From: "Doomriser" <doom.riser@3web.net>
Newsgroups: alt.startrek.vs.starwars
Subject: [PDD] ISB Ch 7-8
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 20:45:06 -0400

Chapter 7: 
Land vehicles

"The Empire consists of land, an incalculable amount of rock and soil and
varied terrain. The space lanes are merely the paths between the land. The
Navy has the massive Imperial fleet to control the space lanes, but the Army
has a fleet of its own to control the land - a fleet of ground assault
vehicles."

Tactics: The Empire understands what Starfleet doesn't.

[A vehicle listing follows. Some, like the Juggernaught are familiar. Even
then there is interesting details on it, such as the unenviable position of
the tower lookout, good fanfic fodder. Other vehicles resemble something out
of Command & Conquer, like the giant mobile command base in which some less
brave Imperial commanders literally live inside. More good Fanfic fodder.
I'm looking at you, Pablo and Sheppard.]

"But catching the outlaws is only the first step. Stopping them is another
matter. To accom plish this, the repulsor sled is equipped with tangle nets
that drop from bottom compartments. These nets, in addition to tangling
around a swoop, give off short pulses that disrupt the repulsor fields that
carry the craft. Once in place, the net draws off the field and causes the
craft to plummet toward the surface."

Tech: There exist specialized 'tangle nets' which disrupt repulsorlift
drives.

"The armored shell of the Floating Fortress allows the vehicle to go through
obstacles as opposed to around them, obliterating all in their path with a
casual effortlessness. Whole cities have been leveled by Floating Fortresses
in search of Rebels or other enemies of the Empire."

Misc: I wonder how a Trekkie would interpret that quote if the Floating
Fortress was a Starfleet weapon?

"Although its speed and maneuverability cannot compete with those of
repulsor-driven scout craft, there are many points in favor of the Mekuun
design. It boasts a maintenance and failure rate better than most
competitive floater scouts. It is easier and cheaper to maintain. Hovercraft
require less training to operate than do repulsorlift vehicles. Finally,
there are some worlds and terrain type that make repulsorlifts behave
erratically. On these planets the hoverscout is the vehicle of choice."

Tech: There are situations in which conventional hovercraft are useful.

CHAPTER EIGHT
SECTOR GROUP ORGANIZATION

"The Empire's military might is organized at the sector level, and thus is
called a Sector Group: all of the military forces assigned to a given sector
of space. A Sector Group is a huge gathering of Imperial military might. It
is a flexible organization, one which is readily reinforced to many times
its original strength while retaining essentially the same command structure
at all times. This flexibility is an integral part of the Emperor's plan to
fully arm the Empire. "

[Description of a sector group. Note that the document claims that sector
groups are 'readily reinforced' as opposed to being understrength.]

"While the organization and Order of Battle of a Sector Group has been
outlined according to the numbers in these reports, these numbers can at
best be considered averages. And in the wake of the Emperor's command to
mobilize the Imperial war machine, they may even be considered minimum
levels of force. Also, the forces deployed in a given sector will depend
upon the importance, size, and location of that sector."

S&S: The SGs are considered to be 'minimum levels of force.' Thelea would
love this.]

[The document then goes on to describe in detail the separate and
intertwined roles of the Imperial Army and Navy]

"When engaged in operations, the Army can expect support from the Navy
during the initial drop phase. During this phase, the Navy will provide
suppressing fire against particularly hard and/or well armed targets, and
"force reduction attacks" to destroy enemy assets capable of interfering
with reorganization after the drop. The Army is also allowed to pre-plan for
from-orbit fire on specific targets during later stages of the operation. If
the operation is important enough, naval units may be dedicated to certain
ground elements to provide fire support whenever they are called upon."

Tactics: Orbital fire support

"A mission which has been de-emphasized is the protection of scientific
missions, as well as acting as the official clearinghouse for information on
new worlds. As the Empire has practically ceased to sponsor exploration,
this mission has atrophied to the point that many of the newer commanders
are not even aware that such missions are part of the Navy doctrine."

Misc: "Remember when we used to be explorers?" ;)

"If Army commanders deem the surface situation to be beyond hope of victory,
or if the proper political authorities directly command it, the Navy is to
execute a series of punitive attacks upon the target. The attacks are given
code names which vary according to the mission and change frequently. The
only code name which has not yet changed is "Base Delta Zero," the code for
complete destruction of all "assets of production," including factories,
arable land, mines, fisheries, and all sentient beings and droids. The code
name has not yet changed so there can be no possibility of confusion when a
Base Delta Zero is ordered."

Tactics: Description of BDZ order

"Even though it is no longer unusual for captains and other ranking officers
to participate directly in combat, they are still considered command
elements rather than troopers. When a typical Imperial source lists a number
of troops, they are counting traditional combat personnel only and not
including the support or command elements."

S&S: Keep that in mind when counting units.

[The OOB follows]

"Stormtroopers technically do fit into the Order of Battle. But these elite
troops continue to be a source of mystery to the regular Army, even at the
level of their organization. The major difference seems to be the complete
lack of support personnel. It is known that the stormtroopers do siphon off
some supplies from the normal chain of logistics, but not nearly enough to
support a force as large as the stormtroopers appear to be. Whether they can
somehow "live off the land," have a shadow network which resupplies them in
order to enhance their mystery, or really not be in need of resupply is
simply not known.

The end result is that a stormtrooper unit is a pure combat unit."

Question: Anyone have more info on this mysterious capability?

"A stormtrooper battalion has 820 men. just like any other battalion. But
every single individual is either combat command or a trooper - there is
even a complete absence of staff officers.

Other differences, although minor, do appear. Stormtrooper squads vary in
number of men to a greater degree than in the regular Army. The level of
organization corresponding to a battlegroup is called a legion. While there
is no larger unit of stormtrooper organization than the legion, legions have
been known to appear from other sectors to join in a major offensive with
legions which belong to the Sector Group."

S&S: A Stormtrooper legion = army battlegroup, giving us the number of
'finest troops' at Endor. [8192?]

"Corps: Corps are generally composed of four battlegroups, commanded by a
major general. This organization often covers all troops in a planetary
invasion force."

S&S: A planetary invasion force consists of only 32,768 troops plus their
support units? Please tell me I miscalculated. A single ISD could carry
that. Why then, is a Planetary Invasion Force 6 ISDs + support ships +
transports then? Hell, there were probably more troops in the AOTC ground
battle!

"Sector Army: Generally composed of two to four systems armies, commanded by
a surface marshall. This organization covers all troops in a given sector."

S&S: So a particularly well-endowed sector would contain 1,572,864 troops?
What are the authors smoking? Please tell me I miscalculated again. Is this
listing for army invasions troops only or something as opposed to occupation
forces?

"When viewing the Order of Battle, it is important to realize that this
represents a baseline, a starting point for Imperial military ambitions.
Only eight percent of Army units are below their OB strength for reasons
other than combat attrition, while nearly 15 percent are above the baseline
as given by the OB."

S&S: At least the OOB is not just 'paper' stats, then.

"The OB is built upon the assumption of continued explosive growth in the
military. Every unit from a platoon up is expected to under go an "upgrade"
to its full strength. The exception to this rule are the scouts, which are
difficult to man with qualified troops even at current levels."

Tactics: Crappy scouts might explain the debacle at Endor, but they were
supposed to be the 'finest troops.'

"This buildup will filter up through the ranks - larger platoons joining
larger companies which are a part of larger battalions. The process is
exponential.

For example, a baseline armored battlegroup has 10,090 troopers out of a
unit strength of 16,346, with 1,132 repulsorlift vehicles and 318 tanks. If
every unit were augmented in accordance with the planned growth of the OB, a
full strength battlegroup would have 318,062 troops in a unit total 324,318,
as many support droids as troops, 36,084 repulsorcraft and 14,480 heavy
tanks."

S&S: That's slightly reassuring.

"The limiting factor is not a lack of resources in the Army, but limited
expansion of the Navy. The Army cannot expand faster than the fleets which
are designed to carry it, and the fleets cannot be built any faster than
they are now. For the present, expansion will be limited to those sectors
with heavy recurrent fighting where the need for a large land-based force,
regardless of naval support or transport, is evident. Such forces can be
built, but are then bound to the planet."

S&S: Interesting. Does the GE have more resources in sentients than in
starships? Starship production or at least naval vessel deployment seems be
the limiting factor.

"Another point to be made is that the OB represents the ideal organization
of the Army. Mistakes and inaccuracies in upper level HQs can result in a
skewed organization of the actual unit in the field."

Tactics: Skewed how? Numbers? Organization? Proportions? Deployment?

"The eight-man line squad is the basic unit of the Imperial Army. The
Imperial squad is smaller than the old 10- and 12-man squads common in the
Old Republic, but superior training and more thorough use of coordinated
small-unit tactics have resulted in no reduction in squad firepower.
Additionally, a large number of new squads were created from the available
manpower. The Empire has been experimenting with still smaller squads,
particularly with elite or stormtrooper units, but these are still rare. The
eight-man squad remains the backbone of the Imperial Army."

Tactics: Role + description of Infantry squads

"A squad is commanded by a sergeant. The sergeant makes recommendations to
his superiors for a brevet list - a list of the order of succession of chain
of command. The first man on the list (once approved) is automatically given
the rank of corporal. While the other troopers are not given ranks, each man
knows what his number in the line of command succession is. While not a
really accurate indicator of a man's value to his squad, succession numbers
are often taken as a measure of a trooper's worth. This belief has led to
the expressions "Lower than the eight-man" and "Certain as the one-man's
mind."

Misc: Heh, kinda like the Jem Hadar.

"Recent setbacks against the Rebellion have prompted the Empire to see how
they might increase the firepower of a basic squad as cost effectively as
possible. A leading effort is to give each squad a light repeating blaster.
The repeating blaster is carried and operated by one man. Light repeating
blasters have been added to squads in almost every sector, but the rearming
effort has been sporadic everywhere but in three sectors where better than
half of the line squads have been re-equipped: Shwuy, Harron and Nembus. On
heavily populated worlds in those sectors, such as Uviuy Exen in Shwuy and
Trammen in Harron, every single line squad has been completely armed with
light repeating blasters."

Tech: Light repeating blasters dramatically increase squad firepower.
Probably equivalent to the FN-MINIMI.

"Sharpshooter squads are indeed filled with troopers whose accuracy with
blasters is greater than the standard trooper. Sharpshooter squads also
differ in that the brevet list is largely discarded. While every elite
trooper is given at least the basics of demolitions, each man is trained in
several different skills, and before each mission, the sergeant appoints the
trooper with the most pertinent skills as brevet corporal. Each trooper is
briefed as to what is expected of him during the mission, and these soldiers
are expected to be good enough to decide how best to improvise should the
sergeant and corporal be eliminated from the misssion profile."

Misc: Maybe these are the guys who shot up the Jawa sandcrawler

[The document describes several other different types of squads that all
have RL counterparts. There is a wide range to fit all mission profiles.
Much of this chapter consists of common sense and RL military logic (e.g.
More training often goes into a Sargeant than a junior LT.]

Scout trooper squads are organized differently. This is due to two factors;
the difficulty of training the scouts against their high rate of loss, and
their heritage. Most scout troopers come from systems which have a strong
tradition of mounted warriors, cavalry or knights of some kind. The Empire
culled what was useful from the varied doctrines, and left as much of the
traditions intact as possible in order to foster esprit de corps. One of the
useful parts of this tradition is caring for ones own mount: scout troopers
are trained to maintain and repair their own vehicles, greatly reducing the
support personnel necessary to run such a mobile unit. Fierce unit pride and
high standards have filtered through to manufacturers. and Aratech and
Mobquet military bikes are the most reliable repulsor craft built.

Tactics: This is all new to me, but I guess denizen tactics of speeder bikes
vs. various Star Trek forces aren't that farfetched after all, given speeder
bike bravery and espirit de corps.

"Staying in Touch

The need for reliable, lightweight communications gear to keep platoon
commanders in touch with other units provides work for a number of
companies' R&D sections. SoroSuub's initial success with the DH77 headcomm
led to issuing hundreds of thousands of sets before a serious flaw was
discovered: the sets are easily jammed by high energy particle emissions.
Such emissions could result from normal battlefield conditions: near misses
from artillery could create dead zones through which DH77 transmissions were
lost. The ionic contrail from a single TIE fighter attack run could
temporarily knock out DH77s up to three kilometers away!

The Herzfall Corporation, a little known company from the Senex sector,
developed the DH107, which rectified this mistake and was less susceptible
to signal interception. DHIO7s have been issued to every platoon formed
since the Battle of Yavin, and most platoons have been retrofitted. Still,
thousands of platoons are using the old DH77s, a situation which does not
look likely to change as the Empire finds more crucial uses for its
resources."

Communications: An Imperial Army communications weakness exists among some
units.

A platoon is the smallest unit which can request fire support from other
units...
If Imperial commanders have time to develop a plan of attack, they often
assign an artillery section to a platoon. Troopers refer to this practice as
"grafting." Sometimes battalion commanders will graft a large number of
platoons to a single artillery or armor company, letting the company captain
allocate fire support requests as the battlefield situation dictates."

"Before entering a combat situation, a lieutenant usually sends his sergeant
major to the squad which he believes will come under the most pressure. If
possible, the lieutenant does not stay with any one squad, but tries to go
where he is most needed on the battlefield. This tends to give lieutenants a
very short life span. Those lieutenants who survive their first encounter
are one of two types.

The first type is a pragmatic individual who realizes the limitation of the
doctrine and sticks with one squad when the blaster bolts get thick. They
maintain command control through the headcomm connection to their sergeant
major, waving of hands, and occasionally screaming at the top of their
lungs.

The second type is one tough trooper."

Misc: Which are you?

[Note that each level of organization in this chapter includes details on
the myraid of different types of sections, platoons, etc... there are, if
you are looking for that kind of information.]

"Special missions forces have been pressed into "political gain operations"
(PGOs) with increasing frequency. Special mission troopers call them "straw
man" operations. PGOs are terrorist missions held on worlds where native
sympathies vacillate between the Empire and the Rebellion.

In a typical PGO, the special misssions troops stage several terrorist
attacks, executed in a manner which would suggest that political factions
native to the world could have produced the attacks.

Eventually some political faction will appeal to the planetary governor for
help. The governor will declare martial law, asking for help from the fleet.
The help arrives in the form of hundreds or thousands of additional troops.
These troops operate on "new intelligence," rounding up scores of suspected
or known Rebel sympathizers for imprisonment or execution. Once the Rebels
are out of the way the attacks cease, reinforcing the impression that the
Rebellion indeed sponsored the attacks. The special missions force then
moves on to another world."

Tactics: Nasty.

"Platoons are the most flexible units in the Army. This is not true in
doctrine, but it is certainly true in practice. The organizational chart
tells commanders that platoons may be augmented by adding complete squads,
and this is done whenever possible.

But commanders of infantry platoons also swap equipment and personnel with
heavy weapons platoons, repulsorcraft platoons, even armor platoons.
Equipment is over-ordered at the company level; many platoons are walking
around with an extra light repeating blaster or even a medium repeating
blaster. Reinforcements occasionally are assigned to the wrong units, who
decide to keep the extra men and materiel. The platoon is the least
standardized of all the Army units, occasionally packing as much firepower
as a line company."

Tactics: I wonder if this kind of mismanagement and disorganization happened
at Endor, with the troops guarding the rear entrance getting the shit end of
the stick.

"When operating on a planet considered hostile to the Empire (including
hundreds of planets nominally part of the Empire), special missions
companies are drop-supplied directly from naval vessels. A force of at least
line size flashes in from hyperspace, launching scores of containers varying
in size from a p robe droid to a life pod. These take erratic paths to the
surface, impacting all over the planet. No more than five of these are
genuine resupply pods; the rest are decoys to dilute the effectiveness of
enemy tracking measures. Frequently, the appearance of naval vessels is
enough to occupy the attention of the enemy. Once the resupply effort is
complete, the starships jump into hyperspace unless they have been ordered
on a surface support mission for ground forces. Naval support missions for
special missions companies are rare as such elite units are expected to do
without them."

Tactics: Description of an Imperial paradrop equivalent.

"The number of support personnel is 47 (which includes the SB5). There is an
additional security platoon of 38 men commanded by the SB5 under normal
circumstances, and by the major in the event of an attack upon the
headquarters.

A security platoon is listed as a support unit even though it consists of
troopers. This is because security platoons are not considered combat units;
they maintain order within their unit. Ranking Imperial commanders have been
able to pull themselves out of some tricky situations by creating combat
units from the security platoons available to them. This is not a common
enough practice that security platoons are considered troopers in the OB
count. "

Misc: Just one of the many tricks Imperial commanders use to stay alive.
When they suceed by violating regulations, it is covered up (and the
officers are presumably uncredited - only their survival is a credit). If
they fail, bad things happen to them. Imperial commanders must be slippery,
tricky bastards almost as a rule.

"Regiment

Regiments are commanded by a lieutenant colonel who runs an HQ identical in
structure to that of a battalion with the exception of a larger compliment
of droids, usually upwards of 200. Regimental HQ is where the most extensive
repairs are performed. and some HQs even have a capacity to machine or
nanomanufacture precise spare parts from very basic components. Regimental
HQs often stay aboard the mother vessel, as orbital command control is as
good in most instances as control on the ground. If orbital command is
disrupted, the HQ can be quickly dropped (there is a record of at least one
conflict where the regimental HQ was dropped in life pods as landing barges
were unavailable). If regimental HQ is dropped with the attacking forces, it
is an indication that the Empire expects to maintain a ground force for at
least a month and that the naval presence will be not be continual."

Tech: Regimental HQs contain nanomanufacturing capabilities. Some Trekkie
cultists claim that the Empire has no nanomanufacturing capabilities
whatsoever!
Misc: Mother ships sometimes leave entire regiments alone for more than a
month. Sounds like a good fanfic idea to me. Sheppard? Howabout a ground
version of "The Outpost."

"Commodore Bevven and High Colonel Drost were viewing the progress of the
battle on Picutorion, engaged in a strained discussion about whether to
deploy TIE fighters in support of the surface action. Elements of the armor
battalion of Tensiger's 6th regiment had penetrated the perimeter of a
tracking station, but the Rebels were still giving heated resistance, and
nearly every Y-wing flying was attacking in support of the tracking station.

Bevven, fearing that the Y-wings might decide to attack the fleet, wanted to
send the TIEs in waves which would engage a few Y-wings quickly and then
return, holding the majority of the TIEs in reserve. Drost knew that picking
off just a few Y-wings at a time would doom the troopers making the assault,
probably causing the failure of the attack.

Bevven turned away from Drost, facing his lead controller squarely.
"Lieutenant, order all squadrons to attack along the parabola programmed in.
They are to stay in tight formation during the initial attack. and to return
to the fleet as soon we have pulled within four arc seconds of the return
path. Release on my mark."

"Yes sir!"

"May I interrupt for a moment, Commodore?" Bevven turned to face the man who
had been watching him on the bridge. Bevven could not remember his name.
Barezz, perhaps? The one from ISB.

"If you must," said the Commodore.

"This is for your ears also, Colonel," said the man. "We have been
monitoring the progress of the offensive and have noted the elements which
have actually penetrated the tracking station include two tagged as
sensitive."

Colonel Drost moved closer, stepping within a polite distance. He eyed the
ISB man cautiously.

"The two, a Captain Ganig and a Sergeant Stecker, are both inside the
station. COMPNOR made each famous after the Battle of Sagma, but since then
their casual observation of doctrine has come to light. If they take this
station, COMPNOR will again make them heroes"

"What is your point, Barezz?" asked the colonel. The ISB man snapped his
eyes toward him. The colonel met the gaze.

"My point, colonel, is that for propaganda purposes, dead heroes are nearly
as good live ones. And dead heroes cannot defect to the Rebellion."

"Do your sources indicate that they are thinking of defecting?"

"No," admitted Barezz, "but we are certain that a trooper named Linds is a
Rebel sympathizer. He has been in contact with each man. I do not know if we
can take such a risk. Delay the starfighter support until the Rebels have
killed Gartig and Stecker. Then send in the support needed to dispose of the
Y-wings."

Bevven looked at Drost. They were his TIE fighters, but they were Drost's
men. The colonel nodded curtly.

"How long could your men hold out in their present position, colonel?"
Bevven asked.

"Normally I would say less than three minutes. They are good. I would guess
seven," said Drost.

"Controller, widen the parabola for 10 minutes to target. On my mark."

"Yes sir!" "

Tactics: Almost like a mini punishment-battallion

"Battlegroups are a recent addition to the Army, replacing divisions, which
were common in the Old Republic. The change was made because divisions were
commonly commanded by planetary governors or used as honor guards for
ambitious senators. Divisions were associated with a particular planet or
being, a detrimental attribute that was hard to shake. Army planners
reorganized the OB and eliminated the division, replacing it with the
battlegroup. As usual, the Empire kept a few elite divisions where unit
identification was strong and useful, both from a military and a propaganda
stand. point. "

Politics: Political and military nature of battlegroups and elite
battlegroups.

"Corps



Major Generals Are Everywhere

There are far more corps HQs than there are corps. This represents an
abundance of more than pleasant jobs for less than brilliant offers - the
corps HQ is the basis for the Imperial garrison. The Empire wants garrisons
to be organizing points for rapid mobilization. Realizing that in a crisis
units may have to be sent from many parts of sector, the Army wanted HQs in
place which could take command of all the parts.

As Imperial doctrine currently holds that a corps is a sufficient force to
retake any planet, corps HQs are set up as the basis of Imperial garrisons.
As the garrisons also have diplomatic, trade and medical functions,
additional tech, medical, science and diplomatic service personnel are
assigned. These are nominally outside of the major generals' command, but
reality often puts the general in charge.

The typical military contingent is at the battalion level, most often four
battalions mixed in a way which is optimum for the world on which the base
is situated rather than following the OB and construction a regiment. A
battalion of stormtroopers, one of AT-STs, and two battalions of AT-ATs is a
popular configuration. In addition, the ground support wing of the auxiliary
battlegroup is almost always present. TIE fighters are a rare enough
resource that any wise commander will take all he is entitled to as soon as
he can get them.

The corps is one of the few instances of real cooperation between the Army
and the Navy. Imperial military planners from each branch designed the
transport ship to hold all corps types, building in the possibility for
expansion into both the starship and the unit. The fact that the corps
transport ships are among the newer model of ships in the fleet is perhaps a
sign that the two branches are ready to cooperate more closely so that the
New Order may expand.

When the Empire deploys a corps onto a world, it is retaking that world,
regardless of the propaganda beamcasts. The military considers a corps to be
a sufficient force to retake a world which has only recently slipped from
the grasp of the Empire. Such a world would still contain a significant
number of loyalists, and the Rebels would not have had time to build up an
organized defense. This does not mean that the corps outnumbers its
opponents; usually the opposite is true by a factor of at least four to one.
What is true is that the opposition is not organized enough to coordinate
all of the military power available to it. Moving quickly, the Empire can
destroy each opposition element in turn."

Tactics: Corps are considered adequate to take a freshly-rebelled world with
loyal Imperial elements.
Misc: Mention of the elusive 'transport ships' What are they? Acclamators?
Not likely since they are among the newer models in the fleet. Do we get to
read more about them?

"Line corps have 48,541 troopers in a unit of 69,199 men. It comes equipped
with 2,599 repulsorlift vehicles and at least 371 heavy repulsortanks."

S&S: Okay, this makes slightly more sense than my calcs. But still, 50,000
troops to take down even a loyal planet?

"The sector army includes every single army trooper in an assault fleet.
This is 774,576 troops and 1,180,309 personnel in total. 66,640
repulsorcraft are in service with the sector army, as well as 13,992 heavy
tanks."

S&S: Pretty shoddy, considering the size of a sector. (Unless we're talking
about sectors like the Naboo/Tatooine/Palpatine's-seat sector)

"The ship is the building block of Navy organization, much as the squad is
for the Army. The problems each branch has in organizing these building
blocks is quite different. The Army has millions upon tens of millions of
squads, and its chief difficulty is in organizing these parts into an
effective whole. The Navy has far fewer ships than the Army has squads, but
the difference between ships is enormous. There is a greater difference in
overall effectiveness between a Star Destroyer and a system patrol craft
than there is between a squad and a regiment."

S&S: The Imperial army has at least 320,000,000,000,000 troops, I think. The
Navy has 'far fewer' ships.

"Organize 300 squads with a command and a support element and you have a
regiment. Organize 300 system patrol craft and you still do not have the
equal of a Star Destroyer. In some instances the 300 system patrol craft
might be better than a single Star Destroyer. Usually they would not be."

Power: Wow. SPC are comparable to Corellian Corvettes.

"Compounding the problem is the plethora of ship types, the variations by
model within a single type, and the customization or modifications of
individual ships throughout a standard year. Again in comparison, a squad is
composed largely of young adults who have been trained so as to become more
uniform, while a naval squadron may be composed of ships two years, 60
years, and 210 years old."

Misc: Damn, but everyone likes to keep their ships running for a long, long
time.

"Attaining the rank of ship's captain is considered the culmination of a
naval career. When a person earns command of a ship, he has attained a
position of honor, regardless of the size of the ship. There is a certain
amount of chauvinism on the basis of ship size and power, but being the
captain of a KDY Lancer often carries more prestige than being a staff
officer of any rank. For this reason the Navy often understands if a ship's
captain will turn down a promotion to a staff position, or even turn down a
transfer to the command of a more modern or more capable ship.

The Navy honors these men rather than viewing them with suspicion, It
benefits the Navy to have men who intimately understand their ship and crew
in order to gain the greatest possible performance from them."

Misc: Unlike in Starfleet, where SF Command bitches at Kirk, Picard, etc...
for not joining the paper pushers and punishes them by making them Captains
again {ST:IV} Not only that, but for years Riker would have rather remained
a staff officer on the Enterprise than captain a different ship. But then
again, he wanted the Enterprise, didn't he? So it's arguable.

Who wants to bet that the real reason Lameway was promoted was so that they
could keep her off a ship?

"Navy Organization in Brief

To get a quick understanding of the organization of the Navy, use the
following reference. Navy organization is completely different than the Army
's method - while the Imperial Army has a "baseline" Order of Battle (OB),
with carefully classified exceptions to this OB, Navy command simply assigns
the most appropriate force to the most appropriate mission. Therefore, while
the listings below are "theory," Naval mission assignments in practice often
bear little resemblence to the OB.

Command. A single ship command, commanded by a captain.

Line. Theoretically a unit of four ships, commanded by a captain of the
line. In practice, lines vary from as few as one ship to as many as 20. A
line is normally the smallest unit used in space battles.

Squadron. Systems Force. Strength varies by mission profile: force
superiority units have three battle squadrons and a light squadron, for up
to 90 ships. Commanded by a systems admiral (also known as a commodore). A
systems force is responsible for several systems.

Fleet. The force deployed to an entire sector. These also vary immensely: a
superiority fleet has four system forces, two force superiority units and
two force escort units, with six Star Destroyers and 390 other combat
starships. Commanded by a fleet admiral.

Sector Group. The total of Naval strength in a sector. Commanded by a high
admiral. Can contain at least 2,400 ships (of which, 1,600 are combat
starships, including 24 Star Destroyers)."

S&S: Based on the Sector Group information and on the assumption of ~1000
sectors, the Imperial Navy should have at least 2,400,000 starships in
addition to 24,000 (25,000) Star Destroyers.

Consider that the fleet size estimates tend to be underestimates. Lines that
are supposed to have 4 ships often have 20 or more. The document suggests
the existence of 24,000 ISDs when we know there were 25,000. So we have
large and small underestimates.

"A troop line consists of two Evakmar-KDY transport vessels and two escort
vessels - frequently two strike cruisers. As a troop line's function is
intimately connected with that of the Army, troops lines vary less than
other lines."

Misc: Aha! Could this be our mystery transport? What is it?

"A Star Destroyer is considered a line in itself. A naval staff study
concluded that a Star Destroyer was the equivalent of at least the squadrons
of the time, and would be more properly categorized as such. The Admiralty
agreed with the analysis, but disagreed with the conclusion. The Admiralty
felt that as there were more lines than squadrons, designating the Star
Destroyer as a line unit would get them more Star Destroyers. The Admiralty'
s thinking prevailed."

"A Salvager's Run"

Misc: The story indicates that naval garbage could be valuable. Maybe that's
how the Federation could learn about the Empire, given a head-start.

"Bombard squadrons have two torpedo lines, a skirmish line, and a pursuit
line, for an average of 20 to 28 vessels. Bombard squadrons are assigned to
worlds which have rebelled successfully and have organized a large surface
military which would take far too long to defeat. Imperial commanders,
pressed on so many planets, often deploy bombard squadrons in less severe
circumstances.

The vessels which escort the bombard squadron are considered sufficient to
deal with any starships which might resist. Any force larger than what a
bombard squadron can handle would draw the attention of the Imperial Navy,
who would deal with it prior to the appearance of the bombard squadron"

Tactics: What does this mean? Does the 'Imperial Navy' have more dedicated
standing units made up of real cruisers and battlecruisers to deal with
large threats as opposed to the puny system forces that they are making do
with in this document?

"We have an update from astrogation," said the captain. "Hypersignal sensor
data and recalculation indicates that all ships shall emerge from hyperspace
in formation. Only the strike cruiser Shador is anticipated to have deviated
more than an arc second since we left Jerijador."

Propulsion: Expected unit cohesion during a hyperspace jump

"The pit crew, alert to the Moff's posture, began running test charges
through all of the Valiant's weapons systems. As the gaze of the Moff
meandered over parts of the bridge the crew leapt to life. The comm-pit
began pre-programming fire command messages to the other ships for all of
the exigencies for which they had planned. Controllers began the launch
drill with the TIE pilots. Sensor crews began zero basing their instruments,
fine tuning them to squelch any noise. Shield loads were tested, compared
with standard energy draws on the engines. The helm worked through all of
the emergency simulations with techs in the engine room. All sections
reported to the staff lieutenant. When the row went green, the lieutenant
looked up at the Moff."

Tactics: Imperial pre-battle command ship preparations.

"Superiority fleets comprise as least four system forces, two force
superiority and two force escort. With six Star Destroyers and an average of
390 other combat starships, a superiority fleet is presumed to be a
sufficient force to maintain space superiority in calm sectors (those with
four or fewer worlds confirmed hostile to the New Order, with no more than
16 additional worlds with confirmed significant hostile elements)."

[This gives some idea as to the ratio of combat ships to Star Destroyers]

"Deepdock fleet has a average of 280 support vessels, plus a force escort to
protect the deepdock assets. Deepdock contains two deepdock complexes, the
engineering corps, plus two force technical services. Deepdock complexes are
huge structures, and the ones planned are becoming larger all the time.
Deepdocks are floating shipyards, able to make extensive repairs and
modifications. When not repairing vessels they are building new ones to join
the fleet. The smallest deepdock complex still in service has three work
bays, the largest of which can hold a Victory Star Destroyer with the other
two able to accommodate any ship smaller than a carrier. Such deepdocks have
huge tractor beam generators which put up to eight damaged ships on hold
while waiting for a work bay to open.

The largest deepdock now in operation is the Rendili R/M Facility Number
Four, currently in the Mahrusha sector. It has 125 work bays, each of which
is large enough to hold a strike cruiser. These work bays are modular, each
segment joined to the other by attraction-variable Akinetic fields produced
by Voorson generators larger than the drives on most combat starships.

This allows the work bays to be combined to form larger work bays; four work
bays can be joined to repair or manufacture a Victory-class Star Destroyer,
15 can be combined to work on an Imperial Star Destroyer, and 18 can be
reconfigured to produce a torpedo sphere. Work bays are being added as
quickly as Rendili can manufacture them.

Deepdock facilities, while not as efficient as the shipyards of the major
starship manufacturers, have the advantage of being hyperspace capable. This
not only shortens the time required to get damaged combat starships
repaired, but makes deepdocks more difficult targets for Rebel attacks. "

S&S: This is very interesting. It's like having mobile Starbase 74s. One of
them can hold 8 or 9 Star Destroyers. How big is that, anyone?

"Support fleet has at least 500 vessels, a quarter of which are corvette
class or smaller, while a quarter of them are the huge Loronar FSCVs (Field
Secured Container Vessels). FSCVs always travel is pairs, their main ion
engines faced in opposite directions. On the side opposite the ion engines
are gargantuan Prexton doublefield generators; these create force fields
which are then surrounded by a hyperspace field when the ships make the jump
to lightspeed. Each force field sphere is about 800 meters in diameter for
over 250 million cubic meters of cargo space. Cargo containers are held in
place by the force fields. The force fields may be bubblechained if enough
power is available, and 20 or more field spheres are not uncommon."

Misc: Description of FSCVs. Maybe these are the types of transports that
moved away an entire planetary ocean, as explored on SD.NET.

"As the vast majority of an FSCV's power is going through the Prexton, it is
no surprise that the ion engines are underpowered. FSCVs at full throttle
can take 35 hours and over 600,000,000 kilometers to come to a stop from
normal sublight speed. and a like time to accelerate the ships again. FSCVs
are therefore flown on paths tangent to the orbits of planets whose depots
are being resupplied. Smaller ships unload and reload the cargo as the FSCV
flies by, never losing more than a third of their sublight velocity."

Propulsion: 35 hours to travel 600,000,000 km while slowing down is
considered 'slow' and 'underpowered.' Funny considering how Trekkies used to
claim that SW ships would never be able to travel that distance at sublight
in any reasonable amount of time. Furthermore, this shows how the
decelerative capabilities of ion engines is equivelant to their accelerative
capabilities, lending more credence to the Endor deceleration calcs for the
Imperial squadron.

"Fleet ordnance is responsible for equipping all Navy and Army units with
needed weapons and ammunition. Ordnance will use a ship as dangerously
insecure as the FSCV only if a huge operation has been ordered suddenly by
High Command, not giving ordnance sufficient time to resupply ships and
depots. Ordnance usually conducts resupply operations by using available
cargo space on more secure vessels, and has priority of the use of such
space."

Misc: Fleet ordnance can use efficient transportation, but prefers secure
transportation.

"This droid was introduced as a low cost commercial model with a 400-sector
promotional support campaign with 85 percent media saturation. Trillions
were sold. Hundreds of billions were returned. While being extremely
versatile, the MSE-6 had motile and audiocast patterns which reminded dozens
of separate sentient species of some native pest; and it was certainly
nothing to look at.
To stave off bankruptcy, Rebaxan turned to the military, offering a great
deal on a few hundred billion slightly used droids. The military purchased
them as a temporary stopgap to accommodate the huge increased need for
droids occasioned by the spectacular growth of the Army and Navy."

S&S: "A few hundred billion" mouse droids are only a temporary stopgap to
accomodate an under-supply of existing droids.

"A Sector Group can be expected to contain at least 2,400 ships, 24 of which
are Star Destroyers, and another 1,600 combat starships. Thousands of Sector
Groups are at the Emperor's command as he seeks to bring the galaxy firmly
under his control."

S&S: This just makes my estimates seem even more conservative.


Anyway, this chapter is more like Sheppard's domain. I intentionally skipped
over a lot and Shep might want to bring some of it to light. There's just
too much to print. If you want to know all of the army's sneaky tricks and
combined-arms forces, you must read the entire document. I just highlighted
mainly VS debate stuff.

--
-=Doomriser

"We've been very careful. The continuity is airtight. Believe me. We know.
We know."
-Brannon Braga



