True again Xerxes.
I suppose I'm not after a simulation (which will be wrong anyway, this is hundreds of years in the future), but trying to capture some elements from modern day, and what I'm after here are the Persian Gulf board and search operations I've seen the Royal Navy do alot of. I really liked the RN crews in the documentaries I watched.
Another thing I want to getaway from, too, is the future military as 'modern US military'. And I get that vibe from alot of Traveller stuff, particularly earlier CT stuff. Part of ditching marines as do-all super-troopers is trying to distance myself from modern US organization and doctrine.
I talked with Major B about this too, and we discussed writing in an organisational or doctrinal fact that 'isn't efficient'. Just like RL. Everything's in flux, because stuff has to change for the next war ... so ... there might be abetter way to do something, but ... isn't that just reallife?
I mean, man, we have just ditched our entire Harrier fleet, but are waiting for 2 aircraft carriers to arrive. We will have no planes to put on them. Imagine THAT in the OTU, we'd have a field day with it !!!
I suppose part of the trouble is the (lack) of publicity that the Imperial
army gets in traveller. almost every reference to ground troops i have seen in traveller, when it specifies the unit, is to marines. thier page on the traveller wiki, is, at the time of this post... 5 lines long.
5 lines.
anyway, onto your second point about a doctrinal oddity or two. heres a few off the top of my head:
1) the imperial navy, due to the nature of the imperium, does not control every jump capable warship in the imperium. as all planets are semi-independant, they are free to build and operate their own fleet.
this is like, for example manchester city council having its own private army, that doesn't answer to Westminster. thats a pretty big difference.
the above, is, as far as i know, how the 3I works.
anyway, my idea for Naval Infantry:
Naval Infantry (often reffered to as Ships Troops) are a semi-automous branch of the Marine Corps, with more in common with the Imperial Navy than the rest of the Marines. They have thier own training camps co-located with the navy training sites, with an emphasis on squad level training, boarding actions, and zero G combat, compared to the 'line' marines emphasis on large scale convetional warfare and planetry assults. thier is little lost love between the two, as the drop troops think the NI have the cushy desk job, while the NI think the drop troops hog all the glory.
A lot of the NI training is simmilar to modern counter terrorist building storming doctrine, but with less emphasis on avoiding potential civillian casualties. and more on effciently clearing a enclosed space quickly without exposing oneself. the NI enter rooms after a frag grenade, not a flashbang. rooms are cleared on the basis that anything living inside them is hostile until proven otherwise. Several ships have been taken by the NI decompression the whole ship one compartment at a time, fighting in hard vacumn. cutting of life support is another favoured trick, as the NI's extensive zero G training gives them an edge when the gravity is turned off.
The NI relies on this destructive, "shoot first, ask questions later" approach to deter potential resistance. Several previously obstinate free traders have suddenly become most co-operative when threatened with a NI boarding team.
while technically outside thier remit, the NI are often called upon to pull base guard duty on navy bases, as they are better equipped than line crewmen, and more available than regular marines or Army.
NI teams are ,relitivly, lightly armed, without the heavier firepowr of standard marine fireteams. Preffered weapons are still guass rifles, but supplmented with accelerator rifles for zero-G work, and a heavy load of grenades, breeching charges
the NI see themselves as an elite, though the rest of the Marine Corps dispute this. what is not disputed is that the average NI squad is better at small unit tactics than the average Marine fireteam. however, the average marine fireteam has much heavier firepower, and is better able to fit into a larger battleplan.
