Military: Gorgas

Gorgas has a history of irregular and regular warfare that is common throughout the region. The country remains unsatisfied with the tumultuous regional political boundaries over the last century, especially with Donovia. Like most countries, Gorgan military strategy reflects the country’s political agenda. The country uses the military for defensive purposes and to maintain territorial sovereignty that includes force against breakaway regions. Gorgas currently wants to join NATO and remains the most accepting of Western influence of the five countries in the region.

Military Forces

Gorgas maintains the smallest military of the five countries in this region, which consists of a  ground force, air force, and sea force (coast guard) capable of defensive operations, with limited offensive capabilities. The Gorgas military operates primarily tier 2 equipment throughout its structure. The Gorgan military poses little threat to any of its regional neighbors, but possibly serves as a threat to the separatists in the two breakaway republics, Zabzimek and South Ostremek.

Military Strategy

National Command Authority

Gorgan National Command Authority

Gorgas established a National Council (NC) twenty years ago to address the country’s defense needs, military doctrine, and strategy. The organizational structure consists of a consultative body that answers to the Gorgan president. The NC structure includes but is not limited to the following:

• President (Chairman of the NC)
• NC Secretary
• Minister of Defense (includes a General Staff)
• Minister of Finance
• Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Minister of Internal Affairs
• Chair of Parliament

Strategic Operational Framework

Gorgan Supreme High Command

The strategic operational framework for all countries in the region is similar in construct and application. This is primarily the result of historic influences transcending the region. The NCAs and the NC for all the countries exercise command and control (C2) of the Armed Forces via the Supreme High Command (SHC) that includes the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and a General Staff drawn from all the service components. In peacetime, the MOD and General Staff operate closely but separately. The MOD assumes the responsibility for policy, acquisitions, and financing the Armed Forces. The General Staff promulgates policy and supervises the service components while its functional directorates assume responsibility for key aspects of defense planning. In wartime, the MOD and General Staff merge to form the SHC, which functions as a unified headquarters.

All five countries currently configure their militaries in an administrative force structure (AFS) that manages its military forces in peacetime. This AFS contains the aggregate of various military headquarters, facilities, and installations designed to man, train, and equip the forces. In some cases, the military may group its forces administratively under geographical commands designated as military regions or military districts. If the SHC elects to create more than one theater headquarters, it may allocate parts of the AFS to each of the theaters, normally along geographic lines. Typically, these administrative groupings differ from the country’s go-to-war (fighting) force structure. Other parts of the AFS consist of assets centrally controlled at the national level. (See FM 7-100.4 Opposing Force Organization Guide: Chapter 3, Task Organizing.)

National Strategic Goals

The Gorgan military historically demonstrates two major objectives: to defend the country’s borders and stop an invasion of its country by any outside force, and to recover breakaway territories. The Gorgan military continues to build its troops to a sufficient level to meet these strategic goals. Gorgas’ specific strategic goals include:

• Defense of Gorgan sovereignty
• Recovery of breakaway territories
• Economic expansion
• Elimination of insurgent groups, to include those in breakaway territories

Implementing National Security Goals

All five countries share similar strategies to achieve their national goals. Strategic operations for all five countries remain a continuous process not limited to wartime or preparation for war. Once war begins, strategic operations continue during regional, transition, and adaptive operations and complement those operations. Each of the latter three types of operations occurs only during war and only under certain conditions. Transition operations can overlap regional and adaptive operations.

Gorgan Strategic Operations in Peace and War

In pursuit of their national security strategies, all five countries find themselves prepared to conduct four basic types of strategic-level courses of action:

• Strategic operations use all instruments of power in peace and war to achieve a country’s national security strategy goals through attacks against the enemy’s strategic centers of gravity.
• Regional operations include conventional, force-on-force military operations against overmatched opponents, such as regional adversaries and internal threats.
• Transition operations bridge the gap between regional and adaptive operations and contain some elements of both. The country continues to pursue its regional goals while dealing with developing outside intervention that has the potential to overmatch its military.
• Adaptive operations preserve the country’s power and apply it in adaptive ways against opponents that overmatch the country’s military.

National Security Strategy

Although Donovia, Ariana, Atropia, Gorgas, and Limaria may refer to them as “operations,” each of these courses of action is actually a subcategory of strategy. Each type of operation aggregates the effects of tactical, operational, and strategic actions in conjunction with instruments of national power to achieve each country’s strategic goals. The types of operations employed at a given time will depend on the types of threats, opportunities, and other conditions present.

Each country’s strategy typically starts with actions directed at a regional opponent that the government overmatches in conventional military power, as well as other instruments of power. If possible, each government will attempt to achieve its ends without armed conflict. Accordingly, these governments do not limit strategic operations to military means and usually do not begin with armed conflict. They may achieve the desired goal through pressure applied by nonmilitary instruments of power, perhaps by merely threatening to use superior military power against the opponent. These actions fall under the general framework of “strategic operations.”

The government may resort to armed conflict to achieve its desired end state when nonmilitary means prove insufficient or not expedient. Strategic operations, however, continue even if a particular regional threat or opportunity causes the country to undertake “regional operations” that may include military means. Prior to the initiation of hostilities and throughout the course of armed conflict with its regional opponent, the government will continue to conduct strategic operations to preclude intervention by outside players, other regional neighbors, or an extra-regional power that could overmatch its forces. Such operations, however, always include branches and sequels to deal with the possibility of intervention by an extra-regional power.

Military Forces Overview

Military Strategy

Of the five countries in the region, Gorgas maintains the smallest military, with approximately 33,600 active duty personnel. The military organization consists of the Gorgan Land Force, the Gorgan Army Air Section, the Gorgan Coast Guard, and the National Guard of Gorgas. The Gorgan military poses little threat to any of its regional neighbors as it primarily possesses defensive capabilities. The military recently, however, engaged in offensive military operations against separatist military elements in the country’s two breakaway republics, Zabzimek and South Ostremek.

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Gorgan Military Forces Disposition

The Gorgan military’s major responsibility remains the country’s security and territorial integrity. A number of years ago, a civil war erupted in both Zabzimek and South Ostremek, where the territory still remains in the hands of separatists. Gorgas launched numerous operations in an attempt to bring the disputed areas back under Gorgan control. Donovia crossed the northern Caucasus to support the breakaway regions, counterattacked the Gorgan military forces, and recognized the breakaway regions as independent states. The Gorgan military failed in its mission to maintain the country’s boundaries in both of these territories. The desire to bring Zabzimek and South Ostremek back under Gorgan control exists in the minds of most Gorgan politicians and remains a steadfast Gorgan military mission.

Army Overview

The Gorgas Land Force consists primarily of light infantry brigades with some armor and mechanized capabilities. The Gorgas Land Force mainly employs Donovian equipment with tier 2 capabilities. In recent history, the US trained small elements of the Gorgan army in Western military tactics and doctrine. At this time, Gorgas plans to increase its reserve forces while it reduces its active duty strength.

Army Size and Structure

The maneuver brigade serves as the Arianian, Atropian, and Gorgan militaries’ basic combined arms unit. In the AFS, some maneuver brigades find themselves constituent, or organic, to the base structure such as divisions. The NC calls them divisional brigades. These armies, however, organize some units as separate brigades, designed to possess greater ability to accomplish independent missions without further allocation of forces from a higher tactical-level headquarters. Separate brigades possess some subordinate units that contain the same force structure as a divisional brigade of the same type (for example, the headquarters); some units that are especially tailored to the needs of a separate brigade, marked “(Sep)” in the organizational directories; and some that are the same as units of this type found at division level, marked “(Div).” (See diagram on page 2D-2-3 and the Order of Battle (OB) at the end of this country’s variable.)

The militaries in the region design their maneuver brigades to serve as the basis to form a brigade tactical group (BTG) if necessary. A brigade, separate or as part of a BTG, can fight as part of a division, division tactical group (DTG), a separate unit in an operational-strategic command (OSC), an organization of the AFS (such as army, corps, or military district), or as part of a field group (FG). (See TC 7-100.2: Opposing Force Tactics, Chapter 2, Command and Control.)

The Gorgan Land Force contains three light infantry brigades, one artillery brigade, a separate tank brigade, one anti-tank battalion, and the National Guard. Each infantry brigade contains between 4,800 and 6,000 motorized soldiers and operates a variety of vehicles for transport. The Land Force uses at least two types of main battle tanks along with a variety of artillery weapons. The Land Force splits its army between its capital city and the two breakaway territories.

The small National Guard serves Gorgas in a variety of ways. The National Guard of Gorgas assists the civil government during a natural or manmade crisis, mobilization resource registration, mobilization manning system operations, ceremonial activity support, and Gorgan Reserve Forces training.

Army Doctrine and Tactics

Gorgas relies on a doctrine similar to Donovia’s. The Gorgan army, however, seems to want to break away from Donovian influence and adopt military doctrine and tactics that will enhance its ability to interact with NATO or other Western country militaries.

Army Training and Readiness

Gorgas possesses a well-trained but small army with a high readiness rate of 92%. The Gorgan army primarily uses Donovian-style tactics because of its Donovian equipment. The Gorgans demonstrated signs that they may turn to more Western doctrine, as the US recently trained three light infantry battalions and one motorized company, making them compatible with NATO. In an attempt to obtain admission to NATO, Gorgas increased its military expenditures from $172 million to $403 million, as NATO requires each country to spend at least 2% of its GDP on defense. Gorgas spent much of this increase on armored personnel carriers, self-propelled artillery, helicopters, and tanks.

The Gorgan military can conduct conventional and adaptive operations, and can rapidly fluctuate between the two to conduct hybrid operations. The Gorgan ground forces currently employ tactical control measures like most armies do today. These include assembly areas, advance axes, checkpoints, jump-off lines (similar to Western lines of departure), and attack lines.

Gorgas used its recently-obtained offensive weapons and tactics to launch its attack to force South Ostremek to return to Gorgan control. Even though the Gorgan military failed to achieve its mission, the ground forces still possess much of the equipment. Gorgas plays an active role in deployments outside of its borders to increase its ties to Western nations, increase Gorgas’ possible inclusion in NATO, and provide funds to the Gorgan government. Gorgas provided two light infantry battalions for low-intensity insurgency operations in support of three different NATO and US operations.

Army Equipment and Weapons

Overall, the Gorgan army possesses primarily tier 2 capabilities. Recent Gorgan purchases of newer equipment and weapons provide the army with the potential for tier 1 niche capabilities. The Gorgan army can operate in all terrain types and can successfully conduct 24-hour operations. (For further information see Section 4: Appendix C or the Worldwide Equipment Guide (WEG), Vol. 1, Chapter 1, OPFOR Tier Tables.)

Naval Forces Overview

A few years ago, because of the ship losses that occurred in naval combat with Donovian ships associated with the Gorgan invasion of South Ostremek, Gorgas consolidated the remainder of its navy with its coast guard. Though known to be small, the exact numbers of ships available to Gorgas remains unknown due to the losses, subsequent salvage operations, and the consolidation of the two forces. Before the war with Donovia, the Gorgan navy operated 19 ships but then lost four to the Donovians.

Naval Forces Size and Structure

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Gorgan Navy

The Gorgan coast guard operates primarily in the Black Sea, with its major port at Poti and its Naval Academy in Batumi. Most of the ships operate anti-aircraft guns. Gorgas continues to replace its Donovian-era ships with more modern Western ships compatible with NATO forces. (See the OB at the end of this country’s variable.)

Naval Forces Doctrine and Tactics

Gorgas’ maritime forces protect coastal borders and patrol the rivers for illegal activities. The security of the Caspian & Black Seas petroleum (CBS-P) pipeline that ends at Supsa, near Batumi, remains a paramount mission for the Gorgan Coast Guard. As secondary missions, Gorgas’ maritime forces conduct search and rescue (SAR) and port security operations. Coast Guard missions might include:

• Defensive patrolling of coastal areas
• Anti-smuggling operations
• Mine laying

Naval Forces Training and Readiness

The Gorgan Coast Guard conducts most of its training on the Black Sea and partners with Kalaria in joint exercises. Gorgas also sends its naval personnel to train in NATO countries. For the most part, Gorgas’ maritime forces only possess the strength to conduct coast guard-type operations. Gorgan Coast Guard elements possess a high level of training with a high readiness rate of 94%.

Naval Forces Equipment and Weapons

The Gorgan Coast Guard operates weapons and equipment with primarily tier 2 capabilities. The coast guard recently purchased some newer ships to upgrade its weapons and equipment for the potential for limited tier 1 niche capabilities. Gorgan naval forces can operate in all waters in and around the country, with the ability to conduct both day and night operations. Most Gorgan Coast Guard ships serve as patrol boats, but the country does possess some limited fast attack and landing craft capability.

Due to the consolidation of the Gorgan navy with its coast guard, the country’s maritime assets will more likely focus on the interdiction of criminal activity and the security of the hydrocarbon infrastructure along the Black Sea coast than protecting the country from outside invasion.

Air Force Overview

Gorgan Air Force

The small Gorgan air force is well-trained but has limited offensive capabilities. It does not possess the size, strength, or capabilities to defend itself against a major military force such as Donovia’s, but it can more than hold its own against other regional foes such as Atropia or Limaria.

Air Force Size and Structure

The Gorgas air force is relatively small with only one ground attack squadron, one transport squadron, a training squadron, and support elements. In addition, the air force also fields two helicopter squadrons, one for attack and the other for transportation missions. (See the OB at the end of this country’s variable.)

Air Force Doctrine and Tactics

The air force’s missions include the protection of the country’s borders, troop transport, close air support for ground forces, and protection of key infrastructure. The Gorgans use primarily Donovian- style aviation doctrine. With so few attack fighters, the Gorgans have little offensive air capability. Although its mission requires it to defend Gorgan air space, the air force seriously lacks air support capability. The Gorgan military uses much of its fixed and rotary wing aircraft for transportation and logistical purposes.

Air Force Training and Readiness

The small Gorgan air force is well-trained, with a high readiness rate of 92%. Most Gorgan air force equipment and weapons use technology from 10 to 20 years ago, making it a tier 2 capable force, although upgrades to equipment and weapons produce the potential for random tier 1 niche capabilities. The Gorgan air force can conduct all-terrain, all-weather, and 24-hour operations.

Air Force Equipment and Weapons

Gorgan air force assets include a combination of Donovian equipment and some Western helicopters. All air defense weapons now come under control of the army. Almost all the air defense missile systems come from Donovia. Slowly, Gorgas wants to retire its aging Donovian airplanes and replace them with more modern equipment, probably from Western countries. The military airfields near Tbilisi constitute Gorgas’ most important aviation locations.

Government Parliamentary Forces

Gorgas contains two governmental paramilitary forces that may be useful in any military conflict. Approximately 5,500 border guards control Gorgas’ land and seacoast. The border guards’ mission is to prevent the smuggling of drugs, weapons, or sensitive materials such as nuclear fission material into the country; stop the illegal movement of migrants or terrorists into or through Gorgas; and enforce customs regulations to improve the economy. The Critical Infrastructure Security Service secures Gorgas’ hydrocarbon pipelines and other vital economic assets.

Non-state Paramilitary Forces

Insurgent Forces

Both breakaway republics in Gorgas maintain armed military forces. While Zabzimek declared its independence, Gorgas did not recognize this declaration. Gorgas fought the Zabzimek separatists to reinstate its control, but Donovia intervened on behalf of the Zabzimeks. The Donovians oversaw the ceasefire agreement that left Zabzimek independent. A few years later, another six-day confrontation took place between the Zabzimek military and Gorgan militia units when Zabzimek recovered its territory occupied by the People’s Liberal Republican Martyrs Group and the Falcon Brothers, two pro-Gorgan groups.

The Zabzimek military’s current numbers are unknown. The Zabzimek ground troops are believed to operate as a battalion-size force and possess tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs), and artillery pieces. Zabzimek’s “navy” operates smaller patrol boats. Zabzimek has converted fishing vessels into patrol boats, which make up the remainder of its fleet.

When South Ostremek also declared its independence, Gorgas attempted to bring the runaway republic back under its control. Gorgas failed again due to Donovian intervention on South Ostremek’s behalf. While Gorgas contributes an infantry battalion to the Donovian-led peacekeeping force in South Ostremek, the status quo remains—with the Ostremeks claiming their independence and the Gorgans believing that South Ostremek belongs to Gorgas. South Ostremek also supports a battalion-size military force of an unknown number of military personnel, tanks, APCs, and artillery pieces.

Guerrilla Forces

Two partisan paramilitary groups operate in the vicinity of the Zabzimek-Gorgas border. People’s Liberal Republican Martyrs Group and the Falcon Brothers both contain ethnic Gorgans who remained behind in Zabzimek after the civil war. These two groups conduct low-level guerrilla warfare in an attempt to reunite Zabzimek with Gorgas. Both groups will support any attempts by Gorgas to force Zabzimek back under Gorgan control.

Criminal Organizations

A great variety of criminal activity occurs throughout Gorgas. The country serves as a prime transshipment point for drugs from Central Asia and corruption exists, driven in part by organized crime. The Gorgan state apparently lacks the resources to effectively tackle crime, especially in the mountainous northeastern border with the Republic of Failaq in Donovia. It remains likely that much of the support provided to anti-Donovian elements in Failaq comes from criminal and terrorist organizations that operate in this region. Zabzimek and South Ostremek are also dangerous, and organized crime permeates both areas. In addition, while Gorgas enacted a limited official trade embargo against Limaria in order to placate Atropia and Kalaria, it purposefully turns a blind eye to illegal Gorgan-Limarian cross-border trade.

Private Security Organizations

Any company that operates near Zabzimek and South Ostremek hires locals to provide security against attacks by local insurgents. Additionally, companies involved in the maintenance of the oil and gas pipelines across Gorgas hire guards to protect this hydrocarbon infrastructure critical to the country’s economy.

Nonmilitary Armed Combatants

The insurgent and guerrilla forces that operate primarily in the runaway republics and the adjacent Gorgan areas are predominately hostile to the US, as they fear a return of Gorgan control to their areas. The criminal organizations in Gorgas are generally neutral to any US presence in their country as long as it does not interfere with their enterprises. Most private security organizations that provide protection to the hydrocarbon pipelines that cross the country support US presence in Gorgas. Pro-Zabzimek irregular forces operate freely within Zabzimek and occasionally conduct cross-border operations into Gorgas. These forces coordinate with and receive support from the Donovian and Zabzimeki regular and SPF units. Their primary goal is to ensure an independent Zabzimek and regularly harass and intimidate ethnic Gorgan civilians. These small irregular units are capable of conducting small unit operations, dependent largely on support from the SPF or Donovian regular units. Capabilities of these units include disruption, fixing, physical destruction, intimidation, and reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition (RISTA).

Military Functions

Command and Control

The core of Ariana’s, Atropia’s, and Gorgas’ command and control (C2) concept remains the assumption that modern communications are susceptible to attack and/or monitoring. Accordingly, the military operates from the view that centralized planning defines the means for assuring both command (establishing the aim) and control (sustaining the aim), leading to strategic and operational directions. Necessarily then, the military relies on the loyalty of its forces and gives them far-ranging authority to act within the aim while foregoing rigorous control as both unproductive and unlikely in the modern environment. (See TC 7-100.2: Opposing Force Tactics, Chapter 2, Command and Control.)

Arianian, Atropian, and Gorgan military battalions are characterized by headquarters composed of a command section including the commander, deputy commander, and a small staff element. It also includes a staff section with the chief of staff and the remainder of the battalion staff. The battalion staff consists of the operations officer, the assistant operations officer, the intelligence officer, and the resources officer. The signal platoon leader also serves as the battalion communications officer, the reconnaissance platoon leader acts as the chief of reconnaissance, and the materiel support platoon leader serves as the battalion resources officer. (See TC 7-100.2: Opposing Force Tactics, Chapter 2, Command and Control.)

The Gorgan military places emphasis on survivability through mobility, redundancy, and security for tactical C2. The Gorgan military streamlines its command posts (CPs) and relies on common procedures to streamline tactical operations, unlike the slower operations found at the operational level.

Maneuver

The Gorgan Land Force contains all the elements necessary for combined operations and to conduct modern maneuver warfare. The Gorgan military, despite its small size, possesses a robust capability to conduct combined arms operations.

Air Defense

The Gorgan military fields one air defense brigade, composed primarily of short-range ground to air missiles. The Gorgan military, however, recognizes that air defense is an all-arms effort. Thus, all ground units possess some type of an organic air defense capability to differing degrees, depending on the type and size of the unit. Many weapons not designed as air defense weapons will also damage and/or destroy tactical aircraft when within range.

Throughout maneuver units, there are a number of systems designed for air defense and other systems that can be used in an air defense role. The heavy antiaircraft machineguns on tanks are specifically designed for air defense. Machineguns on armored personnel carriers and automatic cannon on infantry fighting vehicles can engage both ground and air targets. Most antitank guided missiles (ATGMs) are extremely effective against low-flying helicopters. Several ATGM manufacturers offer antihelicopter missiles and compatible fire control, which are especially effective against low-flying rotary-wing aircraft. Field artillery and small arms can also be integral parts of the air defense scheme. All these weapons can be extremely lethal when used in this role.

Gorgas considers every soldier with a man-portable air defense system to be an air defense firing unit. These weapons are readily available at a relatively low cost and are widely proliferated. The small size and easy portability of these systems provides the opportunity for ambush of enemy airframes operating in any area near Gorgan units. Ground units also employ them to set ambushes for enemy helicopters, especially those on routine logistics missions. (For more information, see TC 7- 100.2: Opposing Force Tactics, Chapter 11, Air Defense.)

INFOWAR

The Gorgan Land Force defines INFOWAR as specifically planned and integrated actions taken to achieve an information advantage at critical points and times. Gorgan INFOWAR strives to influence an enemy’s decision making through collected and available information, information systems, and information-based processes, while the Gorgan military retains the ability to employ friendly information and information-based processes and systems.

RISTA

The Gorgan Land Force contains limited reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance, and target acquisition (RISTA) capabilities. Most of the RISTA capabilities operate from the technical reconnaissance battalion and the brigade intelligence company. Due to a lack of funds and the necessity to replace $250 million in lost equipment from its 2008 incursion into South Ostremek, Gorgas lacks the financial capacity to field the newest and most sophisticated RISTA equipment. US-made radars cover the entire Gorgan airspace but do not operate with the latest technology. The table below summarizes the effective ranges for reconnaissance assets that can support Gorgan tactical commanders.

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Effective Ranges of Gorgan Reconnaissance Assets

Fire Support

The Gorgan military still relies on a large amount of artillery to support its ground forces. The Gorgan ground forces contain a mixture of artillery types. These forces operate self-propelled guns along with rockets and mortars. Gorgas relies on close air support from fixed- and rotary-wing helicopters.

Protection

Gorgas will attempt to minimize civilian casualties to a large extent. The military has engineering assets to reinforce civilian and military positions. The C2 and fire support systems are sophisticated enough to minimize the threat of “friendly fire” or other accidents. The military and civilian populations are closely integrated, however, making it difficult for invaders to launch attacks without the risk of civilian casualties, which would enrage the population and be used as ammunition for INFOWAR. (See TC 7-100.2: Opposing Force Tactics, Chapter 12, Engineer Support and Chapter 7, Information Warfare.)

Logistics

The Gorgan military possesses robust logistics capabilities with the ability to support its maneuver units for any length of time. All five countries continue to improve in all aspects of their logistics systems. These improvements include an increased emphasis on support zone security and plans to stockpile war materiel throughout each country.

Research & Development Goals

Gorgas does not focus on research to build its own military equipment and will continue to purchase its military hardware from other countries. Gorgas wants to retire its obsolete equipment and replace the weapons systems with more modern and more efficient ones, preferably non-Donovian and compatible with NATO systems.

Special Considerations

Gorgas wants to foster favor with NATO and other Western countries while it attempts to get out from under Donovian influence. To obtain favorable treatment from the West, Gorgas often volunteers to help out in coalition operations with Western nations. For that reason, Gorgas continues to supply troops in support of NATO missions.

Summary

Gorgas operates the smallest military of the five countries in the Caucasus region, but the country fields a capable army, navy, and air force with mostly tier 2 equipment and random tier 1 capabilities. Due to its poor relationship with Donovia, Gorgas continues to look towards NATO and other Western countries for military support against its regional enemies.