Esaran Armed Forces

Description / Specifications

Army

1,200 battalions organized into twelve Canton Protection Units equal in power to an army corps. Different Cantons control different military units.

From the advanced population of Rasand the following units are drawn.

• These are the elite, the best trained and equipped with the highest technology weapon systems.

Marine

120 battalions organized into twelve Planetary Security Units equal in power to a marine brigade. Each PSU is 6,000 troops and requires several transports to move. Marines are protected forces trained, but NOT drop capsule trained, nor equipped. Naval vessels must fight their way to the surface to secure beach heads and landing zones.

• Most wear combat armor, an armored vacc suit is the minimum. They carry laser rifles and TAC missiles. They are light on supporting arms and request external support to remain in action after initial assaults. "Catering" companies are contracted with from appropriate cantons to provide support. These units are all teeth and no tail.

Navy

The navy is reliant on commercial contracts to provide logistic support and infrastructure for the combat arms. This gives the merchant cantons great power and influence over military policies. The combat vessels double as battalion transports. The escorts double as very light carriers.

Fleet Assets

The Esaran Fleet amounts to approximately 700,000 tons of shipping. Current operational naval assets include:

• Fifteen 10,000 ton TL–11 Swooping Victory Class Defense Cruisers
• Five 50,000 ton TL–11 Canton Class Control Cruisers
• Ten 5,000 ton TL–11 Soaring Wing Class Destroyers
• One hundred 2,500 ton TL–11 Rasand Protector Class Corvettes

The unified fleet has the transport capacity to move more than an entire marine Planetary Security Unit in a single lift. Army units are much harder to redeploy, and have much less strategic mobility. Several task forces are on patrol at one time, visiting planets in the ECA operation zone. A few are generally held in reserve, these units are training or rebuilding from combat operations. Each world in the ECA can raise local planetary defense units commiserate with their available resources and personnel. Rival balkanized governments share several starship designs in common. The TL–11 garrisons have little problem handing some of the planets with smaller populations and much lower technology levels.

History & Background

The military units are organized differently than traditional human units. Certain unit functions are carried out differently than one might expect in human armies. Leadership is a function of whoever feeds you. Command elements must combine several functions. Esaran Command Carriers include field kitchens. Your leader cooks for you and you fight for him. The leadership also act as scouts and carry out recon functions. They have good sensors, ECM/electronics, and the best communication equipment available. They are light on weapons, they have decent armor and protective measures. They also evacuate the wounded. They do not treat wounded. That is a separate function which routinely costs lives. They go looking for trouble and then summon their units to strike. They direct and designate, they do not directly engage. They have the fastest vehicles on the battlefield. More than anything else their vehicles must be fast, for rapid retreat.

The sanctuary/canton units provide support functions. Some alien observers refer to these units as the nest. That is not really accurate. They have combat engineering functions, they build quarters, barracks, defensive works and fighting positions. Medical treatment happens here, surgical and hospitals. Supplies are marshaled here, ammunition, fuel, life support, water but NOT food. They have unarmored transports, and minimal weapons. They are slow and once deployed they do not like to move much. They dig in and fortify, rings of mines, barbed wire and the like, thicker entrenchment the longer they are left in one place. Convincing them to leave well built defenses can be a challenge to the bold and dashing recon/leader/chefs.

Esaran Sentinel Units ring sanctuary units. At least three fire bases are assigned to each support canton. These have obscene amounts of armor, mobility is expected but speed is not a priority. They have vast arrays of indirect fire batteries to saturate enemy positions. The largest calibers possible with the heaviest warheads. Massed barrages are the order of the day. These units carry excellent fire direction abilities matched to the best sensors for target detection and discrimination. They must also deploy excellent point defense weaponry to defeat counter battery fire missions. These defensive units use long range weapons to compensate for the lack of mobility and look to deploy in areas with excellent lines of sight.

The vast bulk of the units are allocated to as many Esaran Attacker Units as they can possibly field. Attack units need some protection, good short range offensive weapons with the best penetration available, as much speed as possible and must carry as many troops as possible. Great sensors and electronics are not really looked upon as essential, as they are told where to go and how to get there by their recon leaders. Basically, if you want to get fed you had better find where the boss is camped out. These are by far the most numerous units. Infantry on worlds with atmospheres wear CES and carry ACRs. They rendezvous with their leaders prior to the attack, and they get fed their last meal. This is required to initiate the assault, and then motivated, they are directed to attack en masse. Survivors flee, and are entitled to return to the nearest canton sanctuary by whatever means available until the summons for the next feast of battle. Originally, they ate the enemy, the only way to get fed was to kill and eat the enemy. Gradually that gave way to feeding only the survivors, who could prove they had killed an enemy. Once that imperative evolved, as the art of war progressed, the conditioning became you must fight to earn the meal you just received. The psychology of this produces some interesting tactical ramifications.

References & Contributors / Sources

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis), Captain, and Lead Naval Architect Ronald B. Kline, Jr. of the Imperial Navy
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science