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{{Short description|Official army of a state or country}}
{{for multi|particular forces|Regular Army (United States)|and|Regular Army (UK)}}
{{War}}

A '''regular army''' is the official army of a state or country (the official [[armed forces]]), contrasting with [[irregulars|irregular forces]], such as volunteer irregular [[militias]], [[private army|private armies]], [[mercenary|mercenaries]], etc. A regular army usually has the following:
* a [[standing army]], the permanent force of the regular army that is maintained [[under arms]] during peacetime.
* a [[military reserve force]] that can be mobilized when needed to expand the effectiveness of the regular army by complementing the standing army.

A regular army may be:
* a ''conscript army'', including professionals, volunteers and also [[conscript]]s (presence of enforced [[conscription]], including recruits for the standing army and also a compulsory reserve).
* a ''professional army'', with no conscripts (absence of compulsory service, and presence of a voluntary reserve), is not exactly the same as a standing army, as there are standing armies both in the conscript and the professional models.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, the term ''Regular Army'' means the professional standing active duty army, as different from the reserve component: the [[Army Reserve (United Kingdom)|Army Reserve]] (formerly the [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]]) in the United Kingdom and the [[U.S. Army Reserve]] and the [[Army National Guard]] in the United States.
<!-- Countries that use the term ''regular army'' include:
*[[Australian Army]]
*[[British Army#Formation and structure|British Army]] 
*[[Canadian Forces]], specifically "[[Regular Force]]"
*[[Egyptian army]]
*[[Indian Army]]
*[[Nepalese Army]]
*[[New Zealand Army#Regular Army|New Zealand Army ]]
*[[Singapore Army]]
*[[Sri Lanka Army]]
*[[Regular Army (United States)|United States Army]]
*[[Chinese Army]]
*[[Pakistan Army]]
-->

== Bibliography ==
* Woodward, David. ''Armies of the world, 1854–1914''. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, cop. 1978. {{ISBN|0-283-98243-8}}

[[Category:Types of military forces]]


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