Central Command

(Copied straight from .XML 'backup' file, needs formatting and corrections. ZM User (talk) 17:58, 22 April 2024 (PDT))

   This article discusses a subject with undecided "Canon".  The Swarm Cycle writers need to discuss this on the email list, come to a decision, and then update this article to let readers know what Swarm Cycle "true canon" is.

Central Command is the key strategic authority for the Confederacy Military in the battle against the Sa'arm. It consisted of an indeterminate number of humans, Darjee and AI's.The largest component, Naval Operations, was based on the Moon.

It did not meet in a single location and relied on FTL-capable ships to maintain any sort of cohesion. Although nothing could be proven the human members of the command were beginning to suspect that they were being held back from their aim of destroying the Sa'arm in its entirety.

High military command generally came from the NATO countries, Australia, New Zealand, the more advanced Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, and Japan. These countries, which also provided most of the personnel and equipment, had generally compatible doctrine and procedures, as well as technical standards. Other countries, such as Russia, China, Israel, Iran, and most of the Arab World were considered too turbulent to join the main force, although individuals and a few units were invited.

Individual specialists, however, came from all countries. Mikhail Kutuzov joined Central Command as a strategic adviser, but with no direct authority. He was a specialist in the strategic defense, but his role was minimized by other officials who did not want him asking hard questions of the AIs.

The Director of Naval Operations, Fleet Admiral Jason Tucker, was one of the most respected military officers of his generation, but some questioned his strategic ability. His initial approach was to send attacks against the flanks of the Sa'arm, and look for opportunities. Others wanted to fight a conscious battle of attrition and fight a great, Mahanian-style fleet engagement at Earthat.

Another school of thought believed there was an implicit conflict in leadership between the AIs and Earth, since the AIs really did not know how to fight wars. Ideally, they would let Earth guide the overall strategy, but it was unclear if the Confederacy races would approve, or could stop the AIs (Canon Issue Here).

Criticism

While some direction is necessary, it often seems at the front lines that CENTCOM is spending more time feathering their own nests than managing the war. It often seems to suffer from terminal NIH Syndrome (Not invented here), as it appears that only their own ideas are seriously considered.

On the other hand, CC is a resource management system, not a combat command system. CENTCOM only provides some resources (ships, materials, manpower, research, etc) to the districts. Direct supervision of the combat forces in each district is left to the District Commander, who is the senior combat officer in the district (Canon Issue Here). All Confederacy forces in the district report to him. It is up to the districts to prosecute their part of the war with those resources.

Note that the Confederacy model of government has every colony independent; Central Command has no operational authority over a District Commander, and in turn a District Commander has no authority over a colony's assets. Only Confederacy forces are under his command. A colony may build a fleet of warships for its own purposes, perhaps system defense. If they are not formally turned over to the Confederacy Navy, the District Commander cannot claim them. All he can do is ask that colony's Governor if those ships can be temporarily seconded to the Fleet for some operation. This failure of authority is only partly due to human factors. It is also partly on purpose. A fully authoritative central or district command will only protect the Confederacy if it is always right. Since this is not likely, a feudal model of authority that allows individual colonies to fail also allows the best chance of someone coming up with the right mix of skills, equipment, and tactics to win.

Events in the 14th year of the war proved this analysis correct. Even with a Sa'arm landing in Africa, CC refused to learn from the field forces and continued to follow doctrine which had been proven to be flawed. The combined attacks of what appears to be three different Sa'arm colony fleets overwhelmed the fleet that CC had held in Sol System to protect Earth, allowing six more landings on the planet. This happened even though Sol System held shipyards that built, during any chosen time period, more ships than all colonies put together. However, most ships were sent out to the districts, those few retained for local defense were not well positioned, managed, or trained, and Sol System was still building ship types that had been discarded as obsolete by the systems out in the front lines instead of building ship types which had proven themselves in combat.

By the 15th year of the war, the war-management functions previously performed by CENTCOM had been taken up by a committee of the various District Commanders, with CENTCOM relegated to managing the defense of Sol System with oversight by the Committee. Central Command was often referred to as 'Cockblocker Central' by personnel less than enthusiastic about their NIH tendencies.

Confederacy Armed Forces Table of Organization

Imperator of the Directorate (Top Defense Minister)

Position currently filled by an AI

Deputy Director of Military Operations (DOMO)

Proposed position, not currently occupied. Proposed as “senior among equals”, this controversial position has been suggested to help streamline the tedious decision making process of the Council of the Directorate. This idea is strongly opposed by most Confederacy races, fearing a human “Caesar” would emerge.

Council of the Directorate (COD)

Composed of the five active Directors and the two DwP’s. Meets at least weekly, usually via AI virtual interface. Currently the Council is very much deadlocked pertaining to most military plans concerning the Sa’arm and the decision to even fight to hold Earthat at all. There are current two primary political factions, one controlled by the DNO, the other by DECO. Unable to agree about anything, this has significantly hurt the war effort so far.

Policy Board

These are senior advisers who can speak before the Council, but have no vote.  Some of them are from nations not drawn upon for the Confederacy Armed Forces, such as China and Russia,

Directorate of Naval Operations (DNO)

This is a policy and logistics headquarters, more than an operational one, headed by Fleet Admiral Jason Tucker. Think of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff versus the regional and operational Combatant Commands. The Combat Commands are the Naval Regions and Districts, and independent strategic commands.

• Chief of Naval Operations (4* Admiral - O-10) (Currently Fleet Admiral Jason Tucker)
  
  • Chief of Naval Staff (VAdm - O-9)
    
    • N1 – Training
    • N2 – Intelligence (RAdm - O-8) (Currently Rear Admiral Adolph Karl Weidenbach)
      
      • Capability, Analysis & Assessment
      • Security & Cryptology
    • N3 – Plans & Strategy
      • Operations
      • Plans & Tactics
      • Deep Black (kind of an “Oh shit” worst case scenario planning department and also handles wild ass pie in the sky projects)
    • N4 – Logistics
      • Personnel
        • Assignments
          • Special Assignments
        • CAP Evaluation
          • Special Projects
      • Logistics Planning
      • Mobility & Combat Logistics
      • Ordnance & Supply
      • Fleet Readiness
    • N5 – Capabilities & Resources
      • Fiscal Management
      • Astrogation, Exploration & Mapping
      • Fleet Warfare
      • Expeditionary Warfare
      • Special Programs
        • Spec-Ops
          • Lancer Scout Project (Stultus)
    • N6 – Communications & Information
  • Chief of Testing, Research & Development
    • Ladacat R&D Center
  • Chief of Naval Procurement
    • Bureau of Naval Standards
      • Design and Evaluation
  • Chief of Fleet Operations
    • First Fleet
      • Numerous (non-Earthat) Task Forces
    • Second Fleet - Admiral Charteris (Tulakat)
    • Third Fleet (etc)
  • Commander, First Confederation Navy (note: This is a largely ceremonial Fleet not normally involved in normal Fleet Operations. Protocol and Diplomatic missions only. Most FCN ships are considered obsolete and not battle ready, and should not be considered as first line naval units. FCN is now also considered the current prime navy dumping ground for inefficient officers considered not ‘battle ready’ by the Chief of Fleet Operations and N4 Personnel under recent reforms.)
    • Chief of Operations
    • Chief of Maintenance
    • Chief of Logistics
  • District Military Regional Commanders
    • • Task Force Commanders
        • Admiral Roger Hargreaves - Commander Taskforce Earth (Kevin Haynes)
          • Captain Tors Haaraldsson - G1 for Taskforce Earth
          • Marine Colonel Stirling - Earth orbit commander of the 'British' Confederacy contingent

• • Director of Marine Corp (DMC) – General Harry McCoy – A former Deputy Commandant of the USMC, McCoy tends to be a touch introspective but decisive and methodical in his planning. Normally tends to stay neutral and act as the voice of reason during the frequent disputes in the COD. McCoy’s most passionate cause is that Earthat should not be abandoned to the Sa’arm without a fight. The DMC is probably the least funded and supported Directorate at this time.
    • Chief of Marine Headquarters (Note: all Marine M-Departments function on a significantly reduced scale from those of the Navy)
      • M1 – Training
      • M2 – Intelligence
      • M3 – Plans & Tactics
      • M4 – Logistics
      • M5 – Support Functions
    • Chief of Marine Operations
      • Fleet Marine Forces
        • Marine Forces Command (Earth) – Lt General
          • 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (primarily a training and reserve Corps).
            • 1st Fleet Marine Division
              • 3 Combat Brigades
                • 2 Regiments (6 Companies each) per Brigade
            • 1st Fleet Marine Air Support Group
            • 1st Fleet Marine Logistical Group
            • 1st Fleet Marine Headquarters Group
              • Command Staff
              • Intel & Communications
              • Navy Liaison Company
              • Reconnaissance Company
                • 3 Recon Platoons
                • 1 Special Operations Platoon
                • 1 Sniper Squad
                • 1 Heavy Weapons Squad
            • A variable number of Marine Expeditionary Task Forces (A reinforced Marine Infantry Battalion of mixed heavy and light infantry and combat engineers, each with 2000+ men)
        • Marine Forces Command (Regional)
          • 2nd MEF –
          • 3rd MEF (Demeter) - LtGen Harold F Donaldson (Kevin Haynes)
            • 3 Brigade commandersMaj Gen Thomas S KernMaj Gen Alexander Vasilievich Kutuzov Maj Gen Arun Shridhar Kapoor
          • 4th MEF (Tulakat) - LtGeneral Ellis is CDR, Ground Forces
            • G2 COL Riley
      • Fleet Security
        • Base Security Personnel
        • Shipboard Security Personnel
    • Chief of Marine Reserves
      • Office of Public Affairs & Recruitment
      • Medical Inactive List & Medically Unable to Perform (MUP) (note: with medical regeneration available for virtually all wound, the majority of these MUP cases must be considered psychological)
      • Retirement Inactive List
      • Veterans Long Term Medical Care Facilities

• • Director of Evacuation and Colonial Operations (DECO or the Diaspora) Current Director (Civilian): Miles Chandler. This is probably the single most politically powerful and important Directorate at this time and is often at odds with the DNO and Fleet. He tends to be a bit of a CAP-Elitist. He also works extremely closely with Fleet Marines with little inter-departmental conflict, except for Chandler’s strong desire to abandon Earthat entirely, after the CAP-worthy population has been evacuated. Chandler unashamedly wants the proposed DOMO position to better fight his primary rival the DNO. His management style is considered extremely loose and his Department heads enjoy significant (perhaps excessive) autonomy to act on their own initiative. His critics say that he just enjoys the power of his position and the day-to-day routine details bore him, causing extreme inefficiency and unnecessary chaos in a critical organization already facing a life-or-death challenge to evacuate Earthat in just a few short years.
    • Chief of CAP Evaluation and Testing
      • Special Requirements
    • Chief of Acquisition: Earth Pickup (Character reserved by Allan Joyal)
    • Chief of Fleet Auxiliary – Originally intended as a Naval Reserve group under the DNO, it rapidly became the primary evacuation fleet of the Diaspora under a mishmash of human and Darjee colonial pod ships and crew. In the chaotic rush to push Earth humans into space and into the fight against the Sa’arm with little or no prior preparation (or proper planning), a number of ad-hoc naval assets were cobbled together from obsolete Darjee and other Confed ship designs and hastily armed (often inadequately) and have been involved in some combat operations. These military units are only nominally under the chain of command of DECO, and currently operate under considerable autonomy. They have enjoyed some success in cooperation and coordination with better established colonies, often acting as a quasi-planetary defense force. Leadership is often non-standard, and command by non-naval senior officers (Marine or Colonial Army, often Colonels and Generals) was not unusual, but is now beginning to become phased out. Other Aux Fleets and smaller Detachment units are alleged to operate virtually independent of higher authority, often acting much as privateers, sometimes under largely civilian crews. There are rumors of ships and crews that have gone rogue and are alleged to work in conjunction with underground criminal or political organizations, although no actual ‘pirate’ attacks have been reported. There is a growing significant political movement among the Directorates to return Aux back under firm Naval control and disband or reorganize what they see as ‘rogue’ elements.
      • Chief of Maintenance
        • Drydock – long term repair and maintenance
        • Facilities Management
      • Chief of Operations
        • 1st Auxiliary Fleet
        • 2nd Auxiliary Fleet (etc)
      • Chief of Colonial Scouting
    • Chief of Personnel Allocation
      • Office of Perosonnel Reallocation ("Maverick Corral")
      • Office of Targeted Extractions
    • Chief of Logistics
      • Confederation Fleet Liaison
      • Darjee Naval Liaison
    • Chief of Colonial Army Operations (also controls intra-system air assets)
      • Earthat Defense Force – General Hiromichi Yahara (Stultus story – “fight for time, not victory”)
    • Chief of Colonial Maintenance & Repair
    • Chief of Colonial Civil Service (small but growing)
      • Regional Governors
        • Planetary Governors
          • District Governors
            • Colonial Governors
    • Chief of Colonial Fleet Operations
      • Colonel John Ormskirk who seems to be in charge of new Civil Service ships being commissioned somewhere

• • Director of Intelligence (DOI) – Sir Samuel Cassell (Civilian) – A former head of MI-5, Sir Samuel is responsible for coordinating the upward flow of the various different alien, civilian and military intelligence branches, with limited success. While a capable administrator, Sir Samuel lacks the ability to force DNO and DECO to share their information. This has contributed in no small part to at least two major Navy Fleet and Auxiliary Fleet defeats, where inadequate intelligence resulted each time in the loss of capital ships during hasty ill-prepared retreats. Sir Samuel enjoys entertaining and the high social life, and normally keeps his personal office with the First Confederation Navy.
    • All Confederation Service Intelligence Chiefs
    • Civilian Intelligence bosses from Confederation worlds
      

• • Director of Industrial Fabrication & Replication (DIFR) – General Emre Oran (Turkish Army Corps of Engineers, Retired). General Oran came from a life of wealth and privilege even before his successful 33 year Army career. He is considered an extremely effective administrator and to date has succeeded in completing every colonial installation of massive industrial replication factories on schedule. Oran is considered unusually attached to his duties, and travels from project site to site in modified Castle-class Corvette. Some consider Oran to be an acceptable ‘compromise’ candidate for the DOMO position. There is some discussion of moving the duties of this Directorate into DECO.
    • Planetary Project Administrators
      • Replication Plant Managers
        

• • There are currently at least two Directors without Portfolio, giving them the authority to act much as Inspector Generals and advise the Imperator and DOMO. They are allowed to vote in Directorate meetings.
    • William Jackson (Civilian) – A former President of the United States who has become a sort of “Goodwill Ambassador to the Stars”. Has been known to make publicity appearances at colony locations and is often an unofficial spokesperson for DECO, often doing TV appearances and advertisement in support of mandatory CAP testing of all Earthat individuals. If there is a TV camera, he won’t be far off. Fond of the diplomatic party life, Jackson is often found with Sir Samuel Cassell at First Confederate Fleet.
    • General Chen Quanyu (People’s Liberation Army of China, Retired) – The former Chief of Staff for the Chinese Army is a severe critic of the CAP program, believing it to be racist, and prefers instead a quota system. He also desires that a large percentage of new colonies be of Chinese racial extraction only. His stance on the defense of Earthat is uncertain. His most common political ally on the COD is General Oran.

Policy Board

There are currently believed to be up to five individuals that have the right to speak before the COD, but do not get to cast votes. Only two names are common knowledge.

Field Marshall (maréchal de camp) Renee Galois (Retired) – A rather prissy man with an inflated sense of self-worth and very much an elitist in the mold of Miles Chandler, but without the charm. Very (some would say excessively) fond of the diplomatic party and social circuit. Galois is admittedly an expert in the military science of preparing a static defense and preparing effective overlapping levels of fortifications. An unashamed and vocal leader of the fight to defend Earthat to the last drop of blood.

Roger Wetton (Civilian) – A former CIA station Chief with a passion for espionage and black ops projects. Little is known about his personal life and habits and has never attended a COD meeting in person. Currently believed to be acting as sort of a one man Intelligence ‘oversight’ committee.

Mikhail Kutuzov may be a third one.

(Someday this will be a navigation template.  It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links.  Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))