Planetary and Outpost Defense Corps
From Star Trek: Gamma One
Contents |
Intro
Starfleet does maintain Ground Forces, although calling them that is like calling the U.S. Army Special Forces 'Green Berets'. Their proper name is the Planetary and Outpost Defense Corps, and analogies cannot be drawn to any one modern military force. The POD Corps (you can see why some people prefer to call the 'the Ground Forces') are actually specialized in defending orbital, sub-orbital, and surface theaters both on colonized planets and artificial outposts on planetoids and non-Class-M worlds (where such things have to be domed). They train for squadron-level and person-to-person warfighting, with some artillery, armored and air calvary, and wet navy muster, in a wide range of environments. They train in all kinds of vehicles, in all kinds of survival and with all forms of survival gear including EVA suits, in Zero-G combat on planetoids where the gravity is cut out, and so on. They are meant to supplement the Security Branch of the rank and file of Starfleet for taking or keeping ground-level bases from hostile forces.
Chain of Command
The POD Corps reports, via a Commandant who holds the rank of General and is the equivalent of a four-star Admiral, to the four-star Admiral who holds the position of Chief of Starfleet Security and Strategic Operations and is in fact one of the Starfleet Chiefs of Staff (the top-level advisory board who reports to the President). It is one of the rare four-star-reporting-to-four-star 'compressed' chains of command at the top levels of Starfleet brass.
Under the Commandant, they are divided into Sector Groups -- each group of between 9 and 15 sectors has one planet or starbase that maintains a small office staffed by a Major General or Lieutenant General (depending on importance of the sector), with a small 'general staff' and a single on-call 'special duty' squadron reporting directly to the Sector Group General.
Below the Sector Group level, each *major* sector (one with 4 or more Class-M planets or strategic basis) has a Brigadier with a small support staff, and each major planet or outpost has a regiment or demi-brigade (led by a colonel or brigadier) or a battalion (led by a major or lieutenant colonel); where there is a Brigadier in their sector, they report to him, if not, they report directly to the Sector Group General.
Composition
All regiment and demi-brigade level units are mixed-force units, where specialization as infantry, armored cavalry, air cavalry, sea force, military engineering, or civil affairs occurs at the battalion level; battalion-level top units (i.e., on smaller worlds) are mixed-units where the specialization occurs at the Company level, unless the world is specialized enough in environment (a water worl needing only a sea force) that the battalion can remain homogeneous.
Special warfare companies exist in most Regiments and battalion, keyed to the battalion type -- a military engineering battalion in a mixed-unit regiment may have one company of explosives/EOD experts, while a sea force battalion may have the equivalent of a SEAL team company, etc. etc. etc. ... Discretion should be used in this -- only those special warfare units which have a clear cut-and-dried nature of use defensively are authorized. There are no sniper or assassination units, for example, and while Civil Affairs battalion might have dirty tricks/psych warfare companies, they don't do black ops or illegal interrogations.
Training
All Ground Force personnel attend Starfleet Academy or Enlisted Training like 'naval' SF counterparts. They simply do their elective coursework to specialize in appropriate POD skills -- engineers might stress material engineering and some systems engineering with coursework in demolitions, or generalize and become the flight prep crews for Armored and Air Cavalry units; security officers train for leadership in a wide range of front-line combat conditions; command officers do likewise but with more emphasis on mixed-unit leadership; and so on. Only Science and Medical are not represented -- though some Security and Operations officers receive Medical cross-training for basic field first aid competence, Starfleet Medical handles the medicine for injured Ground Corps personnel, and the POD Corps has no Science teams in it.
Miscellaneous
The POD Corps is what makes up for the imbalance between officers and enlisted/NCO types in the 'regular' Starfleet service. Normally, on starships and starbases, the ratio is 1:2 or 1:3, i.e., a single officer and maybe 2 or 3 enlisted types, which is weighted in favor of officers compared to a modern 20th century real world military. The Ground Corps swing this the other way, with rank and file grunts in a 12 or 15 to 1 ratio over officers.
Known Personnel
Branch Personnel
- No known personnel at this time
