Armed Services is a collective term that refers to the major organisational entities of national armed forces, so named because they service a combat need in a specific combat environment. In most states Armed Services include the Army also known as Land Force or Ground Force, Navy also known as Marine Defence Force, and Air Force. Some countries have a separate service for the Space Forces or Military Space Forces, and the Russian Federation also has the Strategic Missile Troops and the Airborne Troops as independent Armed Services. The People's Liberation Army, despite the name, also comprises Armed Services consisting of the PLA Ground Force, PLA Navy (PLAN), PLA Air Force (PLAAF), Second Artillery Corps (strategic nuclear or missile force), and the PLA Reserved Force.
Some nations combine all Armed Services into one structure such as the Japan Self-Defense Forces, Óglaigh na hÉireann, and the Canadian Forces, and subdividing them into branches, or the Israeli Defense Forces with an even less pronounced separation of Armed Services due to its combined arms doctrine that is applied even at the highest echelons of command.
Famous quotes containing the words armed and/or services:
“A woman’s beauty is a storm-tossed banner;
Under it wisdom stands, and I alone
Of all Arabia’s lovers I alone
Nor dazzled by the embroidery, nor lost
In the confusion of its night-dark folds,
Can hear the armed man speak.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Those services which the community will most readily pay for, it is most disagreeable to render.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)