THE ALLIANCE MILITARY: 2176-83
The Batarian Hegemony's successful attack on Mindoir provoked serious reforms in the Alliance military, reforms that would become the foundation stones of the forces that would beat the batarians themselves, the geth, and in concert with the other galactic powers, the Reapers. It represented the end of the era of military planning begun in 2165 with the entry of the Systems Alliance into the Citadel group and the institution of the Army Legion System.
The structural changes to be made were laid out in the 2173 White Paper on Defence and Colonial Affairs, a bipartisan research effort began after the 2172 general election but largely the work of the new Minister for Defence and future Consul, Alexander deBankole. The themes were simple but revealing. Expansion, extended reach and more responsibility. The largest military build up in the history of humankind began as a result, and although it slowed in the interwar period between 2178 and 2183, it would not cease until the end of the Reaper War.
The White Paper laid out several objectives for the Alliance to reach by the middle of 2177. Strengthening the Army, Navy and Colonial Defence Forces was the first, with the goal being to have 3% of all humans under arms by the middle of the decade. In comparison to the turians or batarians, this figure looks modest, but the second goal was to be greatly increasing the quality of human forces to the point of outmatching any opponent on a one-to-one basis. Other goals included the expansion of the Alliance Defence Intelligence Directorate, using soft power to promote humanity's interests among the Citadel species, investing in alliances elsewhere against common threats, and a great increase in domestic law enforcement capability via the colonial gendarmes of the member states.
These goals would largely be accomplished, despite the time to test them coming a year and a half early. By the time of the Second Verge War, all these goals had been achieved save for the Navy's expansion, which was still under way when the attack on Elysium was repulsed.
The military would remain largely unchanged in structure and strength until the end of the Geth War, when the threat of the Reapers and commitments in the Terminus Systems and the Perseus Veil required further expansion.
The Alliance Army
Size and Organisation
The Alliance Army was and is the service section responsible for both land combat and atmospheric aerial combat, as well as the maintenance and deployment of the trans-relay ballistic missile deterrence and part of the strategic bomber forces as part of humanity's WMD triad. It was composed of some three hundred million service personnel in all fields of duty. About half were combat troops, and half of those were classed as "assault troops" capable of independent offensive operations. The rest were the various support and rear echelon soldiers required to maintain the smooth operation of the combat forces, as well as for the provision of logistics and humanitarian aid.
Every combat unit's personnel is recruited from a nation, a region of a nation or a colony of a nation from Earth. This reflects the political reality of the Systems Alliance as a confederal entity as opposed to that of a central government. It was also a necessity, both at the time of the founding of the authority and afterwards. Units staffed from the same culture, speaking the same language and sharing the same values were considered to be superior than integrated units for various reasons. Language was the primary factor, as neural-link translators were and remain expensive. Most humans must learn their mother tongue, a second human language and an alien language in the course of their lives, the latter most usually being Sari, the trade language of the asari. Integrating personnel that speak one of the hundreds of languages of Earth, even with the presence of English as the lingua franca, would have been more difficult than simply placing the same personnel with their fellows.
The national nature of Alliance Army units also reflects the need to prevent secession of colonies by associating colonial troops with the original colonising nations. This is particularly important to human leadership, as turian colonial secessionism is a constant theme in Citadel defence politics. It is hoped that the cultural differences of humanity are slowly eroding, to the extent that these measures will no longer be necessary, but as of Victory Day 2196, the Alliance Army continues to segregate its combat units by nationality.
In addition to the active service personnel, the Alliance Army was also made responsible for the training and equipping of the 'reserve' forces, namely the national military units stationed on Earth, the colonial defence units and the armed response sections of the police forces. These can be called up and placed under Army command after a declaration of a state of emergency or during an enemy action. When not subordinated, they engage in civil engineering works and act as an aid to civil power in concert with the police. They number around two hundred and fifty million in total, only about a third of whom are employed full time.
Structure
The Alliance Army is structured into three supreme strategic commands; Troop Command Afrika, Troop Columbia, and Troop Command Europa.
Each is the administrative element responsible for a third of the Army's strength, both active and reserve. Each has a Field Marshal, one of whom will be the Chief of Staff for the Army, the highest ranking officer of the Alliance Army. Each is organised by the continent of Earth where its troops come from and their colonies.
Afrika for the forces of the African Union and African-occupied Asia.
Columbia for the forces of the United States, Mexico, the South American Federation and Brazil
Europa for the European Union and its Asian territories, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Bhutan, Australia and New Zealand
The largest combat formation in the Army is the legion. Troop Command Europa possesses seventeen legions, while the other two Troop Commands field sixteen.
Aside from the First Legion, which is the special forces command unit of the Alliance, every legion is a formation of six million soldiers. Legions are commanded by field marshals or colonel-generals (oberstgeneral), the former being a political appointment as well as a military rank. Only a colonel-general may be raised to the rank of Field Marshal. A legion is a self contained unit with all the personnel and equipment required to fight an independent planetary campaign without any other personnel or externally sourced equipment. In practice, more than one legion can be required to take heavily populated or defended worlds, but for the majority of garden worlds, the number of troops, vehicles and equipment a single legion provides is more that sufficient. Legions are numbered and named, often in Latin in Troop Command Europa and Troop Command Columbia.
The next formation down from a legion is the Task Force. Each legion possesses thirty task forces of one hundred thousand combat soldiers each. Task forces are commanded by lieutenant-generals, and they are the standard garrison strength of a typical minor Alliance colony, a reform implemented after Mindoir. Each task force is made up of a mix of divisions tailored for the fighting expected to be assigned to it. Task Forces are often grouped together in ad hoc 'fronts' when on deployment in high intensity combat, sometimes with others from other legions.
Support units in a legion are not organised by task force, but include units for Signals, Weapons/Ammunition, Ground Logistics, Space Logistics, Non-Combat Engineering, EOD, Hospital and Medical, Maintenance, Meteorology, Topography, Military Police, RADAR/LADAR/Sensory Gathering, Psyops, Blue Ocean Naval Support, and UAV/Drone control. Other personnel like psychologists, cooks and leisure staff are not provided centrally, but are usually employed at the division level.
Alliance Army Airforces are organised in their own structures under an Army Legion by Wing, Squadron, Flight and Section to provide air supremacy and ground attack support to the ground forces, as well as planet-based space supremacy capability to the Navy in-orbit.
The First Legion encompasses special forces commands, elite field units and ceremonial guards of Alliance member states, and operates as the combat arm of the Defence Intelligence Directorate along with the Alliance Navy's N7 Programme graduates. It is larger than a task force and smaller than a standard legion, and its activities are classified as sensitive at the least and are entirely undocumented at the most secret.
Combat Divisions are commanded by Major-Generals, and there are ten in a task force. The types of combat divisions fielded by the Alliance are more varied than with any other galactic power; Armoured, Air Assault, Mobile Infantry, Mechanised Infantry, Mountain Infantry, Orbital Assault, Panzergrenadier, and Anti-Aerospace.
After the combat divisions, the units move through brigade, regiment, company, platoon and section until the squad level, the smallest official combat unit in the Alliance military, consisting of eight soldiers and a flock of drones.
Troop Command: 100,000,000 soldiers in 16/17 Legions.
Legion: 6,000,000 soldiers total, 3,000,000 in 30 Task Forces, 3,000,000 in numerous support formations, composition varies according to national/colonial origins
Task Force: 100,000 soldiers in ten divisions, supported by air and logistics units, composition varies rarely
Division: 10,000 soldiers in 4 brigades, composition varies by divisional combat role
Alliance Army Order of Battle 2183 – Pre-Geth War
Legion nationalities reflect only forces with a task force or larger. Other nations may contribute at division level or lower. Also, Europe and Africa occupy the territories of former sovereign states in Asia and recruit directly from those populations, which explains the overwhelming number of formations named and 'recruited' for the victors of the 2139-45 Cold War.
TROOP COMMAND AFRIKA [XXXXXXX]
Field Marshal Jon Bonhomme commanding
Legions
6th Nigerian, 10th South African, 14th Kenyan, 16th Angolan, 17th West Africa, 20th Ivorian, 23rd Chad, 26th Ugandan, 28th Madagascar, 30th Mozambique, 32nd Great Ethiopian, 38th Zambian, 40th African, 43rd Cameroon, 46th Zimbabwe, 48th Congolese
Battle Honours: First Contact War 2157, First Verge War Defence 2170, Skyllian Blitz 2176, Liberation of Anhur 2176, March Around The Core 2177, Victory Second Verge War 2178, Kite's Nest Watch 2178-83.
TROOP COMMAND COLUMBIA [XXXXXXX]
Field Marshal Anna Reynolds-Augusta commanding
Legions
3rd Brazilian, 4th American-Mexican "Libertas", 7th South American "Bolivaria", 8th Argentinian "Argentum", 12th Columbian "Veritas", 18th Chilean "Virtus", 22nd Venezuelan, 24th Bolivian "Alpina", 27th Guyana-Suriname, 29th American, 34th Mexican, 36th Brazilian, 39th Argentinian "Gemina", 41st Peruvian, 42nd Ecuadorian, 44th Uruguayan.
Battle Honours: First Contact War 2157, First Verge War Strikeback 2170, First Verge War Defence 2170, Traverse Defence 2171-73, Skyllian Blitz 2176, Yuki Cluster 2176-78, Victory Second Verge War 2178, Terminus Incursion 2179.
TROOP COMMAND EUROPA [XXXXXXX]
Field Marshal Cassandra DeRuyter commanding.
Legions:
2nd British-Canadian-Australian-NZ "Britannia", 5th European "Europa", 9th Greek-Cypriot "Magna Graecia", 11th Spanish "Hispania", 13th Nordic-Canadian-Irish "Borealis", 15th European "Victrix", 19th Balkans "Pax Prompter Vim", 21st German "Germania", 25th French "Fratres", 31st Italian "Italia", 33rd Polish "Imperium", 35th Japanese "Nippon", 37th Punjabi-Nepalese-Bhutan "Trans Indus", 45th European "Unitas", 47th Romanian, 49th Korean, 50th Chinese-Mongolian.
Battle Honours: First Contact War 2157, First Verge War Strikeback 2170, Traverse Defence 2173-76, Defence of Elysium 2176, Liberation of Anhur 2176, March Around The Core 2177, Invasion of Torfan 2178, Victory Second Verge War 2178, Turian-Human Grand Exercise 2180.
FIRST LEGION [XXXXX]
Major-General Karla Haider and Rear-Admiral Federic Kohaku commanding as Directors of the Defence Intelligence Directorate
Non-ceremonial Formations:
Australian 1st and 2nd Commando Regiments
Austrian Jagdkommando
Canadian Special Operations Aviation Squadron, Special Operations Regiment
Chilean Special Operations Brigade
Danish Frogman Corps
Finnish Jaeger Company
French 13th Air Assault Dragoon Regiment, 4th Special Forces Airmobile Regiment, Orbital Assault Commandos, French Foreign Legion, French Republican Guard
German Special Operations Division, Kampfschwimmer, Luftwaffensicherungsstaffel S
Greek 1st Raider Brigade
Hungarian Light Mixed Battalion
Irish Army Ranger Wing
Israeli Alpinist Unit, Sayeret Units
Italian 9th Orbital Assault Regiment Moschin, Alpini Air Assault Regiment
Japanese Special Forces Group
Kenyan Special Operations Battalion
Netherlands Dutch Command Troop Corps
New Zealand Special Air Service
Nigerian 72nd Special Forces Battalion
Palestinian Intervention Battalion
Polish JWK
Korean Special Warfare Command
Serbian Special Brigade
South African 4th and 5th Special Forces Regiments
Spanish Joint Operations Command
Swiss Army Reconnaissance Detachment
Turkish Maroon Berets
Ukrainian Spetsnaz, Alpha Group
(British) United Kingdom Special Air Service, Special Recon Regiment, Special Forces Transportation Wing, Royal Gurkha Regiments.
United States Delta Force, Flight Concepts Division, Special Warfare Development Group, Air Special Operations Squadron, 75th Ranger Regiment, Air Force Special Operations Command.
Venezuelan SO Air Groups
The Alliance Navy
Size and Organisation
The Alliance Navy operates all faster-than-light military vessels and craft available to humanity, as well as the WMD deterrence frigates and part of the strategic bomber forces. There were some six million personnel in the Alliance Navy, a mere one percent of the manpower assigned to that of the Army. Despite this, it received two thirds of the military procurement budget of the Systems Alliance. The Navy's combat capabilities consisted of five thousand vessels organised into eight combat fleets and a deterrence fleet, manned by one and a half million crew personnel. These are supported by an unknown number of non-combat ships, another one and a half million technologists, engineers, procurement oficers, and lastly, a million naval infantry soldiers.
Unlike the Army, the Navy's recruitment is fully integrated, ignoring national or colonial origins. Candidates from the more cosmopolitan colonies such as Eden Prime and diverse areas of Earth are preferred, but not exclusively so. The educational standards to enter the Navy are high, even when joining the N programme. Fluency in English and Sari is compulsory, as is high mathematics and physical scores. Officer candidates are educated on Arcturus, either being recruited directly from the very best of new enlistments or coming from the best enlisted veterans from within the ranks.
Moves to subordinate the Army to the Navy have occurred on three occasions in human history, but were successfully resisted. At the founding of the Systems Alliance, there was great public debate on the subject that favoured keeping the traditional division between the services. This did not extend to the proposed Alliance Air Force, which was seen as superfluous as atmospheric aerial combat was best organised in support of the Army's original defensive role. In 2171, the idea of a merger under Naval auspices was discussed again in the aftermath of Mindoir, in light of the threatened coup d'etat that forced the brief Alliance counterattack against the Hegemony. This was thrown aside in 2172, with the arrival of a new government in favour of greater militarisation. Finally, the merger was proposed again in 2178 after the invasion of Torfan. It was thought that the division of the services allowed them to play each other off when talk of criminal charges against military officers was brought up, leaving the evidence chain clouded up with jurisdiction issues to the point of preventing prosecutions. That attempt was defeated by a close margin in a closed session of the Alliance Senate, in an atmosphere of deep division over the actions of Jane Shepard.
Aside from its combat and defence roles, the Alliance Navy was and is used for showing the flag missions, and for the transportation of high government officials to their destinations in safety. It was also charged with the operation of the semi-secret Corsair programme, whereby human privateers were armed with specially designed torpedo corvettes to harass shipping and pirate hideouts in the Terminus Systems.
Structure
The Alliance Navy has a single administrative formation, Space Command Terra. It was created in 2148 as a European formation, but it became the first integrated command of the Systems Alliance in 2150, some fifteen years before full integration of the Army into under Alliance command. Space Command Terra is led by the Chief of Staff for the Navy, whom has to be an Admiral of one of its fleets. Space Command Terra also encompasses the command of the million naval infantrymen and marines under the N Programme, whose command structure mimics that of an Army Legion but whose personnel use naval and marine ranks. Furthermore, every marine beyond an N5 is trained for the command of ships in order to infuse the natural aggression of that part of the service into the mindset of the command staff. This makes Alliance naval commanders some of the most proactive and least conservative in the galaxy, as the culture is influenced from below.
The largest combat formation in the Fleet, commanded by Admirals and Rear-Admirals. There were eight combat fleets and a deterrence fleet at the start of 2183.
First Fleet: "The Home Fleet" based at Arcturus for the defence of Sol
Second Fleet: "The Grand Fleet" based at Anhur for expeditionary operations in the western Terminus
Third Fleet: "The Guardian Fleet" based at Arcturus for conventional deterrence against aggression by the Citadel Council.
The Fourth Fleet: "The Watch" based at Shan'Kharit for defence of the Traverse from Terminus pirates
The Fifth Fleet: "The Arcturus Fleet" based at Arcturus for exploration, offensive operations and allied operations with Citadel Forces.
The Sixth Fleet: "The Exodus Fleet" based at Terra Nova for defence against the Batarian Hegemony in concert with the jumpzone defence stations
The Seventh Fleet: "The Westfold" based at Czarnobóg Fleet Depot, for defence of the western frontier from unopened mass relays and the Krogan DMZ.
The Eighth Fleet: "The Victors of Elysium" based at Elysium for defence against the Batarian Hegemony
Deterrence Fleet: "Death's Own" based at the DID Naval Headquarters on Mars.
Each combat fleet consists of six combat groups; two carrier groups, two cruiser groups, and two frigate scout groups, each consisting of a hundred ships, sixty to seventy five of which will be combat vessels. The deterrence fleet consists of four sorties of twenty five, divided into mission sections of five ships. Like the Army Legion, the Navy Fleet is a self-contained formation that is expected to be able to pacify a cluster without further support. Only in full fleet actions is it normal for an entire fleet to be gathered for operations, and such instances are rare. Normally, the groups are stationed on rotation to garrison points and patrols across the vast expanse of space. It may take days or even weeks for ships on long range patrols to return. Such problems arose at the start of the Geth War, such as at the Battle of Therum where a combat group of the Fifth Fleet could only call on a fraction of its paper strength. This is why most fleets remain in defensive roles, with their groups stationed within a single relay jump of each other and a mere handful more to their defence points.
The naval infantry and marines are divided between the fleets into divisions, of which there are fifty. Usually, somewhere between a third and a quarter of a ship's crew will be marines or naval infantry, with lower rated personnel filling enlisted naval roles as well. Human ships carried more personnel than any other species save for the quarians. Aside from ship duty, marines are used to test the Army's defences on a regular basis in simulated invasion exercises, the rivalry between the services provided a degree of realism and a lack of hesitation.
Below groups are patrols and wolfpacks, the former describing cruiser squadrons and the latter describing frigate squadrons. These are commanded by the captain with the longest time served, and are formed on an ad hoc basis with a formal procedure. This gives the Alliance great tactical flexibility, allowing Group-Captains to piece together whatever ships they feel will do the job most effectively.
Aside from fleets, the Alliance Navy operates a number of bases. Among these are the Luna Shipyards located on the far side of Earth's moon, the Mars Development Yards for the construction of new classes of ship, the three Arcturus-class spacebases in Arcturus, Anhur and Shan'kharit respectively, and the fleet maintenance yards and orbital defence stations on the batarian border.
Alliance Navy Order of Battle 2183 Pre-Geth War
FIRST FLEET
Admiral Ines Lindholm commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 1 – SSV Niké leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 2 – SSV Nemain leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 1 – SSV Horus leading (Thor-class Dreadnought)
Patrol Group 2 – SSV Roma leading (Belfast-class Heavy Cruiser)
Scout Group 1 – SSV Alesia leading (El Alemein-class Frigate)
Scout Group 2 – SSV Sekigahara (Agincourt-class Frigate)
SECOND FLEET
Admiral Petra Hunt commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 3 – SSV Victoria leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 4 – SSV Freya leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 3 – SSV Wotan leading (Thor-class Dreadnought)
Patrol Group 4 – SSV Perseus leading (Heracles-class Dreadnought)
Scout Group 3 – SSV Lepanto leading (Agincourt-class Frigate)
Scout Group 4 – SSV Berlin leading (El Alemein-class Frigate)
THIRD FLEET
Admiral JJ Walker commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 5 – SSV Pele (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 6 – SSV Kali (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 5 – SSV Thor (Thor-class Dreadnought)
Patrol Group 6 – SSV Yokohama (Belfast-class Heavy Cruiser)
Scout Group 5 – SSV Kerak (Agincourt-class Frigate)
Scout Group 6 – SSV Clontarf (Agincourt-class Frigate)
FOURTH FLEET
Admiral Okajima Rokuro commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 7 – SSV Ishtar leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 8 – SSV Bellona leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 7 – SSV Heracles leading (Heracles-class Dreadnought)
Patrol Group 8 – SSV Brasilia leading (New York-class Cruiser)
Scout Group 7 – SSV Guadalcanal (El Alemein-class Frigate)
Scout Group 8 – SSV Granicus (Agincourt-class Frigate)
FIFTH FLEET
Admiral Steven Hackett Commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 9 – SSV Athena leading (Athena-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 10 – SSV Valkyria leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 9 – SSV Mars leading (Thor-class Dreadnought)
Patrol Group 10 – SSV Belfast leading (Belfast-class Heavy Cruiser)
Scout Group 9 – SSV Normandy leading (Normandy-class Stealth Frigate) *reassigned to OSTR*
Scout Group 10 – SSV Pavia leading (Agincourt-class Frigate)
*OSTR: Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance
SIXTH FLEET
Admiral João Rossi commanding
Carrier Group 11 – SSV Oya leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 12 – SSV Andarta leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 11 – SSV Ares leading (Thor-class Dreadnought)
Patrol Group 12 – SSV Baltimore leading (Belfast-class Heavy Cruiser)
Scout Group 11 – SSV Plataea leading (El Alemein-class Frigate)
Scout Group 12 – SSV Antietam leading (Agincourt-class Frigate)
SEVENTH FLEET
Admiral Eve Gonzalez-O'Neill commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 13 – SSV Morrigan leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 14 – SSV Neith leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 13 – SSV San Diego leading (Belfast-class Heavy Cruiser)
Patrol Group 14 – SSV Singapore leading (New York-class Cruiser)
Scout Group 13 – SSV Baghdad leading (El Alemein-class Frigate)
Scout Group 14 – SSV Suez (Agincourt-class Frigate)
EIGHTH FLEET
Admiral Luka Milos commanding
Roster:
Carrier Group 17 – SSV Astarte leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Carrier Group 18 – SSV Menhit leading (Niké-class Fleet Carrier)
Patrol Group 17 – SSV New Delhi (New Delhi-class Cruiser)
Patrol Group 18 – SSV Bogotá (New Delhi-class Cruiser)
DETERRENCE FLEET
Under the direct command of the Consuls of the Systems Alliance
Roster:
Hades Deterrence Group - SSV Thermopylae leading
Dis Deterrence Group - SSV Okinawa leading
Tartarus Deterrence Group - SSV Churubusco leading
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This section reflects my understanding of the game canon, as well as my own additions via Battlefield 2183 as a series. Bioware is quite inconsistent in terms of information on navies. The Quarians, Geth and Turians have thousands of ships, yet the loss of a dozen Alliance cruisers is a big deal. The crew compliment of a batarian cruiser is around three hundred, yet some Alliance cruisers apparently have only eighty. I smoothed over these problems with what I found most likely to be realistic. The major powers have thousands of ships, and hundreds of millions of soldiers, as the galaxy is a massive place and that is required.
Bear in mind that the 2183 population of humanity in my canon is 20 billion.
This section will also probably be moved from after Anhur to a place before Elysium, as it's best suited there I think.
Happy New Year!