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( Armed force)
The armed forces of a state are its government-sponsored defence, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external and internal aggressors. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation's armed forces. Armed force is the use of armed forces to achieve political objectives. The study of the use of armed forces is called military science. Broadly speaking, this involves considering offense and defense at three "levels" strategy, operational art, and tactics. All three levels study the application of the use of force in order to achieve a desired objective. In most countries the armed forces are divided into three or four forces an army, a navy, an air force, and often a gendarmerie or a paramilitary police force. Gendarmeries (including equivalents such as Internal Troops, Paramilitary Forces, etc.) are common in most of the world but are uncommon in Anglo-Saxon countries. A number of countries have no navy, for geographical reasons. Many countries have a variation on the standard model of three or four basic forces. Variations include China (army, navy, air force, strategic missile force), South Africa (army, navy, air force, military health service), and Egypt (army, navy, air force, air defense). The United States has five (army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard).
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