Talk:SFMC Table of Organization
Number of Marines
Commodore Daher, what was it you had an issue about with this? --Bateson 06:01, 24 March 2008 (PDT)
I just have a slight problem with the numbers in the SFMC TOE. I calculated the approximate number of troops in the SFMC assuming 5 platoons to a company, 5 companies to a battalion (basically the maximum amount) and so on and 50% support personnel and I came up with 11,718,750 marines. Assuming that the UFP is made up of HUNDREDS of billions of people (our own little Earth in the 21st century has 6+ billion) and the approximate size of Starfleet, don't you feel that is too small to be practical? -- Joe
I agree with you in a sense, but I'm working with what I was given in terms of how many corps I was given. I could give you what I assume are reasons. For example, the USMC has approx 190,000 active duty marines and the US population is around 303,706,163. I'm horrible at math, but the proportions seem roughly equivalent. We can also cite the fact that we're supposed to be playing Star Fleet from the point of view that we're rebuilding from hardship after hardship, not to mention the Corps took a heavy personnel hit when someone *cough* Admiral Thrawn *cough* took out Mars when she was assimilated. Thirdly, advances in technology in many areas can compensate for the conventional ideas of need for personnel. Example, The Union Army in the Civil War, took the same number of people into one battle, than we will have in Iraq altogether. Does that make sense or am I just rambling? --Bateson 06:49, 25 March 2008 (PDT)
Add to this discussion... Does the UFP/Star Fleet have an Army? Or do the marines act as the army? --Beckett 20:55, 29 March 2008 (PDT)
Well, here's the ratios I came up with. USMC to US population (300,000,000 approx) = .00036 marines for every 1 person. SFMC with current numbers (12,000,000 approx) to approximate Federation population (300,000,000,000 approx) = .00004 marines for every person. And that's assuming a very LOW Federation population.
President Beckett, I'm not sure about the UFP/SF Army idea. It would be something totally different and has never been mentioned before. However, as I pointed out in the wiki section on the boards, we have heard of Federation "ground troops" numerous times. It is possible that they are referring to an Army of sorts, or just the marines.
^That was from Daher^
For the UFP/SF Army, I think that'd be opening up another can of worms, especially because of the 'geography' of any sort of conflict that SF would be involved in. Because we've got vessels in space, every conflict would be the equivalent of a 'space' amphibious operations. Attacks by troops deployed from space, to planetside battles. Maybe you could liken it to the Airborne if you so pleased, I obviously do not so please (hah)!
As for the ground troops already mentioned, in the only episode where they are shown, they're wearing fleet yellow and fleet red uniforms. I think it was a detail the producers didn't want to waste time on, so they didn't worry about the over-arching logic to it. That's the impression I get.
As for the numbers game, I still acknowledge the same facts as I did before, and still offer the same possible rationale(advance in technology, corps in rebuild mode) as well as the possibility that maybe the UFP has decided to simply not have the same amount of armed forces - after all Star Fleet isn't just the defense force, they're also the scientists and explorers and whatever. I'm not one to pass the buck, but the numbers were the ones I was given.--Bateson 07:02, 30 March 2008 (PDT)
