Entente Interstellar Defense Force

The **Entente Interstellar Defense Force** is a organization dedicated to the collective security of the Galactic Entente.

Founded in 2243, the defense force has been responsible for federal miltary operations though mostly in a defensive posture.

When the Shalani coalition joined the Entente in 2268, the defense force with the assistance of Shalani officer's who passed on their battlefield knowledge and experiences from the Great Southeastern war led to massive reforms with the federal army for Shalani-Zracon war and future conflicts.

Since that moment, the **EIDF** has adopted new tactics and strategies in interstellar warfare improving the force's quality as an effective fighting force.

## **The Earlier Days**

Before the Shalani reforms, the Entente Interstellar Defence Force's military doctrine was one heavily built around ideas formulated by unseasoned Alir and Sondrithans; and in the case of the Alir to whom the concept of war was so alien, meant that their most intricate strategies were, quite frankly, completely outdated. This is not to say that the Alir were complacent or ignorant; indeed, much effort went into defensive structure design and placement...The military was drilled and practiced regularly in defensive operations; and it was actually quite effective, or would have been, if it were not for the fact that the Alir could at first hardly understand the concept of tactical initiative.

Counter-attack? Flanking Manoeuvre? Creeping Barrage? These concepts were juxtaposed to everything the Galactic Entente knew; sure it made sense when a Human explained it to them, but how is one meant to attack an attacker?

Already on a tactical and strategic level the Entente was lacking; the issue compounded further by a lack of military cohesion, the member states had no joint military strategies, rather a simple agreement to help each other. There was no doubt that they would help each other, but there was no cohesion between the different states. There was no official military shorthand signals or standardization either; it is quite frankly unbelievable how staggeringly incompetent they were at first.

This however did not stopped the alliance from success as they managed to defeat the Yaanari, although it should be noted that this mainly happened thanks to Yaanari underestimating the alliance's capabilities which resulted in an allied victory. The war also helped the member states realize that reorganization and professionalization was needed, but such reforms would really come in place with the arrival of the Shalani into faction, as their society revolved around its own military.

## **Reorganized High Command**

* **Entente Council:** Comprising the federal government, and all of it agencies. The council serves as the highest ranking body for the EIDF having the authority to call upon the EIDF for military operations, peacekeeping disaster relief, and law enforcement.
* **Entente Interstellar Defense Force High Command:** Operating as the chief military command for the ground and naval forces of all Entente states. Comprising of high ranking army and naval officers from all species in charge of military planning, organization, communications sharing, and joint miltary doctrines.
* **Supreme Commander:** Joint heads of the navy and army they represent the supreme command for army and naval forces serving as a link between lower general's, admiral's and the top brass. With enough work and promotion any general and admiral can be promoted to supreme commander by the EIDFHC, with supervision from the council.
* **Senior Commandant: I**n command of fleet formations and army groups. Senior Commandant's have power over their junior colleges and those below them. Most Entente formations are command by them and they're given some freedom to propose their own strategies to their higher ups.
* **Junior Commandant:** The lower commandant's comprise the heads of army division's and ship captains. They work together with their senior counterparts in conducting fleet and ground attacks.
* **Regular Personnel** : All miltary staff beneath the commandant's are classed as regular's mostly local brigade commanders, ship officers, and low ranking officers. This is the group is were most start out in when they graduate from academy.

## **Reorganized Army Structure**

* **EIDA:** The Entente Interstellar Defense Army makes up the majority of Entente military personal. Comprised of soldiers from all federal states, the army is entirely made up of professional volunteers. Training procedures are tailored on a species-by-species basis; this specialised training regime accentuates the natural strengths of each individual species, whilst individual species are all taught different fighting techniques, they all share the same strategic and tactical training. Once a regiment has completed its species tailored training it is then split up and reorganised to contain all member species of the Entente; this mixed-species regiment is then re-drilled to utilised each species unique martial fighting techniques, resulting in an amalgamation of multiple skillsets that can operate and bounce off each other. This training regime creates a multi-specialised army that excels in multiple combat scenarios no matter the opposition; moreover, because of their unified tactical and strategic lessons, officers and generals of differing species do not conflict with each other with drastically differing command structures and military doctrines. Military equipment ranging from aircraft, transports, tanks, and walker's are uniquely designed for each species in the Entente; with each state having access to each other's military equipment and hardware. Everyone shares the same level of technological prowess but a Shalani tank is specialised for a mixture of ground and aquatic combat and will perform better in certain environments than say an Alir tank.

* **Entente Volunteer Corps:** Made up of Volunteer foreign soldiers from outside the Entente's borders, the volunteer corps serves as a rapid reaction frontier force offering a way for foreigners to acquire Entente citizenship by way of a allotted term of miltary service.

### **Drawbacks**

* Because everything is specialised they're expensive to use since only about 2/5 of the army is specialised for the environment there in i.e. a mixed-species army isn't going to have much use for aquatic tanks on a desert world.

* Organising these units to be most effective can be a mare in the thick of combat as things tend to get confusing.

* For every species in the Entente army it gets harder and harder to harmonise the different species.

* If one species were to ever leave or shift ethics that opposed other Entente members then the military could fall apart from inner rivalry or outright infighting.

## **Army Doctrine**

The EIDF being a volunteer force aims to conserve troops, while effectively combating the enemy.

Many of the Entente's modern offensive plans were drafted by the Shalani, a militarist race who's tests in combat have proven valuable to the EIDF.

In offensives, the Entente often employees lightning warfare tactics often using E5 scout walkers and IFV's as mechanized spearheads, while infantry serve as shock troopers along with covert operations for small scale or high risk operations.

* **Shock and awe**: Usually specialized attacks performed by aircraft and artillery to poke holes in the enemy's defense while limiting the loss of life to friendly forces.
* **Rapid reaction**: Allowing infantry to engage in combat while mechanized forces conduct pincer maneuvers to flank, surround, and destroy the enemy.
* **Sharp dagger**: If the enemy defenses and numbers are too great small specialized teams will try to infiltrate enemy positions, in hopes of slicing a gap between the enemy lines allowing for support to preform cut offs.

The main draw back is that conducting attacks in quick burst's might potentially wear troops out more and may pose risk for friendly supply lines to be cut off drastically crippling the troops.

For most of it's earlier history, the EIDF has mostly been oriented towards a defensive doctrine with the Alir creating most of the Entente's defensive strategies.

* **Terrian manipulation**: If the enemy engages on the ground, terrian manipulation calls for using the natural physical barriers of the environment to ether delay or stop the enemy. Retreating onto hard or wet ground or fighting on terrian unknown to the enemy, forces the enemy to fight on specific terrian.
* **Static defensive's**: Bunkers, defensive lines, turrets, these defense serve to slow down enemy forces allowing friendly forces to retreat along cover, though there use has been limited over time in favor of static surface to orbit auto-cannons and civil defense measures in order to prevent the enemy from making planet fall limiting civilian casualties.
* **Hit and run:** Striking at the enemy in short quick bursts serves to delay enemy columns. Explosives barricades, and tank traps are used in that capacity.