Your Imperial Ministry of Defense
I was wondering, when you are playing, which Dpt in your Imperial Ministry of Defense do you assume that have the control of the diferent branches of your military?
The navy would be, of course, under control of the Imperial Navy. But what about the weapon platforms, troops, fighters that are based on planets, drones, sats, mines, and the pop transports?
Would there be an Imperial Army as an independent institution?
What about an Imperial Air Force? Would that make the fighters in carriers "Naval Aviators"?
It appears to me that the nature of space combat would make all branches of the military to be of secondary importance in comparisson to the Navy, because of its ability to take combat to your foes, but many planets in secured systems (without neigbouring hostiles) will probably never in their life see a warship pass through their sectors, and their defenses will remain land based, and even if you build them fighters, those fighters would be very unlikely to see the interior of a carrier.
So, should colonial defenses be under control of the Imperial Navy, the Army, or the Air Force?
Or should they be independent, as in Colonial Planetary Defense Force?
There is also the issue that ground forces in an Space Empire would be more like todays marines, since they have to go into battle in navy ships and then land, to do any combat at all.
And finally we have the Weapon platforms, which have nothing to do with the navy at first sight, other than fighting them.
What are your ideas on all these diferent possibilities for military structure and organization?
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