Fighter and attack Craft weapons

[Graham Kennedy]

We'll see...

I have trouble making the ground forces unique a lot of the time. Every time I try to think through how they would operate, I come up with something that's very, very close to the Mobile Infantry in Heinlein's starship troopers. It's something I am still working on.

[Captain Seafort]

The big problem with the MI is that they're too heavilly armed, and there aren't enough of them, to capture urban terrain relatively intact. They're great when it comes to wrecking stuff, but in a war of conquest they'd need to be supported by large numbers of (relatively) light infantry that could clear out buildings rather than levelling them, and then hold the territory against either an enemy counter-attack or a local insurgency.

[Graham Kennedy]

What I have in mind is that some MI analogue will function as "paratroopers of the future". Paratroops always seemed to be to be a better analogue for the MI, given how they reach the surface of a planet. The Paratroops would carry out raids, fast attacks which destroy infrastructure and defeat enemy troops. But then there would be light infantry, much more numerous and equipped with much less destructive weapons, who would function to hold territory once captured.

I'm also contemplating whether different environments need different formations, formations who adopt different equipment according to the environment, or just equipment that's resistant to a wide range of environments. It's bad enough on Earth with desert and arctic warfare, but imagine if your troops may be fighting in a temperate environment today, on the moon next month, and on the surface of Venus the month after!

[Captain Seafort]

I'm also contemplating whether different environments need different formations, formations who adopt different equipment according to the environment, or just equipment that's resistant to a wide range of environments. It's bad enough on Earth with desert and arctic warfare, but imagine if your troops may be fighting in a temperate environment today, on the moon next month, and on the surface of Venus the month after!

Agreed - even in modern warfare there's desert, artic, jungle and temperate conditions. In the future you could probably add submarine warfare to that. On top of your examples of lunar and Venusian conditions there's also the posibility of very heavy-gravity terrestrial worlds, gas giants, and assaults against space stations. A lot of these would probably need to be handled by your MI analogues - you'd need equipment with a self-contained oxygen supply, protected against extremes of temperature and radiation, and possibly inertial dampers.

[shran]

Would it be possible to select divisions for certain enviroments, specializing in certain enviroments, instead of trying to remain all-rounders? It would mean that the momet people would get enrolled, they'd be screened what enviroment would be best for them, and they'd be trained almost exclusively for that afterwards.

On a different note, how do your larger ships create gravity?

[Graham Kennedy]

That's the kind of issue I am mulling over. On the one hand, there are potentially many, many environments out there. If you have to have what basically amounts to one army for low gee, one for high, one for low temperature, one for high, one for low pressure, one for high, one for underwater, one for corrosive atmospheres... and every combination thereof... then that's an awful lot of armies. And most of your forces become useless in any given battle.

What I am leaning toward is that there are regular infantry and "extreme environment" infantry. The latter would be trained to work in any non standard environment, from the surface of Venus to the ocean floor.

So :

Paratroops : Powered armour, with antigravity units. Heavy armour, heavy weapons, including nuclear, biological, chemical, antimatter, and nanological weaponry. Designed to land, take on enemy forces and destroy them, smash infrastructure, do lots of damage in a short time and then withdraw again.

Infantry : Equipped to work in Earth-type environments. Armed with relatively light weapons for the most part, lightly armoured. Transport is vehicles much like todays but implemented with future technology; includes APCs and Tanks (or equivalent). Designed to hold ground, police captured populations, fight insurgent and rebel forces, etc.

Extreme Environment Infantry : Similar to infantry but equipped and trained to operate in a variety of environments; low to high gravity, temperature, atmospheric mixes, etc.

[Captain Seafort]

With regards to your "extreme environment infantry", while I can see that their purpose would be similar to that of the regular line infantry, given the environments they'd be operating in their equipment would likely be closer to that of the paras, particularly for high-g or high-radiation environments. Alternatively, of course, given the multi-species nature of the Coalition you could simply assign those jobs to species for whom such conditions are natural - given that single-species units would be necessary anyway, you might as well give them jobs that play to their natural strengths.

[Graham Kennedy]

With regards to your "extreme environment infantry", while I can see that their purpose would be similar to that of the regular line infantry, given the environments they'd be operating in their equipment would likely be closer to that of the paras, particularly for high-g or high-radiation environments.

Some might be... powered exoskeletons would be needed for high gee environments, and that's only a step away from powered armour. But in terms of weapons, not much point equipping a force with nuclear antimatter weapons when their job is to hold a captured enemy city.

Alternatively, of course, given the multi-species nature of the Coalition you could simply assign those jobs to species for whom such conditions are natural - given that single-species units would be necessary anyway, you might as well give them jobs that play to their natural strengths.

True, but then again you are restricting your forces to just a small fraction if you do that. Better to allow all species to operate in all environments.

[Captain Seafort]

Some might be... powered exoskeletons would be needed for high gee environments, and that's only a step away from powered armour. But in terms of weapons, not much point equipping a force with nuclear antimatter weapons when their job is to hold a captured enemy city.

Agreed, but it would simplify your logistic train to give them the same suit - simply tailor their weapons issue for the mission.

True, but then again you are restricting your forces to just a small fraction if you do that. Better to allow all species to operate in all environments.

While that would certainly be useful, to ensure that you'd still be able to perform a given mission when the specialists aren't available, a member species that's evolved and lived in a given environment would be more effective than one who needs technology to be able to operate there. Much the same reason why Everest expediations employ sherpas - the locals will always be far better at operating in a given environment than someone who's first experienced it in adulthood.

[Graham Kennedy]

Yes indeed, the first choice for invading a Venus type world would certainly be those who evolved on another Venus type world. The likes of Humans in suits would be a second choice, but it would be important to have that capability I think.

[Captain Seafort]

Fair enough then. Further on the subject of specialisation, I assume that there would be parallel "extreme environment" variants of the other arms and services as well as the infantry.

[Graham Kennedy]

Yes, I'd say so.