Originally posted by The Oz:
At the start of the 20th century, the British Navy used a "three-tier" system for mobilization. This system was evolved by Jackie Fisher, the father of the modern Royal Navy.
The First Fleet was the active-duty navy, composed of the most modern ships, with full crews on full-time service. At the start of the 1st World War this fleet had 3 battle squadrons plus cruisers and escorts.
The Second Fleet had the second-line ships, which had "nucleus crews" 40% strong permanently aboard to keep the ship ready for operations (maintaining the engines, guns, and other technical systems). When activated, the remaining 60% of the crew (the non-technical personnel like ammo humpers and coal stokers) would come aboard. These personnel were regular Royal Navy but assigned to nearby shore duty stations. These ships and crews were tested regularly four times a year with practice mobilizations and were expected and able to come to reasonable combat readiness in a week or less. At the start of the war this force had two battle squadrons plus escorts.
Lastly, the Third Fleet was composed of the oldest ships set aside for auxiliary duties (mine warfare, blockade patrols, etc) which had only skeleton maintenance crews in peacetime, enough to keep the ships from sinking, and which would be brought to full manning with the Naval Reserve troops once they were mobilized. These ships would have taken weeks to a couple of months to reach real combat readiness and had no ships of real front-line combat worthiness even then.
Of course, England was and is a geographically compact nation with an excellent transport system that allowed this to work. Exactly how to apply any such ideas to a dispersed 3rd Imperium is something we need to think about.
Eyup. But the information you just provided helps to one extent, and hinders in another. By the by - THANK YOU for posting that information. I had discussed this with my wife earlier Friday Morning and she helped me to trim the fat from my thinking as it were. The issue was how to keep a ship "alive" for the period of time that it is to be part of "reservist" status. I mentioned the fact that during times of Wind and Sail, it might have worked relatively easily, but that a wooden ship needs far fewer men aboard to keep it seaworthy than does the engineroom of a ship that keeps it from becoming a space hulk without life support. Your data above shows what percentage of crew are needed to keep the wooden ships operational. It was far higher than I would have thought or could have guessed at! (hence, the thank you)
What I find interesting is the simple fact that the reserve ships had to be kept in harbor and were not sent on missions in and of themselves (if I read into what you wrote correctly). These ships were meant to be "scrambled" at need as opposed to tasked with missions outright. The "civilian" sailors had to be on hand to live their civilian lives, yet remain available for reserve status at need.
All things considered, it is far more "interesting" to watch two seperate chains of command interact regards to a common goal. Ultimately, a dual chain of command structure ends up being slower than a single chain of command structure under ordinary circumstances. The chaos of war tends to make a mockery of "ordinary circumstances". Frankly? I would "prefer" to think of the three tier system of warship commands as follows:
1) Imperial Fleet - comprised of nothing but the best the Imperium has available technology wise and training wise. These are the personnel that the Imperium invests its hopes of survival in. To that end, they remain vigilant against the external foes of the Imperium.
2) Subsector Fleet - comprised of police action type ships and perhaps some major warships. They are a check against ambitious Admirals who take a fleet back to Capital and announce a regime change
They are also the fleet tasked with local protection of trade and keeping member worlds in line. Since they are designed to be ships who are decentralized from the Main Imperial Fleet, they garner their resources from the local worlds themselves. In times of emergency, they are imperialized and can be imperialized be imperialized without any issue because the command structure already knows that it is part of the big picture.
Planetary fleet - this is the stickiest one of all. If they do not have jump capability, they are in effect, a local defense force. But what are they defending? An Imperial World? A Sovereign world? Both? Neither? How can a world be a democracy if ultimately, its world leader must answer to a Noble (So what if that noble calls himself the Emperor, he is STILL a bloody noble right?
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If we go the route of saying that there can be a reserve fleet, the Royal Navy model does work for the Imperium. It is just that the ships in reserve have a home port and they rarely ever "sail" from port. Here is how I can see it working...
Cadre: this is comprised of Regular Imperial Naval personnel with wet behind the ears officers who perhaps scored barely passing scores during training. They could even be officers *IN* training. Point is, they only serve 6 months on the reserve ship at a time. During their tenure aboard these reserve ships, they host two "reservist" teams. Team 1 shows up at the end of the second month the cadre is in operation. The ship then heads out for a single jump, then jumps back. The reservists then head back home and live normal lives. Team two shows up 3 months later, and the ship achieves its second "round trip" of the year. Change of cadre. Then, team one shows up again, second month into the new cadre's tenure, jumps out and back. They head home. Team Two shows up on the 11'th month, perform their jump (second in the year) and retire back to civilian life.
This way, the Reservists spend no more than two months in space entirely. There are two teams that are "semi-trained" in the event the Imperium takes casualties and needs a sudden influx of replacements. Meanwhile, there is always a "core" group of men who stay aboard the ship placed in reserve - the Chief Engineer for example on his last "command". Men who are about to retire or men who have been blacklisted for poor judgement and know their careers are at a dead end.
All of this explains how one can have a reserve fleet and I will likely incorporate it into IMTU setting
