Military of Turkestan

Tactical Coordination

Turkestani tactical doctrine and battle planning typically call for a lot of close coordination between the various armed services in joint operations.
The Army, according to standard tactical doctrine, functions as a first-strike force and mobile reserve.  In an attacking role, the Army are the heavy striking arm that actually takes the ground, supported by Air Force reconnaissance and close air support, and then the Guards move in and secure, pacify and hold the new area.
On the defence, the Guards are the primary reaction force and border patrol, holding the perimeter with the aid of Air Force strikes on enemy combat units, and the Army functions mostly as a heavy strategic or tactical reserve, to be committed wherever needed.
In addition to their tactical support role, the Air Force are also the primary reconnaissance element of the Turkestani military, and provide the bulk of the military's strategic transport.  They also give the Turkestani military a long-range strike capability.
The close coordination and mutual interdependence necessary to make this work properly are nothing new for Turkestan's military forces.  From the early days of independence, the Turkestani military has operated its armed forces in this way, utilising joint operations with joint strategic and tactical command before it became fashionable in some other parts of the world.
The unified rank system shared by the three services helps a great deal in terms of inter-service communication - soldiers of the Army have no need to remember whether a Wing Commander outranks a Major or not, for example - and the special Turkestani rank of Tarxan takes this a step further.
The rank of Tarxan is roughly equivalent to the rank of Field Marshal.  It is the highest flag rank, but a Sardar (General) may only be promoted to Tarxan after having served at officer rank in each of the armed services for at least a year.
Such inter-service transfers are quite common in the Turkestani military, and the secondment of promising officers to other branches of the military is encouraged as a way to promote the effectiveness of Turkestani joint-service operations.  No other military in the world is known to practice such a thing, but Turkestani analysts claim that it makes their military more operationally coordinated and gives it a unity between services that no other nation has.
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