Marleyan military

The Marleyan military (マーレの軍事) is the combined armed forces of Marley, consisting primarily of the Marley army (マーレ陸軍) and the Marley navy (マーレ海軍), which includes the infamous Warrior Unit.

Structure
Marley maintains its military dominance in the world stage through the use of four (formerly seven, until the loss of the Colossus, Female, and War Hammer Titans) of the Nine Titans and a technologically moderate military force, which is not as developed as that of other powers around the world.

The exact number of soldiers in the military is unknown, but the vast majority of them are Eldians. The forces close enough to respond to the attack on Liberio number 30,000 soldiers.

Chain of Command
The various branches of the military are collectively led by a general, formerly General Calvi before his death. Below the general are commanders who are responsible for the control and training of a combat unit. With the bulk of the military leadership annihilated during the events in Liberio, Theo Magath becomes the de facto commander in chief of the entire military force, exercising his power as a general, a position promised to him by Willy Tybur.

Military service
Marley used to have a conscription system which was abolished at an unknown time. Currently, most of Marley's rank and file is filled by Eldian enlistees. In the year 854, Magath pushes for the reintroduction of conscription for ethnic Marleyans in order to meet the anticipated threats from Paradis and other advanced powers of the world.

Army
The Marley army (マーレ陸軍) possesses a conventional armament that is largely similar to other world powers in appearance, but is noted to be more obsolete. For small-arms weaponry, bolt action rifles and stick grenades are the standard-issued weapons of Marleyan infantrymen, with two models of rifle in service. Warchief Zeke Yeager also carries a sub-machine gun into battle, suggesting that automatic small-arms are used at least by Marley's elite Airborne Unit. Heavier weapons such as water-cooling machine guns are employed as the primary armament of the Cart Titan in particular, turning them into mobile weapon platforms manned by Marleyan soldiers known as the Panzer Unit (パンツァー隊). Soldiers are primarily transported by steam-powered trains, but those who garrison inside home territory are also transported by trucks.

The use of Titans is central to the army's doctrine. Beside having the Warrior Unit as a strategical deterrent, Marley also has a long-standing strategy of converting its Eldian population into pure Titans to bolster its military strength. In ancient times, pure Titans were set loose by the Eldian Empire an enemy force en masse, as they are unable to follow complex commands except from the Founding Titan. Marley's tactic remains much unchanged from Eldia's in the modern era, except that the Titans can now be airdropped by zeppelins.

Other than strategic value, inheritors of the Nine Titans also fulfill the tactical role comparable to tanks on the field. For example, Porco Galliard was tasked to destroy a machine gun nest which was otherwise untouchable by infantry in the battle against Fort Slava. A more literal example is Pieck, who possesses four machine guns turrets strapped to the armor on her Titan's back, a configuration that proved highly effective in clearing the Allies' trench system. Otherwise, Marleyan troops practice conventional tactics such as trench warfare, frontal human wave assault, and rudimentary anti-armor techniques such as the use of bundle stick grenades.

However, due to their heavy reliance on the power of the Titans, the Marleyan army has neglected development and advancement of conventional armaments. As a result, its forces were gradually outclassed by the Mid-East Allied Forces and other nations of the world, who pushed their efforts into military development in order to strike a balance with Marley's Titans. The situation has become so dire that General Calvi pessimistically states that, even with the power of the Founding Titan, the army can stand little chance against the advanced aircraft technology developed by its enemies.

The army has little regard for proper conducts of war. For example, Magath intentionally allowed Warrior candidate Gabi Braun to attack an enemy pillbox in plainclothes, even though he was aware that this would be a violation of international law if anyone remained alive to report it.

Eldian Unit
The main force of the Marleyan army is the Eldian Unit (エルディア人部隊). The army's hierarchy is ethnically segregated, with Eldians forming the entirety of the enlisted ranks led by an all-Marleyan leadership. As a clear indication of rank, Eldian soldiers are issued with headgear differing from their Marleyan superiors, and all are required to wear the nine-pointed star insignia identifying them as Eldians at all time unless when being explicitly ordered to take it off. Like in civilian society, Marleyan officers are generally disdainful of their Eldian subordinates, but some are less so. For example, Commander Theo Magath is more willing to communicate with his Warrior candidates, and even allows them opportunities to celebrate, although those were likely done out of pragmatism. On the other hand, his subordinate Marleyan officer Koslow is openly contemptuous of the Eldians, and he seeks every chance to belittle them. Despite the discrimination, Eldian veterans are entitled to medical care if they are permanently crippled or psychologically damaged in war.

Warrior Unit
Before the year 830, Marley possessed seven Titans which assured its position as a world power. However, advancements in technology have started to undermine the military importance of Titans. Recognizing this fact, the Marleyan government planned to conquer Paradis to exploit its rich fossil fuel resources in order to improve their conventional military. The plan was hindered by Karl Fritz's threat of unleashing the Colossus Titans upon the world in case of a Marleyan invasion, though this threat was little more than a means of temporary deterrence.

In order to counter King Fritz's ultimatum, the Marleyan government decided to grant the power of the seven Titans in their nation's possession to a selection of children who are Subjects of Ymir, thus forming the Warrior Unit (戦士隊). The families of those chosen children were promised to be made into honorary Marleyans with all freedoms that come with the distinction. These children were trained into expendable soldiers in warfare while also serving as candidates to inherit the powers of the Titans.

Over a dozen years later, in the year 845, Marley sent out four of their Warriors, Bertolt Hoover, Reiner Braun, Annie Leonhart, and Marcel Galliard from their hometown of Liberio. These Warriors were given the task of breaching the gates of the Walls in order to wipe out the Eldians and take the Founding Titan from the royal family.

They succeed in breaching Wall Maria, though their efforts in breaching Wall Rose are halted upon learning that Eren Yeager possesses the power of the Titans, leading them to suspect that he could have the Founding Titan they seek. Since that revelation, the goal of the surviving Warriors has been to capture Eren Yeager in order to obtain the Founding Titan. However, after their failure at the Battle of Shiganshina District, the Paradis Island Operation has since been postponed due to the loss of the Colossus and Female Titans.

In the year 854, a group of candidates consisting of Gabi, Falco, Colt, and a few others join the Warrior Unit to help capture Fort Slava under the command of Theo Magath during the Marley Mid-East War. The same battle also sees Reiner and Zeke being deployed on the field alongside a barrage of mindless Titan. Reiner is severely injured when he shields Zeke from a direct hit of a naval artillery shell.

The Warriors are now facing the threat of being outclassed by advanced technology in weaponry used by others nations against them. During the Battle of Liberio, the Survey Corp matches the Warriors in battle, and even manages to overwhelm them when Porco Galliard breaks formation and leaves his comrades exposed.

Navy
The Marley navy (マーレ海軍) is outdated and underdeveloped, which leads to devastating losses against the state-of-the-art naval warships deployed by the Allies during the Marley Mid-East War. During the war, it only manages to control the sea at the cost of half of its fleet after four years of fighting. The failure of the navy was attributed by Magath as one of the causes leading to Marley's pyrrhic "victory."

Despite poorer performance, the battleships operated by Marley after the war bear few differences to its Alliance counterparts in appearance, which may suggest that the ships were seized from the defeated Alliance as war compensation. The ships are steam-powered, fully steel built vessels, armed with two twin-gun main batteries of large-caliber naval guns as well as numerous smaller guns around the hull.

During the war, the navy sent 32 ships including a number of destroyers to the coast of Paradis in the course of three years. The purpose was to survey the area for the eventual invasion of the island. All ships were lost to an unknown force.

Relations between the army and the navy are poor. For example, Udo scolds it for being a "cesspool of incompetence." When Magath blames it for damaging Marley's reputation as the victor of war in a post-battle meeting with the general, a naval officer defends his service branch.

During the fighting in Liberio, Magath gives orders to the navy, citing that the normal chain of command has broken down. This suggests that the head of the Marleyan navy was present for the Liberio festival and perished.

During the course of the battle, a Marleyan fleet of about twenty ships, arrives at a port near Liberio, in order to reinforce the Marleyan position. However, Armin Arlert is waiting for them and proceeds to transform into his Colossus Titan form, obliterating the entire fleet and the port where the ships are docking.

Air Force
Although it is unclear whether or not the Marleyan military possesses an independent air branch, air power had seen use in the Marley Mid-East War and the operation against Paradis.

At the conclusion of the Marley Mid-East War, it is hinted that Marley will focus on developing heavier-than-air aircrafts that can rain bombs from above.

Airborne Unit
The Airborne Unit (空挺部隊) uses zeppelins to carry Eldians injected with Zeke Yeager's spinal fluid. These Eldians are then parachuted over a target area and transformed by Zeke's scream into pure Titans, who upon transforming lose their parachutes and fall violently on the enemy's territory, the kinetic force destroying much of the bombarded zone. Although a large percentage of the Titans die due to the fall, the remaining ones then proceed to decimate the surviving enemy forces. Members of the Nine Titans serving Marley such as the Armored and Beast Titans can then be parachuted as well, although from a lower altitude, to continue with the attack.

Public Security Authorities
The Public Security Authorities is a Marleyan internal military force. Its primary purpose is to control the Eldian minority within the Marleyan mainland. The PSA repression of Eldians drove Grisha Yeager into becoming an Eldian Restorationist and led to the creation of several Titans which ravaged the Walled society in Paradis.

Trivia

 * The Marleyan military is also informally referred to in Japanese as マーレ軍 Māre-gun, which is officially translated as "Marleyan army." However, this is a shorthand term for the entire military, combining ground and marine forces. The ground division of the military is also known in English as the "army," but using the kanji 陸 kai, meaning "land."
 * The Marleyan army's equipment seems like a mix of WW1 German and British gears. For example, Marleyan servicemen wear a headgear that shaped like, while Eldian soldiers wear what appear to be . Furthermore, the Marleyan service rifle heavily resembles a . In chapter 97, Reiner attempts to commit suicide with a , suggesting both weapons were used in Marleyan service. Strangely, the former rifle was used in Reiner's childhood while the latter rifle was used as a training weapon in the present day, even though the Gewehr 98 was a more advanced rifle in real life.