Hello and welcome to this week’s installment of Lore Builder, our weekly feature where we talk out aspects of the Star Citizen universe with you, the community. As always, please consult the first issue for the caveats and links to background material to see what’s already been established.
RECAP
For the past few weeks, we have been playing around with Squadron Numbering. That topic has expanded into an exploration into how the Navy itself is organized and the numbering systems involved.
There was a lot of discussion regarding the naming of the flights within the squadron, specifically using the callsign of the ranking officer to identify the flight. I’m starting to agree that it might be very confusing to understand who is who, particularly when flights from multiple ships are in the same battle. While the callsign might be a unique identifier, a pilot can glean no additional information from it.
There was a suggestion to go back to a color-coding system, which would be awesome just to be able to say “Red-Five standing by,” but it feels like you would run out of colors very quickly if that was your only indicator.
Therefore, I suggest two options:
1. Similar to Homewreaker’s suggestion, the flight is known as: Squadron #-Phonetic Alphabet-Ship #. So the fourth ship in 82nd Squadron Charlie Flight would be “Charlie-Four” if they’re on a mission with just their squadron and 82-Charlie-Four if it’s a big multi-squadron brawl.
2. Basically the same system but with colors instead of the Phonetic Alphabet, so instead of “Charlie-Four” it would be “Gold-Four” or “82-Gold-Four.”
Let’s take a look at a final write-up of the complete structure as it currently stands:
UEE NAVY NUMBERING & ORGANIZATION
Here is the flow of command as well as the structure/naming conventions for each level of the Navy.
IMPERATOR
Head of the UEE.
H.C. LEGATUS NAVIUM (HIGH COMMAND)
The highest ranking member of the Navy and represents the branch in the government. He or she dictates policy more than operational control.
GRAND ADMIRAL
A chairman and the joint chiefs all rolled into a single person, but with overall operational authority as well.
MAJOR FLEETS
Named after Earth’s constellations, each fleet is commanded by an Admiral, who reports to the Grand Admiral.
REGIONAL FLEET COMMANDER
Vice Admiral who oversees Fleet activity in specific regions of the Major Fleet’s Area of Operation. Named after universe landmarks (i.e. Gamma Region, Earth Fleet).
SPECIALTY GROUPS
Reports to Fleet Admiral; this is where the Group Commander (Vice Admiral) of all squadrons of Fighters would reside, controlling the training pipeline, overseeing maintenance requirements in both materials and credits, and assigning nugget pilots to squadrons.
Here are the acronyms for the types of groups:
- Intercept Fighter – IF
- Intercept Bomber – IB
- Strategic Bomber – SB
- Electronic Warfare – EW
- Search and Rescue – SR
- Patrol/Reconnaissance – PR
BATTLE GROUP
Usually consists of 1 Main Carrier, 2-4 Escorts and a varying number of large Combat/Support Vessels. Use numbers for designation (312th Battle Group). These are commanded by a Rear Admiral who reports to Regional Fleet Commander.
Capital ships designations:
- CV = Fleet Carrier
- CVE = Escort Carrier
- BB = Battleship
- CA = Cruiser
- CB = Battlecruiser
- DD = Destroyer
- FF = Frigate
- FFL = Frigate Light
- K = Corvette
- AP = Transport
- AOG = Tanker
SQUADRONS
Squadrons are under the command of the Carrier Wing Commander who is stationed on the largest carrier in the Battle Group and reports to the Rear Admiral. The Carrier Wing assigned to the battle group shares the number assigned to the carrier which originates from the first ship in the class (randomly determined), and then subsequent ships are numbered sequentially.
Squadrons are numbered in the order in which they were founded and consist of up to four flights. Typically, each of these flights have six ships, but this number can fluctuate based on availability/need.
The naming of flights was covered in the recap above but here’s a pic to illustrate the entire system. For ease’s sake, I used the first flight naming mechanic suggested above.
So there you have it. While there are still details to flesh out, the framework for a cohesive system feels solid enough for further internal development. Thanks again to everyone for your time and contributions to help flesh this out, especially to Dzur for his contribution and patience explaining these systems to me.
LORE BUILDER is going to on hiatus in lieu of some fantastic new fiction for you to enjoy. I wanted to thank everyone who participated in this series over the past few months. From Murray Cup finalists to Sataball to Pirates to Squadron Numbering, the knowledge and creativity of the community has been incredible to watch.