| Conseil of Workers' Systems Armada | |
|---|---|
| Active | |
| Country | Conseil of Workers' Systems |
| Branch | Navy |
The Conseil Armada (Red Armada) is the space warfare branch of the Conseil of Workers’ Systems. It is the second largest navy in the galaxy, but is still outnumbered by the Coalition Navy by a factor of two. Because it is outgunned and outnumbered by its rival, the Conseil Armada focuses on audacious attack and unconventional systems.
History[]
The Conseil Armada started life as the rag-tag remnants of the pre-Collapse Soviet Space Force and various ships captured during the Red Rebellions of the post-Collapse era. A massive restructuring occurred when the new Soviet Union fell into disarray, as officers purged their rivals for affiliating themselves with one faction or another.
Asymmetrical warfare was pioneered during this era, when opposing fleets needed to minimize casualties and operate for months, if not years without repairs or significant resupply. When the Coalition entered the fray, many Soviet captains defected, but most put aside their differences to prevent being overrun. Even in these early days, it was apparent that the Coalition had naval superiority, so a defensive war was waged. The Armada succeeded in repelling the unsustainable Coalition invasion, proving to many officers in the Armada that a defensive strategy is the only way to achieve victory.
This tradition was broken with Joseph II’s ascension to the throne. Joseph, tired of his country’s relative lack of power projection and fearing massive Coalition naval victory, ordered a massive overhaul of the conservative doctrines that dominated the Red Armada. While whittling down the enemy was still a part of the Conseil naval doctrine (as a last resort), the general strategy instead called for an all-out assault that would draw a Coalition battlegroup into a trap, destroying it in a decisive battle where Conseil fanaticism triumphs over Coalition engineering. Many new ship designs, meant to be of higher quality than even Coalition vessels, were commissioned, but while they were vast improvements over past designs they were for the most part more primitive than Coalition designs. Commanders and strategists that opposed this proposition were declared heretics and executed.
Formations[]
The Red Armada’s formations are split between missile carriers and the planetary invasion force. The missile carrier is the central to the Red Armada’s naval assault force, just as the coilgun-equipped battleships are the core of the Coalition Navy. These missile carriers are deployed en masse and meant to limit enemy movements through missile clouds. Heavy capital ships, armed with EMSEL point defense systems and heavy EMSEL cannons and housing Red Army troops, form the core of a Conseil planetary invasion force. Quick, heavily-armed corvettes defend these ships, sometimes sacrificing themselves in the place of the capital ships by crashing into incoming enemy ordnance.
Design and Technology[]
Red Armada starships are notable for their rounded, centralized designs, as opposed to the skeletal and conical designs of the Coalition. Conseil spacecraft are, on average, smaller than those of their rivals, but more compact, and their electronic systems are cruder. Both the sublight and superluminal engines of Conseil craft are more powerful than those of the Coalition, helping Conseil ships escape from danger. They are also easier and cheaper to manufacture, although Coalition industrial superiority means the Armada rarely has a numerical advantage. Conseil spacecraft are more flexible in their role and less specialized. While Conseil ships possess less firepower than their Coalition counterparts, they surprisingly possess more advanced shielding and various unconventional systems such as communication jamming.