CFFOR

The military of the Cascadian Federation, officially known as the Cascadian Federal Forces, sometimes shortened to CFFOR (pronounced C-4), consists of five of the seven federal uniform services: the Cascadian Federal Army, the Cascadian Federal Marine Corps, the Cascadian Federal Navy, the Cascadian Federal Air Force, and the Cascadian Federal Coast Guard. The Cascadian Federal Coast Guard is usually considered a civil defense corps (under the peacetime control of the CF Department of Public Safety), the exception being in times of war, during which the Coast Guard would be absorbed by the CF Navy for the duration of the war. Approximately 147,000 personnel are currently on active duty in the military, with an additional 47,000 personnel in the seven reserve components. The Commander-in-Chief of the C.F. military is the President of the Cascadian Federation. With a strength of 194 thousand personnel, including reserves, the Cascadian Federation armed forces are the 37th largest in the world, after the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and have troops deployed around the globe. As in most militaries, members of the C.F. armed forces hold a rank, either that of officer or enlisted, and can be promoted.

State Defense Forces are militia units operating under the sole authority of a state government or governor, and are distinct from the Cascadian Federal Forces in that they are not federal military forces. Established by the Federal Constitution, and authorized by state and federal law, State Defense Forces ("militias of the several States" as mentioned in the Federal Constitution) as a whole "may not be called, ordered, or drafted into the armed forces" (of the Cascadian Federation) under C.F.C. 32-5109, however the subsection further states that individuals serving in the State Defense Forces are not exempt from conscription, unless serving on active duty in their SDF. Each of the five Cascadian states have active State Defense Forces that can be called upon during emergency management and homeland security missions, as well as to defend the sovereignty of their state in the event that federal forces are unable to defend the states from invasion.

The military of the Cascadian Federation, and the State Defense Forces are made up entirely of contract servicemen and servicewomen; conscription was only enacted once, during the Cascadian Civil War (1869-75).

The Cascadian Federal Department of Defense (DoD) is the Cabinet organization that controls the C.F. military, headquartered at the Pentagon. The Secretary of Defense also oversees the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, and civilian agencies such as the Inspector General, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the OG. The DoD is the second largest employer in the Cascadian Federation, after the Department of Energy.

The military history of the Cascadian Federation spans across three centuries, during which the Cascadian Federation grew from an alliance of three British colonies without a professional military, to the one of the world's several great powers as of 2008.

The history of the Cascadian Federation military begins in civilian frontiersmen, armed for hunting and basic survival in the wilderness that were organized into local militias for small military operations, mostly against pirates (both land and sea) but also to resist possible raids by the small military forces of neighboring European colonies.