CODEX: THE KOVENANT IMPERIAL ARMY.

Military Education And Training.

The Kovenant Imperial Army is by far the largest organised fighting force in the entire galaxy, as the largest fighting force of the Kovenant Empire, it was often used in wars on a planetary scale and used to great effect fighting wars all over the galaxy. Consisting of untold Billions of mortal soldiers, men and women serving within the army and for the Kovenant Empire out of a sense of duty, patriotism and a need to ensure the survival of their nation and the protection of their people againts all the terrors of the galaxy, organised into Hundreads of thousands of Regiments.
Though it is very well known for its Panzers, vehicles and mechs, at its core it consists of untold billions of mortal soldiers, men and women drafted or eitherwise were called for service or volunteered for military service.

Naturally than, in order to aid in the Apocalyptic wars that the Kovenant Empire has to fight in order to survive, its soldiers need to be of an excellent quality in terms of strength, physical fitness, discipline and other skills necessary for the military.

As dictated by Kovenant Imperial law, all planets under the Empire's rule must maintain a standing army of its own in order to preserve the plantery government and deter foreign invasion, alien or otherwise, which, was to be a Kovenant Imperial Army garrison upon each and every world within the Kovenant Empire.

However the Kovenant Imperial Army is often stretched thin across the entire galaxy, as they were busy fighting in hundreads if not thousands of worlds at a time, fighting all manner of enemies ftom the Traitor Legions all the way to the power of Xenos Empires and the Null corrupted Forsakened ones. Additionally the Army often fought againts rebellions, Insurgents and militant insurrectinist movements that had cropped up on no longer compliant Imperial worlds.

Because of this unavoidable reality of warfare, the Kovenant Imperial Army was used to taking millions of casualties on any number of worlds, though the damage was generally controlled and spread out, so as to not completely destroy the strength of any given Regiment or for that matter, army group that was currently off on campaign.

Integrated military education -

Because of this as well as the constant demands of war all across the galaxy, the Kovenant Empire enforces an integrated training system in its own education system.
In this way, as the next generation studied at school with all the usual subjects and lessons, they would also be recieving a military style education alongside all those years in school, starting from the moment that they were grade 1 and increasing in training as they all got older.
Known as "Military Education."

Military education was integrated into the Empire's school system and it was universally enforced by all worlds with only a handful of exceptions. Military education is essentially the familiarisation of students with military Terminology, tactics and comradeship starting from the 1st grade onwards. Often times helping to evoke greater discipline and even class cohesion as the students themselves saw their individual classes as 'Companies' and their rows as their squads and squad mates.

Indeed, schools encouraged this because of the fact that the students become very well disciplined from an early age and are far less likely to cause trouble.
This, of course did not stop bullying however it lead to greater bonds between the students while also familiarising them with aspects of military service. At the same time this were daily lessons that was usually started at the end of normal class.

Yet this did not stop the students from having fun after.

Indeed it is a common misconception at first that it would be tough and hard. However, especially with the younger ages they would mostly be recieving practical skills such as how to apply a bandage and even how to operate a basic radio and other such skills, while also teaching discipline and others.

When the students got to the age of 13 - 15, they will recieve basic military training. This allowed them to be familiarised with basic squad tactics, unit cohesion, strategy, small scale  logistics, as well as physically pushing them to their limits with obstacle courses, long marches as well as familiarising them with uniforms, ranks, insignias as well as how to operate radios.

When they reach age 17 and above than this students will be given extra military training, this time with actual weapons, uniforms and even being trained by Imperial officers brought up from the reserves in order to make this men and woman into true soldiers in their own right. They were to go over basic weapons training, cleaning and maintaining of their weapons, as well as how to find themselves on a map, read a map, know how to use a compos to tell the direction as well as be expected to operate effectively with their classmates in squads as well as showing professionalism and effectiveness with their standard weaponry.

Eventually, when they graduated, they will have been very familiar with the military as well as having a good understanding of tactics, strategy, squad management, leadership and weapons in general as well as being able to understand to understand and follow complicated orders and other essential skills of military service such as having a basic understanding of supply and the basic logistics for keeping a Squad or even Platoon supplied with military equipment.

Through this system of dedicated Military Education in schools, the Kovenant Empire was able to have a massive pool of manpower to call upon in times of need, as because of this integrated system of training.
As it allowed the Kovenant Empire to use its expertise in warfare to a greater degree, especially when it comes to garrisons and recruitment into the army.

Once the students have garduated and have reached adulthood, than they are required to serve atleast 2 to 3 years in the Garrison forces, with the option to stay in the garrison forces to recieve an even greater military training regime.
You see, the Garrison forces on each individual Kovenant world is not only to garrison the world as a standing army, but also be a training and reserve unit.
Where, retired or else transfered soldiers would often go to in order to help train the fresh recruits and the next batch that will come in after them. Thus giving the planet a constant source of reserve soldiers to help protect itself.

And it is because of the Garrison's other function of being yet further military training led by Veteran soldiers and officers brought into the reserves, thus 2 to 3 years was spent on various garrison duties and exercises to help them with their skills.

And because of military education, conscripted or volunteering to join the military afterwards meant that the Kovenant can provide a more advanced training regime early on, as its citizens will have already been familiar and even knowledgeable witb military equipment, hardware, tactics and terminology to boot. When this citizens are to be brought into the Military after their time in the garrisons have ended, this men and women would need a refresher and only more advanced training with weapons as well as further familiarisation with military code, the command structure of the Regiment and other related activities.

All in all, training of this conscripts would take no less than 3 to 4 months, or even 6 if they wanted to be thorough about it.
The end result of all this, are disciplined, loyal, well trained soldiers ready for combat duties and assignment to various Imperial Army Regiments.

Some of this recruits will also have been assigned or else volunteered themselves to special courses such as Logistics, Panzer Corpe or even the transfered to the Luftwaffe to become Fallschirmjagers (Paratroopers) which usually required much longer training periods, anywhere from 6 months to over a year of training in this special courses.

However, the soldiers themselves have the ability to request transfer to different training courses if they so wish.