History Main / InterserviceRivalry

* ''FanFic/DeathNoteEquestria'': There's quite a bit of friction between the Royal Guard and the Canterlot City Guard (police) over the Kira investigation.

* Present in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13545968/1/Wilhuff-Tarkin-Hero-of-the-Rebellion Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion]]'' between the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy... But they all hate the [[ObstructiveBureaucrat efficiency experts]] and [[StateSec COMPNOR]] more, and are willing to put it on hold. The hatred for the efficiency experts is so deep that when Tarkin, who identifies himself as a naval officer, was forced to work with one, Tarkin was planning to get him EatenAlive by a Hutt at the first chance and the crew of his Star Destroyer was [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink giving the expert spoiled food and a constant stomacache]] (with Tarkin ''knowing''), at least until Tarkin realize the efficiency expert actually knew his job and informed the crew.

* ''Film/RedDawn1984'': Colonel Andy Tanner, fatally wounded after trying to disable a capuflsged Soviet tank, pops a smoke grenade so an American tank will see where it is and blow it up. And in his final seconds of life, he still finds it in himself to make one last joke…

*** ''Rogue One'' actually showed the overlap and rivalry over special weapons projects: the Death Star was developed by the Advanced Weapon Research Division, a separate branch of COMPNOR from the ISB. This is why Director Krennic weapons an ''white'' uniform, like ISB agents, not the dull green uniform of Imperial Navy officers (though Navy Grand Admirals wear white uniforms, they also have gold shoulder boards). Yet no sooner had Krennic completed the Death Star than Grand Moff Tarkin yanked command away from him (on the logic that AWRD ''makes'' the weapons that the Navy actually gets to ''use'').

'''Bobbie:''' And your morals tested low enough to be a spy.

* This trope makes a very quick appearance in ''Film/CharlieWilsonsWar''. Former Naval officer Charlie is initially furious when Gust introduces Vickers as being the CIA's weapons expert that he wants Charlie to consult with regarding the Afghan War, seeing Vickers as too young, inexperienced, and nerdy looking to be the person to talk to, and he thinks Gust is screwing with him. (Not entirely unjustified, since Gust did set the whole thing up with a bit of a joke/prank beforehand.) After Gust informs Charlie that Vickers is former Army special forces and his various other qualifications, Charlie reluctantly apologizes to Vickers and says that he should have known better than to judge Vickers based on appearance. Vickers responds that it would have surprised him if an officer from the Navy had showed that much good judgement. (Which works as a TakeThat both against the Navy and a former enlisted man flipping off a former officer.) Charlie gives Vickers a DeathGlare until Gust tells them to knock it off gets them to focus on business. However, once they start talking business, all rivalry is quickly set aside and the two work well together.

* In ''Film/{{Napoleon}}'', the title character is disparaged for being in the artillery at the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Toulon Siege of Toulon]].

* Used for a quick laugh in ''Film/{{SWAT}}''. Jim Street is a former Navy SEAL and [[SergeantRock Sgt. Hondo Harrelson]] is a former Marine. During a car ride, Hondo asks Street what he did in the [=SEALs=].

** Played straight with the Harbinger, a monstrously huge and powerful aircraft whose pilots are viewed with suspicion and distaste by ''other pilots'' of all people. This apparently stems from Futuretech running it own flight schools rather than let experienced pilots use it.

* Between the three army branches (Military Police Brigade, Survey Corps and Garrison) in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. The three view each other with suspicion to the point that the (corrupt) Police Brigade thinks the Survey Corps wants [[spoiler:the Rogue Titan aka Eren]] to seize power from the inner circle from them. It doesn't help that there is a distinction between the highly regarded Police Brigade and TheUnfavorite Survey Corps who do most of the fighting. [[spoiler:The rivalry between the Police Brigade and the Survey Corps ultimately boils over into open warfare, after a [[SecretPolice special unit]] of the former, led by Levi's ParentalSubstitute and EvilMentor Kenny Ackerman, begins targeting the members of Levi's squad (including Eren and most of the main characters) for assassination. The Survey Corps, in turn, launches a coup to oust the corrupt goverment and Police Brigade from power]].

[[folder: Manhwa]]
* In ''Manhwa/AutoHunting'', the Hunters are not a single monolithic organization. While their joint goal is to protect civilians from monsters coming out of interdimensional fissures, they are grouped into firms, guilds, clans, etc. which are all fiercly protective and territorial where it concerns their hunting grounds. And this is before international politics gets involved.
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek''
** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''
*** Referenced in "Tomorrow is Yesterday": When USAF Captain (O-3) Christopher is accidentally transported onto the ''Enterprise'', he asks Captain (O-6) Kirk if the Navy ran the ship. Kirk answers that they are a "combined service." ([[WordOfGod Off-camera]], Creator/GeneRoddenberry {{insiste|ntTerminology}}d that Starfleet [[TakeAThirdOption was most similar to the Coast Guard]].)
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''
*** Earth Cargo Service against the early Starfleet. In the episode "Horizon", Ensign Travis Mayweather is berated by his brother about how recruits would rather join Starfleet than ECS.
*** Deconstructed in the later episode "Harbringer". There's some rivalry between [[SpaceMarine Military Assault Command Operations (MACO)]] officer Major Hayes and Starfleet Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, implying tension between the two organizations. Things escalate into a fistfight... which [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome leads to Captain Archer]] [[WhatTheHellHero thoroughly chewing both of them out]].
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "Face of the Enemy" it's revealed that there is little love lost between the regular Romulan military and the Tal'Shiar, with members of the former believing that the latter would cause the death of the entire Empire. (This later played out as the Tal'Shiar sabotaged the Federation efforts to evacuate Romulus before the Romulan sun went supernova).
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''
*** Early on there's a bit of a rivalry between Starfleet and the Bajoran Militia, with Major Kira in particular not liking having to work for Commander Sisko. They warm up to each other. The use of Army ranks for the Militia doesn't hurt the allusion.

** In the season 5 DistantFinale "Sleeping In Light", an [=EarthForce=] officer indicates disdain for the Rangers, the paramilitary group that acts as the Interstellar Alliance's elite forces.

* ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD''

* In ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic: The Second Raid'' Melissa Mao tells the story of how she escaped from an ArrangedMarriage by joining the U.S. Marine Corps, marching into the recruitment office [[RunawayBride still wearing her wedding dress]]. The recruiters were reluctant to sign her up until Mao revealed that her father was a Colonel in the Air Force, at which point they welcomed her into the Corps purely to annoy him.

*** With the Dominion, there was some tension between the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar. Vorta often looked at the Jem'Hadar as easily replaceable cannon fodder and at times would throw them under the bus to save their own skins. Meanwhile the Jem'Hadar saw the Vorta as duplicitious, scheming, and cowardly. The only thing that kept the two races working together was their genetically engineered absolute loyalty to the Founders.

* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': While it's mentioned that the usual rivalries between air force and ground troops are present, said ground troops have nothing but respect for Vindicator bombers, since they probably had their life saved by one at some point. The other sticking point (air forces having access to more creature comforts than ground troops) is also averted since Vindicator pilots are posted on the front lines and so live in the same conditions as the groundpounders.

** A criminal version occurs when Fiona points out that there's a very big divide among smugglers when it comes to [[ArmsDealer gun smugglers]] versus [[HumanTraffickers people smugglers]], and the two groups don't like each other much.

* ''Literature/TermsOfEnlistment'' by Marko Kloos has one between the North American Marines and the Territorial Army (the one fights wars on other planets, the other handles wars on Earth). There's a scene where some Marines visiting Andrew Grayson's base and get into a BarBrawl with the TA grunts in the mess hall. Afterwards, the base CO reams them out and assigns additional PT because they should've been able to take that many Marines.

* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': In ''Literature/TheVorGame'', one villain talks about how he regrets the ''lack'' of interservice rivalry in the military he's serving in -- he feels it gave the top brass more leverage when dealing with mutineers.
-->'''Metzov:''' In the event of a mutiny, you could always persuade the Army to shoot the Navy, or vice versa, when they could no longer discipline themselves. A hidden disadvantage to a combined service like ours.

** In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Ghostmaker'', some friendly raillery occurred between some Ghosts and a Naval officer about what is the proper way to fight. The Ghosts had the Navy bombard a position too Chaos-tainted for the Ghosts to take on foot.
** Much more serious inter-regimental rivalries occurred in ''First & Only'' (where a raid by the Jantine Patricians on the Ghosts killed three men, and later [[spoiler:the full regiment takes on the Ghost's rearguard, exterminating the 50 men and losing three hundred of their own]]) and ''Ghostmaker'' (where a general [[TheUriahGambit bombarded a position knowing the Ghosts were there]]). All this goes back to Gaunt killing a Jantine commissar--in a legal DuelToTheDeath--for causing the death of Gaunt's father.
** In ''Blood Pact'', Inquisition vs. Commissariat. [[spoiler:Or so it appears.]]

** In ''Bold'' the United Society Navy's Battle Force (battleships) and scout force (cruisers and destroyers) are arguing over who has authority over the battlecruisers built for the war against the HordeOfAlienLocusts, which Kris commanded in action in the two preceding books. She takes a third option at the end of the book and becomes head of Battlecruiser Force. In the short story "Kris Longknife's Bad Day", it's five years later and she's still fighting for her battlecruisers: she believes, not without reason, that they obsolete the other classes,[[note]]They outgun cruisers and destroyers and are fast enough to take over their duties. They also have comparable firepower and are cheaper to build and crew than battleships, and unlike battleships can maneuver fast enough to evade alien BeamSpam.[[/note]] but she faces considerable resistance from the old line and various entrenched interests (including her own grandfather's corporation, which has an exclusive contract to build battleships for Wardhaven).

* Kazuma in ''LightNovel/{{Konosuba}}'' exploits one of these when collections agents come to get back taxes from all the adventurers in town. Reasoning that government and law enforcement agencies never enjoy anyone butting in on their turf, Kazuma gets himself thrown in jail knowing that the town guard will not let the agents near him while he is being processed, allowing him to get away with tax evasion.
* ''Literature/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom'' has intentional rivalries set up in the Kingdom of Elfrieden. The King is human but there are many other races in the kingdom. The king has a small number of personal troops, but most of the Kingdom's military is split into the Army, Navy, and Air Force, each controlled by a different duke. Since the dukes aren't human, this rivalry is meant to be a check on the king becoming a tyrant and oppressing the other races.
* ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic'': Divisions of Mithril. Intelligence and operatives in particular. That was probably the main reason why Sōsuke was reluctant to leave Kaname protected by Wraith (who was from Intelligence).

** In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novel ''Ghostmaker'', some friendly raillery occurred between some Ghosts and a Naval officer about what is the proper way to fight. The Ghosts had the Navy bombard a position too Chaos-tainted for the Ghosts to take on foot. Much more serious inter-regimental rivalries occurred in ''First & Only'' (where a raid by the Jantine Patricians on the Ghosts killed three men, and later [[spoiler:the full regiment takes on the Ghost's rearguard, exterminating the 50 men and losing three hundred of their own]]) and ''Ghostmaker'' (where a general [[TheUriahGambit bombarded a position knowing the Ghosts were there]]).

** In William King's ''Literature/SpaceWolf'' novel ''Grey Hunters'', the Wolf Lord Berek arrived to back up his subordinate in a conflict between the Space Wolves and the Inquisition explicitly because the Space Wolves do not give up what they have won -- even prisoners.

*** In ''The Traitor's Hand'', Cain tangles with an old rival from the MilitaryAcademy, commissar of an ultra-religious regiment from Tallarn. He and his soldiers take an irrational dislike to the 597th for little more reason than that it's still about half-female, including its commanding officer Colonel Regina Kasteen. When the Tallarns pull out of an inter-regiment hand-to-hand combat tournament because the Valhallans put women on their team, Corporal Mari Magot promptly tracks down the captain of the Tallarn team and administers a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown on general principles.

** In both the Empire and the First Order, there's actually sort of a three-way split between the "mystics", the regular military, and the R&D divisions working on superweapons — such as the Death Star and Starkiller Base. In ''Film/ANewHope'', Admiral Motti insisted that the Death Star was more powerful than General Tagge's regular military, ''and'' scoffed at Vader for his "sorcerer's ways" (and was promptly Force-choked by Vader). Tarkin also loosely fell into the "R&D" camp in the sense that he was more than willing to use the Death Star over the regular military. In the ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Rebels]]'' cartoon series, we see a clear contrast between Grand Admiral Thrawn — who sees superweapons as gimmicky and inefficient, and would rather put those extensive resources towards improving their regular military units on a strategic level: the resources they blew on the Death Star could have built entire ''fleets'' of TIE Defenders, which are basically just a more powerful TIE Fighter capable of engaging X-Wings on equal footing — and Tarkin — who, while appreciating the usefulness of regular military forces, [[ToWinWithoutFighting prefers to use the sheer terror factor from the use of superweapons to avoid fighting altogether]].
*** In the First Order, we see this three-way split as well: in ''The Force Awakens'' Hux sort of straddled the line between regular military and R&D (a bit like Tarkin, as he's in charge of their new superweapon), but by ''The Rise of Skywalker'', Allegiant General Pryde openly scorns him that the resources spent on Starkiller Base could have been spent on a larger fleet of Star Destroyers, instead of putting all their eggs in one basket. General Pryde is a bit of an odd case though, as he's a regular military commander who dislikes superweapons — but who is deeply loyal to "mystic" Emperor, and disagrees with Admiral Quinn about trusting them (Quinn is more the "straightforward military" guy).

** The combined result is that you could have a conference between an Inquisitor (mystics), Imperial Navy fleet admiral, Imperial Navy superweapons branch officer, a Moff military-governor, an Imperial Army general, an Internal Security Bureau Agent, and an Imperial Navy Intelligence officer...and ''each of the seven guys'' could argue that they had seniority and jurisdiction. Remember that one of the main reasons people welcomed the rise of the Empire at first is because the Old Republic had decayed into a bloated and inefficient bureaucracy?

** Even ''within'' the Imperial Navy, there's a split between the regular military and what could be called the "special projects" or R&D sections. At the conference on the first Death Stark, Tarkin and Motti promote this new superweapon as the centerpoint of Imperial power from now on, while Tagge has his doubts (this goes further in tie-in comics, where he explicitly argues against trying to build another superweapon to instead just build more ships). This came up again in ''Star Wars Rebels'' between Tarkin and Grand Admiral Thrawn himself, who (somewhat like Tagge) felt the Death Star project was a gimmicky waste of resources that could be better spent on mass-producing better TIE Fighters (the TIE Defender, which can match an X-Wing one on one) and deploying them strategically across the galaxy.