Land warfare
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Land warfare in the 21st century involves three distinct types of combat units: Infantry, Armour and Artillery.
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[edit] Land forces
Land forces include personnel, weapons platforms, vehicles, and support elements operating on land to accomplish assigned missions and tasks.[1]
[edit] Infantry
Infantry are soldiers who fight primarily on foot with small arms in organized military units, though they may be transported to the battlefield by horses, ships, automobiles, skis, or other means.
[edit] Armour
Armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is a military vehicle, equipped with protection against hostile attacks and often mounted weapons. Most AFVs are equipped for driving in rugged terrain.
Examples of armoured vehicles (a common type of AFV) include: Tanks and Armoured personnel carriers (APC's).
[edit] Artillery
Historically, artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. The term also describes ground-based troops with the primary function of manning such weapons. Sometimes known as "The King of Battle" or "the GOD of war" as called by Stalin. The word is derived from the Old French verb attilier, meaning "to equip". This term includes coastal artillery which traditionally defended coastal areas against seaborne attack and controlled the passage of ships using their ability to deny access through the threat of coastal fire. It also includes land-based field artillery. With the advent of powered flight at the start of the 20th Century, artillery also included ground-based anti-aircraft batteries.
[edit] Combined arms
Combined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects, such as, self-propelled artillery, mechanized infantry and so forth.
