Re: UN Fleet Size: (was Nominal Taxation Rates)

Beth Fulton wrote:

> Due to my blissfully ignorant state of military command structure (I
> usually leave it to Derek to scream/harumph/laugh loudly if I wander
too
> far off course on the topic), how does mixed command structure happen
today
> for these things (which is as good a place as any to start for how the
UNSC
> does it)? You obviously get lumps (platoons, battalions whatever) of
troops
> from the same nation, but I guess the commanders are more
higgledy-piggledy
> nation-wise as you go up?

Joint operations with Foreign Powers is one of those areas that the DSTO
(Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, ie real not
GZGverse) is rather interested in. I did a small presentation to them a
few months back (went WAYY over time).

Summary: Very Ad-Hoc. INTERFET in East Timor is a good example.
Australian CiC, Thai 2iC, god-knows-who-this-week as 3iC, and the
individual units (platoons, companies, battalions) usually kept as
separate as possible. The US-led forces in Bosnia are another example -
but in this case, the Brit 2iC flatly refused to send in troops to the
airport to forestall the Russkis, as he thought it might lead to shots.
Bad Juju, Careers wrecked. But no casualties...

So in a 3000 pt force, you might have:
Sqdrn 1: UN SuperDreadnaught + 2 UN Escorts (Flagship), 1 PAU Frigate
Sqdrn 2: 3 OU Heavy Cruisers, 1 IAS Heavy Cruiser, 1 OU Escort Cruiser
Sqdrn 3: 3 Dutch Heavy Cruisers + 1 Indon. Escort Cruiser.

UN CiC
OU 2iC
Dutch 3iC

For the utter disaster that can happen under these circumstances, have a
look at the "Battle of the Java Sea" in 1942. The ABDA (Australian
Britisch Dutch American) force had real problems, like not being able to
read each others codes, having different standard operating procedures
etc.
Now the UN forces will be FAR better at co-ordinating different
nationalities' navies than anyone else. But even they couldn't get the
NI and the IC to trust one another in battle. They'd prefer to have
traditional allies (say mixed NSL-NAC) grouped together, regardless of
relative speeds and other advantages, rather than have an ESU SuperDread
escorted by a Maria or Tegethof.

> >I, for one, figured that the relatively small OUDF "regular fleet"
(as
> >opposed to the much larger semi-civilian patrol fleet) spends a lot
of
> >its time in company with UN vessels.
> 
> Same for the IAS and many of the other minor nations (epsecially those
with
> their major holdings within the Inner Systems).

Exactly. And sometimes these small fry can do the UN's dirty work for it
in a non-attributable manner. 
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