Throughout the Galactic Civil War the Imperial
Navy never seemed to figure out just how to grapple with the Rebel Alliance. Its fleets were still organized as if they
were fighting the Clone Wars, with many of its most senior commanders dogmatically refusing
to accept that when pitched against the Rebel Alliance, they were now fighting a different
kind of war. So in this pilot episode of “Building Your
Battlegroup”, the Templin Institute will attempt to solve this problem. We’ll analyze the assets available to the
Imperial Navy and try to construct a new fleet designed to fight and win the war the Empire
was actually fighting, not the one they thought they were. In doing so we’ll eschew traditional Imperial
doctrine, modify a few designs, and switch up some starfighter compliments so they make
more sense. But before we begin this intellectual exercise
of ours, we need to define the parameters and limitations this fleet will be operating
under. First we’ll say that it was initially deployed
right about midway through the Galactic Civil War, right around the time of the Battle of
Hoth. Most of the Clone Wars era equipment has been
phased out, and we are right at the peak of the Imperial Military Industrial Complex. Secondly, this is what the Empire would consider
a “high readiness force”. Many militaries use something called a “force
generation model” or FGM to categorize its units into different levels of readiness so
they can then prioritise resources accordingly. The exact terminology changes between navies,
so who knows what the Empire calls it, but for our purposes, we’ll imagine that a Tier
4 unit is still in training or otherwise unavailable for deployment, whereas a Tier 1 unit is ready
to roll, and given priority for new equipment and reinforcements. And while this fleet isn’t the most important
formation in the galaxy, it is one that the Empire wants to keep supplied and combat ready. So we’ll put it into the highest tier. And lastly, and most importantly, we need
to consider the role of this formation. Now the Imperial Navy operates several numbered
fleets, the most famous being Thrawn’s 7th Fleet. These are permanent formations with upwards
of several thousand warships, dedicated naval bases, support facilities and everything else. But the thing is, these huge numbered fleets
are responsible for enormous sections of the galaxy and as a result, are essentially never
deployed en masse. Rather they’re divided into many task forces
and other smaller formations that can be specialized towards specific duties. So in our case, we’ll imagine that Thrawn,
Piett, Motti, Sloan or somebody else has put the Templin Institute in charge of one of
these smaller task forces. Our mission is to locate and destroy the Rebel
Alliance’s interstellar assets, its cruisers, starfighters and whatever else we might find
flying the red starbird. We’re not looking to hunt down rebel bases
or root out sympathizers, our primary concern is crippling the Rebellion’s ability to
conduct interstellar warfare. Faced with this objective there are three
main things our fleet will need to be able to do. Locate enemy interstellar assets. Create the conditions for a decisive battle. And prevent the enemy’s withdrawal. The Imperial Navy is famously pretty poor
at least a couple of these, so we’ll need to rely on a few tricks. And the first one is throwing away most Imperial
Navy doctrines. Overwhelming displays of military force have
their place, but if this battlegroup is going to be chasing rebels across the galaxy, it
needs to be powerful, but also nimble. We need to constantly be at the highest state
of readiness, so things like resupply, logistics and administration should be as straightforward
as possible. Oh! And it also needs a name. Now realistically, it wouldn’t make sense
to give a temporary task force like this its own unit insignia or unique name. It would probably be called something boring
like Task Force 89. And you know what, I’m fine with that, but
let’s at least give it a cool nickname. How about we just steal one from 1967 and
call Task Force 89 the “Outer Rim Yacht Club”. We’ll let every other Imperial formation
try way too hard to sound badass. I want my crews to be diligent, but also possess
an esprit de corps based on humor, camaraderie, unity, and creativity. Everyone in this fleet should be concentrating
on their jobs, not worried if their commander is going to use space magic to asphyxiate
them if they make a mistake. And when my Yacht Club wipes the floor with
the Executioners of Death or whatever other formations call themselves during Imperial
Navy exercises, it will be all the sweeter. So let's start with our main battle line. This is the component of our fleet that once
Rebel starships have been brought to battle, can destroy them. Its responsibilities are nice and straightforward. For this, I don’t think we need to reinvent
the wheel. My first selection is going to be three Imperial
II Class Star Destroyers. Why three? Well I think that’s about the minimum number
you’d need to destroy, pretty much 90% of the formations the Rebels are using. It’s easy to forget that the enormous engagements
that occurred over Endor and Jakku were pretty rare up until the end of the war. At the time our battlegroup is being used,
the Rebels still favor dividing their forces and avoiding pitched confrontations. Now the reputation of the Imperial Class seems
to have taken a bit of a hit in recent years. Footage of them crashing all over the galaxy
probably didn’t help. But I think this points to failures in how
these ships are being used, rather than deficiencies with the class itself. So the standing order I’ll be giving to
each of the Captains assigned to these ships is going to be “take a lesson from Vader”. I don’t want to see these ships keeping
their distance, I don’t want to see them trying to cut off avenues of escape. This is not a Venator. This is an Imperial II. All I want to see these things doing is closing
the distance as fast as they possibly can, and beating the absolute shit outta anything
in their way. I want this part of the team to be known within
the Rebel Alliance as Murderor’s Row. But the Imperial II does have a slight deficiency,
not so much with the ship itself, but rather the starfighters assigned to it. And as we’ll bring up a few times over the
course of building this battlegroup, Imperial Admirals and Commanders do seem to have quite
a bit of influence when it comes to the equipment they’re assigned. Director Krennic basically forced Sienar Fleet
Systems to produce a special shuttle for him and Admiral Thrawn had the Tie Defender Project
not to mention all the things Tarkin was involved in. What I’m trying to say is, it doesn’t
seem completely out of the question for the Commander of an elite unit within the Imperial
Navy to make a few changes. We can’t get greedy, but we can pull a few
strings. So I want to start from scratch on the Imperial
II starfighter complement, it can hold roughly 6 squadrons plus a few auxiliary units so
we’re looking at around 96 craft. For our first three squadrons, I want TIE
Interceptors. And we’re going to load them up with as
many concussion missiles as we can manage. I have never understood why Imperial starfighter
doctrine favor these close dogfights, when missiles are available, but assuming they’re
not extraordinarily expensive, I’d want them as standard issue on my fighters. TIE Interceptors constitute the bulk of this
forces’ starfighters, but they’ll mainly be used defensively. It's right there in the name, I want these
sticking pretty close to the fleet, intercepting anything posing a danger. Instead, the offensive component of our starfighter
compliment will be TIE Defenders. So much of Rebel firepower is concentrated
in their starfighters that having a solid counter is an absolute necessity, and the
Defender is the only ship that can reliably perform better than T-65 X-Wings. Getting these though might be tricky. Supposedly the program was canceled with funding
diverted to the Death Star, but it does seem that at least a few were present across the
Galactic Civil War, so I’m confident I could get my hands on one squadron for each of my
Star Destroyers. Especially in a post-Yavin environment. Next up, I’d have a squadron of Tie Bombers
on two of my destroyers. In most cases I’d expect these to be outfitted
with anti-ship missiles, but the capacity to drop some heavier ordinance into space
stations or planetary bodies is something I’d like to maintain in this fleet. It probably would come up only rarely, but
it's one of those things where you’d hate to need it and not have. The remaining Destroyer will instead be given
Tie-Punishers, same role, just with greater firepower. We’d probably only break this out when going
up against something with very heavy shields. Now with our last two squadrons, I’m going
to be spending a bit more influence with the Imperial military-industrial complex because
we need some craft that might not exist. This entire fleet will be essentially useless
if it can’t locate the enemy, and given the Imperial Navy’s success in this so far,
we need to find some new solutions. And for me, the Lambda shuttle is looking
pretty interesting. Though mainly used as a simple transport,
I see a platform with a lot of empty room for reconnaissance equipment. I want to get the best sensor suite available
to the Imperial Navy and duct tape it to these things if that's what it takes. These squadrons will be the eyes and ears
of the fleet. Most of the time they’ll be operating independently,
tracking rebel movements and relaying their disposition back to the main fleet. We mentioned at the top that one of the main
objectives of this fleet will be to create the conditions for a decisive battle, and
these are the tools you need to do it. If this squadron does its job, we’ll have
already won every engagement before the first shots are even fired because we’ll know
the strength of the enemy, their heading, and any potential avenues of escape. The final squadron aboard our Star Destroyers
I’d like to be dedicated to electronic warfare. This is something the Empire only seems marginally
interested in, so it’s hard to get a grasp of their capabilities, but essentially what
I want this squadron to do is reduce the effectiveness of enemy munitions, ion torpedos especially,
jam communications, and to whatever extent possible, keep the enemy confused and misdirected. While not specifically designed to fulfill
this role, I think the Tie Command Shuttle could be pretty easily modified to be some
kind of electronic warfare craft. So we’ll have a squadron of those aboard
each destroyer. That to me seems like a pretty solid battle
line, but we’ll add just one more capital ship whose role will be obvious: an Interdictor-class
Star Destroyer. One of the stated aims of this task force
is to prevent the escape of the enemy, and this is how you do it. Interdictors are definitely rare, but I don't
think it would be an insurmountable challenge to have one assigned to this fleet, given
it's pretty much a necessity for the formation to do its job. Now we need to move on to our escorts, which
in most Imperial Fleets that even bother to include them, seem rather aimless. I think we can give them a bit more structure,
and we’ll do this by bringing to the Imperial Navy the concept of an Escort Squadron. I’m kinda making my own doctrine up on the
fly here, but the idea is a formation designed to work in tandem with the larger ships of
this battlegroup, but that also have the capability to function as an independent flotilla as
circumstances dictate. Our main battle line is going to be escorted
by two such squadrons of identical composition. For this, I like the Arquitens-class light
cruiser. It’s a proven ship dating back to the Clone
Wars, they’re available in large numbers, and having been built by Kuat, likely share
a lot of the same technology, spare parts and ammunition as our larger Star Destroyers. All very handy when you’re trying to keep
a large fleet like this nimble. But the biggest advantage of this class is
that a command variant exists. Presumably it includes additional flag and
command & control facilities. This makes it perfect as the leader of our
escort squadron. So we’ll include a single command variant,
and then 3 of the standard. And because I think I’ve used up almost
all the clout I have with my superiors, I won’t try and fill these ships with TIE
Defenders, instead we’ll stick to the standard squadron on two of the standard variants,
with interceptors on the remainder. I still have a few things on my list that
might be hard to get so I don’t want to act too greedy here. But I want to add a few other ships to these
escort squadrons, something that can provide for them the same general set of capabilities
that some of our starfighter squadrons did to our Destroyers. Specifically reconnaissance and electronic
warfare. Essentially the intent here is that if one
or both of these squadrons is acting independently from the main battle line, it can maintain
its eyes and ears, and when these squadrons and the battle line are deployed together,
there is a kind of interlocking redundancy. The loss of a single element will never cripple
the entire fleet. So for reconnaissance purposes, I want each
escort squadron to include a single Raider class corvette. As with our Lambda shuttles, we’ll be retrofitting
these with the best sensor suites we can get. I’d even be tempted to strip out most of
their weapons, just to make it absolutely clear to whoever is captaining these ships
that I don’t want them anywhere near the fighting. The role of these ships is to sit on the periphery
of the engagement, providing targeting information and whatever else to the rest of their squadron
or the larger battlefleet. This might come as a surprise to some of you,
as the Raider has a pretty good reputation as an anti-fighter platform, so why isn’t
it being used that way. Well, my thinking on the matter is that corvettes
just don’t really belong in the kinds of naval actions this fleet will be pursuing. They’re intended mainly as patrol vessels
and orbital support, not something that should be heading out into open water so to speak. During a large-scale fleet engagement in which
potentially dozens of enemy squadrons might be operating I just don’t think Corvettes
provide enough bang for your buck. To be effective you might need dozens, and
their small size means they would constantly need to be resupplied. Far more economical to rely on the Arquitens
and Tie Defenders. In the reconnaissance role, I think two is
a good number, as that way both can be quickly docked in one of our Star Destroyers, whenever
that inevitable need for a resupply occurs. The last element I’ll be including in these
Escort Squadrons is a single IGV-55 listening ship. This to my knowledge is one of the few Imperial
starships dedicated towards electronic warfare so it’s an easy pick. Like our modified TIE Command Shuttles, I
want these craft to be jamming munitions and causing confusion amongst the enemy. These vessels are also capable of reconnaissance,
so one of these IGV-55s might be able to replace the aforementioned Raiders, but I want to
keep my reconnaissance and electronic warfare elements separate, and an additional layer
of redundancy never hurts. With two of these escorts squadrons to the
task force, I think this fleet is really starting to come together. The last step will be looking at any potential
gaps in our capabilities and working to solve them. And right away, there’s a bit of an issue. If our Battle Line is supposed to be charging
towards the enemy and the escort squadrons are supporting them, the Interdictor Star
Destroyer is starting to look very exposed. I think it’s going to need a dedicated escort,
and I got my eye on the Victory II class destroyer. This is a pretty big ship to dedicate purely
to escorting another, but because Interdiction is the one element we can’t really create
layers of redundancy for, I think it’s worth it. And I like the Victory II specifically because
of a configuration it’s sometimes outfitted with that includes a large number of concussion
missile launchers. This ship is pretty much always going to be
near the rear of the formation so having some longer range weapons will be a nice way of
making sure it's still able to engage enemy targets. I’m also gonna make sure that whoever is
in command of this vessel is someone I trust. I need a professional in this position, not
someone who's going to chase glory. Now the last ship I want to include in this
battlegroup is a Cantwell-class Arrestor Cruiser. While not a true replacement for the Interdictor,
it does have limited, but similar capabilities and anything that can prevent the Rebels from
retreating is a worthwhile investment. Unfortunately it does need to be near the
front of the formation for it to operate effectively, and there is a chance that in a major fleet
action, this thing would be a sitting porg. But on the off chance a Rebel Commander tries
to ram one of my ships, well, we’ll get some fun footage for the Imperial Navy holiday
blooper reel. But, I want to push my luck a bit and ask
for one more favor from the Imperial High Command. Or maybe I introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn
to Art Deco and now he owes me a favor. However I manage it, I would love to include
a TIE Phantom. The is the Imperial Navy’s only, and perhaps
the very first true stealth starfighter. These are exceedingly rare, and according
to common military knowledge, impossible. And possessing capabilities that your enemy
isn’t aware exist, is a huge advantage in itself. Of course, this starfighter would be much
too valuable to engage the enemy directly in a dogfight, so I’d only use it as another
layer of reconnaissance, something that can slip in close to the rebel fleet and keep
tabs on its movements. And with that, finally our Task Force is completed. What we have here is, hopefully, a formation
sophisticated enough to detect rebel movements, nimble enough to keep pace with them, and
yet formidable enough to overpower them. Imperial Admirals tend to be rather unimaginative
in their maneuvers, usually relying on nothing more than the time-tested “front towards
enemy”, but with this fleet opens up a number of interesting possibilities. Ideally, this formation would seed an area
known for its rebel activity with reconnaissance platforms, identify rebel fleets, and intercept
them. But there is also the potential for its escort
squadrons to lure enemy forces into a trap,, or dozens of other more creative tactics. And before we end things, I’ll do my best
to get ahead of my critics. I’m sure some of you were wondering why
we didn’t include the venerable Venator, or even try to use my influence to create
some kind of Venator II. The reason is, its role as a more dedicated
carrier just really isn’t needed. Between our Star Destroyers alone we have
I think a significant fighter-wing and because we’re relying on Defenders and Interceptors,
overwhelming numbers just aren’t as important to me. The same applies to the larger Secutor Class
and smaller Quasar. I want quality, not quantity. This isn’t the Clone Wars, the Rebels rarely
operate any more than just a few squadrons and in my fleet at least, pilots are never
expendable. And while it was also tempting to include
a larger command ship, maybe something like an Assertor Star Dreadnought, it would be
hard to justify it. Our fleet is too small to really require a
command ship that size, and it would just slow down what is supposed to be a faster
formation. Between our star destroyers alone we already
have over 90,000 personnel, it's already going to be a big enough to keep this fleet in a
state of constant readiness. So this to me is pretty solid formation, but
that of course is just my opinion. And even though Task Force 889 had already
achieved a string of impressive victories across the Outer Rim, I’d like to hear your
thoughts. Do you see any glaring weaknesses in this
formation? How would you command it? And what would your ideal Imperial fleet look
like for this role? Let me know in the comments below, and until
next time, this has been incoming. What you just watched is the pilot for a new
series we’re calling “Building Your Battlegroup”, where the Templin Institute constructs fleets,
armies, and other formations from across alternate worlds. This is one of four new shoes we’re releasing
this week, and on Friday our Patrons will have the chance to vote on which ones will
become regular additions to Incoming. If you’d like to take part, a pledge of
just $2 gets you a vote.
