Austrasien Armed Forces

The Reichswehr are the armed forces of the Austrasian Riche. It encompasses the Landwehr, Reichsflotte, Luftwehr, Atomwehr, Weltraumwehr and the Gendarmeriekorps. The commander-in-chief of the Reichswehr is the Inspector General of the Armed Forces, who reports directly to the Reichstag. The current Inspector General is Reichsmarschall Reinhard Falk.

Planning & Doctrine
Presently the most authoritative statement on Austrasia's national military doctrine is the 2012 General Staff Whitepaper. The Whitepapers are produced for the Reichtag every four years and outlines the General Staff's consensus on the major security threats facing Austrasia, the most likely contingencies under which military force would need to be employed, what efforts are being undertaken to mitigate those threats and what shortfalls have been identified. Along with the quadrennial report from the State Armaments Council on the state of the military-industrial complex it is one of the two pillars of defense planning and budgeting in Austrasia, the recommendations contained within to a large extent determine the structure of funding for the next four years.

No General Staff Whitepaper has ever been made completely public. But since the restoration of democracy it has been customary to release a condensed and sanitized forward which covers 'key points' (and serves as a powerful signalling mechanism to potential geopolitical adversaries). The 2012 Forward identified major contingencies that could occur within the next four years and would require the commitment of Austrasian forces, ordered by probability of occurrence:


 * 1) A terrorist attack targeting Austrasian citizens abroad or against Auslandergotten
 * 2) Unconventional attacks including cyberwarfare by non-state or state-sponsored actors on critical infrastructure
 * 3) A request for security assistance from the Zhou government
 * 4) A maritime dispute with Sieuxerr, Dniegua or Eagleland
 * 5) A minor armed border clash with Sieuxerr or Dniegua
 * 6) A strike on the Riche using advance ballistic or cruise weapons
 * 7) A major conventional war against Sieuxerr and it's allies
 * 8) A nuclear attack on the Riche

To mitigate these threats the General Staff recommended:


 * 1) Continued support for the "Big 5" weapons programs including the Panzer 96 and Ishild-class as the backbone of conventional defense
 * 2) Intensified security co-operation with Zhou including pre-positioned forces
 * 3) Strengthen the capabilities of the Reichswehr to conduct low-to-medium intensity combat operations without mobilization, the so-called "Zero Day" capability
 * 4) Construction of a new cyber monitoring/exploitation center and rationalize existing cyberwarfare/cyberintelligence programs
 * 5) Complete the test series for the R50 anti-ship ballistic missile to reinforce the Reichwehr's sea-denial capability
 * 6) Modernize infrastructure for reprocessing nuclear fuel & continue re-manufacturing of obsolete warheads

Many critics in Austrasia noted that the threats identified in the forward dovetailed nicely with some of the Reichswehrs flagship programs. These criticisms were rebutted publicly by both the Kriegsminister and First Minister who asserted that the most critical emerging threats were identified in the classified body of the report, and though this did little to mollify critics the recommendations within were largely accepted as usual without complaint by the Diet.