SSDF. While all of them differ the intial recruitment procedure and the methods used to gain recruits is pretty similiar and can therefore be described here.

First of it is of course easier for Savorian Citizens to join the SSDF than for foreign Citizens. The SSDF wants to make the inital recruitment process as easy and quick as possible for the recruits in order to appear more attractive. But security concerns such as the fear of easy infiltration by enemy agents makes this impossible for foreign Citizens. The SSDF is also the only branch within the Savorian military which doesn´t draft soldiers who are due for their mandatory military service thus fully relying on having enough volunteers.

Procedure for Savorian Citizens
Savorian Citizens are allowed to volunteer for the Savorian Strike and Defence Force when they´re 14 years or older and younger than 55. For anyone who is younger than 18 years their parents or whoever is in possession of their parental rights needs to agree in order for them to volunteer. Citizens that are being drafted into any of the other branches can volunteer for the SSDF if it is not any later than 2 weeks before they would start their mandatory military service and they´re able to attend the trial program immediatly. Citizens that have a criminal record can only volunteer if they fulfill special conditions. Citizens that have violent crimes on their record in which a victim was physically or mentally serverely damaged or killed are excluded from Service within the SSDF. Citizens must be willing to swear an oath on Savoria and must agree that they can be sentenced to prison or death if they break this oath at any time. If the Citizen is a part of the Law Enforcement his superior must approve his leave before he is allowed to volunteer. Citizens that are currently active within other military branches are not allowed to volunteer for the SSDF unless their current contract expires within the next 3 months or the Savorian military high command has proposed that they switch branches.

If they fulfill the basic requirements the recruits will take part in a 7 days long trial program. This program is meant to first of all give the potential recruits a taste of what will expect them and secondly meant for the SSDF to learn more about the skills and capabilities of each of the recruits. It is important to note that at this point no recruit has a contract, yet which means that they still can leave and abandon their plan to join the SSDF at any time. On Day 1 recruits arrive at the training facility they have been assigned to. There they´re greeted and introduced to their instructors for the next seven days and explained of what is going to happen in that time. Other than that Day 1 is very relaxed for the recruits. They´re split up into 4 groups and assigned to 4 different barracks depending on which group they belong to. Depending on the size of a training facility each group makes up 10-40 recruits which means that there is a total of 40-160 recruits that take part in a trial program. Then one by one recruits are called into the office of their assigned instructor´s and have a 15 minutes talk about various topics related to them joining the SSDF.

Day 2, 3 and 4 are mainly made of mental and physical exercises and tests. Some basics of military behaviour are being taught. During this time the first recruits that prove to be ineligible will be sent home. A few others usually change their mind within this 3 days and decide to take their leave.

Day 5 is one of the hardest days for the recruits. They take part in a field exercise alongside trained SSDF soldiers that already know what they´re doing. For the first time they have to wear full combat gear and hold a real weapon in their hands even though the recruits do not get any live grenades or ammunition for the exercise unlike their trained counterparts. Led by their instructors they have to try to fit in as much as they can despite the lack of knowledge, training and experience within the SSDF. It isn´t uncommon that most of the recruits are very stressed and overwhelmed by suddenly finding themselves in this situation. Day 5 is also the day were most of the recruits are either deemed ineligible or decide to take their leave now. After Day 5 most commonly there are only 40-60 % of the recruits left that took part in the trial program.

On Day 6 each recruit gets assigned to a trained SSDF soldier who they´re supposed to accompany for the whole day in order the get familiar with their daily routine. They take part in all activities except for excercises that include the use of live ammunition where they´re limited to observe it. The SSDF soldiers that take the recruits with them are allowed to talk with the recruits on the same level of authority so that the recruits feel more safe to ask questions they wouldn´t want to ask their instructors that are permanently placed and acting as their superiors. Sometimes it´s said that the trained SSDF soldiers that take the recruits with them on Day 6 are the "Big Brothers" that show their "Little Brothers" what they do all day and try to make it interesting to them. Recruits are allowed to sleep in late on Day 7 so they´re usually invited by the trained SSDF soldiers to go drink and relax during their freetime and meet other already trained soldiers. It is intended this way by the instructors so that recruits get a first impression of relations between SSDF soldiers that have the same level of authority. The SSDF aims for a close bond between its soldiers. Recruits that got through Day 6 are most likely to be deemed eligible. The SSDF hopes by showing them and letting them feel the close bond between its soldiers to give them another reason to keep pursuing a career in the SSDF and not to bail out in the very last minute.

On Day 7 recruits are allowed to sleep until 12 pm after their (most likely) long nights. After lunch recruits are called into the offices of their instructors one by one again where a final talk takes place. At this point only very few recruits still turn out to be ineligible as most have been filtered out before and a few decided to leave on their own again. Commonly 35-50 % of the recruits are left after all 7 days. The remaining recruits are gathered and line up outside their barracks with their instructors in front of their line. The officer who is in charge of the training facility accompanied by two recruitment officers goes up to each of the instructors. Every instructor salutes him and yells the exact same sentence:"'Sir, I report to you that this recruits have tasted what it means to be one of us! They have tasted sweat, tears and blood! They went through what we go through every day! And yet, Sir they´re still standing in front of you waiting for what´s coming to them! Sir, I swear as their instructor who guided and led them through the past rough days and by the best of judgement a human is capable of that this recruits are more than eligible to serve our nation and to join our ranks! Sir, all of them are different but, yet they´re all the same, they´re like us because each of them has skills, experiences, talents and personalties that makes them each in their own way useful, meaningful and good future soldiers, Sir!'"The three officers then salute him and move on to next instructor until all of them are done. They go back in front of the lined up recruits and their instructors salute again and officialy confirm that all recruits that are lined up in front of them at this moment are eligible of signing a contract with the SSDF. All recruits are now send on free time and stay at the facility for another day. The following day each of them will talk to a recruitment officer to discuss and sign their contracts.

Procedure for foreign Citizens
Foreign Citizens are allowed to volunteer for the Savorian Strike and Defence Force if they´re at least 16 years old and younger than 40 years. Foreign Citizens that are younger than 21 years officially require the agreement of their parents or whoever is in possession of their parental rights. However since serving in a military formation of a foreign country is in most nations considered as a reason to terminate the citizenship of a citizen immediatly it is usually not required as with the termination of the citizenship the parental rights are being terminated as well. Foreign Citizens that volunteer can´t have any criminal records, rare exceptions are possible. Foreign Citizens must be willing to swear an oath on Savoria and must agree that they can be sentenced to prison or death if they break this oath at any time. Additionally foreign Citizens must agree to various security checks and expose most of their personal information and history. They also need to sign agreements that allows Savorian authorities to request any neccasary data from foreign authorities. Foreign Citizens must be located within Savoria or be able to move to Savoria within 2 weeks by the time they volunteer.

After this the foreign Citizens join the same 7 day long trial programs as Savorian Citizens and go through the same procedure.

Recruitment Programs
Apart from the trial program prior to joining the Savorian Strike and Defence Force there is many programs which aid Savorian Citizens in preparing for joining the SSDF and programs that help those that are aiming for a certain career path within the SSDF. Here are some of the most popular programs.

Mandatory Military Service Alternative Program
This program is often just called the MSAP. With this program the SSDF tries to recruit Citizens that are or are about to be called in for mandatory military service and will be drafted into one of the three other branches shortly. The SSDF offers any of those Citizens to take part in the MSAP. If they pass the trial program they´re able to sign a contract to serve as a soldier of the SSDF for one year. Besides that they get paid much more than they would during Mandatory Military Service within any other branch of the Savorian military. In Savoria each Citizen has to serve between 6 months and 4 years of Mandatory Military Service or alternatively 5 years of Mandatory Civil Service or Service in the Law Enforcement. How long each Citizen has to do service depends on a lottery and if there are good reasons why a certain Citizen should have a shorter service time. If instead a Citizen volunteers for the SSDF and gets accepted they only have to serve 1 year. After 1 year of service within the SSDF a Citizen gets the certificate for succesfully completing their mandatory service for Savoria which they would normally not receive until after serving several years. Other than the better payment there are a lot more benefits during and after their service compared to the other branches. The MSAP therefore allows Citizens to get done with their mandatory service faster and meanwhile even benefit further from this. The price of this is that anyone who joined the SSDF through the MSAP can be recalled for duty up to 5 years after completing their service if rough times require it with no choice of denying their return unless for proven medical reasons. This doesn´t apply if SSDF Soldiers that joined through the MSAP decide to extend their contract after it expired as they aren´t considered a part of the MSAP anymore at that point.

Foreigners Integration Program
This program is often called the FIP. With this the program the SSDF tries to provide a more simple and attractive way for foreign citizens to join the SSDF. If foreigners apply for this program they have to go through the neccasary security checks and pass the 7 day trial program first. After that they sign a contract for at least 3 years and they´re granted residental rights for the time they serve in the SSDF. The FIP helps Soldiers that are not native Savorians to learn or improve their language skills if they haven´t, yet and to integrate better into the Savorian culture and society. During their first year and after they completed their basic training foreign SSDF Soldiers are mainly occupied with lessons about how life works in Savoria, how they can integrate themselves better, how to behave in public and what other major differences between their home nation and their new home exist. During this time the soldiers of this program are often send out to assist the local law enforcement for example with basic tasks such as directing traffic or improving security in areas with high public traffic. (airports, train stations etc.) They are often sent to help with charity projects or to do public service such as collecting garbage in certain areas or to help older or disabled people with keeping the outsides of their houses in shape. (taking care of their garden, cleaning the outside etc.) This serves two purposes on one side it is supposed to create a closer bond between the general population and military forces and to show them that foreigners can be decent savorian citizens as well and that there shouldn´t be concerns about them living in the area or serving in the armed forces. On the other side it helps the soldiers to get more experienced as they´re able to meet and to talk to native Savorian people and to learn more about them first hand. This is also an oppurtunity for them to put what they have learned to a test.

Young Soldiers Program
Usually called the YSP this program´s goal is to convince young students to consider a career within the SSDF years before they finish school. Students become eligible for joining the program once they reach 14 years of age and become uneligible to join once they´re just 3 months away from turning 18. Most students haven´t made their mind up about what they would like to do in the future at this young age. They can sign up for the YSP and will be invited to attend the trial program during school holidays. If they pass the trial program individual contracts are offered to them. The YSP generally offers many different types of contracts. The contracts length is usually between 7 and 20 years. They are usually called 18 + the amount of years contract. This means the contract will run until the recruit reaches 18 years of age + an individual amount of years. Participants of the YSP programs regardless if they signed up right away when they turned 14 or if they´re already 17 years old usually have a great chance of becoming an officer if they so desire.

Once a student signed a contract they have great financial benefits and the SSDF provides funds for top-notch education that will improve the skills and abilities that are useful for the position the student is meant for within the SSDF. Especially students that are living in a poor familiy benefit greatly as the SSDF provides additional funds to the family if their monthly income is below 2 500 Askos which can increase the social status of a family. Healthcare costs for the student are also covered by the SSDF. After finishing school the SSDF will provide the funds if necessary for the student to relocate his home.

Once they finished school and the soldiers become an active part of the SSDF there is huge benefits for having been a participant of the YSP. First of all there is a higher monthly pay right at the start of their career. Depending on how early they joined the YSP there is rank benefits as well. In the best case soldiers from the YSP can begin their career at the rank of Soldier Class 2 which allows them to almost immediately attend NCO and Officer training if it´s part of their contract.