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The answer is really 'it depends' though typically its not as good as a full on Guard Regt. But some worlds may get close, if they can produce or afford it, where others may not even come remotely close as their tech level and finances aren't up to snuff.

Their main strength isn't their gear though really, its their sheer numbers. On Earth today* there's roughly 80 million military personnel (active military + reserves + paramilitary + misc other) for our only 7 billion* (ish) people. If a hive world has a population of 200 billion, even if the rate is consistent (which it probably isn't, but I've no data on conscription rates on imperial hive worlds) that gives you a conservative estimate of troops in the 2.3 billion mark. That's a lot of bodies to throw at the enemy; some of them might even kill an enemy or two before being shot/chopped up/eaten/etc.






*Well ok, not today, its 2009 data, as that's all I could find; but close enough.

 Hawky wrote:
40k worlds are usually much more militarised than our counties.

In europe, there is about 3 active serving soldiers for 1000 citizens.
In USA, it's 4.
In South Korea, it's 12.
In Israel, it's 21.
In North Korea, it's 50.

I think the number could be 2-4 times larger than 2.3 billion, which is... a lot.

Yeah my estimate was conservative, probably extremely so; but that's a large 'wall of martyrs' to slow things down till the Guard turn up either way. Which also makes me think if they have reserve forces like we do, citizens trained but not actively on duty ready to get called up at a moment notice.
Or is it more a case of: "well we're under attack, right you are all conscripted, here's a gun, that end points to the enemy, lets have your names for the list of martyrs, off you go, front is that way."

Though again, I suppose it depends on the planet again; a feral/feudal world is probably much less militarized than a hive/forge world is likely to be.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
You can’t defend a planet with ill-disciplined infantry alone. It’s entirely plausible and in keeping with fluff to have tanks, APCs, aircraft, etc.

Tanks, artillery, APC's even water craft, of course. Aircraft on the other hand... now you're skirting some touchy territory. That's typically a no-no for the IG, and I suspect it may be also for PDF's to have their own combat aircraft as well. Perhaps some seconded to them by the Navy, but probably not permanently as part of their Org. There's no specific fluff on that, at least not that I know of, but it seems likely to keep the 'one commander with the ability to pull off a full scale rebellion' thing from being too easy.

Though if that's true, it does leave them with a problem rapidly redeploying to meet any landed foe - but then if they don't have air superiority anyway, it probably wouldn't help even if they did have aircraft.