Commands, formations, and unitsIt is common, at least in the European and North American militaries, to refer to the building blocks of a military as commands, formations and units.
In a military context, a command is a collection of units and formations under the control of a single officer. Although during the Second World War a Command was also a name given to a battle group in the US Army, in general it is an administrative and executive strategic headquarters which is responsible to the national government or the national military headquarters. It is not uncommon for a nation's services to each consist of their own command (such as Land Force Command, Air Command, and Maritime Command in the Canadian Forces), but this does not preclude the existence of commands which are not service-based.
A formation is a composite military organization that includes a mixture of integrated and operationally attached sub-units, and is usually combat-capable. A formation is defined by the US Department of Defense as 'two or more aircraft, ships, or units proceeding together under a commander.' The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a formation as an 'arrangement or disposition of troops.' Formations include brigades, divisions, wings, etc.
A typical unit is a homogeneous military organization, either combat, combat support or non-combat in capability, that includes service personnel predominantly from a single Arm of Service, or a Branch of Service, and its administrative and command functions are integrated (self-contained). Anything smaller than a unit is considered a "sub-unit" or "minor unit".
Different armed forces, and even different branches of service of the armed forces may use the same name to denote different types of organizations. An example is the "squadron". In most navies a squadron is a formation of several ships; in most air forces it is a unit; in the U.S. Army it is a battalion-sized cavalry unit; and in Commonwealth armies a squadron is a company-sized sub-unit.
Table of organization and equipment
A table of organization and equipment (TOE or TO&E) is a document published by the U.S. Department of Defense which prescribes the organization, manning, and equippage of units from divisional size and down, but also including the headquarters of Corps and Armies.
It also provides information on the mission and capabilities of a unit as well as the unit's current status. A general TOE is applicable to a type of unit (for instance, infantry) rather than a specific unit (the 3rd Infantry Division). In this way, all units of the same branch (such as Infantry) follow the same structural guidelines.
Executive control, management and administration of military organizations
The usually civilian or partly civilian executive control over the national military organization is exercised in democracies by an elected political leader as a member of government's Cabinet, usually known as a Minister of Defence. (In presidential systems, such as the United States, the president is the commander-in-chief, and a the cabinet-level defense minister is second in command.) Subordinated to that position will be Secretaries for specific major operational divisions of the armed forces as a whole, such as those that provide general support services to the Armed Services, including their dependents. Third in the chain of command will be the heads of specific departmental agencies responsible for provision and management of specific skill and knowledge based service such as Strategy advice, Capability Development assessment, or Defence Science provision of research, design and development of technologies. Within each departmental agency will be found administrative branches responsible for further agency business specialization work. For example the Strategy agency may have one branch producing advice on operational concepts while another may provide advice on operational methods, and a third branch would provide the synthesis of these in the application of joint operations by Armed Services.
