Sci-fi Military Tactics and Strategy

So, I'm trying to design a Military Academy curriculum where those snot nosed 18 year old high school students, by the time they graduate at 22/23 years old, they earn the base respect of the enlisted force, almost immediately, not because of respecting rank.

You know how in Real Life almost all Ensign Newbie are pretty much made fun of because they're young, inexperienced, and given a ton of responsibility, and they earn the resentment from some of the enlisted?

Want to create a curriculum designed not only to create good officers (Duh), but designed SPECIFICALLY to combat against this stereotype, so when they arrive to their units, there's absolutely no question from *anyone* that he/she belongs there and/or deserves to be in charge.

New Survey coming this weekend!

Require them to serve a few years on the enlisted side before entering the Academy.

Otherwise, they're gonna be Ensign Newbie upon graduating the Academy regardless.

Kind of defeats the purpose.

I'd imagine that they'd have some serious physical and mental challenges, akin to the British Officer Infantry Course, which IIRC is the longest infantry course in the world, by a landslide.

If you're able to incorporate something like that into the curriculum, and they pass it, plus all of their academic classes....

Any soldier that doesn't respect THAT didn't belong there in the first place.

Might be hard to get a lock, but an aircraft the size of a bus travelling at mach 0.8 is going to be loud. I don't know what the precise decibel rating is going to be, but I doubt you could go very far without being noticed.

You know what you call a lawyer who just got a job at a prestigious firm after graduating top of his class at Harvard?

The new guy.

Until they've spent some time in the real world, nobody is going to be so impressed with their training that they're going to credit them the XP they haven't gotten yet from practical experience. Maybe if the academy requires a stint of real-world experience before graduation, somewhat akin to the Probationary Third Lieutenants in Starship Troopers (and which is done somewhat in the Real Life US military), but otherwise, they still are gonna roll in with nothing but academic learning in a controlled environment.

Again, while being loud still have to account for the sound travel, as I said by the time you hear it, it is either right above you or already past you.

edited 2nd May '16 7:47:29 AM by AngelusNox

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Taking the class out for training missions is probably the best training you can hope for. Especially if they're actually missions that simply don't have any priority. Granted, this can lead to Things Get Real but as a story teller this is a good thing.

That style of training is typically referred to as OJT (On Job Training) You learn the job by doing it or as close to doing the job as you can. It can and has been included in training regimes. Like sailing ships with cadets and sailors in training to prep them for life and duty aboard active duty naval vessels.

Now obviously you can't take Johnny Rookie still in Academy out to the Front Line but you can put them on regular patrols in safe zones, stand sentry duty, gate guard, radio watch, etc. Wanting some sort of combat experience is what a lot of combat exercises are about and why simulators are being looked at as cheaper and safer live fire options to train on use of equipment and combat. The more realistic the simulation the better the training.

You can do this for some jobs but obviously not all of them.

edited 2nd May '16 4:19:13 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

I could kind of see them having to serve a couple of rotations in different units first as a grunt then as some intermediate supervisor, gradually giving them a greater scope of things until they commission and get the whole hog to fry.

The problem is that if everyone in the military or fighting force went through the training then it's no longer impressive. Special forces training is super rough and rank and file troops will probably respect you for it, but to the other special forces you're still the new guy. So it's like everyone is saying that they would have to have live experience before graduating, but that creates a new problem in that the "new guy" is now just someone who hasn't graduated, which you may be fine with. There's not really a way of eliminating noobs. Prior training makes you better but doesn't garner much respect from people who have already been through it.

It has nothing to do with being impressive at all. It has everything to do with experience and quality of training. The new guy will never have the same experience as a vet but making sure he is well trained before he sets foot in a unit for active service goes quite a ways in reducing errors from learning the ropes.

Who watches the watchmen?

@elves

A commando's strengths have very little to do with frontline combat experience. In fact, spending time in a line unit will make a commando pick up bad habits.

Commandos are stealthy, resourceful, and patient. If confronted by superior forces a commando's best option is to run and hide. Shooting is usually a sign that the opsec is compromised and people are going to die on a stealthy raid or silent recon. However, going loud and making a mess is practically a mission objective for a line soldier.

However, if you just want to bring your line officers up to par, on the job learning is a good move. Get them familar with how troops operate in the field and how a unit is supposed to work together. Often, good junior officers can decide the fate of a confusing battle.

tl;dr Training a junior officer and training a spec ops commando are entirely different things.

edited 3rd May '16 6:42:04 AM by Belisaurius

Bel: Actually most commandos/special forces come from infantry of one variety or another. There is a lot of shared skill sets and equipment. While it is true Special Forces tend to fight differently and have access to a wider variety of equipment they also have to be able to operate along side regular infantry and be able to use their gear.

Who watches the watchmen?

Best in their junior or Senior years?

New Survey coming this weekend!

Okay, lest try to drag this thread kicking and screaming to an actual scifi topic, while ignoring current RL technology completely.

After thinking about quantum communication earlier, and its possibility for instant lag free communication over any distance, that cant be intercepted or hacked, because it is point to point....

I thought more and more about a setting where war is no longer fought "in person" but by soldiers who may be half the galaxy away controlling proxy bodies with cybernetics and quantum communication, and how much of a fun idea this sounds like.

But it lead me to some more important questions.... how would this change war? How would tactics and combat change when each solider can just rise from the dead, when there death is nothing more then a roadblock offset by the time to get new equipment into position.... When they are no longer bound by the limitations of there physical bodies either, meaning you got essentially immortal super soldiers..... and killing there controllers is not an option either, because you don't know where said controllers are.

Not really interested in the politics involved here, so much as the tactical changes, what kinds of tactics would become pointless, what ones could you see rising to meet the new threat?

^ Jump on a Conquest Large server in a Battlefield game. You'll see what happens to "tactics" when you remove the risk of death like that.

I would do that, but the problem is Battle Feild does not have consequences AT ALL.

Death is the one people mostly associate with war, but loosing your 250,000,000 credit "avatar" would be a large blow to a war effort, even if it isn't to the solider itself.

And then beyond just the cost of replacement, you have the logistics of getting the next one into position for the person to use.

Instead, it would be more likley to become a set of tactics for minimizing loss, rather then trying to stop it completely.

Things will change, risks will lessen, but to say that all penalty goes out the window is nothing but a fallacy..... Remember as well that soldiers are trained professionals, even in this case there not just "gamers"

edited 4th May '16 6:06:57 PM by Imca

Immy: Well think of it like the cost of sending a modern MBT into war. The tank alone is worth millions. A loss even if the hull can be recovered is rather expensive. So like you said taking measures to fight smarter rather then like a total dumb ass would be important.

Since the government would be in need of their expensive military being able to function the soldiers would likely receive training to make the most out of their units before they are knocked out of action. Partly for reasons you noted but also because loss of a unit on the field means loss of capability for however long it takes to replace that loss. Part of the problem with games like Battle Field is they allow anyone to play regardless of skill level. Same for games like World of Tanks and War Thunder. The military doesn't operate like this outside of some sad situation's where there was no other choice. By simply screening whoever can't handle the unit responsibly in training you will drastically cut down on the number of people who are likely to waste a unit pointlessly. Additional training can create a cohesive and functional team. Just like there are a bunch dumb asses in a public match there are also a bunch of skilled clan players who use coordination and communication to great effect.

If wars happen wherever they happen you could possibly see a mix of enemy remote bodies and traditional troops to bolster numbers. You could still encounter civilians in built up areas obviously. As for how it might affect the operator the folks who control the Predators have coined a turn phrase. "The hot light bulb dropped into a cold bucket of water." Used to describe the sensation of operating the drone for a couple weeks getting to see the war in detail and possibly kill people and then simply going home for supper at the end of the day is apparently rather jarring.

Now remote body vs remote body might be less jarring provided they are largely faceless or only vaguely humanoid. If war happens in designated areas or zones only war could possibly become a sort of competitive sport between political rivals and everything that might entail.

Who watches the watchmen?

I'm picturing enemy armies using EW against each other's remotely-piloted soldiers, maybe even trying to seize control of them from each other.

Ohhh, thank you for the imput, while I had considered the cost of shiping a new unit to the feild, I had not actualy considered that while one is knocked out its soilder isnot activly contributing to the war effort, which is actualy a pretty big impact in its own right, thank you. :D

I also had considered something before with wars being more like sporting events, but the problem there is I can never figure out why they would just stick to one "designated war area" when it is probaly much easier to just exert force on what you want to strong arm directly.

Which wont work when they run by quantum entanglement because the system consists of two molecules, and ONLY two and whatever you do to one instantly affects the other.

Its not a frequancy you can piggyback on or effect, its.... well a quantum entanglement effect.

Immy: Shipping is expensive. Intergalactic shipping rates are not something I want to imagine.

Who watches the watchmen?

So, can we talk orbital Defense platforms?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IKUNzGn2cc

At 2:05-2:07

These Orbital guns not only look cool, but they form a perimeter around Earth like Saturn's rings. Also looks like the Platform itself is unmanned and the main canon can rotate like a CIWS on navy Ships.

Also, looks like the fighters don't run on jet fuel ""at all"" especially considering they are travelling in a vacuum. All in all, looks Earth's defenses are pretty neat, considering it's only been 20 years to the day. I'd imagine Earth in 2025 or 2035 would be flat out ridiculous with quantum leaps in tech along with a newer population that would grow up wanting to join the EDF

What do you all think?

The main thing that jumps out at me from that video, other than that I still can't figure out what the wing fan looking things are for on the fighters (are they the anti-gravity? Why can't it be more integral to the design? We didn't see them sticking out of the Alien Attackers in the first film...), is how Rain Lao kind of clumsily mentioned which country she was from (China).

To be fair, while "Lao" could very easily be presumed to be a Chinese name, I don't think "Rain" is a name you'd expect to hear unless they were a pop star.

Best way of taking out orbitals is to bombard them from a long ways out with mobile forces. Because they're stationary defenses they can't evade so all you need to do is keep shooting railguns at them from a long ways off until you do hit them. Typically, it's best to dig in defenses into an airless, low gravity moon or asteroid. Something big enough you can use it like a heat sink and armor but small enough you don't have a big fight with gravity getting stuff off of it.

I am with high expectations for that movie, we're going full XCOM on the aliens and that makes me happy.

Inter arma enim silent leges