Fleet Profiles, Doctrines, and designs: Earth Alliance (B5)

History and development:
The Earth Alliance, found in 2085 was founded in the aftermath of World War III and soon began to colonize space. After first contact with the Centauri Republic the Alliance rapidly expanded. It's military arm, Earth Force would fight alongside the League of Non-Aligned Worlds against a feline race known as the Dilgar, a war which ended in the near extinction of the Dilgar.

However the Earth Alliances next conflict would be far more dangerous and pushed the human race to the breaking point. The Earth-Minbari war was less of a war and more of a series of massacres in which Earthforce ships were almost always all but helpless against the Minbari technological advantage, notably powerful stealth technology that prevented anything but a manual target lock.

The Earth-Minbari war would cost Earthforce more than two hundred thousand personal but surprisingly the Minbari ignored most non military targets, leavingg civilian infrastructure and populations intact. For all of its losses the Earthforce would claim only one Minbari warship kill in the entire conflict, the Darkstar. Surprisingly right at the very doorstep of Earth after crushing Earthforce's last stand at the Battle of the Line the Minbari surrendered ending the conflict.

The during the Earth-Minbari war, Earthforce fielded large formations of Starfury fighter craft (one of the most realistic and feasible designs for a space craft in fiction). The SA-23E Mitchell-Hyundyne Starfury is an excellent highly flexible craft, ideal for force projection, defense, combat support, and patrols. Alongside the Starfury were the mainstay of the fleet the Hyperion-class Heavy Cruiser, a 1025 meter long capitol ship loaded out with several plasma and pulse cannons along with nuclear missile tubes. These would be supported by 1502 meter long Nova-class Dreadnoughts and smaller (444 meters long) Olympus-class Corvettes. At the Battle of the Line Earthforce would field almost twenty thousand ships, mostly Starfuries. Earthforce ships of the Earth-Minbari war were typically built long and thin with very skeletal structures unlike other large ships in other science fiction.

Thankfully the Minbari had left the Earth Alliances infrastructure basically untouched allowing for a swift rebuilding of the fleet and the construction of the a series of Stations known as the Babylon project. Only one of these stations, Babylon 5, would survive but would prove to be well worth the effort as a diplomatic, commercial, and military out post.

Post war Earthforce reviewed its notes from the conflict and came to a few conclusions. First while they could damage Minbari ships they needed better targeting systems or had to risk close range engagements. They also recognized the value of solid beam weapons and designed future ship board weapons to use both pulse and beam fire settings. The new design that came out of this period was the Omega-class Destroyer, a 1714 meter long behemoth based off of the design of the Nova-class Dreadnought. The Omega-class began construction late in the Earth-Minbari war and post conflict would become the fleet's mainstay. Earthforce would also begin development of a new fighter intended to eventually replace the SA-23E Starfury, a fighter that would be known as the SA-23A Starfury "Thunderbolt".

Internally however the Earth Alliance would experince and dangerous shake up in the years following the Earth-Minbari war. In 2259 Earth President Luis Santiago would be assassinated in an accident organized by his Vice President Morgan Clark. Clark was anti-alien yet ironically was being backed by an ancient alien race known simply as the Shadows, he thus kept Earthforce out of the Second Shadow War with exception of the forces attached to Babylon 5 who went organized a resistance against Clark and his tyrannical regime.

The Earth Alliance civil war broke out, and was a bloody three year long conflict between forces loyal to President Morgan Clark and Earth Alliance Resistance forces lead by Captain John Sheridan. The war went on concurrently with the Second Shadow War and lasted for three years and ended with the sucicide of President Clark as resistance forces closed in around Earth. He attempted a last scorched Earth tactic using Earth's orbital defense but these were destroyed by the forces of Sheridan and his allies. Sheridan and his allies were pardoned for their actions though Sheridan was required to resign from Earthforce, who would go on to be the first President of the Interstellar Alliance.

After the Earth Alliance Civil war only one new ship is known to have been added to the Earthforce fleets, the Warlock-class Destroyer. The Warlock is known to have been the first Earthforce ship to feature true artifical gravity. The ship boasted an impressive arsenal along with superior speed and manuverablity to the Omega-class destroyer. The Earth Alliance would go on to be a founding member of the Interstellar Alliance.

Fleet Doctrine and Organizational Structure:
Sadly little is known about the actual organization and battle order of Earthforce. What is available is purely conjecture, based on what is seen in the Babylon 5 television series and films. Earthforce likely runs a flexible line of multirole ships, all capable of carrying their own compliment of Starfury starfighters. These fighters are likely organized into a larger formation during a naval engagement to support the main fleet.

Earthforce Naval doctrine seems to favor three main forms of combat. First is long range missile bombardment, used to either open a battle or for quick strikes. The second is more drawn out gunnery duels with large amounts of turret mounted plasma and particle weapons. The third is starfighter strikes, typically operating as the fast attack wing of a fleet formation or running support for a taskforce.

During the Earth-Minbari war, Earthforce ships were most effective at close range due to Minbari stealth systems. Thus Earthforce seems to build its ships along getting in close quickly and dealing as much damage as possible. Earthforce ships could thus be seen as something of glass cannons.

Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths-
- Excellent Fighters
- Strong infrastructure allowing for rapid production and recovery
- Ships only require a relatively small crew compared to other scifi franchises with similar ship scale
- Fast and manuverable capitol ships

Weaknesses-
- Complicated internal politics
- Ships lack strong shielding or armor
- Prefrence for close range combat is a result of tactical nessecity which appears to have stuck around long after the end of conflict with the Minbari

Again comment below on your thoughts and also on what faction you want to see covered next. If no faction is select I will decide on my own but I really want your opinion on this. To be honest B5 stuff is a little tricky for me as I have only really seen the first season and few episodes scattered about the rest of the show. Much of the information here was drawn from various wikis and my own observations.

6005759
Well you certainly did well for not having seen most of the series.

6005766
When in doubt, make do with what you've got.

6005781
Indeed, and I do recommend that you finish the series at some point.

You should probably go with something a little more... mainstream next. UNSC (sans Halo 5)?

6005904
well that's now a bit more standard speed

6006417
And will probably drum up some more clicks.
Although if this falls through, I'm sure you can spin it off into either another forum or into a web series.

6005759
Nice.

6036838
From what I can tell, the Post-War fleet was focused more on heavy capital ships designed to go one-on-one with Covenant warships and all new ships include shields.
The only frigates we see are the ones that the Infinity carries within her hull (I still say that's a dumb idea.)

6036838

6036852

Have been a little distracted lately with a job search will try to get it out by next week

6041238
Don't sweat it. Just glad that you're still alive.