Army
An army comprises all of a nation's land-based military forces or a specific large military force.
Military land forces
An army is a military organization. The word army (armée in French) can refer to any armed force (for example, the People's Liberation Army of China consists of ground force, navy and air force branches); or more specifically a force primarily designed for land-based warfare (for example, the United States Army, or the French Armée de Terre).
Most (but not all) armed forces make considerable organizational distinction between the land-based warfare of an army, the sea-based warfare of a navy, and the air-based warfare of an air force - often splitting the three components into mostly independent forces. However, many air forces were formerly part of the army; historically, the United States Air Force originated as part of the United States Army.
Modern armies use infantry, armoured fighting vehicles (e.g. tanks), artillery, and aircraft (usually helicopters), supported by engineers, communications and supply troops.
Armies of the world
- Australian Army
- British Army
- German Bundeswehr
- Canadian Armed Forces
- Indian Army
- Indonesian Army
- Iranian Army
- Italian Army
- Israeli Defence Forces
- Norwegian Army
- New Zealand Army
- People's Liberation Army (People's Republic of China)
- Singapore Army
- Slovene Army
- South African Army
- Turkish Army
- United States Army
Military unit
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An army can also be a large military unit (formation) comprising two or more corps. When used in this sense, the army is named or numbered to distinguish it from military land forces in general—for example, U.S. First Army and The Army of Northern Virginia. In the British Army it is normal to spell out the ordinal number of an army (e.g. First Army), whereas lower formations would use figures (e.g. 1st Division).
Armies (as well as army groups, and theaters) are large formations which vary significantly between armed forces in size and hierarchy position.
In the Red Army, armies were actually corps-sized formations, subordinated to an army-sized front in wartime. In peacetime a Soviet army was usually subordinated to a military district.
For the hierarchy of land force organizations, see military unit.