Armed Forces

The Rakutanian People's Armed Forces (RPAF) are the DPRR's combined military, comprising the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The RPAF has approximately 520,000 active personnel — large in absolute terms, conscript-heavy, and Soviet-pattern in organization and doctrine. Mobilized strength on full reserve activation is estimated at 1.8–2.0 million.

The RPAF is the principal land force opposing the WDP in the current Continuation War. As of 2026 the RPAF is committed across the Gorlish frontier (the principal land theater), with secondary deployments to the CSAT-coordinated southern Sierran theater and minor contingents elsewhere.

Doctrine

Rakutanian military doctrine is Soviet-pattern mass armor and artillery. The core operational concepts:

1. Massed artillery preparation — extensive tube and rocket artillery fires preceding maneuver, with the express purpose of suppressing enemy positions and reducing the cost of subsequent armor exploitation
2. Armored breakthrough — main battle tank brigades and heavy mechanized formations conducting concentrated breakthrough operations against degraded enemy lines
3. Conscript infantry as manpower input — large infantry formations occupying terrain, exploiting breakthroughs, and absorbing casualties to maintain operational tempo
4. Operational mass over operational precision — accepting higher casualties in exchange for the strategic effect of sustained large-scale operations
5. Air-ground coordination at the operational level — Air Force ground-attack and helicopter formations supporting Army operations; less doctrinally close-air-support oriented than WDP equivalents

The doctrine is continental and offensive in orientation — designed for large-scale land operations across the Rakut steppe and the western frontier. It is less well-suited to:

• Precision counter-insurgency operations
• Urban combat (the doctrine accepts heavy civilian casualties as a cost of urban operations)
• Coalition operations with peer Western forces
• Defensive operations against a peer-tier WDP coalition with air superiority

The Continuation War has exposed several of these doctrinal limits. The initial offensive into Gorlund succeeded against an unmobilized Gorlish defense; the subsequent defensive operations against mobilized Gorlish forces supported by FSA expeditionary capability have been substantially more costly and less successful.

Force structure

The RPAF is organized into three services under the General Staff (Generalshtab), with the Ministry of National Defense exercising political authority under Politburo direction.

Rakutanian People's Army

The senior service. Approximately 420,000 active personnel organized into:

• Multiple Combined Arms Armies — the principal operational formations; each typically including 2–3 armored or mechanized infantry divisions plus supporting elements
• Armored divisions — main battle tank-based formations; the principal offensive instrument
• Mechanized infantry divisions — IFV-mounted infantry with organic armor; the bulk of the infantry force
• Artillery formations — tube and rocket artillery brigades; the largest artillery force in Sierra
• Airborne and air-mobile formations — strategic reserve; small relative to peer powers
• Strategic reserve formations — heavy armor and artillery formations held under General Staff direct control

See Rakutanian People's Army.

Rakutanian People's Navy

The junior service. Approximately 35,000 active personnel including coastal defense elements. Headquartered at the Karrud Estuary base on the Boreal coast. The Navy operates:

• A small surface combatant force
• A more substantial submarine force (Soviet-pattern attack submarines)
• Coastal defense formations
• Limited naval aviation

The Navy is not a major operational factor in the current war. Rakutanian maritime power projection is minimal; the Navy's principal mission is coastal defense and limited Boreal Ocean operations.

See Rakutanian People's Navy.

Rakutanian People's Air Force

Approximately 65,000 active personnel. The Air Force operates fighter formations, ground-attack formations, transport, and the country's substantial air-defense apparatus (formally a separate command but operationally integrated).

See Rakutanian People's Air Force.

Command and control

The chain of command runs:

1. The General Secretary of the RWP as Supreme Commander
2. The Politburo Military Commission — the senior party-military coordination body
3. The Minister of National Defense — the senior civilian-ministerial official (always a Politburo member)
4. The Chief of the General Staff — the senior uniformed officer
5. Service chiefs — Commander of the Army, Commander of the Navy, Commander of the Air Force
6. Operational commands — Combined Arms Army commanders for the operational fronts

Recruitment and manpower

The DPRR maintains universal male conscription with selective female service:

• All male citizens are liable for 24 months of conscript service beginning at age 18 (recently extended from 18 months)
• Reserve obligation continues for 15 years following active service
• Selective female service in non-combat and administrative roles
• The professional cadre (officers, senior NCOs, specialists) is recruited through party-political vetting and military academy training

The conscription system is effective at producing mass infantry but produces lower-quality personnel than volunteer-professional WDP equivalents. The conscript-quality gap is a persistent operational challenge; Rakutanian tactical performance below the battalion level is generally weaker than equivalent WDP formations.

The current war has triggered expanded conscription and selective reserve mobilization. Conscript service has been extended to 36 months for the duration; reserve activations have been substantial; the regime has also begun politically-sensitive mass mobilization drafts in late 2026 to replace combat losses.

Industrial base

The RPAF is supplied by the state-owned defense industrial complex, principally:

• State Defense Production Authority (SDPA) — the unified defense industrial organization; oversees all military production
• Karrud Tank Production — main battle tanks (Soviet-pattern; modernized through the 2010s but conceptually descended from Cold War predecessors)
• Shirvangrad Steel and Armor — armored vehicle production
• Rakutanian Aircraft Production — combat aircraft, helicopters, transport
• Karrud Estuary Shipyards — naval construction
• Multiple munitions facilities — small arms, ammunition, artillery shells

The defense industrial base has been prioritized through the sanctions era at the cost of broader industrial development. The RPAF's equipment is dated by WDP standards but produced in substantial quantity domestically — a deliberate trade-off of qualitative depth for quantitative mass.

ESA integration

The RPAF is deeply integrated with CSAT forces through ESA structures:

• Joint ESA command for coalition operations
• Equipment standardization — substantial overlap in equipment families
• Coordinated doctrine — joint training, exercises, and operational planning
• Logistics cooperation — shared supply chains; cross-state base access

The integration is closer than the WDP's looser coalition structure. ESA operations are conducted more as joint operations of two integrated military systems than as coalition operations of two independent militaries.

Wartime expansion

The RPAF is in full wartime mobilization as of August 2026:

• Active strength has expanded through conscription extensions and reserve activations to an estimated current peak strength of ~640,000–700,000
• Industrial output is at maximum capacity, with multiple new production lines opened in 2026
• Defense budget has consumed an estimated 11–13% of GDP since the war began (versus pre-war ~6%)
• Casualty replacement is the principal manpower challenge — losses since July 2026 are estimated at 30,000+ KIA, 80,000+ WIA, with replacement training pipelines stretched

The regime has not activated the most expansive mobilization measures (mass conscription of older age groups, complete labor mobilization, full martial law); these remain available as escalation options if the war continues to deteriorate.

Service-level pages

• Rakutanian People's Army — Combined Arms Armies, armored and mechanized divisions, artillery, airborne
• Rakutanian People's Navy — Boreal coast fleet, submarines, coastal defense
• Rakutanian People's Air Force — fighter formations, ground-attack, air defense
• Equipment — service rifle, armor, artillery, aircraft (full equipment treatment pending OOB build; see also Fireteam Rulebook §8.3.1 for the canonical Rakutanian Rifle Squad stat block used in tabletop play)