User blog:Cultred/Improving Your Story: How a Military Wins a War

A quick guide on enhancing your fanon story militarily.

{{CultredBlog|Improving Your Story: How a Military Wins a War| A majority of military science fiction focuses on the lives of small infantry units, and does not cover their support assets. Small unit tactics are hard to find, although they have a big impact on the actions of small units in most Halo Fanon stories and RPs.

I found a great website written by one former US Marine Corps NCO/squad leader William S. Frisbee, Jr., that focuses on tips for writing military science fiction. It's a brilliant read; Frisbee has articles on tactics for many types of small units in modern militaries, and a lot of this post is based on what he has written. There are other resources, as well, which will be listed at the end of the blog post.

The Use of Infantry
Historically, infantry have been the anchor of an army. They are the soldiers in the field that ride lesser-armored vehicles (usually trucks or APCs) into combat and dismount, then proceed to combat the enemy using the weapons and gear available to them. Infantry is by far the branch of a military that is written about the most. It is overall the most capable force, being able to perform operations against a variety of foes, going places where armored war machines can't.

Unlike in a significant number of stories, modern infantry isn't like World War II. A modern military rarely has infantry operating without support. These aren't the Allied paratroopers during WWII's D-Day, which parachuted into France at night with absolutely zero support ahead of the famous Normandy beach landings. In Halo, we're talking soldiers over 500 years in the future.

Combined Arms
Combined arms is an approach to warfare based on giving each unit support. Wikipedia defines combined arms warfare as: "[A]n approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different branches of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects (for example, using infantry and armor in an urban environment, where one supports the other, or both support each other)."

- Wikipedia's article on combined arms

Basically, a single type of unit is useless on its own. Contrary to popular belief, it is easy for infantry to destroy unsupported tanks, provided they have adequate equipment and employ sufficient tactics, like in the following scenario.


 * A UNSC Army platoon dispatches two squads, Squad 1 and Squad 2, to defend "Position A". Position A is a hill with a long, straight road leading up to it. Squad 1 is a basic infantry squad that contains 12 soldiers in two five-man fire teams (Teams A and B) plus the squad's commanding officer and executive officer. Squad 2 is a 9-man weapons squad that has men operating 60 mm mortars, M41 rocket launchers, and some sort of medium machine gun. Meanwhile, the Covenant are attacking with three fully-loaded Wraith tanks, each with a driver and a secondary gunner, that are known to be coming down the road single-file.


 * So we've basically got twenty-one UNSC soldiers about to defend a position against three Wraith tanks. In a gameplay scenario, the soldiers would be wiped out until a Spartan comes to save the day; however, when we're not in a gameplay scenario, so anything goes.


 * Squad 1 sends a Team A down the road by about 200 meters. Team A, armed with assault rifles and battle rifles and maybe an M319 grenade launcher, sets up Lotus anti-tank mines on the road. It then sets up four explosive detonation charges (likely C-7 or C-12?) around the road, with charges A and B on the left and C and D on the right. It then moves another 20 meters forward and hides so that the mines and charges are between Team A and Position A.


 * Team B, armed with light machine guns, DMRs/Battle rifles, and a grenade launcher, assumes a concealed position at Position A. Alongside them is Squad 2, with its rockets and mortars. The machine gunners are placed at positions where they can clearly see the road.


 * The three Wraiths move forward until the one in the front moves right above the mine. The mine detonates, destroying the Wraith. At the same time, Team A begins to fire on the Wraith in the back. As it turns around to engage them, one of the rockets of Squad 2 hits it in the exposed power core in the back, destroying it as well.


 * This leaves the Wraith in the middle. Team B's grenade launcher is fired and programmed to airburst directly above the remaining Wraith, killing or disorienting the unprotected gunner. Team A then detonates its charges in a sequence of ACBD, exploding on either side of the Wraith. Squad 2, at Position A, fires blank mortar rounds that detonate with a bang and slight flash, but do not do any damage. These elements are for psychological warfare; the driver of the Wraith is the last living Covenant individual there, the Wraiths in front and behind him and burning heaps of metal, there are explosions everywhere, he has no idea how large this UNSC force is (the explosions make it seem larger than he may have thought; all he knows is that he's surrounded), and he only has a mortar to defend himself. No matter whether he fires on Position A or the UNSC forces behind him, he cannot possibly escape.


 * His best shot is to use the long-range nature of the Wraith mortars and fire upon Position A; however, the oversized, slow incoming mortars would be easy to avoid for the soldiers at Position A - all they have to do is walk away from where it's going to impact.


 * By the time he's oriented himself and begins to fire upon UNSC forces, one of the rockets has been reloaded and fires. This rocket was set to "top-attack", where the rocket exits the launcher, fires upwards, then turns towards and ground and proceeds to impact its target at the weak top armor. The rocket hits the Wraith's mortar, disabling its defense capability. Soon another rocket will destroy the remaining Wraith.

As you can see, unsupported tanks are no threat to infantry if proper tactics are applied. These tactics range from supporting infantry (rather than just sending out a bunch of soldiers with guns) to ambush tactics to psychological warfare.

Combined arms tactics can be used for overwhelming force. During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the US-led coalition took about 100 hours to completely annihilate one of the largest armies in the world. It took no more than 2,000 casualties as Iraq's forces took 20,000-35,000. This was due not only to superior technology (an M1 Abrams tank vs. older T-59/T-69 and T-72 tanks) but also because of superior combined arms tactics and training. A large part of the destruction was due to Coalition air forces, which had overwhelming air superiority and thus were able to wreak havoc upon ground forces.

Combined arms tactics can also involve air support and/or artillery. A unit supported by a gunship (in Halo which could be a heavily-armed Pelican, Falcon, or even an Albatross) is much superior to a unit that isn't. Armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles are vital to combined arms warfare as well, providing mechanized infantry (soldiers mounted in armored vehicles) with a heavily-armed vehicle to move alongside them. Modern APCs and IFVs are armed with either .50 caliber machine guns (most APCs) or 25 mm to 30 mm autocannons (most IFVs). They can hold anywhere from 6 to 12 soldiers (depending on the vehicle) for transport. The UNSC has no known APC or IFV; however, it is very unlikely that there isn't one in service.

In the age of the UNSC, it is highly unlikely that infantry, or even ground forces for that matter, would assault a position simply because there is an enemy there. Artillery, close air support (gunships and strike fighters), or even orbital bombardment can be used in these situations. Ground units would likely be sent in to to accomplish an objective that cannot otherwise be accomplished without sending in ground forces, such as maybe attacking an enemy compound amidst civilians. The reason the Coalition forces took ten times less casualties during the Gulf War was because they didn't uselessly waste their ground forces in standoff desert engagements like World War II.

Designing your Military
Whenever you add a faction or species to your fiction, you need to follow a basic set of steps to making that faction's fighting forces. A better explanation of this can be seen here.
 * Mission - what are the objectives of the force? To defend against other militaries, to act as a peacekeeping force, etc.
 * Style of warfare - does the military use attrition warfare like the Covenant, or does it use maneuver warfare? Most modern militaries are looking into maneuver warfare with the increased availability of vehicles.
 * Traditions/History - how extensive does the military emphasize its history? The Covenant heavily emphasized theirs, with a majority of the Covenant beliefs based on the Writ of Union agreement between the San 'Shyuum and Sangheili. The modern USMC is also big on its history (and also likely the UNSCMC), while the US Army (and likely UNSC Army) isn't. This category includes the military's motto and other traditions.
 * Effect of society - how does the society affect the military? Some societies denounce militaries, while others support them. It also depends on the type of society; democracies often have troops trained to think on their own, while oppressive societies often treat theirs as expendable assets that are ordered what to do. Culture of the society also affects the military; a rich, spoiled society likely has a smaller military, but a society with poor people will often have better fighters.
 * Training - how're the troops trained? Covenant society traditionally seems to have little training for Unggoy, but the Sangheili seem to have been warriors since birth. Are troops trained in intermediate military tactics, or do they simply attack in infantry waves? Training heavily affects the capabilities of a military.
 * Budget - how much money does the military have available to spend as compared to other militaries? In the end, it costs labor and money to build war machines.
 * Support - how are units supported? Are they supported with space ships and aircraft, or artillery and mortars? How many armored assets does it have? These impact the military's strength.
 * Mechanization - is the military heavily motorized/mechanized? Does it extensively use vehicles such as armored personnel carriers and tactical trucks (like the Warthog), or does it leave most of its infantry to maneuver on foot? Does it extensively support its units with armor and artillery?
 * Strength levels and morale - are unit strength levels high? What about the morale of the troops? Both of these were likely low during the Human-Covenant War for the UNSC.
 * Military society - how loyal to the military are the troops? Are males and females both in the military? Are their barracks and living quarters separated? What are the overall living standards of the military?
 * Nature of the troops - how experienced are the troops? Are they newly-conscripted recruits or veterans with years of combat experience? How violent or aggressive are they? How long is the tour of duty? Longer terms negatively impact morale; everyone needs a rest from the horrors of war.

Using your Resources: Technology Prevails
Many fan fiction writers come and try to write stories and fiction without doing their research. I've seen sergeants in the Navy, Covenant-led invasions of Earth three years after the war (?), etc. There's Halopedian, Wikipedia, and millions of other resources around the Internet. I've listed some helpful guides below, as well.

Finding out about tactics and equipment that modern militaries use can greatly expand your fiction's capabilities. For example, the Warthog and Scorpion feature machine gun turrets with an unprotected gunner. The modern US military usually places Transparent Armor Gun Shields, which are ballistic glass that protects the gunner and allows him to see the enemy through the shield (which isn't possible with the Warthog's M41 LAAG's turret and its armor shields). In addition, these manually-operated machine guns are slowly being replaced with remote-operated weapon systems such as the US military's Common Remotely-operated Weapon System, which features sensors and cameras on the weapon connected to a screen and control suite inside the vehicle, allowing accurate fire with the protection of the vehicle's armor. Using a remote weapons system in your fanon allows the personnel to be better protected, and able to fire the weapons much more accurately.

Another interesting aspect to add to your fanon would be the technology known as Metal Storm, which stacks projectiles in the barrel that can fire at insurmountable rates of fire. Although it has its drawbacks, it can be a very useful technology for many situations.

Overall, you should work on looking at experimental military technologies (such as a fully modular weapons system like the XM8 and the successful sister program, the XM25 airburst grenade launcher; maybe even look at things such as the F-35's super-advanced EO DAS) and implement them into your fanon. Canceled or on-hold projects such as Land Warrior also feature interesting additions to fanon. One good source of advanced technologies for your fanon could be the Ghost Recon series, where the soldiers use advanced technologies to overcome odds.

In the end, you should expand upon the UNSC military further than what Bungie has done, and transform it from a late-20th century force to a 26th century force. But also remember to expand upon the Covenant; remember, although their technology was imitative, it was advanced. Finally, do a little bit of searching through the links I list and think about what a future military force would be like.

Links

 * Tips on Writing Military Science Fiction - a comprehensive guide that helps you with small unit tactics, ideas for missions, and more. Most helpful resource out of all of them.
 * The Spectrum of Future Warfare by Carlton Meyer - a book on what this author thinks future warfare will be like. I haven't bought the password, although chapters 1, 13, and 14 are free. A very interesting read that proposes several new aspects that militaries should add to their warfare forces.
 * Future War Stories: Combined Arms - blog post talking about the absence of combined arms in science fiction, and expands upon how to implement it.
 * Future Force Warrior on Wikipedia - an article about the now-canceled (?) FFW program of the US Army.
 * USAF Center for Strategy and Technology: Future Conflict Studies - provides a comprehensive, expanded list of resources and studies on future warfare.

If anyone has anymore resources or links, please don't hesitate to request me to put them here.

Definitions
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 * Attrition warfare - when a military uses its force to completely annihilate enemy forces and force them to collapse; see Wikipedia article on attrition warfare
 * Maneuver warfare - when a military uses its force rapidly, using mobility to stay on the move and keep the enemy off balance; see Wikipedia article on maneuver warfare