#fictional orbat

[davidshawnsown]

AFU Motorbike Battalions/Kurins

(based on real life Soviet formations during WW2)

(Inspired by Battle Order's video on Soviet Army motorcycle reconnaisance battalions under division during the Second World War as well as the real life US armored recon units of the same period)

IMU of stories the success of ad-hoc bicycle and motorbike formations in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the Russian invasion would result in the formation of motorcycle formations of battalion size (called in Ukrainian as Mototsykletnyy batalʹyon) in elements of the armed forces to regularize these. However they follow a Westernized form of the organization of the old Soviet motorbike battalions of mechanized and armored divisions. In cavalry divisions - those armored divisions with cavalry traditions and titles honoring the Ukrainian Cossacks - these units are titled as Kurins (Mototsykletnyy kurin) with its companies named as sotnias. These battalions are armed with primarily Western and locally produced motorcycles and tricycles for their mission as support to recon and combat operations. There's plans to integrate an infantry company to those battalions in the infantry divisions.

In mechanized infantry, assault infantry and mountain infantry divisions they are organized in 4 motorbike companies each with HQ platoon, 4 motorbike platoons (one squad each manned with electric motorcycles), and a mortar and weapons section each. The armored recon company operates M59s and M113s together with the M106 SP mortar and its light tank battalion uses M10 Bookers in its tank platoons and MT-LBs in its infantry and AT platoon. The AT battery uses Jeeps and similar vehicles for the transport of their crew and they are all supported by a forward support company from their parent division and other elements. In a mountain infantry division, an additional squad is tasked within platoons for ski capability.

In a motorized infantry division the motorbike company has no weapons section. The armored recon company is armed with BTR-4s and hand-me-down LAV-3s from the United States and the light tank company uses the M113 and Scorpion.

There's a different TO&E for the battalions in armored divisions. Motorbike battalions in these, alongside the weapons section, are reinforced with two bicycle platoons and a RPG/AT motorcycle section in the motorcycle companies, the armored recon company uses Bradleys, the light tank company, aside from its M10s, uses M113s as mechanized infantry element and there's a assault gun company using Centauros from Italy and the Ukrainian produced MT-LB-12 - inspired by the assault gun troops of cavalry recon squadrons of the United States during the Second World War.

The Motorcycle Kurin of the UGF cavalry division is modeled after the armored division motorcycle battalion but is named and organized in keeping with Ukrainian Cossack cavalry heritage. However it does not have a bicycle nor RPG/AT motorbike section and its AT battery is organized into 4 platoons instead of 3.

In the AAFU's two airmobile divisions, the motorcycle battalion's recon company is armed with M113s and BTR-3s, there's no infantry platoon in the tank company and an airborne transport and rigger platoon for parachute and air assault operations is added to the forward support company.

The two marine divisions of XXX Amphibious Corps UkrMC and the planned motorbike battalions of that Corps in Mykolaiv and Kherson are organized for both ground and amphibious operations as relfected in the addition of an amphious scout platoon. However it does have an added water transport platoon in the forward logistics company for the amphibious element there and the tank company uses M59 Scorpion TDs, AMX-10 RCs and AAVP-7s. Squads using electric bikes are to be transported to the shore via other vehicles in amphibious operations before they can be unloaded for use unlike those using normal motorbikes (and those squads using bicycles) which can land to the coast via landing craft. The same vehicles in an air assault motorbike battalion's armored recon company are used in a marine motorbike battalion.

@lukeexplorer

[robotsofthegalaxyunite]

Order of battle for the prototypical early war (ca. 7,530 C.E.) Mawari IFV equiped mechanized infantry platoon from the Commonwealth.

[the-hopefulpenguin]

An Overview of the United Forces

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30806357/chapters/76047413

Have you wanted to write the United Forces into your headcanons or fanfics but didn’t want to have to bother with the hassle of creating a whole fictional military? Well, we here at Hopeful Penguin Productions have heard you and we’re proud to announce ‘An Overview of the United Forces’!

We’ve got ORBATs, rank structures, operational histories - and more. All with snarky commentary from Princess Ursa II and her long-suffering brother, General Iroh II. Don’t delay, click over to AO3 today! 

[davidshawnsown]

Ukrainian 1st Mot Inf Div UGF

Part of VII Army Corps UGF

(This is inspired by Battle Order's video on the experimental Soviet Army light infantry division of 1987 which was trained and formed in Ukraine.)

Raised as part of Westernization and expansion of the UGF in 2023-24, the 1st Mot Inf Div of VII Corps/OC North - one of a number of new divisions being activated along the revival of historic units - will soon be added with its planned light cavalry regiment to its ORBAT later due to NATO and Polish and US influence as part of the force's efforts to defend the nation. As of present just one armored cavalry element is present - the armored cav kurin assigned with the 1st Light Armored BCT.

It is organized into three motorized brigades, one mechanized brigade, one light armored brigade, one field artillery brigade, one air defense artillery brigade, a combat engineer regiment, an army aviation regiment using Western helicopters, support elements, a depot regiment and directly reporting formations including one rifle (Jaeger) infantry regiment and one tank destroyer regiment.

Its motorized brigades are armed with Novators, Humvees and JLTVs alongside a company each of truck-mounted infantry with its artillery battalions armed with the Humvee Hawkeye - an experimental SPG mounted on Humvee chassis, and M10 Bookers in the armored battalions. Their air defense battalions are a mix of towed and wheeled SPAGGs like the Viktor, which is the same systems used by the air defense brigade under divisional command.

However the main mechanized element - the 19th BCT - has a mix of wheeled and tracked infanty carriers in its mechanized infantry regiments and with the same vehicles of the motorized brigades in its motorized and rifle infantry regiments. The 19th Armored Regt operates mainly the T-64 and M48 Pattons as well as a company of Leopard 1s.

103rd FA Brigade operates 3 battalions of towed guns, an administrative regiment of two SPG battalions, each wheeled and tracked, and one MLRS battalion alongside a strike UAV battery under its command.

@lukeexplorer

[davidshawnsown]

Cuban Army 1st Guards Armored Division (Central Army)

Nicknamed the "Sanguily Rescue Division" - it was created in 1965 as a corps level formation of 3 armored and 2 infantry regiments and later became an armored division. Its oldest unit is the 2600th Armored Brigade - the former 26 July 1st Motorized Infantry Regiment that fought in the Bay of Pigs landing operation of 1961 - and was raised as an armored battalion equipped with Western systems in 1959. It is the armored fist of the Cuban Army today and is stationed as part of the Central Army.

IMU that brigade is restored to its original name as this division - one of a few designated Guards (Division Blindada de la Guardia) for its role in the Cuban supported operations in Africa and Grenada in the Cold War - is by now being reequipped shedding its old equipment for modern systems. For example its armored battalions are now equipped with Russian T-72s and T-62s as well as Chinese Type 15s and Iranian Tosans, as well as the Type 11 assault gun platform in two of the brigades. Infantry battalions are equipped with the BTR-70 and the Type 8 wheeled IFVs, the BMP-2 and VN11 tracked IFVs and the Type 90 APC. The 90th Mechanized Infantry operates both the BTR-70 and Tiuna in its motorized battalion. The historical companies under the depot regiment use majority of the early systems the division uses for historical and parade purposes as well as for educational tools given the division's role in Cuban military history. These include:

M4 Shermans

T17E1 Staghounds

Comets

M18 Hellcats

T-34

SU-100

T-54/55

T-62

BTR-50

BTR-152

BTR-60

BMP-1

BMP-122 SPG

It also has an armored cavalry regiment organized with Venezuelan assistance, which is patterned after the armored brigades and organized similarly but with a purpose of both armored recon and offensive operations in support of armor and infantry elements. Also IMU the placement of such regiments in divisional level by the FARC is to also ensure continuity of traditions of the Cuban "caballeria Mambisa" of the War of Independence and the Spanish American War.

Brigade artillery regiments are equipped with Chinese PLL-01 towed howitzers, the Type 7 SPG and the Fajr-3 MLRS from Iran. The cavalry regiment's artillery group is a mixed of tracked and wheeled self-propelled gun systems. DIVARTY on the other hand alongside all these uses M-46 howitzers, BM-21 Grads, Fajr-5s, CJ-10 and Soumar cruise missiles in the land attack role, and Hwasongpho-11b and Zelzar-3 TBMs.

Divisional air defense is organized into the brigade level regiments armed with Strela-10s and SPAGGs of the ZSU series and the BTR-60 organized into two battalions each and the divisional air defense regiment organized into groups of towed and self-propelled guns and missile systems armed with the following:

ZU-23, PG-99 and S-60 towed air defense guns

ZSU-57-2s, PGL-12 and T-57 Duplex SPAGGS

HQ-6, Strela-10, HQ-17, S-125 Dvina, FK-3 and Bavar-373 SAMs

This division is the only one with brigade level and divisional regiments of air defense in the Cuban Army as the rest of the divisions have air defense groups of battalion size in the brigade level with more assets either in regimental or brigade level under divisional command.

Local systems like the BTR-100 and the David and the Jupiter D-30 mobile wheeled SPG, as well as the Venezuelan Tiuna, are present to give an Latin American look to the division as well as to provide a showcase of the Cuban military industry.

The reason IMU there's a political affairs unit is because of the strong Soviet influence in the Cuban Army and to ensure control by the Communist Party over the armed forces. However, it maintains a more recent creation of a chaplaincy unit to ensure religious care among the mostly Christian service personnel of the division.

The division's CIMIC battalion and SAR elements of the engineer regiment provide aid to civil autorities capability during war and peacetime calamities, joined by elements of the division's Youth Labor Army battalion placed under its combat service support regiment.

IMU this and other divisions are reinforced in wartime by elements of the Territorial Troops, the Civil Defense of Cuba and the National Reserves, which would form a 2nd infantry brigade from elements of these organizations in the division's AOR.

@lukeexplorer

[davidshawnsown]

Chilean Army 1st Cav Regt (Grenadiers)

Part of my Ukrainian War Universe

IMU the tensions in Peru and the ongoing armed forces modernization in Argentina under Millei, as well as Bolivian threats to the north and a growing pivot to BRICS, would lead to a renewed expansion of the Chilean Armed Forces planned under the final months of the late Sebastian Pinera presidency and now starting to bear fruit under Gabriel Boric who was the only leftist leader in South America to speak out in support of Ukraine to counteract all these especially given the leftist attitudes in Peru against the rightist presidency of the past years especially in the country's south.

IRL it is a one squadron/battalion (termed Group) regiment that maintains traditions of the Chilean Army cavalry and its a mainly mounted formation that for nearly two centuries, off an on, has provided the mounted travelling escort to the presidency and in wartime is operationally controlled by the 3rd Mountain Division. It also provides guards of honor for state visits. It reports as part of the Santiago Garrison Command alongside the 1st MP Regiment.

IMU such a commitment would allow thus the regiment to have a mixed role as both presidential guard and as a combat formation with two out of its 8 squadrons - the seventh being the training squadron OPCON under the Equestrian School in Quilotta's Camp San Isidro and the 8th being the dismounted honors squadron that provides dismounted public duties in the capital - being mounted ceremonial cavalry and the 3rd being mountain recon that in wartime is a part of the 3rd Division alongside the other two. All of the groups have a conscript company in keeping with the Chilean practice of conscription in the armed forces (the 4th armored group has two). The three mounted groups also have a veternary unit.

The Honors Group also hosts the Cuadro Negro exhibition team - a formation IMU mixed with personnel of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment in the 4th Division, since it is where it had been originated.

The 1st Group also hosts a vehicle company, motorbike company to provide force multipliers to the Carabineros in presidential events and a coach squadron which takes care of the presidential horse drawn coaches and the presidential cars.

Unlike the lancers IRL, each of the ceremonial mounted squadrons are organized as lancers and dragoons/mounted rifles to mirror the historical Chilean cavalry of years goneby. The mounted recon squadons of 3rd Group are trained as combat soldiers only - while the 2 other groups are trained in both combat operations and ceremonial roles, alongside the Horse Artillery Group of the Tacna Regiment - IMU a regimental OPCON unit in ceremonial events only due to its use of horses.

The regiment's other combat capabilities are 4 armoured groups - 2 armored and 1 cavalry and mechanized infantry each in support of elements of the 2nd Infantry Division (Mot) and the Santiago Garrison Command. The 1st Armored Group, which uses MBTs, operates M60s and Leopard 1s, the 2nd is a light formation armed with M10 Bookers, the 3rd is an armored cav unit with Marder 2s and the nationally produced MOWAG Piranhas via FAMAE which performs recon and light attack roles and the 4th is the largest of the groups performing mechanized infantry roles in a mix of IFVs and APCs in support of the cavalry and armor, with the M3 Bradley, M59s, Marder 2s and the Centauros in assault gun role also to provide support to the combat elements of the 2nd Division's two BCTs.

@lukeexplorer

[davidshawnsown]

For the first time, a fantasy ORBAT - Order of Battle - has been posted. In draft form for now.

This is the Armored Division "Sanguily Rescue" - elite of the elite of the Cuban Army of today and was activated in the 1960s. IMU of fanfiction stories here, Ao3 and on Discord it is one of a few called as Guards Divisions - granted to the Cuban Army to honor the memory of the nation's long struggle against foreign domination of their land. They would be first priority in modernization efforts geared towards preparing the Cuban nation towards a possible World War Three because of the worsening situation in Ukraine and Israel, armed with weapons from China and Iran because of the current situation with Russia's weapons systems manufacture.

@lukeexplorer

[davidshawnsown]

Hey @lukeexplorer thanks for helping me on Substack.

Just as I've helped you on Discord, I am helping you here on Tumblr as well as part of the team that will contribute time and effort to not just create fanfics and original fiction, but also..

to raise awareness of the war of Ukraine among us fanfic writers and the wider community here.

Let's also begin an ORBAT Boys section here on Tumblr for starters too.

John