The original plan of the Alliance Navy for the deployment of its forces was for the bulk of its naval vessels to operate within squadrons moving forward right behind the edge of explored space, securing the area and serving as a first response to any potential first contact situation. Corvettes and fighters would then be placed at Alliance Outposts behind the wave to patrol Alliance Space, as minimal threats existed within it to justify the use of larger vessels. The rest of the Alliance Fleet would be stationed at Arcturus, serving as an emergency response force in case of hostile first contact, dealing with the threat while the squadrons delay it until the fleet's arrival.
This plan was made unviable by multiple factors combining into a situation requiring a different strategy. The most significant of these factors was the underestimation by the Alliance of the amount of endangered civilian vessels it would have to deal with, and the scale of those situations. The breakneck pace of advancement during the years after the discovery of the Mars Ruins caused many technology and shipbuilding companies to rush out products in order to remain relevant in a time when a difference of only a year in introduction could mean the difference between success and obsolescence. This led to many vessels having major faults in either their equipment or designs, causing a dramatic increase in accidents and dangerous situations which any patrolling force would have to deal with. While this was already being seen within the Sol System by the time of the Alliance Navy's creation, the Alliance underestimated both the rate of colonial expansion, and thus the amount of vessels it would need to deal with, and the amount of such incidents as a whole. This led to the Alliance not having enough vessels for dealing with civilian ships, necessitating the use of larger vessels for that role. This was further exacerbated by Alliance corvettes lacking the ability to adequately deal with some of the more extreme situations, lacking the tools and crew numbers to deal with them, something larger vessels have.
Another problem is the higher than projected levels of piracy within Alliance Space. This was caused by a number of factors, the first of which being something challenging humanity for decades already, if in a lesser form, the proliferation of the fabricator.
Advanced 3-D Printers have been used in space colonization since the first colonies on Luna in the 2060s, serving as a cheap and effective way to create items that would be really costly to bring in from Earth or, as humanity's reach expanded, other worlds. They have also served as the main source of equipment and weaponry for pirates. Existing outside the bounds of the law and barred from almost all ports across the Sol System, pirates could still rely on their 3-D Printers to produce most of what they needed if supplied with materials, with the rest easily plundered. However, their activities were limited by the slow speed of 3-D Printers, alongside their inability to produce some more specialty components, keeping piracy less prominent than it could be.
This all changed with the introduction of the fabricator in the mid 2120s. The increased versatility and production speed provided by the new technology not only increased the rate of colonization, but allowed piracy (and general conflict) to rise to a level of prominence previously unseen in space, as shown by the Belt and Jovian Wars.
This was all well understood by the Alliance, but what wasn't accounted for was that the technological improvement brought about by the Mars Ruins, which caused great leaps in fabricator technology, would lead to a vastly increased availability for now commercially obsolete industrial fabricators as companies sought to rid themselves of their old equipment after replacing them with brand new ones. Many " entrepreneurs" (pirates to be or full on pirate bands) purchased these fabricators and moved them beyond the Sol System, using them to set up their own pirate havens that also worked as shipyards for pirate ships.
These shipyards could be less concerned about discovery than their Sol Bases counterparts due to the vast size of Alliance Space, with dozens of systems being all but uninhabitable in each Cluster, perfect for holding these bases. This allowed them to expand to greater sizes than the pirate havens of Sol, and produce larger vessels that, while unable to match any true warships pound for pound, were far too powerful for Alliance corvettes to handle on their own.
The result was Alliance Space being practically flooded with pirate schooners and sloops (compared to the amount of activity within Alliance Space, the actual number of vessels was relatively small compared to civilian traffic or the Alliance Fleet), necessitating the Alliance's squadrons and fleet dealing with them.
The final of the three major problems is the level of intervention needed from the Alliance on the colonized worlds. From wild animals, to natural disasters, to conflicts between colonies, the Alliance is called in to deal with far more than was originally expected or planned for, stretching the Fleet's ability to cope.
This all led to significant revisions in Alliance ship deployment. The squadrons are given operational areas across Alliance Space, usually consisting of 1 or 2 Clusters with Relay connections. The squadron is responsible for helping where local Alliance forces are overstressed, moving vessels around to reinforce those areas. The 1st and 2nd Fleets, still stationed at Arcturus, operate as the patrolling force within the Local Cluster and Arcturus Stream respectively, but also serve as larger response forces for the entirety of Alliance Space, responding to large incidents or a potential first contact event. They have only been deployed for disaster relief once prior to the First Contact War, as a disaster relief force after a major tornado on Terra Nova in 2155, and only the 2nd Fleet was deployed, the 1st remaining at its post. As the Alliance expands, even this system has become overstressed, with the 1st and 2nd Fleets commonly deployed to patrol ever expanding areas of space, limiting the amount of them stationed in the Arcturus System and prepared to respond to threats. At the beginning of the First Contact War, only a third of the 2nd Fleet's forces were stationed in Arcturus, with almost none of the 1st Fleet being there. The Alliance tries to mitigate the concern by allocating Fleet ships to clusters near to Arcturus, nominally allowing for them to quickly return to the system and join into a response force. This has not been tested as of the First Contact War.
Naval ships are divided into 8 squadrons, with cruiser squadrons containing 5 cruisers and 20 frigates within a cruiser flotilla and 5 frigate flotillas. Carrier squadrons are made of a single carrier and 16 frigates within 4 frigate flotillas. The Alliance's 2 fleets each contain a dreadnought, 10 cruises, and 60 frigates. Alliance corvettes are divided between the dozens of phase 2 and above Outposts within Alliance Space, with each having between a pair and a dozen corvettes.
