Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Pandora Rulz

It's interesting that Avatar slipped my mind when it came to interstellar counter insurgency, probably becomes the aborigines really do look silly.

But there you have that assembled military force, with slug throwers , and ducted fan rotorcraft, plus let's call it a mini helicarrier. And exo-skeletons.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Cruiser Gap and Home Guard Naval Assets

I think that the Naval Staff thought they could cover the cruiser gap through activating cruiser class vessels from the Naval Home Guard.

Because the Navy kept their major combatants rather than retiring and donating them to the member militaries due to a lack of dedicated replacement tonnage, the hole on this theory became evident by the end of the fifty sixth century, anno Domini, in that system centric navies don't tend to build twenty to hundred thousand tonne warships with spinal mounts and three, let alone four, parsec ranges.

And the ones that did, tended to be largish military alliances even less inclined to release their capital equivalent warships to the Confederation.

It, in fact, serves their political interests to leave Solomani Navy concentrated in almost exclusively dreadnought heavy FleetRons deployed along the frontiers and centralized reserves.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Pilot Slots and Capital Ships

It's fair to say, that with a comparatively a handful of major combatants, there's going to only a limited number of slots for the helmsmen to actually practice their craft and gain expertise, and the Solomani are going to need ace ship handlers to give them a qualitative edge over the Imperium, to compensate for numbers and technology.

Generally, it is assumed that the Solomani Navy makes up the numbers with one and two thousand tonne patrol ships: they don't.

They build and deploy six thousand tonne hulled starships so that they can have their pick of experienced pilots and crew to man their fast dreadnoughts, and maintain a large pool of reservists.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Ranks

Let's try a new take on this:

Rank/Grade
0/0 Recruit
1/1 Trooper
2/2 Specialist
2/3 Lancer
3/4 Veteran
3/5 Sky Captain
4/6 Sky Colonel
4/7 Sky Brigadier
5/8 Sky General
6/9 Sky Marshal

For the first half, rank and posting don't necessarily correspond.

Generic Infantryman Joseph Jones.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: SpaceTroopers Squad

T0 Recruit
T1 Trooper
T2 Lance Corporal
T3 Lance Sergeant

Squad
. Command cell
.. Squad leader - Confederation Marine Corporal
.. Assistant squad leader - Lance Sergeant
.. Runner - Trooper

. Support cell
.. Signaller - Signaller
.. Medic - Medic
.. Combat Engineer - Sapper

. Rifle cell
.. Cell leader - Lance Corporal
.. Rifleman - Trooper
.. Rifleman - Trooper

. Rifle cell
.. Cell leader - Lance Corporal
.. Rifleman - Trooper
.. Rifleman - Trooper

. Rocket launcher cell
.. Cell leader - Bombardier
.. Ammunition bearer - Gunner
.. Ammunition bearer - Gunner

Squad
. Command cell
.. Squad leader - Confederation Marine Corporal
.. Assistant squad leader - Lance Sergeant/E3 Lancer
.. Runner - Trooper/E1 Trooper

. Support cell
.. Signaller - Signaller/E2 Specialist
.. Medic - Medic/E2 Specialist
.. Combat Engineer - Sapper/E2 Specialist

. Rifle cell
.. Cell leader - Lance Corporal/E3 Lancer
.. Rifleman - Trooper/E1 Trooper
.. Rifleman - Trooper/E1 Trooper or E0 Recruit

. Rifle cell
.. Cell leader - Lance Corporal/E3 Lancer
.. Rifleman - Trooper/E1 Trooper
.. Rifleman - Trooper/E1 Trooper or E0 Recruit

. Rocket launcher cell
.. Cell leader - Bombardier/E3 Lancer
.. Ammunition bearer - Gunner/E2 Specialist
.. Ammunition bearer - Gunner/E2 Specialist

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: ULTRAMarine Squad


U0 SpaceTrooper (Lance Corporal)
U1 Marine
U2 Corporal
U3 Sergeant
U4 First Sergeant
U5 Staff Sergeant
U6 Quartermaster


M0 Recruit
M1 Marine
M2 Corporal
M3 Sergeant
M4 Gunnery Sergeant
M5 Master Sergeant
M6 Sergeant Major
M7 Command Sergeant
M8 Command Sergeant Major
M9 Inspector General of the Solomani Confederation Marine Corps


ULTRAMarine Squad

. Command team
.. Squad leader - Sergeant
.. Signaller - Signaller
.. Medic - Medic
.. Combat Engineer - Sapper

. Fire Team
.. Fire team leader - Corporal
.. Rifleman - Marine
.. Rifleman - Marine
.. Gaussman - Marine

. Fire Team
.. Fire team leader - Corporal
.. Rifleman - Marine
.. Rifleman - Marine
.. Gaussman - Marine

ULTRAMarine Squad

. Command team
.. Squad leader - Sergeant/E3 Lancer
.. Signaller - Signaller/E2 Specialist
.. Medic - Medic/E2 Specialist
.. Combat Engineer - Sapper/E2 Specialist

. Fire Team
.. Fire team leader - Corporal/E3 Lancer
.. Rifleman - Marine/E2 Specialist
.. Rifleman - Marine/E2 Specialist
.. Gaussman - Marine/E2 Specialist

. Fire Team
.. Fire team leader - Corporal/E3 Lancer
.. Rifleman - Marine/E2 Specialist
.. Rifleman - Marine/E2 Specialist
.. Gaussman - Marine/E2 Specialist

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Marines: Active Personnel

If the Imperium has about a five thousand man Marine regiment per subsector, for the Solomani to maintain a million man Marine Corps is more than double per capita comparatively.

Also would seem a convenient number to cap by nervous member worlds.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: There's so many different worlds So many different suns


But a unified hierarchy:

Rank/Grade
0/0 Recruit
1/1 Trooper
2/2 Specialist
2/3 Lancer
3/4 Veteran
3/5 Sky Captain
4/6 Sky Colonel
4/7 Sky Brigadier
5/8 Sky General
6/9 Sky Marshal

Everyone is expected to fight; recruits can be integrated into cells and teams, whether it's part of on the job training, or everyone to the pumps when everything's on fire.

Troopers are riflemen, basically cannon fodder.

Specialists are personnel slotted into supporting roles who have essential skills outside of knowing which end of the rifle to point. They also tend to be attached to frontline units from specialized parent units.

Lancers tend to be selected for the junior non commissioned officer slots; pay grades are not an obligation to find you such a slot, just that you're qualified to carry out those duties.

Veterans are qualified to lead men, usually as section and platoon commanders, and act as senior non commissioned officers in higher echeloned units. Many veterans are selected to be part of more capable and or elitish units, rather than command them.

Sky Captains are successful graduates of the SCMC Officer Candidate School, which are drawn from Veterans; they are qualified to command companies.

Sky Colonels and Sky Brigadiers tend to command independent SCMC battalions and brigades, rather than those that are officered by personnel seconded from the Marines, the Army and SolSec.

Every system has it's own Sky General, coordinating and responsible for SCMC activity therein.

Every subsector has it's own Sky Marshal, ultimately responsible to the Secretary General, but not in any other chain of command.


Some thoughts on terminology.

Generals remain field commanders, the most senior responsible for systems.

Marshals, are responsible for interstellar wide areas, whether subsubsector, subsector, subSector, Sector, subDomain, Domain or Chief of Staff.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Instruments of Policy

While the Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps is a complete fabrication from me, though a bastardization from quite a number of media and literary sources, it sort of evolves/evolved from my view of a more hands-off approach from the Confederation, and an unwillingness to bluff, at least when utilizing the most visible power projectors that they have to hand.

Generally speaking, a peace time Navy uses cruisers to impose it's will in areas that it wants to or believes it has the right to influence.

The Solomani Navy is a tad short in that department.

The Solomani Navy is expected to do everything military or paramilitary that is space related, which would indicate the Federation StarFleet, if StarFleet was being prepared for a war against the Klingons and/or Romulans, and only building battleships, not Constitution class cruisers, if not on a constant war footing, one reason to mass your ships into strike forces, ready to go.

The Solomani Army is trained to fight win against the ground force of the Imperium, and retake lost planets, so outside of specialized light infantry forces, it consists of primarily heavy armoured units, not really suited for a counter insurgency campaign, prolonged or not.

In fact, the Solomani Confederation is well aware that permitting it's two most visible instruments to engage in such actions wastes their time, accrues bad publicity, blunts their edge, and forces them to divert energy and resources that should be used to deter external threats, when not handing them their asses.

The Solomani do not commit their forces piecemeal, at least not when the issue is considered worthwhile to deploy capital ships. If it isn't, but the matter is important enough for a military demonstration, a deep strike cruiser with a reinforced Confederation Marine Commando company suddenly appears overhead to make some form of decapitation strike. All very visible and above board.

There might have been some reconnaissance elements inserted covertly beforehand, and local SolSec assets used to report on the tactical situation and possibly contribute to the success of the mission with selective sabotage of planetary defence installations.

But publicity shy Black Ops tend to be solely the province of SolSec, since the Navy doesn't disown it's personnel.

A warning signal would be when a complete FleetRon diverts and makes an unscheduled port call in a system. The point of no return is when it includes a transport fleet carrying an expensively mobilized Panzer Army.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Through these fields of destruction Baptisms of fire

If I understand Supplement Four tech level upgrades, you can improve a single performance characteristic by one hundred and seventy five percent in four tech levels.

Which means a well designed combat shotgun at tech level eight can cause seven dee six damage, which is more than enough for sbipboard combat.

And dodging is even more difficult in one point five metre wide corridors.

Compare this to the longer ranged tech level eight Poni Gun at five dee six, or what I was considering the tech level ten Heavy Ay See Ar with four dee six.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Law Level Six

In addition to shotguns (presumably combat) and stunners, traditional Solomani weapons, the bolt action five shot hunting rifle and maximum six chambered revolver should be permitted under law level six, as one could be used for both sport and hunting, and the other for personal protection.

Saturday Night Specials excepted.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Solomani Confederation: Law Level Six

In addition to shotguns (presumably combat) and stunners, traditional Solomani weapons, the bolt action five shot hunting rifle and maximum six chambered revolver should be permitted under law level six, as one could be used for both sport and hunting, and the other for personal protection.

Saturday Night Specials excepted.

This is Law Level 6 IMTU (though I replace hunting rifles with semi-automatic pistols and one-shot-per-trigger-pull gauss pistols) already so we're quite agree.

Though come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those "Saturday night specials" are illegally constructed ones... :twisted:

 

[Condottiere]

That's what three dee printers are for.

The variety of revolvers available should be at least as great as today, probably far more with regional features that either caters to local aesthetics or makes them function more efficiently.

Since merchantmen ship lockers are concerned with self defense, the cylinders should be removable, which resolves the issue of accidentally (or deliberately) chambering a round in an autopistol.

I'm not sure when the caseless round is introduced in Traveller, though for the Ay See Arr, the propellant charge is changed and it's stable enough to be used for automatic fire, though that probably is also linked to a better way to remove heat from the individual internal combustions, which may come together at tech level ten.

I'm pretty sure that caseless is possible at tech level seven.

What I'm thinking is a cylinder manufactured at level tech seven/eight of hard plastic, but the bullets are embedded as caseless. Not sure if the plastic cyclinders can be reused, but they'd act both as speedloaders and gun safety feature.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Singular

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmaWy4KmeTA

Sounds eightyish Britpop, but likely the unofficial anthem of the Solomani Confederation, especially once you really examine the lyrics.

In theory, the Sylean Federation should have encountered a rejuvenated Terran Confederation expanding coreward, since likely the industrial base of the first wave of colonized planets would have remained largely in tact and looking for markets, though the primary push would come from the Terran and near Sol interstellar corporations, followed by their respective colonial fleets.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Lasers

You might think it's a given that militaries would re-equip with laser smallarms as they become available, because we know that for most major military powers, the costs these represent are really small change, outside of retraining, and they do have the advantage of a harder knock and better logistics (as in practically none) compared to their weaponry they replace, ye slug thrower. And no recoil.

And like explosives, even if it's restricted to military grade, it's too useful in the civilian industry so prevent a more gifted or obsessed mechanic from recreating a laser weapon from classroom pointers, DVD readers or cutting equipment.

Now, the Solomani Army and Confederation Marines integrate reflec layer into Combat Armour and Battle Dress, it basically only costs an additional fifteen hundred schmuckers compared to the suits they are force multiplying, and an oversized ablat jacket if it's confirmed the opposition using lasers.

Cloth for an additional five hundred schmuckers could overlay reflec armour, and then add an ablat jacket if you know you're facing lasers.

Outside of rather cheap protection, atmospheric conditions and deliberate placement of aerosol clouds would degrade performance, which would explain the continued utility of slug throwers by the military.

Also, seven dee six tech level eight combat shotguns. With gyrostabilizer (no recoil) and a laser sight, so you know what you're hitting at fifty metres, ye basic shotgun range.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps


Single recruitment centre
> Solomani Navy
> Confederation Marines
> Solomani Army
> Home Guard
> Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps

SpaceTroopers
-> ULTRAMarines
--> TERMINATORS

SEPOI
-> Cavalry
--> Paratroopers

CARBineers
-> Fast Interdiction Security Troops
--> SPETSNAZ

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Military

I kicked off this particular tangent in order to have fun with acronyms, amongst other reasons.

However, it's gotten me thinking.

1. How many army groups is the Confederation prepared to use to recover Terra, because you can bet that after the Solomani Navy overruns the Imperium Navy border squadrons, pins the major components of the sector fleet and destroys it as a coherent fighting force, with half the FleetRons and all the Deep Strike cruisers chasing what remains deep into the Imperium, perhaps stopping halfway to the Capital, and then withdrawing to consolidate their gains and tightening up their lines of communication, and maybe letting loose all their commerce raiders to create a no man's land in subsectors they have no interest in and creating a scorched earth buffer zone, as well as disrupting communications and trade.

2. The second phase would be activating all the hidden ships that SolSec had managed to smuggle into the Sol system, just as the other half of FleetRons arrive with troop transports; I doubt the Solomani plan on a long siege, preferring to wrap up the issue as fast as possible, since they'll want to repair and redeploy their FleetRons to meet the battle fleets the Imperium will activate from their reserves, strategic or otherwise, and if negotiations can't bring forth a ceasefire, battle fleets withdrawn from other regions in a third wave.

3. The Solomani Navy will not want to waste their Marines guarding static bases, with the exception of their depots and Home, or more precisely, the Secretary General and Wolfe's Lair Naval Base. The Navy is obliged to garrison each Starport HiPorts with two battalions, protecting their communication and docking facilities and other Naval orbital and space facilities. The Solomani Army is responsible for Starport and other extraterritorial and Solomani Confederation facilities dirtside. The Navy fuflfills it's obligations by recruiting locally two battalions of SpaceTroops, which are sufficient for most security functions.

4. SolSec recruits it's internal security enforcement paramilitary forces through the SCMC from their more politically reliable recruits, and upgrades the assignments of the more capable ones to Fast Interdiction Security Troops, and the really proven ones to the elite SPETSNAZ units.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: Organization

For the rather less than the elite nature of the various components of the SCMC, the reason that the units are structured around the triangular model is span of command, the number two has nothing to do with the Sith, but rather combat effectiveness and unit cohesion, compared to the Confederation Marines and Soomani Army, whose highly trained troops can control a lot more than three subunits and function at way below half their size, which includes walking wounded.

Any unit that falls below fifty percent is either withdrawn or amalgamated, rather than risk it being destroyed.

Interestingly enough, there's this useful table from Book Two:

-01% Zombie
- -4

00%-00% Dead
– Cannot act

01%-10% Survivors
- –4 May only fire once every five rounds

11%-25% Skeleton
- -2 May only fire once every three rounds

26%-50% Half
- –1 May only fire once every two rounds

51%-75% Weakened
- +0

76%-90% Full
- +0

91%-120% Battle
- +0

121%-150% Overstrength
- +0

151%+ Massively Overstrength
- +0


1. So you have basic three men cells, which does simplify command, and means two have to be hors de combat in order to be considered ineffective as a unit.

2. Persians liked counting decimally, so Xerxes probably had a very good idea as to how many troops he actually used to invade Greece; ten is the basic number of riflemen in the squad, which could have combat support personnel attached; the squad is still effective with two cells.

3. For administrative purposes, platoons are assigned three rifle squads each and commanded by a lieutenant; in practice, it depends who and what is available, and how many men the company and/or battalion commander(s) believe is required to accomplish the mission.

4. Companies have an authorized strength of a hundred men and officers; most companies will be below this because of detached duties, casualties, sickness and desertion; attached personnel are counted separately, considered still part of their parent unit.

5. Battalions have three primary subunits, a headquarters company and a support company that aren't subject to the above.

6. There's a thirty three percent variance tolerated from authorized strengths.

7. Units can be brought back up to strength through internal re-organization, upto the battalion level, and amalgamation above that.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps: SpaceTrooper Brigade

The minimum would be:

SpaceTrooper Brigade
. SpaceTrooper Brigade Headquarters
.. ULTRAMarine Company
.. Canine Platoon
.. Combat Engineer Platoon
.. Provost Platoon
. SpaceTrooper Battalion
.. SpaceTrooper Battalion Headquarters Company
.. SpaceTrooper Rifle Company
.. SpaceTrooper Rifle Company
. SpaceTrooper Battalion
.. SpaceTrooper Battalion Headquarters Company
.. SpaceTrooper Rifle Company
.. SpaceTrooper Rifle Company
. Solomani Confederation Mobile Corps Support Battalion
.. Support Headquarters
.. Civil Affairs Company
.. Signalling Company
.. Logistics Company
.. Medical Company
.. Culinary Company
. Solomani Navy Assault Shuttle Squadron

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Confederation: Protecting Home and the Secretary General

Home must be the most protected system in the Confederation, with the exception of the four naval depots.

Like the naval depots, Home is exceptional in that the Confederation Marine actually garrison a reinforced division dirtside and on naval facilities, compared to normally where the Solomani Army ensures security of Solomani military facilities dirtside, or at least, the outer perimeter. When they either through an oversight or negligence they forget to do so, the Navy deploys a contingent of SpaceTroopers to do so, until the situation is rectified.

The personal guard of the Secretary General is the responsibility of the Secret Service bureau of SolSec; they also provide protective details for other politicians and politically important persons.

The palace guard of the Secretary General is a reinforced brigade of Confederation Marines, with attached commandos, hostage rescue, and Solomani Navy assault shuttle wing.

There would be a Public Duties Division, drawn from all over the Confederation on a rotating system, to demonstrate unity, diversity and distract from the Confederation Marine sharpshooter teams and anti-anything batteries embedded on the palace roof.

The General Assembly and government buildings would be protected by SolSec gendarmes.

The capital city internally by the metropolitan police force and a SolSec security division; the perimeter by a Solomani Army corps. The Solomani Army maintain extensive bases on each continent.

In orbit, spacefortresses manned by the Solomani Navy and another Confederation Marine brigade. Though technically, Wolfe's Rock is much larger than a spacefortress, with it's Star Chamber, naval base, naval academy, and Confederation Marine training facilities; so basically, another Marine brigade and a whole bunch of recruits.

Wolfe's Lair Naval base in orbit around one gas giant, and the central nexus of the Solomani Navy's communication hub around the other, with more Confederation Marines.