Armed forces

The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external and internal aggressors. In broad usage, the terms "armed forces" and "military" are often treated synonymously, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives.

The study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three "levels": strategy, operational art, and tactics. All three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective.

Organization

In most countries the basis of the armed forces is the military, divided into basic military branches. However, armed forces can include other paramilitary structures.

Armed

Armed (May, 1941–1964) was an American Thoroughbred gelding race horse. He was sired by the great stakes winner Bull Lea, the sire of Citation. His dam was Armful, whose sire was Belmont Stakes winner Chance Shot and whose grandsire was the great Fair Play.

Besides being small for his age and very headstrong, Armed had the habits of biting and kicking hay out of his handler's pitchfork. Since he was also practically untrainable, his trainer, Ben A. Jones, sent him back to Calumet Farm to be gelded and turned out to grow up. He returned to the track late in his two-year-old season and resumed training.

His first start was as a three-year-old the following February, and he won at Hialeah Park by eight lengths. He won again less than a week later but then won only once in five more starts and had to be rested due to an ankle injury.

Armed raced for seven seasons, from 1944 to 1950, finishing with a 41-20-10 record in 81 starts. In 1947 under jockey Douglas Dodson, he defeated U.S. Triple Crown champion Assault in a match race at Belmont Park and set a track record of 2:01-3/5 for one and one-quarter miles while winning the Widener Handicap and carrying 129 pounds. He repeated as American Champion Older Male Horse and was voted 1947 American Horse of the Year honors. In the Horse of the Year poll conducted by Turf and Sport Digest magazine, he received 151 of a possible 173 votes to win the title from Citation, Stymie, Bewitch and Assault. Armed died in 1964 of an intestinal tumor. In 1963, he was inducted into National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In The Blood-Horse ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, he was ranked #39.

Indian Armed Forces

The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, Indian Navy, and Indian Air Force. Additionally, the Indian Armed Forces are supported by three paramilitary organisations (Assam Rifles, Indian Coast Guard and Special Frontier Force) and various inter-service institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. The Indian Armed Forces are under the management of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which is led by the Union Cabinet Minister of Defence. With strength of over 1.3 million active personnel, it is world's 3rd largest military force and has the world's largest volunteer army. It is important to note that the Central Armed Police Forces, which are commonly and incorrectly referred to as 'Paramilitary Forces', are headed by officers from the Indian Police Service and are under the control of the Ministry of Home Affairs, not the Ministry of Defence.

Swedish Armed Forces

The Swedish Armed Forces (Swedish: Försvarsmakten) is the government agency that forms the military forces of Sweden, and which is tasked with defence of the country, as well as promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting international peacekeeping efforts, and providing humanitarian aid.

It consists of: the Swedish Army, the Swedish Air Force and the Swedish Navy, with addition of a military reserve force, the Home Guard (Swedish: Hemvärnet). Since 1994, all the Swedish armed services are organised within a single unified government agency, headed by the Supreme Commander, even though the individual services maintain their distinct identities. King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden is traditionally attributed as Honorary Commander-in-Chief à la suite.

The military history of Sweden includes several unions and wars with all of its neighbour states, including extended Swedish intervention in the Thirty Years' War at the times of the Swedish Empire during the 17th and early 18th centuries. Wars with Russia culminated in the Finnish War (1808-1809), with Sweden permanently losing Finland. During the World Wars, the Cold War and throughout the 20th century, Sweden maintained a national policy of non-alignment, while the Swedish Armed Forces strength was based upon the concepts of conscription. In 2010, peacetime conscription was abolished, replacing it with volunteer armed forces including the Home Guard – National Security Force until 2018.

Indian Army

The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India serves as Commander-in-Chief of the army, and it is commanded by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four-star General. Two officers have been conferred the rank of Field marshal, a Five-star rank, which is a ceremonial position of great honour. The Indian Army originated from the armies of the East India Company, which eventually became the British Indian Army and finally the national army after independence. The units and regiments of the Indian Army have diverse histories and have participated in a number of battles and campaigns across the world, earning a large number of battle and theatre honours before and after Independence.

The primary mission of the Indian Army is to ensure national security and unity, defending the nation from external aggression and threats, and maintaining peace and security within its borders. It conducts humanitarian rescue operations during natural calamities and other disturbances, like Operation Surya Hope, and can also be requisitioned by the government to cope with internal threats. It is a major component of national power alongside the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force. The army has been involved in four wars with neighbouring Pakistan and one with China. Other major operations undertaken by the army include Operation Vijay, Operation Meghdoot and Operation Cactus. Apart from conflicts, the army has conducted large peace time exercises like Operation Brasstacks and Exercise Shoorveer, and it has also been an active participant in numerous United Nations peacekeeping missions including the ones in Cyprus, Lebanon, Congo, Angola, Cambodia, Vietnam, Namibia, El Salvador, Liberia, Mozambique and Somalia.