Hawkwickan Armed Forces
Hawkwick's official armed force, offensive and defensive, is the Hawkwickan Armed Forces, also known as HAF, HARMFOR, or HARM. Created in 2000 with the advent of the United Republic, they are a highly advanced and modern fighting force, with an estimated budget of 51.41 trillion USD, or 24% of the government budget. HARM is on the lower end of sizable armies in Audax, with approximately 7.4 million full-time service members are part of HARM alone, with approximately 400 million two-month conscripts at any given time and approximately 1 million more serving as CBT, DRAGON, or as part of the Border Administration. Despite the fact, HARM makes up for its size with a wide variety of advanced systems and equipment, including the controversial Dragon Uplink networks, the Dragonplate and Dragonskin armor suits, and a large amount of unmanned or autonomous vehicles, turrets, and emplacements. Ever since it's total destruction by Blackwatch in 1994, the Hawkwickan Navy has maintained a small size, largely dedicated to coastal defense. HARM, unlike most armed forces, acts as a unified force, with branches only denoting the rank system used and slight uniform differences.
Service in HARM or one of the smaller defense organizations is mandatory for at least two months for men in Hawkwick over the age of 17, however most of the conscripts are not combatants. Although Hawkwick maintained a separate National Guard before the First Blackwatch War, today, conscripted forces and regional units largely double as both the National Guard and Military Police. The guarding of land borders with other nations has been managed by the Border Administration, a militarized branch of the Department of Immigration, since 2009, while the guarding of naval borders is still overseen by the Hawkwickan Navy. Counter Blackwatch Tactics and Operations, often called CBT or CBO, was founded in the Free Republic in 1998 and was transferred to HARM at the time of it's creation in 2000. DRAGON, or Dangerous Reconnaissance Activities Government Operations Network, is the armed intelligence and espionage branch of the Hawkwickan government, which operates outside of HARM jurisdiction, taking it's orders directly from the President. HARM also operates three Special Forces units, Overwatch, a ground-based branch, Underwatch, a naval and marine branch, and Airwatch, a detachment of Overwatch pertaining specifically to the flying of insertion helicopters, drones, and reconnaissance aircraft.
Unlike with most nations, the Supreme Commander of HARM is the commander-in-chief of Hawkwick's Armed Forces. The SCH can be dismissed only by Parliament, or by their own accord, and can only act on war declarations made by Parliament. The Supreme Commander of HARM otherwise serves 10-year terms with no term limit. The Supreme Commander of HARM since its creation has been General Erik Matterhorn.
Almost all of HARM's operations have been domestic, with it's first major international operation taking place in Vandinium's Second Civil War in 2012, where HARM successfully stopped the Civil War by killing Emperor Treven and wounding Elise. Today, HARM controls the United Republic under Marshal Law, and fights both a resurgent Blackwatch as well as two other major factions in the 2014 Hawkwickan Civil War, the progressive socialist NFA and the fascist HNA, as well as countless smaller ones.
