The prevalence of piracy and inter-settlement conflict during human expansion led to the rise of many militia groups across human settlements. These forces consisting of part time soldiers usually held loyalty to a single community or occasionally a larger nation. They would be deployed in the defense of that community when needed, often only called up when a threat was imminent like a pirate attack or natural disaster. Some milities kept militia personnel on a rotating roster of different groups active at any time and the whole force only activated when necessary.
These militias spread with humanity's expansion across the stars, new settlements across the worlds of mankind forming militia groups to defend themselves or secure their interests.
The capabilities of militias varied greatly, with some consisting of untrained citizens armed with their personal weapons, to professional forces that could equal many mercenary or even second line governmental units. Their size equally varied, ranging from only a dozen to several hundreds or even over a thousand militia troops.
For vehicles and heavy equipment most militias made do with civilian vehicles, either unchanged or turned into technicalls. Even the best equipped militias lack true armored vehicles, but they often have heavier infantry weapons like missiles and machine guns.
In an effort to deal with piracy and defend more Alliance-aligned settlements, the Alliance began the Militia Partners Program in 2153, sending Alliance marines to train local militias and providing them with some more powerful weapons to fend off raids and assist in disaster relief, including machine guns, light drones, and even small numbers of anti-ship missiles. The MPP proved to be a success: a number of pirate raids being stopped by the militias without any Alliance assistance alongside proving effective as disaster relief forces.
Buoyed by the MPP's success, the Alliance Maritime Militia Program was introduced in 2154. The idea of the AMM was to supplement the Alliance's forces in assisting civilian ships through equipping other vessels with similar capabilities while also giving the Alliance an existing source of support ships in emergency situations.
A corporation or individual shipowner that joins the AMM has their vessels upgraded with several civilian and military features at the expense of the Alliance. This may include search and rescue equipment for deep space, minor repair facilities, and advanced weaponry for fending off pirates. The crew are also given some modest training from the Alliance and each ship is required to give the same training to new crewmembers. Each vessel is given a small payment from the Alliance to balance out the increased operation costs these additions create through increased maintenance, fuel, training, and specialized personnel, plus a small additional amount.
The AMM has a tiered system for the level of AMM participation for a vessel. These levels usually denote the size of the craft as smaller vessels cannot equip all of the features available. The system goes through five levels, with level one having only minimal additions while level five vessels have equal or greater capabilities of civilian support as an Alliance corvette and often higher firepower yield, though usually lacking the range or survivability.
Each AMM vessel is required to help in any situation it is equipped for, with there being significant punishments for failing in this duty unless it can be clearly shown that the vessel was incapable of helping, such as with larger pirate ships. They are also forced to follow Alliance orders during emergency situation such as disaster relief missions, where nearby AMM ships are often commandeered by Alliance forces, an Alliance officer placed in nominal command, though the crew and captain usually retain almost total control of the ship's operations, the officer only telling them what to due in the situation.
The program has proven a great success, with many captains and corporations seeing the AMM as a steady source of income while also making their ships safer and more protected from pirate attacks. There are several hundred AMM vessels in service or being upgraded, ranging from simple level one rock hopper with a mass accelerator turret for fending off similar sized pirate ships, to level five bulk transports with entire batteries of weapons and sophisticated equipment.
There have been some concerns over AMM vessels going pirate, using their Alliance equipment to become banes to the shipping of humanity. This has so far not happened as each captain of an AMM ship is given extensive background checks (both independent captains prior to joining the AMM and corporate captains as a requirement for taking over a AMM ship).