Solomani Confederation (Military)

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Vehicles

One reason for preferring grav powered ones over rotorcraft at tech level eight, is that they're just more versatile.

That may be a little contradictory, since the technology is more complex, and the rotorcraft do seem to carry a greater load, and the basis of the SCMC is lower tech at affordable prices.

But you still have to train your personnel to fly and maintain them, and grav and fusion power plants do get better. And you can mount an artillery weapons systems on a platform, and easily move it anywhere. Besides just using the grav platforms as drones and low orbit satellites. They are not more expensive to buy and operate than rotorcraft.

One interesting alternative are blimps, but that requires a really permissive environment, or can be considered the canary in the coalmine, in that once they are shot down, you know that the balloon has gone up.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Civil Affairs

Army and Navy commanders may have to deal with local populaces, and while they could get personnel seconded from their respective Home Guard counterparts, or SolSec, they may prefer to interface with the indigenous population with personnel less biased with an institutional view point or pushing their own agenda. Also, the indigenous population might have a more jaundiced opinion of these institutions.

Civil Affairs allows a more direct interface be between the employers of the SCMC and the locals, which can include translators, marketers, public relations, and non-military administrative personnel (doesn't need to fight and can quit).

S0 Intern - (Steward)
S1 Clerk - (Admin)
S2 Secretary - (Diplomat)
S3 Administrative Assistant - (Persuade)
S4 Supervisor - (Investigate)
S5 Administrator - (Advocate)
S6 Department Head - (Broker)

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Penal Legions

Much like the Draft, I doubt that the Solomani military machine believe much in the efficacy of having less than enthused voluntary trained combatants. But for the sake of completeness.

So you have three variants:

1. Convicted offenders sentenced to hard labour under dangerous conditions, who find themselves involuntarily doing construction work in the field, in uncomfortable conditions, and possibly while under fire.

2. Convicted offenders given autorifles, pointed in the direction of the enemy, and with SolSec machine gun cells in the other direction, for encouragement.

3. Convicted offenders who volunteer to become suicide squadders.

Their sentences would be reduced in proportion to their tactical achievements and relative danger.

Squad leaders will be trustees; any skills that are developed will be from on the job training. Probably won't be deployed in gatherings greater than reinforced companies.

 

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Solomani Security: Starships

Most, if not all, spaceships whose primary purpose revolves around covert operations tend to be operated by SolSec.

One rumoured type is a converted and refurbished Beowulf trader, codenamed Werewolf.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Basic Training/Service Skills

Service skills is something you sort of acquire over the course of you first term

1. Athletics - they have you running round a lot

2. Gun combat/slug thrower - everyone fights, no one quits

3. Drive/wheeled - mobility

4. Recon - being able to identify what you're looking at

5. Melee - Infantry: when the enemy is in your personal space, or you're in his
or, Admin - Civil Affairs: you don't have to fight
or, Admin - Logistics
or, Electronics - Signals
or, Explosives - Combat Engineer
or, Heavy weapons/artillery - Heavy Weapons
pr, Heavy weapons/man portable - Heavy Weapons
or, Mechanics - Transporters
or, Medic - Combat Medic
or, Steward - Culinary

6. Survival
or, Streetwise - depending on the environment deployed

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Advanced Education


Qualifying and going to university probably requires more work in Mongoose. Anywho ...

The SCMC works on the lowest common denominator, and in this case minimum Education Six would be that for the Higher Education skills list.

1. Tactics/military
or, Profession
or, Security

2. Electronics
or, Mechanics

3. Admin
or, Leadership
or, Investigate
or, Interrogation
or, Advocate
or, Recruiting
or, Language

4. Navigation
or, Recon

5. Explosives
or, Combat Engineering
or, Weapon Engineering

6. Flyer/rotorcraft - to qualify as a helicopter pilot or drone operator
or, Vacc Suit - to transfer to the ULTRAMarines
or, Driver/wheeled

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Personal Development

Probably needs more choices in general:

1. Strength
or, Melee

2. Dexterity
or, Carouse

3. Endurance
or, Athletics

4. Intelligence
or, Gambler

5. Education
or, Profession

6. Social Standing
or, Jack of All Trades

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Combat Engineers

Anyone can dig a hole, but you need specialists as to where they would be most effective, and that they don't collapse on you.

S0 Navvy
S1 Pioneer - Explosives
S2 Miner - Combat engineering
S3 Sapper
S4 Engineer
S5 Field Engineer
S6 Chief Engineer

There's more to it, whether mechanics, electronics or admin.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: ULTRAs

I'd like to find a way to change the initials to SCMP.

Pournelle is at pains to emphasize that Line Marines are his equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, something I was reminded off when I rewatched Starship Troopers and The Mummy.

The SCMC are recruited insystem, if not dirtside, of the area they are supposed to operate in, as a cheap alternative of shipping in Solomani Army formations and activated Hone Guard units. The equipment is rugged and simple to maintain, and their role is mostly internal security, since Death From Above should wipe out any large attempts at resistance, so their primary opponents would be urban and rural guerrilla cells, where presence and numbers might be more effective than TechnoNinja commandos and floating grav heavy tanks.

If the individuals survive and qualify technically, and wish to go, as they say in Starship Troopers, career, they can join the ULTRAs. Promotion for the combat specialties would be capped at squad leader, you need to be an ULTRA for senior platoon NCO or higher.

For qualification to the ULTRAMarines, Gun Combat/slug thrower two and Vacc Suit zero is sufficient. Medic two would practically make anyone qualified to be a medical doctor, and somehow seems out of proportion, and normally you wouldn't send one along with a platoon; Medic one and Vacc zero is probably appropriate. Interesting question is if you can recruit doctors into SCMC, or you have to second them from the Solomani Army or Navy, though I'd doubt there'd be many refusals from a direct request from SolSec.

I'm not sure that can can classify bazookas or their larger brothers, the recoilless rifles, with man portable missile systems, but arguably you could. The SEPOIs could have tech level six bazookas and recoilless rifles support, and the ULTRAs would have Heavy weapons/man portable two, which would make them brigade level assets, much as would howitzers, while the battalions an companies would schlep along mortars.

Since mobility is the driving theme, howitzers would be self propelled, and possibly armoured, and if you gave them the option of an assault tank, it sort of runs into the category of vehicle mounted.

ULTRASWAT would be assigned to each battalion, for hostage situations and assaulting buildings, so Vacc suit zero wouldn't be required.

Combat helicopter pilots would have to be ULTRAs with Flyer/rotorcraft two, though transporter pilots would be ones, and I suppose if you start them off as operators of cheap drones, zeros.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: ULTRAs

I'd like to find a way to change the initials to SCMP.

Pournelle is at pains to emphasize that Line Marines are his equivalent of the French Foreign Legion, something I was reminded off when I rewatched Starship Troopers and The Mummy.

The SCMC are recruited insystem, if not dirtside, of the area they are supposed to operate in, as a cheap alternative of shipping in Solomani Army formations and activated Hone Guard units. The equipment is rugged and simple to maintain, and their role is mostly internal security, since Death From Above should wipe out any large attempts at resistance, so their primary opponents would be urban and rural guerrilla cells, where presence and numbers might be more effective than TechnoNinja commandos and floating grav heavy tanks.

If the individuals survive and qualify technically, and wish to go, as they say in Starship Troopers, career, they can join the ULTRAs. Promotion for the combat specialties would be capped at squad leader, you need to be an ULTRA for senior platoon NCO or higher.

For qualification to the ULTRAMarines, Gun Combat/slug thrower two and Vacc Suit zero is sufficient. Medic two would practically make anyone qualified to be a medical doctor, and somehow seems out of proportion, and normally you wouldn't send one along with a platoon; Medic one and Vacc zero is probably appropriate. Interesting question is if you can recruit doctors into SCMC, or you have to second them from the Solomani Army or Navy, though I'd doubt there'd be many refusals from a direct request from SolSec.

I'm not sure that can can classify bazookas or their larger brothers, the recoilless rifles, with man portable missile systems, but arguably you could. The SEPOIs could have tech level six bazookas and recoilless rifles support, and the ULTRAs would have Heavy weapons/man portable two, which would make them brigade level assets, much as would howitzers, while the battalions an companies would schlep along mortars.

Since mobility is the driving theme, howitzers would be self propelled, and possibly armoured, and if you gave them the option of an assault tank, it sort of runs into the category of vehicle mounted.

ULTRASWAT would be assigned to each battalion, for hostage situations and assaulting buildings, so Vacc suit zero wouldn't be required.

Combat helicopter pilots would have to be ULTRAs with Flyer/rotorcraft two, though transporter pilots would be ones, and I suppose if you start them off as operators of cheap drones, zeros.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Headquarters

 

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Solomani Military: SpaceTroopers

However much fun it would be to keep this as a branch of the Solomani Army, it now seems unlikely in the face of not only the Confederation Marines, but their junior varsity team, the ULTRAMarines.

The Solomani Army would have trained their infantry for hostile environments in general, but away from the primary worlds, the Navy now has access to a pool of troops that they can send to the outer system and micro-gravity deployments, besides their Confederation Marines.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Basic Training/Service Skills (revised)

Service skills is something you sort of acquire over the course of you first term

1. Athletics - they have you running around a lot

2. Gun combat/slug thrower - everyone fights, no one quits

3. Drive/wheeled - mobility

4. Recon - being able to identify what you're looking at

5. Military Occupational Specialty
Melee - Infantry: when the enemy is in your personal space, or you're in his
or, Admin - Civil Affairs: you don't have to fight
or, Admin - Logistics
or, Animal - K9
or, Art/Bugle - Bugler
or, Art/Holography - Combat Camera
or, Electronics - Signals
or, Explosives - Combat Engineer
or, Flyer/rotorcraft - Aviationist
or, Heavy weapons/artillery - Heavy Weapons
or, Heavy weapons/man portable - Heavy Weapons
or, Investigate - Provosts
or, Mechanics - Transporters
or, Medic - Combat Medic
or, Steward - Culinary

6. Environment
Survival - rural
or, Streetwise - urban
or, Vacc Suit - SpaceTrooper

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: SpaceTroopers

As anyone would have guessed from the above, the SCMC has expanded to include SpaceTroopers.

What does having SpaceTroopers bring to it's capabilities? It allows the Confederation to place contingents of security troops on all if not most of it's spaceships, without diverting it's Marines from their normal roles, if it became a necessity. Principle skills being Gun combat/slog thrower one and Vacc suit zero, with heavy weapons support.

SpaceTroopers can easily switch assignments to ULTRAMarines, if they acquire Gun combat/slug thrower two.

One thing's for sure, they aren't getting tech level fourteen battle dress, tech level thirteen doesn't seem worth it, in terms of cost.

The Solomani Army has a mixture of tech level fourteen combat armour and battle dress, whereas the Confederation Marines just use tech level fourteen battle dress.

The ULTRAMarines get tech level thirteen Hostile Environmental Suits, the SpaceTroopers tech level eleven Hostile Environmental Suits, and let's let the TERMINTORs have tech level fourteen battle dress.

Tech level twelve Vacc suits are general issue for all Navy ships, and tech level ten Vacc suits are mandated for merchant ships.

Outside of battle dress, the Confederation military doesn't believe in issuing any equipment requiring more than Vacc suit zero skill to operate.

 

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Solomani Military: Militia

In theory, you can have semi-automatic weapons at tech level four (at least late), basically ye hunting rifle becomes a Garand or even a FN FAL, especially when you extend the magazine from five to ten or twenty. All this for two hundred schmuckers, plus whatever the semi automation and extended magazine would cost.

A tech level five scope will extend the accuracy to really interesting ranges for fifty schmuckers, and if you give them a tech level seven one, makes them really effective at night.

And then when you manufacture them at a higher tech level, you start paying peanuts for the equipment, which should remain competitive until you get to tech level ten ACRs, which not only can outshoot ye tricked out hunting rifle, but also outrange it.

You can certainly have a practical revolver, and at later stages, a functioning autopistol.

Submachineguns and autorifles would start appearing early tech level five.

Now, I'm a little dubious about assaulting a position with a sword in one hand, and a pistol in the other, less so with a submachinegun and grenades, but we're talking about the Solomani organizing their populaces into ad hoc militias, probably diving them into long range support squads, medium range support squads, and short range assault ones, and cheaply mass producing weapons when invasion of a planet seems imminent.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: SpaceTroopers


I guess these guys need an their assignment skill table:

1. Vacc suit - because, space
2. Gunner - because, pirates and commerce raiders, mostly; Aslan?
3. Melee - sometimes, you run out of bullets, or guns
4. Gun combat/slug thrower - because, that's what you're there for
5. Athletics - you have to do something with your spare time
6. Recon - someone has to take point

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Qualification

Not everyone can or wants to enlist in the Confederation Marines.

And SCMC may not be anyone's initial career choice, though unlike some other careers, recruiters won't penalize for having experienced life in some other capacity, sometimes, that just makes their job easier, as long as they certain key skills, such as Gun combat/slug thrower one, and can keep up with their assigned squad.

The SCMC prefers to narrow their specialists' skills set, so it's easier to train them, and they have a whole bunch of guys with slug thrower one hanging around to protect them, as compared to the more broader education of a Confederation Marine or even a Solomani Army soldier.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Contingent Size

All right, sweethearts, what are you waiting for? Breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps! A day in the Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck a fortune! Every formation a parade! I LOVE the Corps!

Rewatching Aliens is a lot of fun, but you get the idea that a bug hunt mission requires more than a squad plus support (lieutenant, platoon sergeant (presumably), assistant squad leader, two heavy weapons, medic, Signals, driver, two grunts; dropship pilot, weapons officer, civilian consultant, android, supernumerary).

The ULTRAMarines would have sent at least two or three ten men squads under the command of a lieutenant, but likely without nuclear warheads, supported by a medic, Signals and one or two Navy pilots.

SpaceTrooper equivalent would be a squad leader with three three men rile cells, probably one exchanged for a heavy weapons one, supported by Signals, a medic and a driver; though that's unlikely for a ground assault mission; or was it reconnaissance? Maybe to investigate a Space Hulk.

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Assignments

Since it seems a Herpestesian tradition, the SCMC has three primary assignments, each administered and led by a different service:

1. SpaceTrooper
administered by the Solomani Navy

2. MotorizedInfantry
administered by the Solomani Army

3. CarBineers
administered by the Solomani Security

 

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Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Assignments

Ironically, or maybe it's just a parallel evolution, I've ended up with almost the same structure that Pournelle had for the CoDominium Marines.

The SpaceTroopers are the Fleet Marines, who need to be more technically proficient.

The MotorizedInfantry are the Line Marines, who'll take anyone and are considered expendable.

The CarBineers are Garrison Marines, and SolSec picks them more for ideological reliability.

Equipping the SpaceTroopers with autorifles may seem counter-intuitive, considering the fact that at any time the artificial gravity may be cut or switched off, but that's what you have magnetic grapples on your boots for.