Solar Defense Fleet

DATE: 210-411

WOLF SYSTEM - In a decisive victory for the Solar Defense Fleet (SDF), Carrier Group WNB has ambushed and annihilated a small Rigelian marauder fleet on the edge of the Wolf System. The surprise attack, carried out by CNB's combined squadrons of Griffon-class Cataphracts and escort vessels, caught the Rigelian warband off guard, resulting in the destruction of all seven enemy ships, including the formidable Rigelian dreadnought, "Devourer of Stars".
SDF Command reports that the Rigelian fleet was intercepted while raiding a civilian convoy, and that all passengers and cargo were safely escorted to nearby Wolf-IV. The SDF has hailed the victory as a significant blow to Rigelian piracy in the sector, and a testament to the bravery and skill of the men and women serving in CG WNB. According to SDF insiders familiar with the battle, only three cataphracts were damaged with two nonfatal injuries.
"We believe that we caught the Wormen in the middle of coming out of their cryosleep," Admiral Terenton Nemain said in a brief statement, "The quick response time to the enemy arrival and our early detection measures were crucial to this victory. I give my heartfelt thanks to my crew and the brave pilots and crew of our great fleet."
Check back in later for further details on this developing story.

SolarNet News, All the News That's Fit For You!

Unit Pride

When a carrier group is formed, three randomly generated letters are given to the group, which often becomes part of their unit identity as bored midshipmen and marines invent increasingly rowdy names from the three letters until one spreads far enough to become accepted. For instance, CG-HDC call themselves the Hard Drinking Clowns while the marines and crews of CG-BLY have adopted the war cry "Bullaybullaybullay!," which they loop over their jamming channels to disrupt and annoy their enemies.

Composition

Manpower

Solar Defense Fleet is the largest branch, featuring 3,217,500 personnel, of which 810,000 are Marines.

Weaponry

For small arms, SDF favors lasers and melee weaponry to avoid misifires and damage to the ships. Ships are mounted with every flavor of arms and armament depending on the type of vessel or mission.

Vehicles

There are 25 carrier groups, each with the following:

Carrier: 1

Fighters:6 wings of 5 each (30)
Crew: 150,000

Dreadnought: 1

Marines: 100,000
Crew: 210,000

Destroyers: 8

Crew (each): 8,200

Cruisers, Heavy: 9

Crew (each): 6,000

Cruisers, Light: 12

Crew (each): 3,000

Corvettes: 18

Marines: 48
Crew (each): 30

Structure

The Grand Admiral keeps an Admiral's Council, which is made up of a co-commander for every fleet. Every has two admiral-ranked commanders, which trade off duties every six months. One stays behind on the Council, and the other commands the fleet, reporting and coordinating with their counterpart. Each pair of admirals leads a carrier group. The carrier serves as the flagship of the group around which the other ships coordinate their maneuvers. Each ship in the fleet has a captain who oversees the bridge officers, each of whom are in charge of a different division of the ship; typically these are Navigation, Engineering, Weapons, Defenses, Communications, and Tactical. On deep space missions they might also have a xenologist, corporate liason, and/or diplomatic officer.

Tactics

The doctrine of the SDF has three components
1: Degrade the enemy's ability to fight: The SDF attacks supply lines, subtargets weapons systems, hits supply bases, and generally attempts to lessen the ability of an enemy to strike rather than focusing on morale, flashy victories or decisive engagements. Tactical manuals advise admirals to only seek a decisive engagement when the enemy's strength is roughly half of its maximum using the Imhoff Scale.
2: Initiative: The SDF focuses on maintaining initiative in a combat. If an enemy gains the initiative, the SDF has two answers: Trade space for time until an opportunity arises, or charge the enemy. SDF ships are all reinforced for ramming, and some of the corvettes even have a ramming spike. By forcing the enemy into choosing whether to evade out of their formation or receive damage, they can be disrupted long enough for the SDF to gain the initiative again.
3: Dilemmas, not problems: Presenting a problem for the enemy invites a solution that is zero sum win/loss for one side or the other. By instead presenting a dilemma, a problem in which every solution requires a sacrifice, then the enemy can be forced to degrade its own ability to fight so long as the SDF can maintain the initiative.

"Vigilantia et Fortitudo"

Type

Spaceborne

Overall training Level

Professional

Assumed Veterancy

Trained

Used by

• Pan-Solar Consortium

Ranks & Titles

• Grand Star Admiral