The Ministry serves as the direct executor of the will of the Crown. While the Crown is free, by both law and custom, to issue orders directly to subordinate units and commands (such is typical when the Crown sits with the JCCG) the Ministry serves as the default chain of command. The Minister of Defense reports directly to the Crown and thence gives orders either directly to the particular service chief or to the particular Minister of that service. Notable is that the heads of the military service report directly to the Minister of Defense, there are no intermediary civilian officials. Thus by order of rank the Minister is the second highest followed by the head of a given service. Also of note is that the Ministry of Defense does not exercise any authority over the Royal Armed Forces instead serving as the central point of command for the Regular Establishment forces of Wilkonia.
Departments[]
The Ministry of Defense is composed of two major departments, each with several supporting establishments.
The Uniformed Department[]
The Uniformed Department consists of the Joint Headquarters for the Regular establishment including the headquarters offices of all four branch service chiefs. This consists of the Joint Headquarters Staff, the Army General Staff, the Naval Command Staff, and the Air Service General Staff. There is no commander of the Joint Headquarters aside from the Minister of Defense however the staff itself reports to the Cheif of Staff, Joint Headquarters.
Unlike with the Joint Combatant Command Headquarters or JCCH the Joint Headquarters consists of all relevant staff poisitons including Administration, Intelligence, Plans, Logistics, and Communications. Additional Staff offices are established for Medical, Aviation, Training and Recruitment, Public Relations, and Morale/Welfare/Recreation.
The Civilian Department[]
The Civilian Department is headed by a Minister for each service whose primary duty is to oversee the civilian staff associated with each service. The staff within each service is divided into Procurement, Operations, and Administrative Staffs. There is a joint group for each between the services which reports directly to the Minister of Defense while the Ministers of the individual branches receive direct reports only from their immediate group.
The Procurement department is charged with all short and long term product acquisitions including test phase, preliminary R&D, as well as land and basing rights.
The Operations department is charged with maintenance of all existing facilities as well as construction for new and upgraded facilities at all permanent and semi-permanent bases.
The Administrative department is responsible for all records and personnel management within the entire regular establishment. This includes all medical, dental, promotion, demotion, pay, award, and recruitment record keeping for each branch.
The joint administrative group, which reports directly to the Minister of Defense, oversees the same functions as the service branch groups only for the Civilian Department itself.
The Base Facilities Department is charged with unified control of all permanently established operating and training facilities both within Wilkonia proper and on any leased or permanently acquired overseas properties. This includes sub departments for vehicle acquisition and maintenance, facilities maintenance, construction and real estate development, and Morale Welfare and Recreation. As a note this control extends even to the level of all recruitment offices and sub-stations.