Domus Publica
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The Galactic Empire’s basic territorial unit is the Sector, an economic/political unit of variable size and composition, in much the same way that the
regiment or division forms the basic unit of many armies. There are smaller territorial units than the Sector — the star system and the planet are
naturally defined units, for example — but political administration and military/naval operational control are not unified at those levels. The Imperial
Sourcebook, Second Edition states that a planetary governor has operational control of military forces garrisoned within his governorate (but not of
elements of the Imperial State’s “political and intelligence arms,” which treat the governor’s orders as “well-intentioned suggestions”), but he has no
operational control of naval forces that may happen to be within his governorate’s space. In contrast, a Sector Governor — who usually (but not
always) holds the dignity of being a Moff of the Empire — is supreme commander of all regular military, naval, and intelligence forces stationed
within his Sector; it is the unity of political and military/naval functions that makes the Sector the Empire’s basic territorial unit.
The Sector Governor has considerable authority and leeway in ruling his Sector; in many respects he or she is a cardinal of the Empire. The Imperial
Sourcebook, Second Edition notes that he is “responsible for administering the sector-wide bureaucracy, which must answer both to the local Moff
and the Imperial bureaucracy,” thus giving him an important role as a member of both the local and federal governments; although planetary
governors receive policy direction from the Diplomatic Service, it is explicit that the Sector Governor’s instructions supercede the Diplomatic
Service’s. The Rebellion Era Sourcebook mentions that Sector Governors are elected (presumably by the local Sector assemblies, but this is not
actually stated), but the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition notes that Moffs are appointed by the Galactic Emperor’s Privy Council. It is not
clear how the two claims coincide; it is possible that the Privy Council bestows the dignity of Moff on a sitting Sector Governor who has already
been elected, or perhaps that the appointment of a Moff supersedes the right of the normal electorate to choose their own Sector Governor. In any
event, not all Moffs are Sector Governors, nor are all Sector Governors Moffs (e.g., Sector Governor Paro Lanto in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races and
Sector Governor Nardix in “Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM”).
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition contains the most detailed description of the Imperial Armed Forces of any source presently available,
with an Order of Battle (OB) for a standard Sector Command as its centerpiece. It is this source that explains clearly that the military and naval
forces are grouped together into a unified combat command at the Sector echelon, with a single supreme commander at the head of the Sector
Command (as one would expect, this supreme commander is the responsible Sector Governor), and also that the supreme commander is responsible
for recruitment and indoctrination within his or her Sector. It is indicated that each Sector has the infrastructure in place to handle the entire process
from initial screening at Recruitment Offices, preliminary examinations and processing at Training Centers, basic training and indoctrination (Naval
recruits are sent to “designated sector locations called fleet camps” before attending “advanced schools for further education in the technical
specialties of their assigned branches,” i.e., “A” schools; “You’re in the Army Now!” indicates that Army basic training is also conducted at the
Sector level), and even Naval officer training at Sector Naval Academies, each of which shares “a uniform training program and curriculum with
others of its kind” (presumably the “Imperial Army Officer Training Academies” mentioned are also on a Sectorial basis, but this is not stated).
General (ISB) Nasda, the notional author of the memorandum on recruitment, training, and indoctrination quoted in the Imperial Sourcebook, Special
Edition, emphasizes, however, that Sector Governors do not have responsibility for recruitment or indoctrination of Imperial Marines (unsurprising,
given that the majority of the Marines were clones).
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition describes the Imperial Navy’s organization as consisting of ascending echelons of command. The smallest
significant asset is the individual ship; Imperial warships are typically commanded by captains (although it is not stated in the sourcebook itself, an
officer with the actual grade of captain is sometimes called a ‘post captain’ to distinguish the rank from the position of a ‘courtesy captain,’ who is
simply an officer commanding a ship styled as captain as per naval tradition). The sourcebook states that individual ships are grouped into lines
commanded by ‘captains of the line,’ which are in turn organized into squadrons (each commanded by an ‘admiral,’ aided by a captain of the line);
squadrons are in turn organized into systems forces (each commanded by a ‘systems admiral,’ or a ‘commodore’), and systems forces are organized
into fleets (each commanded by a fleet admiral). Fleets are then organized into a Sector Group (SECTGRU), “the total of Naval strength in a sector,”
commanded by a high admiral. (Note that the sourcebook misstates some of these ranks; squadrons are traditionally commanded by senior captains
or by commodores, and systems forces, being equivalent either to contemporary groups or forces, should be commanded by rear admirals or vice
admirals; commodores do not outrank admirals.) The OB itself indicates that a single, standard SECTGRU would consist of six fleet-level commands
(four superiority fleets, one deepdock fleet, and one support fleet), consisting of 37 force-level commands (eight forces superiority, ten forces
escort, seven forces technical services, six forces support, two deepdock complexes, one apiece engineering, fleet ordnance, biological, and
astrogation sections); of these force-level commands, those composed of squadron-level commands comprehend some 72 squadron-level commands
(24 battle squadrons, 20 heavy squadrons, and 28 light squadrons). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would mean that each SECTGRU would
include one high admiral, six fleet admirals, 37 commodores/systems admirals, 72 admirals, and 360 captains of the line (each squadron commander
having one deputy commander and four subordinate line commanders). Using the corrected ranks, this would be one high admiral, six admirals or
fleet admirals, 37 rear admirals or vice admirals, 72 commodores, and 360 captains of the line.
When augmented, these forces are considerably larger. An expanded SECTGRU, according to the OB, would consist of ten fleet-level commands
(four superiority fleets, one augmented superiority fleet, two augmented assault fleets, one augmented bombard fleet, one deepdock fleet, and one
support fleet), consisting of 77 force-level commands (two augmented forces superiority, ten forces superiority, six augmented forces escort,
eighteen forces escort, four augmented transport forces, four transport forces, two augmented systems bombards, four systems bombards, eleven
forces technical services, ten forces support, two deepdock complexes, and one apiece engineering, fleet ordnance, biological, and astrogation
sections); of these force-level commands, those composed of squadron-level commands comprehend some 238 squadron level commands (two
augmented battle squadrons, 36 battle squadrons, 22 augmented heavy squadrons, 56 heavy squadrons, 20 augmented light squadrons, 62 light
squadrons, eight augmented troop squadrons, sixteen troop squadrons, and sixteen bombard squadrons). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would
mean that each expanded SECTGRU would include one high admiral, ten fleet admirals, 77 commodores/systems admirals, 238 admirals, and 1,398
captains of the line (each of the 186 squadron commanders having one deputy commander and four subordinate line commanders, and each of the 52
augmented squadron commanders having one deputy commander and eight subordinate line commanders). Using the corrected ranks, this would be
one high admiral, ten admirals or fleet admirals, 77 rear admirals or vice admirals, 238 commodores, and 1,398 captains of the line.
Note that the OB mentions that any battle squadron includes at least one Imperial Star Destroyer; the standard SECTGRU configuration includes 24
battle squadrons, while the expanded configuration includes 38 battle squadrons (augmented or not); a particularly influential Sector Governor like
Moff Governor Carlinson or Grand Moff Governor Wilhuff Tarkin was capable of having as many as 25 additional squadrons (including battle
squadrons) assigned to his Headquarters Sector Group. The average SECTGRU is explicitly stated to “contain at least 2,400 ships, 24 of which are
Star Destroyers, and another 1,600 combat starships” (note furthermore that the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition explicitly states that
“thousands of Sector Groups are at the Emperor’s command as he seeks to bring the galaxy firmly under his control”). Given that the commonest
mile-long Imperial Star Destroyer costs some 3.88 billion credits (or more), it can be safely estimated that each SECTGRU represents a minimum
investment of some 93.1 billion credits on the part of the Imperial Navy.
Of course, it must be noted that the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition itself acknowledges that the Navy’s organization frequently deviates from
the standard configuration of the OB, but most of the deviations mentioned take place at the line-level (which would probably cause severe
fluctuation in the number of captains of the line present in the Sector). One interesting detail is that a troop line is equipped with two Evakmar-KDY
transports, each of which is capable of transporting an entire Army corps; each troop squadron contains two troop lines and each augmented troop
squadron contains four troop lines, meaning that a single expanded SECTGRU, with eight augmented troop squadrons and sixteen troop squadrons,
has the ability to transport some 64 Army corps. A corps typically contains anywhere between 60,000 and 70,000 soldiers, meaning that an
expanded SECTGRU has the ability to land anywhere between 3.8 and 4.4 million soldiers without significant strain of its amphibious landing
capabilities.
It is almost unanimously claimed that an Imperial-class Star Destroyer carries a Marine Detachment (MARDET) of 9,700 stormtroopers, which is
roughly comparable in number to the authorized strength of an Army battlegroup, according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition (with few
exceptions, the Imperial Army does not use the term “division,” preferring the aforementioned term “battlegroup”; for their part, the Imperial
Marines use the term “legion” for a battlegroup/division-strength formation), although Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook
specifically states that these MARDETs are divisions rather than legions, and that the Imperial Marines use the term “division” for a major unit
equivalent to an Army “regiment” (although at 9,700 troopers, a Marine division is rather large to be considered equivalent to a regiment; possibly
the decision was made to keep the MARDET at the regimental level to ensure that the ship’s commanding officer is unambiguously the senior
officer present and afloat, with the MARDET commanding officer and carrier space wing commander being equal or slightly junior in grade).
Furthermore, Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook notes that “small ships often have proportionate stormtrooper units,” that
“Imperial garrisons are typically assigned a stormtrooper battalion to oversee the Army troopers and garrison staff,” and that “nearly every Imperial
base has at least a small stormtrooper unit available to it – even a lowly sub-prefect can call on a squad of stormtroopers for security”; it adds that
“a common arrangement is to assign a legion to each branch of sector’s Imperial government: one legion for the Army, another for the Navy, and a
third to the Moff’s discretion (the Moff’s Own).” A standard-configuration SECTGRU would therefore contain a Fleet Marine Force (FMF)
including one legion, 24 divisional-strength MARDETs embarked on board the SECTGRU’s Star Destroyers (i.e., 232,800 stormtroopers),
MARDETs of varying strengths embarked on board the remaining ships of the SECTGRU, and Marine contingents stationed at the various Naval
stations, bases, shipyards, dockyards, hospitals, and activities throughout the Sector. Likewise, a standard-configuration Sector Army would have at
its disposal, in addition to whatever regular Army forces may be assigned as per the Order of Battle by Army Command, one legion, one battalion
per garrison, and various Marine contingents stationed at the various Army posts, bases, installations, and depots throughout the Sector. Finally, the
Sector Governor would have a legion under his or her direct and personal command, separate and independent of the Naval and Army components of
the Sector Command.
In the last days of the old Galactic Republic, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had promulgated the Sector Governance Decree (mentioned in Revenge
of the Sith), pursuant to which governors were to be installed “on every planet in the Republic”; within days of the Decree’s promulgation, these
governors were “arriving with full regiments of clone troops.” The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition states that the Republic “embraced
over a million worlds, and countless more colonies, protectorates, and governorships,” with “nearly 100 quadrillion beings” as citizens of the
Republic spread over “nearly fifty million systems.” Both Inside the Worlds of Attack of the Clones and “Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic”
state that a regiment consisted of 2,304 troops; therefore, the deployment of a regiment to every inhabited planet in the Republic would represent a
deployment of 115.2 billion troops to permanent garrison duty. If one assumes instead that each regiment was deployed instead as a household
regiment for each Sector Governor, one must then consider that Coruscant and the Core Worlds establishes that each Senator represents a Sector,
and Revenge of the Sith mentions that the two thousand Senators signing the Petition of the Two Thousand were unable to overturn Palpatine’s
supermajority in the Senate (because a supermajority is by definition larger than a simple majority, this would require at least one vote more than
more than half the votes cast, requiring that Palpatine’s supermajority consist of at least 2,002 votes, indicating at least 4,002 Sectors in the
Republic). Using this much more conservative premise (which may not comply with the statement in Revenge of the Sith that the regiments were to
be used as “security forces”), one arrives at the rather smaller figure of 9,220,608 troops deployed on permanent garrison duty.
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition points out that the Empire “has not completely altered the governments of hundreds of thousands of
worlds,” and that the Imperial State prefers to “let a government run itself much as it has for years, but maintaining a visible Imperial presence so
that the rulers know who their ultimate master is.” The OB itself does not address the stationing of garrisons on planets except to say that “the
corps HQ is the basis for the Imperial garrison,” and that “the Empire wants garrisons to be organizing points for rapid mobilization.” Essentially, a
corps headquarters, under the command of a general officer acting as a theoretical corps commander, is stationed on a planet with support
infrastructure – “as the garrisons also have diplomatic, trade, and medical functions, additional tech, medical, science and diplomatic service
personnel are assigned” – but without an actual corps. The theory is that in the event that large-scale operations prove necessary, the infrastructure
to support major formations is already in place; the doctrine establishes a permanent network of pre-positioned military forces. The section on the
OB states that “the typical military contingent is at the battalion level, most often four battalions mixed in a way which is optimum for the world on
which the base is situated rather than following the OB and constructing a regiment,” that “a battalion of stormtroopers, one of AT-STs, and two
battalions of AT-ATs is a popular configuration” (cf. the earlier statement that nearly every garrison includes a battalion of Marines), and that “the
ground support wing of the auxiliary battlegroup is almost always present.” This indicates that the Sector Governance Decree remained in force
throughout the Imperial era, and that a roughly regimental-strength major unit – theoretically under the command of a general officer as ‘corps
commander’ of a non-existent formation – remained in place on nearly every world in the Empire, including the member states not directly subject to
the Imperial State’s jurisdiction (“Side Trip Part Four” demonstrates, for example, that an Imperial garrison was stationed on Corellia, which was
under the enthusiastically Quisling government of the Corellian Diktat).
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition also describes the Imperial Army’s organization, which is rather more geometric than the Navy’s. The
most basic grouping is the squad (commanded by a sergeant), which combines with other squads to form a platoon (commanded by a lieutenant),
platoons combining into companies (commanded by captains), which themselves combine to form battalions (commanded by majors). Battalions
combine to form regiments (commanded by lieutenant colonels), which combine to form battlegroups (commanded by ‘high colonels’); battlegroups
in turn combine to form corps (commanded by majors general), which form armies (commanded by generals). Armies combine to form systems
armies (commanded by high generals), which combine to form the Sector Army, which “covers all troops in a given sector” (commanded by a
‘surface marshall’). As noted earlier, the Imperial Army prefers the term ‘battlegroup’ to the more traditional ‘division,’ but some units remain
designated as divisions. (There are some irregularities in this description; battalions are typically commanded by lieutenant colonels, regiments by
colonels or brigadiers/brigadiers general, divisions by majors general, and corps by lieutenants general; note the misspelling of ‘marshal,’ and also the
lack of mention of the brigade, despite the mention of the elite Starcrash Brigade in The Crystal Star.) Although the squad is the most basic grouping,
it is only a minor unit; the battalion and regiment are regarded as major units, with the sourcebook saying that the battalion is “normally the
minimum size unit for surface operations.”
The OB itself indicates that a single, standard Sector Army would consist of two systems armies, composed of four armies, themselves composed of
sixteen corps (four armor corps, four Atrisian corps, four mobile corps, and four line corps), or 80 battlegroups (20 armored battlegroups, twelve
reinforced/assault battlegroups, sixteen mobile battlegroups, sixteen line battlegroups, and sixteen auxiliary battlegroups), composed of 320 regiments
(72 line regiments, 28 assault/heavy weapons regiments, 40 vanguard armor/heavy armor regiments, 68 armor regiments, 48 repulsorlift regiments, 48
CompForces regiments, and sixteen ground-support carrier space wings). In terms of smaller major units, a Sector Army comprehends some 1,012
battalions (324 armor battalions, 388 repulsorlift battalions, 128 assault/heavy weapons battalions, and 172 line battalions), not counting
CompForce battalions or ground-support battalion-equivalents (they are not listed separately in the OB; only the regimental level is listed for
COMPNOR- and Naval-derived assets). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would mean that each Sector Army would include one surface marshal,
two high generals, four generals, sixteen majors general, 80 high colonels, 320 lieutenant colonels, and 1,012 majors (not counting any officers serving
on the staff of superior officers, such as a major serving as a regimental staff officer instead of a battalion commander). Using the corrected ranks,
this would be one surface marshal, two high generals, four generals, sixteen lieutenants general, 80 majors general, 320 colonels or brigadiers/brigadiers
general, and 1,012 majors or lieutenant colonels.
It is amusing to note that, in an Empire of at least two thousand Sectors (the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition mentioned that there is at least
one Region including “thousands” of Sectors within its territory), assuming each Sector had a standard Sector Army deployed to it, the Imperial
Army would have enough general officers to field an entire standard configuration army with every single billet filled by a general officer.
As with a SECTGRU, an expanded Sector Army contains significantly more warmaking capabilities than a standard configuration one; according to
the OB, an expanded Sector Army would consist of four systems armies (two of which are augmented), containing twelve armies (four expanded)
composed of 24 corps (two augmented line corps, four line corps, two augmented mobile corps, four mobile corps, two augmented Atrisian/assault
corps, four Atrisian/assault corps, two augmented armor corps, and four armor corps) formed out of 132 battlegroups (eight augmented armor
battlegroups, 30 armored battlegroups, six augmented reinforced/assault battlegroups, eighteen reinforced/assault battlegroups, ten augmented mobile
battlegroups, 22 mobile battlegroups, six augmented line battlegroups, 24 line battlegroups, and eight auxiliary battlegroups), composed of 1,200
regiments (76 augmented line regiments, 216 line regiments, 20 augmented reinforced/assault regiments, 84 reinforced/assault regiments, 72
augmented repulsorlift regiments, 144 repulsorlift regiments, 72 augmented armor regiments, 204 armor regiments, 120 vanguard armor/heavy armor
regiments, 144 CompForce regiments, and 48 ground-support carrier space wings). In terms of smaller major units, a Sector Army comprehends
some 4,020 battalions (112 augmented line battalions, 516 line battalions, 92 augmented assault/heavy weapons battalions, 384 assault/heavy
weapons battalions, 412 augmented repulsorlift battalions, 1,224 repulsorlift battalions, and 236 augmented armor battalions, and 1,044 armor
battalions). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would mean that each expanded Sector Army would include one surface marshal, four high generals,
twelve generals, 24 majors general, 132 high colonels, 1,200 lieutenant colonels, and 4,020 majors (not counting any officers serving on the staff of
superior officers, as before). Using the corrected ranks, this would be one surface marshal, four high generals, twelve generals, 24 lieutenants generals,
132 majors general, 1,200 colonels or brigadiers/brigadiers general, and 4,020 majors or lieutenant colonels.
The OB specifically says that the standard Sector Army consists of “774,576 troops and 1,180,309 personnel in total,” with “66,640 repulsorcraft”
and “13,992 heavy tanks.” These figures are, however, unsatisfactory. Given such figures, an Empire of two thousand Sectors could be expected to
field a total military force of approximately 1.5 billion combat soldiers (not counting strategic reserves or Marine expeditionary forces), in a galaxy
whose population was estimated by The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition at “nearly 100 quadrillion beings”; the militaristic and
expansionist Empire would have a fighting military force approximately 0.000002% the size of the galaxy’s population (using the 4,002 Sectors
minimum derived from Revenge of the Sith yields a fighting force of approximately 3 billion fighting soldiers, or about 0.000003% of the population).
Needless to say this irregularly low figure cannot possibly represent the actual state of affairs, and one is forced to conclude that the OB drastically
understates the size of the Imperial Army’s forces in any given Sector; this is perfectly acceptable, as in the preface to the book the notional editor
in chief, Major Arhul Hextrophon, specifically cautions against “reading too much into this report at this time,” as “none of the information
contained herein has been confirmed or documented outside of the data presented here,” suggesting that “until collaborated [sic], this report should
be considered high level rumor at best.” Consider that in Darksaber thirteen of the most powerful warlords of the post-Imperial era controlled
resources that pooled together into a paltry fleet of a Super Star Destroyer, 45 Imperial Star Destroyers, and 112 Victory Star Destroyers –
equivalent only to three or four SECTGRUs (fewer if one considers that a fully augmented SECTGRU under a particularly influential Moff could
have as many as 63 Imperial Star Destroyers) – but controlled “millions upon millions of stormtroopers” according to “Fleet Admiral” Daala. The
constraints of realism force one to conclude that the Imperial State was in the habit of lying shamelessly about the size of its military forces,
drastically underreporting their strength. Possibly this could be part of an elaborate ruse intended to draw more funding from the Imperial Senate, led
to believe that there were serious manpower shortages in the Army?
There is in fact direct evidence that the Imperial Army’s claim that a million soldiers formed the entire Imperial military presence in the average
Sector was less than honest. Planets of the Galaxy, Volume Three reveals that the Imperial State saw fit to deploy a military occupation force that
was “the equivalent of a Sector Army” (complete with “a total of 1,180,309 personnel, including 774,576 troops,” “over 55,000 repulsorcraft,”
“nearly 14,000 heavy repulsortanks,” and “three full wings of TIE fighters, split among traditional TIE/ln combat models, TIE bombers and TIE/rc
ships”) to Derilyn, a relatively unimportant manufacturing world in the backwater Elrood Sector. Elrood Sector was described as being “an isolated
sector far from the heart of the ongoing civil war,” and was even said to be more or less “free of direct Imperial dominance.” The fact that a force of
this size was devoted to the occupation of a relatively minor planet in an isolated Sector that was specifically called “an obedient holding of
Palpatine” speaks volumes about the true size of the Imperial Army and its presence in the Empire’s Sectors. It is a powerful indicator that the
Army’s claims about the size of the average Sector Army are shameless lies.
The OB specifically says that the Navy’s assault fleet is designed to “sustain what is called the ‘1/4/16/64 Plan,’” viz., the doctrine that “the fleet is
expected to be coordinating and sustaining four types of efforts: one corps-level continuous mission on a surface, four continuous operations at the
battlegroup level (occasionally shifting troops from other theaters to temporarily reinforce one mission to corps level), 16 continuous missions of
regimental level (with potential for shifting troops to temporarily reinforce one area to a battlegroup), and 64 missions of irregular duration at the
battalion level or lower.” Although the numbers themselves are suspect, it is clear that the Sector Command is designed to undertake only limited
operations within its Area of Responsbility (AOR); it must be reinforced from outside its structure to handle significantly larger operations. A
Sector Command would be incapable, for example, of maintaining security within the Sector and at the same time conducting armed rebellion against
the Imperial State. Despite the size and warmaking capacity of the forces under a Sectorial supreme commander, it does not represent a significant
threat to the Empire as a whole.
The Area of Responsibility (AOR) of a Sector Command is coextensive with the political jurisdiction of the Sector itself; i.e., the Sector Command
includes all forces within the Sector, and the Sector’s boundary simultaneously forms the boundary of the Sector Command’s AOR. Because of this,
it was possible for pirates, insurgents, or other oppositionist forces to elude military/naval retaliation by crossing a Sectorial boundary into another
Sector, where the first Sector’s forces could not follow. This problem demonstrates a major security weakness in the regular Echelon Above Sector,
the Region; despite their large size – Regions range between three and thousands of Sectors in composition – Regions are apparently unable to
conduct adequate multi-Sector combat operations or police actions. This seems to indicate that while Sector Governors have supreme command of
all forces within their Sectors, Regional Governors do not have a parallel supreme command of all forces in their Regions; a Regional Governor seems
to lack forces of his or her own, or perhaps lacks the ability to assume command of a subordinate Sector Governor’s forces. Alternatively, a Region’
s forces may be grossly insufficient to operate effectively in such a large AOR. If there are any military/naval organizations at the Regional level,
their nature is wholly unknown.
Indeed, this weakness of the Regional model prompted the adoption of the Tarkin Doctrine (Communiqué #001044.92v), which proposed the
establishment of the Oversector (which the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition calls a “Priority Sector”), a different kind of Echelon Above Sector
organized without regard to the political, economic, historical and social considerations defining the Region. Instead, the Death Star Technical
Companion says that an Oversector is created to encompass “systems in which rebellion is newly born, or systems which maintain frequent contact
with systems in chronic unrest,” unrestricted by existing Sectorial borders. An Oversector Command includes the equivalent of at least two Sector
Commands – the Tarkin Doctrine actually calls for three – and individual Oversectors may be additionally augmented depending on their importance
to the Empire. Due to the nature of the Oversector, Oversector Governors – most of whom, like Regional Governors, have the dignity of Grand
Moff of the Empire – are able to supersede Regional and Sector Governors’ authority. According to the Death Star Technical Companion, the
Galactic Emperor’s advisor Ars Dangor promoted Moff Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of Seswenna Sector, to Grand Moff Governor of
Oversector Outer, which included nearly the entirety of the Outer Rim Territories Region. The Death Star Project is specifically cited by the
Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition as the quintessential example of the additional resources the Imperial State invests into Oversectors; combining
the information provided by both sources, one may conclude that the equivalent of 24 or more Sector Commands were assigned to Oversector Outer.
It goes without saying that this is atypical of even Oversectors, but the inevitable question arises: what kind of jurisdiction and forces might one
expect from a more typical Oversector, if there is such a thing?
Coruscant and the Core Worlds provides mention of two Oversector Commands, Azure Hammer Command and Azure Shield Command, which
may be abbreviated to AZHAMMERCOM and AZSHIELDCOM, collocated at the Anaxes Citadel, Anaxes (Solis Axum IV), in the Azure Sector.
AZSHIELDCOM was charged with defense of Azure Sector itself and several surrounding Sectors; relative to the extraordinary size and power of
Oversector Outer, AZSHIELDCOM seems comparatively tiny. The other Oversector Command, AZHAMMERCOM included the “Super Star
Destroyer Whelm and fifty-seven other capital ships” (presumably Star Destroyers, not counting lesser warships) and was responsible for defense
of Imperial Center Oversector, stretching from Imperial Center to Kiribi, nearly 5,000 light years away; Coruscant and the Core Worlds describes
AZHAMMERCOM’s AOR as “a wedge encompassing about a third of a circle and hugging the Deep Core to the ‘southeast’ of Coruscant.” In
addition to these forces, AZHAMMERCOM also possessed Anaxes’s shipyards and two full deepdock fleets. Assuming AZHAMMERCOM’s
57 “other capital ships” are in fact Star Destroyers, then one may conclude that its forces were equivalent to the Star Destroyer battle forces of close
to two and a half Sector Commands, still a far cry from Oversector Outer’s incredible firepower, but clearly a force to be reckoned with,
nevertheless. Interestingly, AZHAMMERCOM and also the Sector Commands falling within Imperial Center Oversector’s AOR were placed not
under a Grand Moff Governor, but under Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik until around the Battle of Yavin. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds also
mentions Bright Jewel Oversector, said to include “hundreds of sectors” including “a number of Rimworld trouble spots, among them Ord Mantell,
Kwenn Space Station, and two of Yavin’s neighbors: Toprawa and Junction, a lawless port on the Hydian Way.” It is noteworthy that although
Bright Jewel Oversector includes hundreds of Sectors in the Outer Rim Territories Region, Oversector Outer is said to include the vast majority of
the same Region.
Although Black Sword Command’s nature is never stated outright and its appearance predates mention of AZHAMMERCOM and
AZSHIELDCOM by seven years, careful examination of the appropriate texts reveal BLACKSWORDCOM to be a fourth Oversector Command.
Admiral Hiram Drayson says in Before the Storm that BLACKSWORDCOM “defended the center of the Empire’s Rim territories,” including
“Praxlis, Corridan, the entire Kokash and Farlax sectors” (Admiral Ackbar adds that Koornacht Cluster is in the Kokash and Farlax Sectors), while in
The Essential Chronology the New Republic Historical Council states that Koornacht is “a little-known patch of territory in the fringes of the Deep
Core,” and that the Director of Imperial Intelligence wrongly believed some of BLACKSWORDCOM’s ships to have been lost at Cal-Seti, several
Sectors away. The fact that this single command defended the Empire’s “Rim territories,” included space on the fringes of the Deep Core, and had
ships which could be reasonably be believed to engage in combat operations several Sectors away from their homeport reveal clearly that
BLACKSWORDCOM must indeed have a multi-Sector AOR, stretching from the inner edge of the Core Worlds Region to the Inner Rim Region (at
least), perhaps occupying part of the “two-thirds of a circle” left by Imperial Center Oversector.
There is also indirect evidence hinting at the scale of BLACKSWORDCOM’s naval strength. Before the Storm’s Prologue states that HIMS
Intimidator “had been sent to Black 15 from the Core for finish work, to free up a Super-class shipway at the command’s home shipbuilding yard,”
which simultaneously reveals that (a.) BLACKSWORDCOM’s home shipyards are in the Core Worlds Region; (b.) those shipyards are able to
build Super Star Destroyers; and (c.) BLACKSWORDCOM also possesses several lesser repair yards capable of servicing Super Star Destroyers.
This provides an important clue as to the scale of BLACKSWORDCOM’s operations, further built upon by Ayddar Nylykerka’s analysis of
HIMS Gnisnal’s OB, which revealed that BLACKSWORDCOM included “forty-four capital ships which we [the New Republic] have not seen
nor heard of since the fall of the Emperor. None smaller than a Victory-class Star Destroyer. Three are Super-class vessels.” To wit, 44 of the ships
assigned to BLACKSWORDCOM were conspicuous only by the fact that they had not been encountered since the Battle of Endor;
BLACKSWORDCOM included not less than 44 ships no smaller than a Victory-class Star Destroyer, and not less than three Super Star Destroyers.
Although it bears mentioning that 39 of the 44 ships of Nylykerka’s “Black Fleet” were “newly laid keels or in a yard somewhere for refit or major
repairs,” the less than one year of time between HIMS Gnisnal’s destruction (at which time its OB was current) and BLACKSWORDCOM’s
withdrawal from Koornacht, “more than half” of those warships were scheduled for completion or full repair. These missing forces, which were only
that part of BLACKSWORDCOM’s Star Destroyer battle force for which the New Republic’s Asset Tracking Office was unable to account, were
collectively sufficient to overwhelm the defenses of any system in the New Republic, Coruscant included, and give an implicit indication of
BLACKSWORDCOM’s naval power. It was clearly much greater in firepower than even AZHAMMERCOM, as its lost “Black Fleet” was nearly
equal to AZHAMMERCOM’s entire capital ship force, close or even exceeding the “two Sector Command equivalents” minimum, although
probably not approaching quite to Oversector Outer’s level.
In addition to the Sector and Oversector Commands, there is another substantial concentration of military/naval might within the Empire, quite
possibly the most powerful in terms of individual ship firepower (excluding here such strategic weapons platforms as Oversector Outer’s Death
Star), albeit without a territorial basis. Before the Storm includes description of a full Imperial OB, which listed “every warship, by name, class,
callsign, and commander, assigned to every fleet and combat command”; whereas “combat command” clearly refers to such unified commands as
Sector Commands and Oversector Commands (e.g., BLACKSWORDCOM, AZHAMMERCOM), these organizations are apparently considered to
be separate from another category designated “fleets” (which by context cannot be the same “fleet” echelon described by the Naval OB in the
Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition, as that forms an integral part of Sector Groups). This may match the usage of “starfleet” in The Empire
Strikes Back: The Original Radio Drama and Return of the Jedi: The National Public Radio Dramatization, which may designate a strategic force
instead of a local, territorially-assigned forces. These strategic forces are of considerable strength and numbers, whose makeup is unfortunately even
less well-described than that of the Empire’s Regions, and there is too little evidence to form much more than a broad picture of what these forces
might potentially contain.
One of the chief characteristics of these forces would be their mobility; rather than having any fixed AOR, these forces would be moved to wherever
they are most needed, wholly independent of Sectorial, Regional, or even Oversectorial boundaries, and would be able to temporarily reinforce
existing stationary Sector Command forces as necessary. Given their lack of territorial basis, it seems likely that these forces’ primary function
would be to combat warlordism, secessionism, and large-scale insurrectionism on a pan-Empire basis. Among these “off screen” forces which one
would expect to find engaged in major operations and campaigns, one would expect to find a higher concentration of larger and more powerful
warships such as the former Admiral Harrsk’s Star Destroyer Shockwave in Darksaber, said to be larger and more heavily armed than the commoner
Imperial class, and able to destroy a Victory Star Destroyer in a single volley, quite a feat indeed given the resiliency of Rendili StarDrive’s older but
still capable warships.
The most prominent of these forces, Darth Vader’s Death Squadron, was featured in The Empire Strikes Back, a roving counterinsurgency task force
including five Imperial Star Destroyers and a Super Star Destroyer, while the novelization describes “smaller fighter ships,” “smaller warships,” and
to “twenty Imperial battleship commanders” (of whom Captain Lorth Needa, Commanding Officer, HIMS Avenger, is one); “Payback: The Tale of
Dengar” mentions “attack frigates, TIE fighters, and personnel carriers.” In “A World to Conquer,” Rear Admiral (Retired) Michael Unther mentions
the presence of a Victory Star Destroyer at DEATHRON’s blockade operation at Hoth VI in his guest lecture to a Fleet Tactics 241 class at Duluur
Sector Naval Academy. The name “Death Squadron” is misleading; the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition defines a battle squadron as any
squadron including an Imperial Star Destroyer, while it further defines a superiority fleet as a fleet containing “six Star Destroyers and an average of
390 other combat starships.” The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition furthermore refers to DEATHRON as “an unprecedentedly huge
fleet,” thereby indicating that DEATHRON must in fact be substantially more powerful than any normal superiority fleet. It bears mentioning that
the fleet is defined by the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition as the lowest echelon at which inter-Sector transfers of Naval assets are made; The
Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels describes the fleet as the Empire’s favored asset for planetary invasion, with “six Star Destroyers, heavy and
light cruisers, and carrier ships.” Therefore, DEATHRON must contain substantially more Naval forces than the Imperial State’s commonplace six
Star Destroyer fleet with its cruiser-destroyer squadron and other escorting vessels.
In “Shira’s Story” and “Screams in the Void,” an even larger armada is seen, under command of Admiral Mils Giel. This force is described as “the
largest armada in Empire history,” and includes not less than six readily identifiable Imperial Star Destroyers, as well as a much larger supercarrier
and Admiral Giel’s own flagship; because this story is set after the Battle of Hoth, Giel’s armada must be larger than even Vader’s DEATHRON
and should count a minimum of around 400 or more warships. Whereas DEATHRON was organized as a task force specifically for the purpose of
locating and destroying the rebel headquarters and fleet, Giel’s armada was dedicated to the single purpose of securing the Teezl in the Outer Rim
Territories Region and transporting it safely to Imperial Center, an operation obviously not falling within any normal force’s responsibilities or
mission profiles. The fact that Giel’s armada, like DEATHRON, operated across Sectorial boundaries is one of the strongest indicators that it is in
fact a part of the strategic forces (similarly, it cannot belong to a Region or Oversector because it operated across Regional and any possible
Oversectorial boundaries as well, meaning that it cannot possibly belong to either such command). Also of interest is the fact that Giel’s armada,
again like DEATHRON, included warships substantially greater in mass, carrier capacity, and presumably firepower than the commonest Imperial
Star Destroyer.
Another substantial force which clearly does not fall within the jurisdiction of any Sector or Oversector Command is the six-month interdiction of
the Yavin system described by The Essential Chronology and the coincident blockade of the entire Gordian Reach Sector mentioned in “Siege at
Yavin!” According to Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, the blockade and interdiction operations were headquartered at Jovan, and were
composed of forces provided by Grand Moff Governor Nox Vellam’s Bright Jewel Oversector, the House of Tagge, and Darth Vader himself. As
with the examples of Vader’s DEATHRON and Giel’s armada, the blockading forces included at least some ships larger than the commonest
Imperial Star Destroyer. There have been seen at least three battlecruisers associated with the blockade/interdiction, one in “Thunder in the Stars!”
and two in “Dark Lord’s Gambit”; two of these battlecruisers were under command of General Ulric Tagge, with the third under the command of
Darth Vader himself.
Although there is no direct evidence of the size of these forces, it is possible to derive a general idea of the scale of the interdict of the Yavin system;
The Essential Chronology states that a flotilla of Interdictor cruisers was deployed, indicating not less than two squadrons, or between 28 and 120
Interdictor cruisers. Furthermore, the same source also mentions “local fleet commanders,” meaning not less than two fleets were present and
involved in the operation; as a fleet is defined to include “six Star Destroyers and an average of 390 other warships,” one may further conclude that
not less than 12 Star Destroyers and 780 other warships were deployed in the interdict alone, not including the flotilla of Interdictors. The fact that
they are described as local indicates that they must belong either to the Gordian Reach Sector Group or to the Bright Jewel Oversector, i.e., one of
the three contributing “parent organizations.” The forces contributed by Vader and the House of Tagge (neither of which can be considered part of a
Sector or Oversector Command, and must by nature have come from elsewhere) must be of comparable scale, or Geonosis and the Outer Rim
Worlds’s claim that bickering among the three impeded the operation’s effectiveness would be impossible. Note that these figures refer to the
interdict operation alone; “Siege at Yavin!” clearly states that the House of Tagge and the Empire had blockaded the Gordian Reach Sector itself, as
well.
There are a handful of other such forces, such as the task force used by the Imperial State to suppress the unduly independent Moff Governor of
Tri-Nebular Sector (who “had established himself as a de facto warlord”) in Goroth: Slave of the Empire. This force is described simply as a “task
force of Star Destroyers” which liquidated the Sector Government’s entire senior leadership, detached “a small force that would become the core of a
new sector fleet,” and moved onto the next “shock treatment” operation in another Sector. This task force’s mission was to travel from Sector to
Sector putting down quasi-rebellions, and therefore must have had sufficient firepower to overwhelm any potential armed resistance from the
disloyal Sector Governors’ armed forces; nevertheless, the task force was able to detach task groups to form new Sector Groups. Although
regrettably vague, the description of the task force and its mission allows one to grasp at least the necessary scale of its operations. Admiral
Wooyou Senn’s Avenger Squadron, including one Super Star Destroyer, HIMS Vengeance, which was assigned the invasion of the lawless Airam
Sector in X-Wing vs TIE Fighter: Balance of Power, or the blockading force deployed at the Starcave of ThonBoka, which included more than 500
warships, in Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka, are likely other examples of “starfleets,” part of the strategic forces.
By leaving what one suspects are the heaviest and most powerful warships unattached to any specific territorial jurisdictions, but rather in the hands
of the Imperial State itself, the Empire is able to maintain a rapidly-deployable shock force able to overwhelm any conventional, regular force, be it
that of a disloyal member state like Corellia or Kuat, each possessed of their own not inconsiderable naval forces, or of a disloyal Sector Governor
like that of the Trans-Nebular Sector in Goroth: Slave of the Empire or the theoretical Moff interested in opening talks with the rebel Alliance in the
Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition. Not even a Sector Group could withstand an assault by a force like DEATHRON or Giel’s armada;
Harrsk’s Shockwave could knock out a Victory Star Destroyer in a single volley. By keeping these strategic forces from the grasp of overly
ambitious local authorities, the Imperial State would be able to exert central control over a decentralized Empire, perhaps even by nothing more
difficult than simply possessing them; cf. the maxim that force is never more operant than when it is known to exist but is not brandished. In much
the same manner as a Sector Group simultaneously serves as a defense, police, and occupation force, the Imperial Starfleet’s “ship of the line”
strategic forces would allow the Galactic Emperor to maintain his hold on his Sector, Regional, and Oversector Governors.
References:
regiment or division forms the basic unit of many armies. There are smaller territorial units than the Sector — the star system and the planet are
naturally defined units, for example — but political administration and military/naval operational control are not unified at those levels. The Imperial
Sourcebook, Second Edition states that a planetary governor has operational control of military forces garrisoned within his governorate (but not of
elements of the Imperial State’s “political and intelligence arms,” which treat the governor’s orders as “well-intentioned suggestions”), but he has no
operational control of naval forces that may happen to be within his governorate’s space. In contrast, a Sector Governor — who usually (but not
always) holds the dignity of being a Moff of the Empire — is supreme commander of all regular military, naval, and intelligence forces stationed
within his Sector; it is the unity of political and military/naval functions that makes the Sector the Empire’s basic territorial unit.
The Sector Governor has considerable authority and leeway in ruling his Sector; in many respects he or she is a cardinal of the Empire. The Imperial
Sourcebook, Second Edition notes that he is “responsible for administering the sector-wide bureaucracy, which must answer both to the local Moff
and the Imperial bureaucracy,” thus giving him an important role as a member of both the local and federal governments; although planetary
governors receive policy direction from the Diplomatic Service, it is explicit that the Sector Governor’s instructions supercede the Diplomatic
Service’s. The Rebellion Era Sourcebook mentions that Sector Governors are elected (presumably by the local Sector assemblies, but this is not
actually stated), but the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition notes that Moffs are appointed by the Galactic Emperor’s Privy Council. It is not
clear how the two claims coincide; it is possible that the Privy Council bestows the dignity of Moff on a sitting Sector Governor who has already
been elected, or perhaps that the appointment of a Moff supersedes the right of the normal electorate to choose their own Sector Governor. In any
event, not all Moffs are Sector Governors, nor are all Sector Governors Moffs (e.g., Sector Governor Paro Lanto in Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races and
Sector Governor Nardix in “Of Possible Futures: The Tale of Zuckuss and 4-LOM”).
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition contains the most detailed description of the Imperial Armed Forces of any source presently available,
with an Order of Battle (OB) for a standard Sector Command as its centerpiece. It is this source that explains clearly that the military and naval
forces are grouped together into a unified combat command at the Sector echelon, with a single supreme commander at the head of the Sector
Command (as one would expect, this supreme commander is the responsible Sector Governor), and also that the supreme commander is responsible
for recruitment and indoctrination within his or her Sector. It is indicated that each Sector has the infrastructure in place to handle the entire process
from initial screening at Recruitment Offices, preliminary examinations and processing at Training Centers, basic training and indoctrination (Naval
recruits are sent to “designated sector locations called fleet camps” before attending “advanced schools for further education in the technical
specialties of their assigned branches,” i.e., “A” schools; “You’re in the Army Now!” indicates that Army basic training is also conducted at the
Sector level), and even Naval officer training at Sector Naval Academies, each of which shares “a uniform training program and curriculum with
others of its kind” (presumably the “Imperial Army Officer Training Academies” mentioned are also on a Sectorial basis, but this is not stated).
General (ISB) Nasda, the notional author of the memorandum on recruitment, training, and indoctrination quoted in the Imperial Sourcebook, Special
Edition, emphasizes, however, that Sector Governors do not have responsibility for recruitment or indoctrination of Imperial Marines (unsurprising,
given that the majority of the Marines were clones).
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition describes the Imperial Navy’s organization as consisting of ascending echelons of command. The smallest
significant asset is the individual ship; Imperial warships are typically commanded by captains (although it is not stated in the sourcebook itself, an
officer with the actual grade of captain is sometimes called a ‘post captain’ to distinguish the rank from the position of a ‘courtesy captain,’ who is
simply an officer commanding a ship styled as captain as per naval tradition). The sourcebook states that individual ships are grouped into lines
commanded by ‘captains of the line,’ which are in turn organized into squadrons (each commanded by an ‘admiral,’ aided by a captain of the line);
squadrons are in turn organized into systems forces (each commanded by a ‘systems admiral,’ or a ‘commodore’), and systems forces are organized
into fleets (each commanded by a fleet admiral). Fleets are then organized into a Sector Group (SECTGRU), “the total of Naval strength in a sector,”
commanded by a high admiral. (Note that the sourcebook misstates some of these ranks; squadrons are traditionally commanded by senior captains
or by commodores, and systems forces, being equivalent either to contemporary groups or forces, should be commanded by rear admirals or vice
admirals; commodores do not outrank admirals.) The OB itself indicates that a single, standard SECTGRU would consist of six fleet-level commands
(four superiority fleets, one deepdock fleet, and one support fleet), consisting of 37 force-level commands (eight forces superiority, ten forces
escort, seven forces technical services, six forces support, two deepdock complexes, one apiece engineering, fleet ordnance, biological, and
astrogation sections); of these force-level commands, those composed of squadron-level commands comprehend some 72 squadron-level commands
(24 battle squadrons, 20 heavy squadrons, and 28 light squadrons). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would mean that each SECTGRU would
include one high admiral, six fleet admirals, 37 commodores/systems admirals, 72 admirals, and 360 captains of the line (each squadron commander
having one deputy commander and four subordinate line commanders). Using the corrected ranks, this would be one high admiral, six admirals or
fleet admirals, 37 rear admirals or vice admirals, 72 commodores, and 360 captains of the line.
When augmented, these forces are considerably larger. An expanded SECTGRU, according to the OB, would consist of ten fleet-level commands
(four superiority fleets, one augmented superiority fleet, two augmented assault fleets, one augmented bombard fleet, one deepdock fleet, and one
support fleet), consisting of 77 force-level commands (two augmented forces superiority, ten forces superiority, six augmented forces escort,
eighteen forces escort, four augmented transport forces, four transport forces, two augmented systems bombards, four systems bombards, eleven
forces technical services, ten forces support, two deepdock complexes, and one apiece engineering, fleet ordnance, biological, and astrogation
sections); of these force-level commands, those composed of squadron-level commands comprehend some 238 squadron level commands (two
augmented battle squadrons, 36 battle squadrons, 22 augmented heavy squadrons, 56 heavy squadrons, 20 augmented light squadrons, 62 light
squadrons, eight augmented troop squadrons, sixteen troop squadrons, and sixteen bombard squadrons). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would
mean that each expanded SECTGRU would include one high admiral, ten fleet admirals, 77 commodores/systems admirals, 238 admirals, and 1,398
captains of the line (each of the 186 squadron commanders having one deputy commander and four subordinate line commanders, and each of the 52
augmented squadron commanders having one deputy commander and eight subordinate line commanders). Using the corrected ranks, this would be
one high admiral, ten admirals or fleet admirals, 77 rear admirals or vice admirals, 238 commodores, and 1,398 captains of the line.
Note that the OB mentions that any battle squadron includes at least one Imperial Star Destroyer; the standard SECTGRU configuration includes 24
battle squadrons, while the expanded configuration includes 38 battle squadrons (augmented or not); a particularly influential Sector Governor like
Moff Governor Carlinson or Grand Moff Governor Wilhuff Tarkin was capable of having as many as 25 additional squadrons (including battle
squadrons) assigned to his Headquarters Sector Group. The average SECTGRU is explicitly stated to “contain at least 2,400 ships, 24 of which are
Star Destroyers, and another 1,600 combat starships” (note furthermore that the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition explicitly states that
“thousands of Sector Groups are at the Emperor’s command as he seeks to bring the galaxy firmly under his control”). Given that the commonest
mile-long Imperial Star Destroyer costs some 3.88 billion credits (or more), it can be safely estimated that each SECTGRU represents a minimum
investment of some 93.1 billion credits on the part of the Imperial Navy.
Of course, it must be noted that the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition itself acknowledges that the Navy’s organization frequently deviates from
the standard configuration of the OB, but most of the deviations mentioned take place at the line-level (which would probably cause severe
fluctuation in the number of captains of the line present in the Sector). One interesting detail is that a troop line is equipped with two Evakmar-KDY
transports, each of which is capable of transporting an entire Army corps; each troop squadron contains two troop lines and each augmented troop
squadron contains four troop lines, meaning that a single expanded SECTGRU, with eight augmented troop squadrons and sixteen troop squadrons,
has the ability to transport some 64 Army corps. A corps typically contains anywhere between 60,000 and 70,000 soldiers, meaning that an
expanded SECTGRU has the ability to land anywhere between 3.8 and 4.4 million soldiers without significant strain of its amphibious landing
capabilities.
It is almost unanimously claimed that an Imperial-class Star Destroyer carries a Marine Detachment (MARDET) of 9,700 stormtroopers, which is
roughly comparable in number to the authorized strength of an Army battlegroup, according to the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition (with few
exceptions, the Imperial Army does not use the term “division,” preferring the aforementioned term “battlegroup”; for their part, the Imperial
Marines use the term “legion” for a battlegroup/division-strength formation), although Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook
specifically states that these MARDETs are divisions rather than legions, and that the Imperial Marines use the term “division” for a major unit
equivalent to an Army “regiment” (although at 9,700 troopers, a Marine division is rather large to be considered equivalent to a regiment; possibly
the decision was made to keep the MARDET at the regimental level to ensure that the ship’s commanding officer is unambiguously the senior
officer present and afloat, with the MARDET commanding officer and carrier space wing commander being equal or slightly junior in grade).
Furthermore, Rules of Engagement: The Rebel SpecForce Handbook notes that “small ships often have proportionate stormtrooper units,” that
“Imperial garrisons are typically assigned a stormtrooper battalion to oversee the Army troopers and garrison staff,” and that “nearly every Imperial
base has at least a small stormtrooper unit available to it – even a lowly sub-prefect can call on a squad of stormtroopers for security”; it adds that
“a common arrangement is to assign a legion to each branch of sector’s Imperial government: one legion for the Army, another for the Navy, and a
third to the Moff’s discretion (the Moff’s Own).” A standard-configuration SECTGRU would therefore contain a Fleet Marine Force (FMF)
including one legion, 24 divisional-strength MARDETs embarked on board the SECTGRU’s Star Destroyers (i.e., 232,800 stormtroopers),
MARDETs of varying strengths embarked on board the remaining ships of the SECTGRU, and Marine contingents stationed at the various Naval
stations, bases, shipyards, dockyards, hospitals, and activities throughout the Sector. Likewise, a standard-configuration Sector Army would have at
its disposal, in addition to whatever regular Army forces may be assigned as per the Order of Battle by Army Command, one legion, one battalion
per garrison, and various Marine contingents stationed at the various Army posts, bases, installations, and depots throughout the Sector. Finally, the
Sector Governor would have a legion under his or her direct and personal command, separate and independent of the Naval and Army components of
the Sector Command.
In the last days of the old Galactic Republic, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine had promulgated the Sector Governance Decree (mentioned in Revenge
of the Sith), pursuant to which governors were to be installed “on every planet in the Republic”; within days of the Decree’s promulgation, these
governors were “arriving with full regiments of clone troops.” The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition states that the Republic “embraced
over a million worlds, and countless more colonies, protectorates, and governorships,” with “nearly 100 quadrillion beings” as citizens of the
Republic spread over “nearly fifty million systems.” Both Inside the Worlds of Attack of the Clones and “Guide to the Grand Army of the Republic”
state that a regiment consisted of 2,304 troops; therefore, the deployment of a regiment to every inhabited planet in the Republic would represent a
deployment of 115.2 billion troops to permanent garrison duty. If one assumes instead that each regiment was deployed instead as a household
regiment for each Sector Governor, one must then consider that Coruscant and the Core Worlds establishes that each Senator represents a Sector,
and Revenge of the Sith mentions that the two thousand Senators signing the Petition of the Two Thousand were unable to overturn Palpatine’s
supermajority in the Senate (because a supermajority is by definition larger than a simple majority, this would require at least one vote more than
more than half the votes cast, requiring that Palpatine’s supermajority consist of at least 2,002 votes, indicating at least 4,002 Sectors in the
Republic). Using this much more conservative premise (which may not comply with the statement in Revenge of the Sith that the regiments were to
be used as “security forces”), one arrives at the rather smaller figure of 9,220,608 troops deployed on permanent garrison duty.
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition points out that the Empire “has not completely altered the governments of hundreds of thousands of
worlds,” and that the Imperial State prefers to “let a government run itself much as it has for years, but maintaining a visible Imperial presence so
that the rulers know who their ultimate master is.” The OB itself does not address the stationing of garrisons on planets except to say that “the
corps HQ is the basis for the Imperial garrison,” and that “the Empire wants garrisons to be organizing points for rapid mobilization.” Essentially, a
corps headquarters, under the command of a general officer acting as a theoretical corps commander, is stationed on a planet with support
infrastructure – “as the garrisons also have diplomatic, trade, and medical functions, additional tech, medical, science and diplomatic service
personnel are assigned” – but without an actual corps. The theory is that in the event that large-scale operations prove necessary, the infrastructure
to support major formations is already in place; the doctrine establishes a permanent network of pre-positioned military forces. The section on the
OB states that “the typical military contingent is at the battalion level, most often four battalions mixed in a way which is optimum for the world on
which the base is situated rather than following the OB and constructing a regiment,” that “a battalion of stormtroopers, one of AT-STs, and two
battalions of AT-ATs is a popular configuration” (cf. the earlier statement that nearly every garrison includes a battalion of Marines), and that “the
ground support wing of the auxiliary battlegroup is almost always present.” This indicates that the Sector Governance Decree remained in force
throughout the Imperial era, and that a roughly regimental-strength major unit – theoretically under the command of a general officer as ‘corps
commander’ of a non-existent formation – remained in place on nearly every world in the Empire, including the member states not directly subject to
the Imperial State’s jurisdiction (“Side Trip Part Four” demonstrates, for example, that an Imperial garrison was stationed on Corellia, which was
under the enthusiastically Quisling government of the Corellian Diktat).
The Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition also describes the Imperial Army’s organization, which is rather more geometric than the Navy’s. The
most basic grouping is the squad (commanded by a sergeant), which combines with other squads to form a platoon (commanded by a lieutenant),
platoons combining into companies (commanded by captains), which themselves combine to form battalions (commanded by majors). Battalions
combine to form regiments (commanded by lieutenant colonels), which combine to form battlegroups (commanded by ‘high colonels’); battlegroups
in turn combine to form corps (commanded by majors general), which form armies (commanded by generals). Armies combine to form systems
armies (commanded by high generals), which combine to form the Sector Army, which “covers all troops in a given sector” (commanded by a
‘surface marshall’). As noted earlier, the Imperial Army prefers the term ‘battlegroup’ to the more traditional ‘division,’ but some units remain
designated as divisions. (There are some irregularities in this description; battalions are typically commanded by lieutenant colonels, regiments by
colonels or brigadiers/brigadiers general, divisions by majors general, and corps by lieutenants general; note the misspelling of ‘marshal,’ and also the
lack of mention of the brigade, despite the mention of the elite Starcrash Brigade in The Crystal Star.) Although the squad is the most basic grouping,
it is only a minor unit; the battalion and regiment are regarded as major units, with the sourcebook saying that the battalion is “normally the
minimum size unit for surface operations.”
The OB itself indicates that a single, standard Sector Army would consist of two systems armies, composed of four armies, themselves composed of
sixteen corps (four armor corps, four Atrisian corps, four mobile corps, and four line corps), or 80 battlegroups (20 armored battlegroups, twelve
reinforced/assault battlegroups, sixteen mobile battlegroups, sixteen line battlegroups, and sixteen auxiliary battlegroups), composed of 320 regiments
(72 line regiments, 28 assault/heavy weapons regiments, 40 vanguard armor/heavy armor regiments, 68 armor regiments, 48 repulsorlift regiments, 48
CompForces regiments, and sixteen ground-support carrier space wings). In terms of smaller major units, a Sector Army comprehends some 1,012
battalions (324 armor battalions, 388 repulsorlift battalions, 128 assault/heavy weapons battalions, and 172 line battalions), not counting
CompForce battalions or ground-support battalion-equivalents (they are not listed separately in the OB; only the regimental level is listed for
COMPNOR- and Naval-derived assets). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would mean that each Sector Army would include one surface marshal,
two high generals, four generals, sixteen majors general, 80 high colonels, 320 lieutenant colonels, and 1,012 majors (not counting any officers serving
on the staff of superior officers, such as a major serving as a regimental staff officer instead of a battalion commander). Using the corrected ranks,
this would be one surface marshal, two high generals, four generals, sixteen lieutenants general, 80 majors general, 320 colonels or brigadiers/brigadiers
general, and 1,012 majors or lieutenant colonels.
It is amusing to note that, in an Empire of at least two thousand Sectors (the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition mentioned that there is at least
one Region including “thousands” of Sectors within its territory), assuming each Sector had a standard Sector Army deployed to it, the Imperial
Army would have enough general officers to field an entire standard configuration army with every single billet filled by a general officer.
As with a SECTGRU, an expanded Sector Army contains significantly more warmaking capabilities than a standard configuration one; according to
the OB, an expanded Sector Army would consist of four systems armies (two of which are augmented), containing twelve armies (four expanded)
composed of 24 corps (two augmented line corps, four line corps, two augmented mobile corps, four mobile corps, two augmented Atrisian/assault
corps, four Atrisian/assault corps, two augmented armor corps, and four armor corps) formed out of 132 battlegroups (eight augmented armor
battlegroups, 30 armored battlegroups, six augmented reinforced/assault battlegroups, eighteen reinforced/assault battlegroups, ten augmented mobile
battlegroups, 22 mobile battlegroups, six augmented line battlegroups, 24 line battlegroups, and eight auxiliary battlegroups), composed of 1,200
regiments (76 augmented line regiments, 216 line regiments, 20 augmented reinforced/assault regiments, 84 reinforced/assault regiments, 72
augmented repulsorlift regiments, 144 repulsorlift regiments, 72 augmented armor regiments, 204 armor regiments, 120 vanguard armor/heavy armor
regiments, 144 CompForce regiments, and 48 ground-support carrier space wings). In terms of smaller major units, a Sector Army comprehends
some 4,020 battalions (112 augmented line battalions, 516 line battalions, 92 augmented assault/heavy weapons battalions, 384 assault/heavy
weapons battalions, 412 augmented repulsorlift battalions, 1,224 repulsorlift battalions, and 236 augmented armor battalions, and 1,044 armor
battalions). Using the sourcebook’s ranks, this would mean that each expanded Sector Army would include one surface marshal, four high generals,
twelve generals, 24 majors general, 132 high colonels, 1,200 lieutenant colonels, and 4,020 majors (not counting any officers serving on the staff of
superior officers, as before). Using the corrected ranks, this would be one surface marshal, four high generals, twelve generals, 24 lieutenants generals,
132 majors general, 1,200 colonels or brigadiers/brigadiers general, and 4,020 majors or lieutenant colonels.
The OB specifically says that the standard Sector Army consists of “774,576 troops and 1,180,309 personnel in total,” with “66,640 repulsorcraft”
and “13,992 heavy tanks.” These figures are, however, unsatisfactory. Given such figures, an Empire of two thousand Sectors could be expected to
field a total military force of approximately 1.5 billion combat soldiers (not counting strategic reserves or Marine expeditionary forces), in a galaxy
whose population was estimated by The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, Second Edition at “nearly 100 quadrillion beings”; the militaristic and
expansionist Empire would have a fighting military force approximately 0.000002% the size of the galaxy’s population (using the 4,002 Sectors
minimum derived from Revenge of the Sith yields a fighting force of approximately 3 billion fighting soldiers, or about 0.000003% of the population).
Needless to say this irregularly low figure cannot possibly represent the actual state of affairs, and one is forced to conclude that the OB drastically
understates the size of the Imperial Army’s forces in any given Sector; this is perfectly acceptable, as in the preface to the book the notional editor
in chief, Major Arhul Hextrophon, specifically cautions against “reading too much into this report at this time,” as “none of the information
contained herein has been confirmed or documented outside of the data presented here,” suggesting that “until collaborated [sic], this report should
be considered high level rumor at best.” Consider that in Darksaber thirteen of the most powerful warlords of the post-Imperial era controlled
resources that pooled together into a paltry fleet of a Super Star Destroyer, 45 Imperial Star Destroyers, and 112 Victory Star Destroyers –
equivalent only to three or four SECTGRUs (fewer if one considers that a fully augmented SECTGRU under a particularly influential Moff could
have as many as 63 Imperial Star Destroyers) – but controlled “millions upon millions of stormtroopers” according to “Fleet Admiral” Daala. The
constraints of realism force one to conclude that the Imperial State was in the habit of lying shamelessly about the size of its military forces,
drastically underreporting their strength. Possibly this could be part of an elaborate ruse intended to draw more funding from the Imperial Senate, led
to believe that there were serious manpower shortages in the Army?
There is in fact direct evidence that the Imperial Army’s claim that a million soldiers formed the entire Imperial military presence in the average
Sector was less than honest. Planets of the Galaxy, Volume Three reveals that the Imperial State saw fit to deploy a military occupation force that
was “the equivalent of a Sector Army” (complete with “a total of 1,180,309 personnel, including 774,576 troops,” “over 55,000 repulsorcraft,”
“nearly 14,000 heavy repulsortanks,” and “three full wings of TIE fighters, split among traditional TIE/ln combat models, TIE bombers and TIE/rc
ships”) to Derilyn, a relatively unimportant manufacturing world in the backwater Elrood Sector. Elrood Sector was described as being “an isolated
sector far from the heart of the ongoing civil war,” and was even said to be more or less “free of direct Imperial dominance.” The fact that a force of
this size was devoted to the occupation of a relatively minor planet in an isolated Sector that was specifically called “an obedient holding of
Palpatine” speaks volumes about the true size of the Imperial Army and its presence in the Empire’s Sectors. It is a powerful indicator that the
Army’s claims about the size of the average Sector Army are shameless lies.
The OB specifically says that the Navy’s assault fleet is designed to “sustain what is called the ‘1/4/16/64 Plan,’” viz., the doctrine that “the fleet is
expected to be coordinating and sustaining four types of efforts: one corps-level continuous mission on a surface, four continuous operations at the
battlegroup level (occasionally shifting troops from other theaters to temporarily reinforce one mission to corps level), 16 continuous missions of
regimental level (with potential for shifting troops to temporarily reinforce one area to a battlegroup), and 64 missions of irregular duration at the
battalion level or lower.” Although the numbers themselves are suspect, it is clear that the Sector Command is designed to undertake only limited
operations within its Area of Responsbility (AOR); it must be reinforced from outside its structure to handle significantly larger operations. A
Sector Command would be incapable, for example, of maintaining security within the Sector and at the same time conducting armed rebellion against
the Imperial State. Despite the size and warmaking capacity of the forces under a Sectorial supreme commander, it does not represent a significant
threat to the Empire as a whole.
The Area of Responsibility (AOR) of a Sector Command is coextensive with the political jurisdiction of the Sector itself; i.e., the Sector Command
includes all forces within the Sector, and the Sector’s boundary simultaneously forms the boundary of the Sector Command’s AOR. Because of this,
it was possible for pirates, insurgents, or other oppositionist forces to elude military/naval retaliation by crossing a Sectorial boundary into another
Sector, where the first Sector’s forces could not follow. This problem demonstrates a major security weakness in the regular Echelon Above Sector,
the Region; despite their large size – Regions range between three and thousands of Sectors in composition – Regions are apparently unable to
conduct adequate multi-Sector combat operations or police actions. This seems to indicate that while Sector Governors have supreme command of
all forces within their Sectors, Regional Governors do not have a parallel supreme command of all forces in their Regions; a Regional Governor seems
to lack forces of his or her own, or perhaps lacks the ability to assume command of a subordinate Sector Governor’s forces. Alternatively, a Region’
s forces may be grossly insufficient to operate effectively in such a large AOR. If there are any military/naval organizations at the Regional level,
their nature is wholly unknown.
Indeed, this weakness of the Regional model prompted the adoption of the Tarkin Doctrine (Communiqué #001044.92v), which proposed the
establishment of the Oversector (which the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition calls a “Priority Sector”), a different kind of Echelon Above Sector
organized without regard to the political, economic, historical and social considerations defining the Region. Instead, the Death Star Technical
Companion says that an Oversector is created to encompass “systems in which rebellion is newly born, or systems which maintain frequent contact
with systems in chronic unrest,” unrestricted by existing Sectorial borders. An Oversector Command includes the equivalent of at least two Sector
Commands – the Tarkin Doctrine actually calls for three – and individual Oversectors may be additionally augmented depending on their importance
to the Empire. Due to the nature of the Oversector, Oversector Governors – most of whom, like Regional Governors, have the dignity of Grand
Moff of the Empire – are able to supersede Regional and Sector Governors’ authority. According to the Death Star Technical Companion, the
Galactic Emperor’s advisor Ars Dangor promoted Moff Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of Seswenna Sector, to Grand Moff Governor of
Oversector Outer, which included nearly the entirety of the Outer Rim Territories Region. The Death Star Project is specifically cited by the
Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition as the quintessential example of the additional resources the Imperial State invests into Oversectors; combining
the information provided by both sources, one may conclude that the equivalent of 24 or more Sector Commands were assigned to Oversector Outer.
It goes without saying that this is atypical of even Oversectors, but the inevitable question arises: what kind of jurisdiction and forces might one
expect from a more typical Oversector, if there is such a thing?
Coruscant and the Core Worlds provides mention of two Oversector Commands, Azure Hammer Command and Azure Shield Command, which
may be abbreviated to AZHAMMERCOM and AZSHIELDCOM, collocated at the Anaxes Citadel, Anaxes (Solis Axum IV), in the Azure Sector.
AZSHIELDCOM was charged with defense of Azure Sector itself and several surrounding Sectors; relative to the extraordinary size and power of
Oversector Outer, AZSHIELDCOM seems comparatively tiny. The other Oversector Command, AZHAMMERCOM included the “Super Star
Destroyer Whelm and fifty-seven other capital ships” (presumably Star Destroyers, not counting lesser warships) and was responsible for defense
of Imperial Center Oversector, stretching from Imperial Center to Kiribi, nearly 5,000 light years away; Coruscant and the Core Worlds describes
AZHAMMERCOM’s AOR as “a wedge encompassing about a third of a circle and hugging the Deep Core to the ‘southeast’ of Coruscant.” In
addition to these forces, AZHAMMERCOM also possessed Anaxes’s shipyards and two full deepdock fleets. Assuming AZHAMMERCOM’s
57 “other capital ships” are in fact Star Destroyers, then one may conclude that its forces were equivalent to the Star Destroyer battle forces of close
to two and a half Sector Commands, still a far cry from Oversector Outer’s incredible firepower, but clearly a force to be reckoned with,
nevertheless. Interestingly, AZHAMMERCOM and also the Sector Commands falling within Imperial Center Oversector’s AOR were placed not
under a Grand Moff Governor, but under Grand Admiral Osvald Teshik until around the Battle of Yavin. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds also
mentions Bright Jewel Oversector, said to include “hundreds of sectors” including “a number of Rimworld trouble spots, among them Ord Mantell,
Kwenn Space Station, and two of Yavin’s neighbors: Toprawa and Junction, a lawless port on the Hydian Way.” It is noteworthy that although
Bright Jewel Oversector includes hundreds of Sectors in the Outer Rim Territories Region, Oversector Outer is said to include the vast majority of
the same Region.
Although Black Sword Command’s nature is never stated outright and its appearance predates mention of AZHAMMERCOM and
AZSHIELDCOM by seven years, careful examination of the appropriate texts reveal BLACKSWORDCOM to be a fourth Oversector Command.
Admiral Hiram Drayson says in Before the Storm that BLACKSWORDCOM “defended the center of the Empire’s Rim territories,” including
“Praxlis, Corridan, the entire Kokash and Farlax sectors” (Admiral Ackbar adds that Koornacht Cluster is in the Kokash and Farlax Sectors), while in
The Essential Chronology the New Republic Historical Council states that Koornacht is “a little-known patch of territory in the fringes of the Deep
Core,” and that the Director of Imperial Intelligence wrongly believed some of BLACKSWORDCOM’s ships to have been lost at Cal-Seti, several
Sectors away. The fact that this single command defended the Empire’s “Rim territories,” included space on the fringes of the Deep Core, and had
ships which could be reasonably be believed to engage in combat operations several Sectors away from their homeport reveal clearly that
BLACKSWORDCOM must indeed have a multi-Sector AOR, stretching from the inner edge of the Core Worlds Region to the Inner Rim Region (at
least), perhaps occupying part of the “two-thirds of a circle” left by Imperial Center Oversector.
There is also indirect evidence hinting at the scale of BLACKSWORDCOM’s naval strength. Before the Storm’s Prologue states that HIMS
Intimidator “had been sent to Black 15 from the Core for finish work, to free up a Super-class shipway at the command’s home shipbuilding yard,”
which simultaneously reveals that (a.) BLACKSWORDCOM’s home shipyards are in the Core Worlds Region; (b.) those shipyards are able to
build Super Star Destroyers; and (c.) BLACKSWORDCOM also possesses several lesser repair yards capable of servicing Super Star Destroyers.
This provides an important clue as to the scale of BLACKSWORDCOM’s operations, further built upon by Ayddar Nylykerka’s analysis of
HIMS Gnisnal’s OB, which revealed that BLACKSWORDCOM included “forty-four capital ships which we [the New Republic] have not seen
nor heard of since the fall of the Emperor. None smaller than a Victory-class Star Destroyer. Three are Super-class vessels.” To wit, 44 of the ships
assigned to BLACKSWORDCOM were conspicuous only by the fact that they had not been encountered since the Battle of Endor;
BLACKSWORDCOM included not less than 44 ships no smaller than a Victory-class Star Destroyer, and not less than three Super Star Destroyers.
Although it bears mentioning that 39 of the 44 ships of Nylykerka’s “Black Fleet” were “newly laid keels or in a yard somewhere for refit or major
repairs,” the less than one year of time between HIMS Gnisnal’s destruction (at which time its OB was current) and BLACKSWORDCOM’s
withdrawal from Koornacht, “more than half” of those warships were scheduled for completion or full repair. These missing forces, which were only
that part of BLACKSWORDCOM’s Star Destroyer battle force for which the New Republic’s Asset Tracking Office was unable to account, were
collectively sufficient to overwhelm the defenses of any system in the New Republic, Coruscant included, and give an implicit indication of
BLACKSWORDCOM’s naval power. It was clearly much greater in firepower than even AZHAMMERCOM, as its lost “Black Fleet” was nearly
equal to AZHAMMERCOM’s entire capital ship force, close or even exceeding the “two Sector Command equivalents” minimum, although
probably not approaching quite to Oversector Outer’s level.
In addition to the Sector and Oversector Commands, there is another substantial concentration of military/naval might within the Empire, quite
possibly the most powerful in terms of individual ship firepower (excluding here such strategic weapons platforms as Oversector Outer’s Death
Star), albeit without a territorial basis. Before the Storm includes description of a full Imperial OB, which listed “every warship, by name, class,
callsign, and commander, assigned to every fleet and combat command”; whereas “combat command” clearly refers to such unified commands as
Sector Commands and Oversector Commands (e.g., BLACKSWORDCOM, AZHAMMERCOM), these organizations are apparently considered to
be separate from another category designated “fleets” (which by context cannot be the same “fleet” echelon described by the Naval OB in the
Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition, as that forms an integral part of Sector Groups). This may match the usage of “starfleet” in The Empire
Strikes Back: The Original Radio Drama and Return of the Jedi: The National Public Radio Dramatization, which may designate a strategic force
instead of a local, territorially-assigned forces. These strategic forces are of considerable strength and numbers, whose makeup is unfortunately even
less well-described than that of the Empire’s Regions, and there is too little evidence to form much more than a broad picture of what these forces
might potentially contain.
One of the chief characteristics of these forces would be their mobility; rather than having any fixed AOR, these forces would be moved to wherever
they are most needed, wholly independent of Sectorial, Regional, or even Oversectorial boundaries, and would be able to temporarily reinforce
existing stationary Sector Command forces as necessary. Given their lack of territorial basis, it seems likely that these forces’ primary function
would be to combat warlordism, secessionism, and large-scale insurrectionism on a pan-Empire basis. Among these “off screen” forces which one
would expect to find engaged in major operations and campaigns, one would expect to find a higher concentration of larger and more powerful
warships such as the former Admiral Harrsk’s Star Destroyer Shockwave in Darksaber, said to be larger and more heavily armed than the commoner
Imperial class, and able to destroy a Victory Star Destroyer in a single volley, quite a feat indeed given the resiliency of Rendili StarDrive’s older but
still capable warships.
The most prominent of these forces, Darth Vader’s Death Squadron, was featured in The Empire Strikes Back, a roving counterinsurgency task force
including five Imperial Star Destroyers and a Super Star Destroyer, while the novelization describes “smaller fighter ships,” “smaller warships,” and
to “twenty Imperial battleship commanders” (of whom Captain Lorth Needa, Commanding Officer, HIMS Avenger, is one); “Payback: The Tale of
Dengar” mentions “attack frigates, TIE fighters, and personnel carriers.” In “A World to Conquer,” Rear Admiral (Retired) Michael Unther mentions
the presence of a Victory Star Destroyer at DEATHRON’s blockade operation at Hoth VI in his guest lecture to a Fleet Tactics 241 class at Duluur
Sector Naval Academy. The name “Death Squadron” is misleading; the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition defines a battle squadron as any
squadron including an Imperial Star Destroyer, while it further defines a superiority fleet as a fleet containing “six Star Destroyers and an average of
390 other combat starships.” The Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition furthermore refers to DEATHRON as “an unprecedentedly huge
fleet,” thereby indicating that DEATHRON must in fact be substantially more powerful than any normal superiority fleet. It bears mentioning that
the fleet is defined by the Imperial Sourcebook, Second Edition as the lowest echelon at which inter-Sector transfers of Naval assets are made; The
Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels describes the fleet as the Empire’s favored asset for planetary invasion, with “six Star Destroyers, heavy and
light cruisers, and carrier ships.” Therefore, DEATHRON must contain substantially more Naval forces than the Imperial State’s commonplace six
Star Destroyer fleet with its cruiser-destroyer squadron and other escorting vessels.
In “Shira’s Story” and “Screams in the Void,” an even larger armada is seen, under command of Admiral Mils Giel. This force is described as “the
largest armada in Empire history,” and includes not less than six readily identifiable Imperial Star Destroyers, as well as a much larger supercarrier
and Admiral Giel’s own flagship; because this story is set after the Battle of Hoth, Giel’s armada must be larger than even Vader’s DEATHRON
and should count a minimum of around 400 or more warships. Whereas DEATHRON was organized as a task force specifically for the purpose of
locating and destroying the rebel headquarters and fleet, Giel’s armada was dedicated to the single purpose of securing the Teezl in the Outer Rim
Territories Region and transporting it safely to Imperial Center, an operation obviously not falling within any normal force’s responsibilities or
mission profiles. The fact that Giel’s armada, like DEATHRON, operated across Sectorial boundaries is one of the strongest indicators that it is in
fact a part of the strategic forces (similarly, it cannot belong to a Region or Oversector because it operated across Regional and any possible
Oversectorial boundaries as well, meaning that it cannot possibly belong to either such command). Also of interest is the fact that Giel’s armada,
again like DEATHRON, included warships substantially greater in mass, carrier capacity, and presumably firepower than the commonest Imperial
Star Destroyer.
Another substantial force which clearly does not fall within the jurisdiction of any Sector or Oversector Command is the six-month interdiction of
the Yavin system described by The Essential Chronology and the coincident blockade of the entire Gordian Reach Sector mentioned in “Siege at
Yavin!” According to Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds, the blockade and interdiction operations were headquartered at Jovan, and were
composed of forces provided by Grand Moff Governor Nox Vellam’s Bright Jewel Oversector, the House of Tagge, and Darth Vader himself. As
with the examples of Vader’s DEATHRON and Giel’s armada, the blockading forces included at least some ships larger than the commonest
Imperial Star Destroyer. There have been seen at least three battlecruisers associated with the blockade/interdiction, one in “Thunder in the Stars!”
and two in “Dark Lord’s Gambit”; two of these battlecruisers were under command of General Ulric Tagge, with the third under the command of
Darth Vader himself.
Although there is no direct evidence of the size of these forces, it is possible to derive a general idea of the scale of the interdict of the Yavin system;
The Essential Chronology states that a flotilla of Interdictor cruisers was deployed, indicating not less than two squadrons, or between 28 and 120
Interdictor cruisers. Furthermore, the same source also mentions “local fleet commanders,” meaning not less than two fleets were present and
involved in the operation; as a fleet is defined to include “six Star Destroyers and an average of 390 other warships,” one may further conclude that
not less than 12 Star Destroyers and 780 other warships were deployed in the interdict alone, not including the flotilla of Interdictors. The fact that
they are described as local indicates that they must belong either to the Gordian Reach Sector Group or to the Bright Jewel Oversector, i.e., one of
the three contributing “parent organizations.” The forces contributed by Vader and the House of Tagge (neither of which can be considered part of a
Sector or Oversector Command, and must by nature have come from elsewhere) must be of comparable scale, or Geonosis and the Outer Rim
Worlds’s claim that bickering among the three impeded the operation’s effectiveness would be impossible. Note that these figures refer to the
interdict operation alone; “Siege at Yavin!” clearly states that the House of Tagge and the Empire had blockaded the Gordian Reach Sector itself, as
well.
There are a handful of other such forces, such as the task force used by the Imperial State to suppress the unduly independent Moff Governor of
Tri-Nebular Sector (who “had established himself as a de facto warlord”) in Goroth: Slave of the Empire. This force is described simply as a “task
force of Star Destroyers” which liquidated the Sector Government’s entire senior leadership, detached “a small force that would become the core of a
new sector fleet,” and moved onto the next “shock treatment” operation in another Sector. This task force’s mission was to travel from Sector to
Sector putting down quasi-rebellions, and therefore must have had sufficient firepower to overwhelm any potential armed resistance from the
disloyal Sector Governors’ armed forces; nevertheless, the task force was able to detach task groups to form new Sector Groups. Although
regrettably vague, the description of the task force and its mission allows one to grasp at least the necessary scale of its operations. Admiral
Wooyou Senn’s Avenger Squadron, including one Super Star Destroyer, HIMS Vengeance, which was assigned the invasion of the lawless Airam
Sector in X-Wing vs TIE Fighter: Balance of Power, or the blockading force deployed at the Starcave of ThonBoka, which included more than 500
warships, in Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka, are likely other examples of “starfleets,” part of the strategic forces.
By leaving what one suspects are the heaviest and most powerful warships unattached to any specific territorial jurisdictions, but rather in the hands
of the Imperial State itself, the Empire is able to maintain a rapidly-deployable shock force able to overwhelm any conventional, regular force, be it
that of a disloyal member state like Corellia or Kuat, each possessed of their own not inconsiderable naval forces, or of a disloyal Sector Governor
like that of the Trans-Nebular Sector in Goroth: Slave of the Empire or the theoretical Moff interested in opening talks with the rebel Alliance in the
Rebel Alliance Sourcebook, Second Edition. Not even a Sector Group could withstand an assault by a force like DEATHRON or Giel’s armada;
Harrsk’s Shockwave could knock out a Victory Star Destroyer in a single volley. By keeping these strategic forces from the grasp of overly
ambitious local authorities, the Imperial State would be able to exert central control over a decentralized Empire, perhaps even by nothing more
difficult than simply possessing them; cf. the maxim that force is never more operant than when it is known to exist but is not brandished. In much
the same manner as a Sector Group simultaneously serves as a defense, police, and occupation force, the Imperial Starfleet’s “ship of the line”
strategic forces would allow the Galactic Emperor to maintain his hold on his Sector, Regional, and Oversector Governors.
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Coast, Inc., 2003. - Carey, Craig R., Jason Fry, Jeff Quick and Daniel E. Wallace. Geonosis and the Outer Rim Worlds. Wizards of the Coast, Inc., 2004.
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- Daley, Brian. The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Radio Drama. HighBridge Company, 1983.
- Denning, Troy. Galaxy Guide 4: Alien Races. West End Games, 1994.
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2005. - Kershner, Irvin. The Empire Strikes Back. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1980.
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This article was developed from a series of private messages exchanged in January 2004 between the author and Mr.
John Vermazen, whose input played a large part in the development of the ideas it discusses. It was the first article
posted to the original Domus Publica in September 2004, and the first article posted to the restored site on 25 January
2007.
Special thanks are due to Messrs. Adam Gehrls and Daniel Krouse for their extensive work regarding the Imperial
Navy’s strategic forces and the Imperial Army’s numbers shell game, respectively, and to Messrs. Matthew Trias and
Jay Shah for generously donating their time and certain materials otherwise unavailable to the author. The author
would be remiss should he fail to acknowledge the well-researched and independent work of Ms. Marina O’Leary,
who uses a different approach but arrives at broadly comparable conclusions, and also uses the term “starfleet” in a
similar fashion.
The header was generously provided by Mr. Jamie Holm, using a pencil drawing of Wilhuff Grand Moff Tarkin,
Governor of Oversector Outer, done by the author in October 2004.
John Vermazen, whose input played a large part in the development of the ideas it discusses. It was the first article
posted to the original Domus Publica in September 2004, and the first article posted to the restored site on 25 January
2007.
Special thanks are due to Messrs. Adam Gehrls and Daniel Krouse for their extensive work regarding the Imperial
Navy’s strategic forces and the Imperial Army’s numbers shell game, respectively, and to Messrs. Matthew Trias and
Jay Shah for generously donating their time and certain materials otherwise unavailable to the author. The author
would be remiss should he fail to acknowledge the well-researched and independent work of Ms. Marina O’Leary,
who uses a different approach but arrives at broadly comparable conclusions, and also uses the term “starfleet” in a
similar fashion.
The header was generously provided by Mr. Jamie Holm, using a pencil drawing of Wilhuff Grand Moff Tarkin,
Governor of Oversector Outer, done by the author in October 2004.
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