National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
National Guard may refer to:
The French Armed Forces are the military forces of France. They consist of four military branches – the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force and the National Gendarmerie. The National Guard serves as the French Armed Forces' military reserve force. As stipulated by France's constitution, the president of France serves as commander-in-chief of the French military. France has the ninth largest defence budget in the world and the third largest in the European Union (EU). It also has the largest military by size in the EU. As of 2021, the total active personnel of the French Armed Forces is 270,000. While the reserve personnel is 63,700, for a total of 333,000 personnel. Including the active personnel of the National Gendarmerie, the total men power of all the French Armed Forces combined is 435,000 strong. A 2015 Credit Suisse report ranked the French Armed Forces as the world's sixth most powerful military.
A militia is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional or part-time soldiers; citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel; or, historically, to members of a warrior-nobility class. When acting independently, militias are generally unable to hold ground against regular forces; militias commonly support regular troops by skirmishing, holding fortifications, or conducting irregular warfare, instead of undertaking offensive campaigns by themselves. Local civilian laws often limit militias to serve only in their home region, and to serve only for a limited time; this further reduces their use in long military campaigns. Militias may also, however, serve as a pool of available manpower for regular forces to draw from, particularly in emergencies.
The Bolivarian National Armed Forces of Venezuela are controlled by the Commander-in-Chief and the Minister of Defense. In addition to the army, navy, and air force there is also a national guard and national militia primarily focused on internal security.
A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934.
Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear reconnaissance, logistic traffic management, counterinsurgency, and detainee handling.
A gendarmerie is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to "men-at-arms". In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces that is responsible for internal security in parts of the territory, with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates and colonial possessions adopted a gendarmerie after independence.
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
A border guard of a country is a national security agency that ensures border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard and rescue service duties.
The Louisiana National Guard is the armed force through which the Louisiana Military Department executes the U.S. state of Louisiana's security policy. Consisting of the Louisiana Army National Guard, a reserve component of the United States Army; the Louisiana Air National Guard, a reserve component of the United States Air Force; and the Louisiana State Guard, an all-volunteer state defense force, it is directed by an adjutant general appointed by the Governor of Louisiana unless federalized by order of the President of the United States, which places members on active U.S. military duty status.
A guard of honour, honor guard or ceremonial guard, is a group of people, typically drawn from the military, appointed to perform ceremonial duties – for example, to receive or guard a head of state or other dignitaries, the fallen in war, or to attend at state ceremonials, especially funerals. In military weddings, especially those of commissioned officers, a guard, composed usually of service members of the same branch, form the sabre arch. In principle, any military unit could act as a guard of honour. In some countries, certain units are specially assigned to undertake guard of honour postings or other public duties. Republican guards, royal guards and foot guards frequently have ceremonial duties assigned to them.
A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve forces are generally considered part of a permanent standing body of armed forces, and allow a nation to reduce its peacetime military expenditures and maintain a force prepared for war. During peacetime, reservists typically serve part-time alongside a civilian job, although most reserve forces have a significant permanent full-time component as well. Reservists may be deployed for weeks or months-long missions during peacetime to support specific operations. During wartime, reservists may be kept in service for months or years at a time, although typically not for as long as active duty soldiers.
The Assault Guards, officially known as the Security and Assault Corps, were a gendarmerie and reserve force of the blue-uniformed urban police force of Spain under the Second Spanish Republic. The Assault Guards were special paramilitary and gendarmerie units created by the Spanish Republic in 1931 to deal with urban and political violence. Most of the recruits in the Assault Guards were ex-military personnel, many of them veterans. They would later on be reformed and utilized in the Spanish Civil War as army infantry divisions.
The red beret is a military beret worn by many artillery, military police, paramilitary, commando, and police forces and should not be confused with the maroon beret worn by airborne troops all around the world.
A field force in British, Indian Army and Tanzanian military parlance is a combined arms land force operating under actual or assumed combat circumstances, usually for the length of a specific military campaign. It is used by other nations, but can have a different meaning.
The Modèle 1951 helmet was a military helmet used by the French military, iconic of the Algerian War. It replaced a variety of helmets used during the Second World War, including the Adrian helmet, Modèle 1945 helmet and American-supplied M1 Helmet.
Troops began wearing berets as a part of the headgear of military uniforms in some European countries during the 19th century; since the mid-20th century, they have become a component of the uniforms of many armed forces throughout the world. Military berets are usually pushed to the right to free the shoulder that bears the rifle on most soldiers, but the armies of some countries, mostly within Europe, South America, and Asia, have influenced the push to the left.