About a month ago, FWS asked for topic ideas, and one that came across was an article exploring the size, organization, and logistics of a deep space military. At first, I was overwhelmed with having to research these topics, however, my mind would not let it go,finding the topic engrossing, and over a period of a few weeks, I had most of this written. It is all too common in military science fiction to over simplify these factors of a real military, either by not addressing it or using the high technology of sci-fi to solve these issues, much like the replicators of Star Trek. However, for most those authors interesting fleshing out a complete future spacefaring military picture, is blogpost is for you...so, pour a Blue Moon, and enjoy the read.
The Organization of a Future Deep Space Military
There are two lines of thought on how a deep space military would be organized, the hard and the soft prospective on the science in sci-fi. In a hard science universe, where superluminal travel and communication are not possible, interstellar warfare is a slow, isolated and long proposition. Soldiers deployed to exosolar colonies will spent years under cryo, and the generals and politicians that sent them to that point of light in the sky would long dead (see the Forever War). Given the distance, this would make any commander of the taskforce the sole authority and interrupter of the original orders, much like a US nuclear submarine. It is also likely that the armed troop transport would be automated, much like the Sulaco, furthering the infantry officer's authority.
This presents problems for a government, whatever decision the marine commander make on-the-ground, like nuking the site from orbit, which would make the government and the brass back on Terra instilling a great deal of trust in those officers out there. It is also possible that future deep space expeditions would be under the command of not a flesh-and-blood officer, but a military AI, similar to HALO's Cortana. How does this effect the organization of the future military? It simplifies it a great deal, streamlining it to be more lean and mobile, because the current massive organizational system that modern militaries operate under would be impractical. It this regard, works like ALIENS, HALO, and BSG may be correct, where there fewer officers and ranks. Due to the length of time it would take for replacements to arrive to the exosolar battlefield, promotions would happen with the ranks of the expeditionary force, much like what happened to Corporal Hicks in ALIENS. 
When it comes to a soft science fiction universe, where FTL travel and communication are similar to Star Wars and Star Trek, the military organization could be even complex than today's, simply due to the amount of space that the government has to project power to. The reason behind this is simply, FTL travel takes days or weeks to arrive at a hot spot, rather than years, and Captain Picard can communicate with San Francisco in real-time, receiving orders from the Admiralty that fit the situation unfolded lightyears away. In addition, Starfleet can send more ships and personnel to a crisis point, fueling interdependence, while the more hard science military has to self-reliant. Also, the soft universe military battlesites would be hotter than the hard, due to the availability of reinforcements, heavier vehicles, and combat starships. 
Logistics of a Future Deep Space Military
On Replicators...
The Size of a Future Deep Space Army
The Galactic Padishah Empire's Sardaukar Legions
In the universe of DUNE around the year of 10,191, Emperor Shaddam Corrino the IV is ruling over the known universe, controlling thousands of settled worlds across intergalactic regions. The books never tell us the size and scope of the Galactic Padishah Imperium, but given the instant space travel afforded by the Spacing Guild's use of the Spice, Shaddam the IV, can project power unlike most ruler in science fiction, but only if the Spacing Guild agree with the move. This domination of space travel by one group makes the military project power of the imperial forces difficult to gauge, but the Sardaukar Legions are a truly fearsome future army.
The United States Colonial Marine Corps (2179)
According to the 1996 ALIENS: Colonial Marines Technical Manual, the United States Colonial Marine Corps is made up of four active divisions, with a fifth in reserve. In addition to the divisions spread out over the American colonial arm and the Sol system, there are four active and one reserve aerospace wing serving the CMC's transport,starlift, and support needs. At the core of the CMC is the Marine Assault Unit, composed of a battalion of marines, medical, command, and maintenance companies, along with a RECON platoon, a squad of scout/snipers, and a platoon of combat engineers. Adding to the mix of flexible space-projection is armored teams, aerospace elements from the USASF, and one drop wing and one assault wing. In terms of numbers, the Colonial Marines were at a peak of 240,000 during the 2165 Tientsin Campaign, but at the time of ALIENS film in 2179, the numbers were at around 165,000.
The ROBOTECH Expeditionary Force (2022-2044)
There is some debate among ROBOTECH fans and canon about the number of people that survived the Zentradi holocaust, and then left with the REF about ten years after billions died in space and on Earth. The official ROBOTECH: The Sentients RPG manual printed by Palladium Book, there is an essay on the confusion over the numbers. According to this text, about 350 million Terran survivors of the Zentradi holocaust of 2011, rebuilt Earth, and somewhere around 10,000 left with the REF onboard the SDF-3 in 2022.
However, duirng the 3rd ROBOTECH War, a vast REF fleet comes to liberate made up of hundreds of Sentient constructed warships, thousands of fighters, and ground forces. This has lead Palladium Books RPG manual to debate the number of original REF members, and states that the combat forces of the REF were human or microized Zentradi, while the crews of the REF warships were composed of joint crews. Some other fansites, say that the REF mounted recovery operations to evac Southern Cross personnel that escape the Invid Invasion on off-world inter-solar system bases, colonies, or ships.
The ROBOTECH Master's Zentradi Forces (2011)
When it comes to size of a future, as far as have researched, the largest military force ever seen in science fiction is the Zentradi forces of the ROBOTECH Masters. Over four million warships under Supreme Commander Dolza came to our third rock from the sun to kick our collective ass. Adding to this number was the Zentradi loyal to Lord Breetai, the SDF-1, and whatever UN Spacey ships were left. Some estimates online place this armada at 100 billion with about 48 billion killed in total, that's Zentradi and the majority of the Earth population. Now that is one hell of a bloody battle!
The Alien Legion of the TOPHAN Galactic Union
Okay, there is little to go on, in terms of hard numbers, for the Legion. It does not help that most of the stories in the first series concerned on Force Nomad's core characters. Only in the graphic novel did we see a mass legion force composed of thousands of soldiers. Force Nomad was expanded during the second series, allowing us to a much large force, however, I doubt it was any bigger than 5,000 legionaries. When I was reading Alien Legion comics, and even today, I wonder about the size of such a force that had to protect three galaxies worth of space(!). One of the only other works that had a government composed of several galaxies is, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, whose Systems Commonwealth, at its apex, had over 1 million members. So, based on that, it is likely that the Legion is composed of millions of legionaries and thousands of ships. Helping clear some things up, the official Alien Legion website had a breakdown of the organization of the Legion:
- LEGION- 50,000+
- CORPS- 20,000-45,000
- DIVISION- 10,000-15,000
- BRIGADE- 3,000-5,000
- SQUADRON- 300-1,000
- COMPANY- 62-190
- PLATOON- 16-44
- SQUAD- 9 or 10 Legionaries
The Jedi Order of the Galactic Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic
Deployment Size
When it comes to a future deep space military that is charged with protecting the off-world colonies spread over many solar systems, the question comes up with how many super space dreadnoughts and space marines legions do you send? That depends on the importance of the colony and the situation. The hard fact is that not all colonial properties would be treated the same. Just look at recent global history, when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990, and threatened Saudi Arabia, the United States deployed the Airborne to prevent Iraqi tanks from invading one of the US's most important allies in the region. But when the civil war in the former Yugoslavia broke out, and charges of ethic cleansing were confirmed, it took years for NATO or the UN to become involved militarily.
Why? The simple answer is that Saudi Arabia is critical ally to the United States, mostly because of oil, and if a madman like Saddam had control over the Saudi oilfields, the world would be fucked. In DUNE, when the Fremen were close to booting the Harkonnen off of Arrakis, the Emperor sent fifty legions of Sardaukar terror-troops to secure the exportation of the spice...because it must flow. However, if the trouble have been on the piss-ant desert world of Tatooine I doubt the bulk of the Galactic Empire would have come to kick some Jawa ass. Much can be said about the two Jedi sent to the crisis on Naboo, and even when things did heat up, there were the same two Jedi protecting the Princess. Shows how much Naboo rated on the Senate's radar.
The same could be said if we examine the United State's response to the downed colonial transmitter on LV-426. The Colonial Marines sent a single rapid-response platoon with an air support unit, one officer, one adviser, and one Weyland-Yutani representative and a heavily armed automated transport vessel. This may seem like a underwhelming response, but not when you consider that the only settlement on LV-426 was Hadley's Hope comprised of about 158 souls, not exactly Reach is it? When it comes to warships, this greatly depends on what types of warships you have in your sci-fi work, and the situation. I think it is unrealistic to see the sky darkening with 4.8 million green warships to end the threat of one small planet...just remember moderation when it comes to all things in science fiction.
What I will say is that Armies are organised to achieve missions, and that the mission usually involves breaking other peoples stuff to stop them breaking your stuff.
ReplyDeleteHow you break stuff, and what tools you have for breaking stuff, along with how you command the people that break stuff, will dictate how you organise your forces.
The military also wants its stuff to degrade slowly, while degrading the enemies stuff quickly.
Therefore, one will tend to be conservative in estimating how little stuff one needs to do a job, because the consequences of getting it wrong is catastrophic. So if in doubt have more stuff.
Where stuff is people, machines and supplies organised to grind down obstacles.
I think we are thinking too much like current humans. Advances in nano-technology will render human combatants useless. Imagine dropping one small self replicating bomb of nanite robots onto a planet that break down material, reconstitute into well... more nanite robots, until they have consumed or destroyed anything they are programed to do. We can make glorified military movies with humans in armor suits, but future space wars will probably be anything less than glorious, where the most technological "corporations" or "governments" will control everything. I think you have to think small to think big.
ReplyDeleteArguably, that is the equivalent of MAD, which did a pretty good job of convincing everyone in charge of WMDs not to use them. And besides, a colonizable planet would be a rare and valuable resource in a hard-scifi universe, so you wouldn't want to melt it into grey goo.
DeleteMost boring novel or movie ever^
ReplyDeleteI should have made that point that often the mission of the government determines the focus of the military. Much like in the 1980's, when the US and their NATO allies were focused on fighting a war in western Europe against the Warsaw Pact. Today, we are focused on more mobile light war-fighting efforts.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the way that we think of future war is much like our Founding Fathers and Mothers trying to imagine war in our time. Technology and if we push out will determine the scope of future war. I am not sure that humans will ever be out of war, having machine fight for you is a terrifying prospect and could led to greater and easier wars.
Interesting post, William!! The logistics of a FTL spacefaring military is somewhat related to the issues with government that an interstellar imperium (or other suitable monolithic interstellar civilization)- you run into mind-numbing complexity as you try to maintain control over thousands of inhabited worlds, let alone the whole galaxy!! The workings of such a cosmic empire would be so vast and intricate, we probably can't even imagine what a real interstellar empire would look like. Right now, it seems more likely that humans will disseminate among the nearby stars in various kinds of sublight starships, founding new independent civilizations wherever they land. Of course, the empire could always arise later after the invention of superluminal travel...
ReplyDeleteSub-light troop ships will have to be very self-reliant, assuming we have widespread sublight interstellar travel (it's harder than it sounds). Sub-C interstellar campaigns would take decades or centuries to carry out. Punitive expeditions would end up punishing the children of those who seceded from the empire, and they would have had time to fortify their planets as the ships crawl toward them. Maybe, however, we will have immortal cybernetic generals and soldiers who think nothing of centennial campaigns. Life-extension will be important to such spacefarers. Quite possibly bases would be maintained near major population centers, like the Roman forts of old, which would be capable of quick responses to rebellion or invasion. Only the loyalty of the outpost to the Emperor needs to be maintained to ensure military response, but what if a high-ranking general gets ideas about an empire of his own?
The details of an FTL spacefaring military depend largely on the effects of the FTL drive and (as always) the civilization that created the military. The nature of FTL dictates how far and fast ships can travel, what destinations can be reached, how big or small ships can be, the nature of space combat, and possibly what the fight is over (if FTL drives require rare materials, perhaps wars will occur over supplies of said materials). You can invent an endless number of interesting scenarios by playing around with different kinds of FTL travel.
Replicators are a pretty neat toy, but as far as I can tell, they seem to simply reconstitute food from onboard stocks of raw materials, not create any device you require. Probably real starships would have large machine shops, like the Space Beagle had in AE Van Vogt's "The Voyage of the Space Beagle", to help produce new equipment and replace broken parts (hopefully, they will NOT allow dangerous aliens like Ixtl to sneak in there and began building weapons). Still, it would be nice to be able to produce any food we want with a single device. Hydroponically grown veggies probably taste better, though.
Christopher Phoenix
On nanoweapons, I must point out that nanobots are too fragile to survive for long outside a protected environment. Nanobots are easily destroyed by UV radiation, heat, impact, disrupted by air currents, etc. Ignoring that, how are these nanobots of doom going to coordinate their efforts as they attack enemy craft, or supply enough energy to beak down iron plating? They can't. Nanobots may be used like viruses and microbes too make enemy soldiers sick, but not to replace bullets, missiles, and lasers. You can read all the gory details here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tech/Myths/Nanotech.html
Fittingly, nanobot disassemblers were used in the god-awful movie "Mortal Kombat Annihilation". Such a weapon also played a major part in the climax of the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmX_2qAvqts
(I can't believe I watched this movie....) ^^
Christopher Phoenix
I have to say, Mr. Phoenix, that your phasing was better than mine! And it is true, frozen dinner soldier could be shooting the children or even grandchildren of the original troublemakers! that would be like the British Imperium coming over to American to punish the Civil War generation for the American Revolution.
ReplyDeleteThat could be true, generals in charge of REF-like fleets, much like Edwards, could take power, and take control of the wayward colony.
Replicators being used for tools and other non-foodstuffs comes from the ST:TNG Tech Manual printed in the mid-90's, and the Replicating Center was seen in ST:TNG episode "Data's Day" making a stuffed rabbit....and a bowl of Trix.
That article on nanomachines was interesting, I guess the Old Man's War MP35 couldn't exist...
Thanks for reading and commenting!
I haven't read "Old Man's War" yet, although I plan to once I finish Stanislaw Lem's "Return From the Stars", so I can't comment on the MP35. I'm not trying to discredit nanotechnology as an idea- doubtlessly nanotech will have many important and unexpected uses- but simply pointing out that the cliche "unstoppable nanobots!!" idea is pretty silly. That said, we may come up with some rather novel uses of nanotechnology- including military uses- but you must consider that nanites are delicate and limited in many ways.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there are several nanoweapons I can imagine right now- tiny mechanical flies that carry saxitoxin payloads, rouge medical nanobots that infect and kill enemy soldiers, small robots that burrow into flesh and attack internal organs, etc. Self-replicating nanotech could be very dangerous to both the targets and the users, but it is unclear if self-replicating nanites are practical. So, yes, nanites could be dangerous to enemy soldiers, but conventional weapons are probably much more practical. it is quite possible that we won't even bother wasting precious nanites on such limited uses when a bullet or missile is just as effective, far cheaper, and far more reliable. As you said, you have to practice moderation- explore the uses of nanotech, but don't assume it is a panacea.
Come to think of it, Cyrax's nanite attack in "Mortal Kombat Annihilation" is actually far, far more realistic than the nanite scene from the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Cyrax's nanites "ate" through a ninja's flesh in a few seconds, leaving only bones, but they apparently self-terminated or just ran out of fuel after they finished. The nanites are only effective against flesh, since Jax blocked the swarm with his arm and threw the dying nanites to the floor. Clearly, these nanites are only an anti-personnel weapon, unlike the metal-eating swarm in "The Day the Earth Stood Still", and they are limited in range and durability. Still, it is unlikely that a swarm of nanobots can "eat" flesh in seconds, and what if someone points a powerful fan at Cyrax when he unleashes in nanobots of doom? The swarm would be blown away harmlessly!!
Christopher Phoenix
Again, a good article... with two elements coming to mind.
ReplyDeleteThe first, in relation to the size of fighting forces: the ratio of military to civilian population. When you noted the size of the US, UK and Chinese militaries, you did not comment on the size of the population as a whole. While the Chinese military being twice the size of the US's seems important, the population of China is about 4.3 times the size of the US, and the US's Population is similarly about 5 times that of the UK. An important element that suggests a relative stability in the size of military vs. the size of population (with Britain's being the obvious exception, for reasons you state).
Secondly, for Military organization in a FTL world that is not quite as Ultratech as Star Trek or Star Wars... say one where their is FTL, but it is not instant... the model one might consider using is a structure similar to the Imperial powers of the 18th Century.
Just a thought.
Yeah, that was one thing I missed on the size. Thanks for catching that. One of the benefits of having a degree in history is understanding the possible examples in sci-fi in our own history, and your point out a great example of a deep space military and the 18th century.
ReplyDeleteBTW: I love the term Ultratech!
Carpet bombing habitable planet with nano-disassembler or other WMDs is sensless if you're not at total war with your opponent. Destruction of all planetary assets, all possible technology/information to loot will prevent any gains, unless you are searching for new home and extermination of some troublesome indies is needed, but still some tinkering with atmosphere during terraforming should do the trick.
ReplyDeleteMassive deployment won't be needed unless you try to conquer world which is densely populated. Ground force of small planetary population would be necessary here and such world also would have sizable layered defenses making invasion and subjugation extremely difficult.
Rapid reaction force or expeditionary unit will need to be capable to self sustain itself, some manufacturing and mining capabilities will be necessary.
Human will be still in loop and on the ground. Everyone who think that you can do war with "drones" only is missing the point. "Drones" are most effective when used with conjunction with human soldiers. They will evolve, become more versatile and lethal, and to stay in the loop on future fast paced battlefields humans will need brain-computer interfaces.
For better imagination of future conflicts please read "Future Warfare" by Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales. Then add to that stellar dimension and some far fetched tech as mentioned before interfaces, AI software, interstellar travel etc. and extrapolate.
For near future war stories just put that what you find in this book.
There are some that believe that Global Climate Change is due to aliens using weather to wipe us out prior to invasion. Sci-Fi as used this several times, and it would be a valid tool that was cleaner than nukes. Here soon, FWS will be taking about replacing fleshy soldiers with Cylons, and how that could effect and affect warfare and how society fights wars. The subject of robotic soldiers and drones is fast becoming reality rather than sci-fi.
ReplyDeleteI downloaded "Future Warfare" by Scales and add to the MSF library here at the FWS offices, thanks for the tip, commenting and reading FWS.
An angle I didn't see mentioned is that future information technology will probably allow an individual to greatly increase their span of control. Ender's Game had a good demonstration of how a small command staff and a modestly sized cadre of commanders could wage war against an entire species using drones.
ReplyDeleteMan, I can't remember the name of the series right now, but I remember a bunch of books about a near-future force of ground pounders who controlled fleets of drone tanks and whatnot from central trucks.
Far-future power projection might look an awful lot like StarCraft. Send a small force of highly trained humans and a bunch of manufacturing equipment to the hot spot. Once there they start mass producing their own military from local materials. That circles back around to your discussion of the magical replicator and how it would significantly reduce the logistical problem.
FWS will covering C3 technology in a later blogpost, but I do think you are right. Technology and the real-world nature of space combat far from Terra will cause a smaller number of commanders, and via technology, it will allow them greater control on the battlefield. Maybe games like Starcraft will be required for future generals?
ReplyDeleteI don't really see how replicators or some other cornucopia machine do away with the supply train at all. Your assembler still needs the raw feedstock for it after all. Which needs to be mined, refined, packaged, shipped, received, and distributed to the front. If you want to claim it makes things out of raw energy it makes the problem worse, because now you still have the supply chain, but now it is for reactor fuel, and it needs enough that it can generate ~10^17 joules for every kilogram of raw feedstock they otherwise would have been shipping in. Magic recyclers where you shovel in dirt and it is able to make things out of that doesn't really help either, because readily accessible materials that can be reconstituted into feedstock and materiel probably won't have the more interesting elements and isotopes you need in sufficient quantities.
ReplyDeletethere is really no way around having to deal with logistics
Great comment, Daniel! I will using your comment in the blogpost devoted to Space Food and Field Rations! You are correct, and upon reflection, the replicator does have limits and is greedy when it comes power.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing I can see nanite's being used in is manufacture of advanced materials and chemicals at that size level that are then used in making the macro items in your universe.
ReplyDeleteAnother point looking at western military is when you see overall numbers like that keep in mind the tooth to tail ratio. I'm more familiar to W W II so I'll use and example from there. A US Army Infantry Division was about 14,000. However, only about 6,000 or so were in the direct combat positions in the rifle squads and platoons. Above that you talk about soldiers who were either in combat support or supply support or command positions. Technology would reduce that somewhat however that ratio would still be there.
I could also see, on the ground at least, a philosophy like the US Marines were everybody is a combat soldier first and then there other job second being most likely.