professional army
Paid military force
A professional army is a military force composed of full-time, paid soldiers rather than conscripts or part-time militia.
Members typically serve for extended periods, receiving specialized training and career advancement.
The term distinguishes standing armies from citizen-soldiers called up during wartime: Rome's shift to a professional army changed the nature of its conquests.
Most modern nations maintain professional armies, though some combine them with conscription systems.
- career soldiersProfessional military personnel
- basic trainingInitial military instruction
- boot campInitial military instruction program
- standing armiesPermanently maintained military forces
- active dutyCurrent military employment status
officer corps · command hierarchy · military-industrial complex · defense budget · Roman legions · enlisted ranks · rank and file · regiments · battalions · chain of command · military discipline · peacekeeping missions · mercenaries · tour of duty · strategic thinking · divisions · brigades · tactical planning
- conscriptionconscription, conscript, conscripts, draftee, draftees
- Roman Republicconsul, Roman Republic, veto power, senator, sacrosanctity
professional armyconscript army
Troops raised by compulsion
militia · citizen army · citizen soldiers · feudal levy · draftees
professional armyirregular forces
Unofficial armed combatants
partisan fighters · rebel army · peasant army · private army · paramilitary force
professional armyirregular forces
Unofficial armed combatants
partisans · insurgents · resistance fighters · paramilitary group · rabble
professional, army, profession, profess, professing, professed, professor, professorial, professionally