Ten-hut!

The Military Channel, which reported for duty Monday at 2000 hours, will be a boon for armchair generals and fans of corporate warfare.

The debut was only five days after another network, the Military History Channel, began operating. Both are targeting much the same audience with a similar programming mix, and are bankrolled by two of the cable TV industry's biggest players.

The Military Channel is a repositioning of the aviation-centered Discovery Wings channel, which is already seen in about 35 million homes. It's the 14th domestic channel operated by Discovery Communications, including TLC and the Discovery Network.

The Military History Channel is a spinoff of the History Channel, the sixth U.S. network started by AETN, and was offered to cable and satellite systems starting today.

''They both see an opportunity in the marketplace and they each have considerable assets to throw at this,'' said Larry Gerbrandt, an analyst of cable TV for AlixPartners.

The History Channel has attracted some of its biggest audiences for wartime documentaries, particularly on the weekend.

Military history is still and will continue to be part of the History Channel's mix, but the network has been trying to broaden its reach with more programming on technological, social and religious history, said Dan Davids, network president.

The Military History Channel has come out guns blazing. For its first three nights, it telecast four-hour, prime-time documentaries recounting the battle histories of the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force. The Marines got three hours, the Coast Guard two.

The network has also prepared programs on Navy SEALs and Green Berets, Hispanics who have received the Medal of Honor, the history of blacks in the military and female combat pilots.

In contrast to its rival, the Military History Channel has built a large library of programming through its parent network, Davids said.

''These are the programs that have captured military history documentary viewers over the years, the same viewers who said they want to see more of them,'' he said.

Those viewers tend to be male, often older. Viewership of Discovery Wings averages about 70 percent male with an average age in the 40s. So operators of the Military Channel have their sights set on some younger viewers.

To find them, it has packed the schedule with gadget-centered programming, including specials devoted to the greatest technological achievements in military history.

Day-in-the-life programs on a Marine tank battalion as it pushed into Baghdad and Marine Corps reservists in Afghanistan are also in the works. A four-hour miniseries follows the Navy's flight group, the Blue Angels.

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