Military Terminology

[Poach]

It was suggested this be posted so people could generally coordinate what they're saying. Note that this isn't mandatory, but for the purposes of RP this is how the Imperial Navy operates:

Officer Rank Structure

Lord Admiral of the Imperial Fleet (highest ranking officer in the Empire)

Admiral (Lords often style themselves as Admirals of their own fleets, in Imperial Service an Admiral would command a major grouping of vessels on campaigns)

Vice Admiral (often 2nd in command of a fleet, and/or in command of a major squadron)

Rear Admiral (often 3rd in command of a fleet, and/or in command of the reserve, or in command of a minor squadron)

Commodore (commanding a small grouping of minor vessels, such as a Frigate Squadron)

Captain (commands an individual major vessel, such as Carriers, Battleships and Heavy Cruisers)

Commander (commands an individual minor vessel, such as Cruisers, Destroyers and Frigates, or may command larger sub-divisions of larger vessels)

Lieutenant Commander (commands an individual section of a minor vessel, such as Engineering, Weapons, etc, therefore more than 1 per vessel, on minor vessels 1 will also be 2nd in command)

Lieutenant (performs functions within their section, such as commanding individual teams or coordinating a specific effort, may be more than 1 per section depending on vessel size)

2nd Lieutenant (same as Lieutenant, but a junior grade, often fresh out of training)

Officer Cadet (cadets of a Naval Academy)

At ranks of Lieutenant Commander and above, the assignment taken on often depends on the size of the vessel being served on. For example, a Lieutenant Commander on a minor vessel may be both 2nd in command of the warship and in command of one of the major sections of ship operation, while on a major vessel command of major subdivisions within the vessel would often fall to those of Commander rank, with Lieutenant Commanders taking command of a subdivision within that subdivision (for example, on a Battleship command of the entire Engineering section would fall to a Commander, while a Lieutenant Commander might find himself responsible for the Engines, or for Weapons System Upkeep, or for Power Distribution, so on, as the individual teams covering each of these tasks in a major vessel would total as many men as the entire Engineering team of a minor vessel).

Junior Lieutenant Commanders or Commanders are often first posted to major vessels to gain experience on their level before being given independent commands on smaller vessels, for example.

Alerts and Common Phrases

"The Admiralty" is the central Headquarters for all fleet operations. There may be several of these: the Imperial Navy has an "Admiralty", which is considered the "supreme" Admiralty, but individual feudal navies likely operate their own Admiralties for the purposes of coordinating their own ships when not in Imperial service.

"Red/Orange/Green Alert"
--- Red is "prepare for imminent engagement with the enemy", used to alert the crew that enemy vessels are present and that shooting is expected to start soon.
--- Orange is "man battle stations", used to prepare the ship for potential combat, to ensure that if the alert escalates to "Red", the ship is already prepared to engage in battle.
--- Green is "standard routine", used to signal that battle is not regarded as imminent, and ship's crew should follow their daily routines.

"Jump" is the act of engaging the jump drive to quickly move from one part of space to another. Star Trek calls it "Warp" and Star Wars calls it "Hyperspace".

"Lightyear" is a measure of distance, not time. The distance light will travel in one Earth year is a lightyear. This is 9,460,730,472,580,800 (nine thousand four hundred and sixty trillion, seven hundred and thirty billion, four hundred and seventy to million, five hundred and eight thousand, eight hundred) metres. A Parsec is 3.26 lightyears.

"Capital Ships", are Battleships, Carriers and Heavy Cruisers of all types.

"Escort Ships" are all others.

Fleet Structure

A "Fleet" is a vague term that relates to any grouping of vessels, but always implies that the grouping has Capital Ships.

A something-group is an independently operating group for any intended purpose. Fleets are often made up of some of these.
--- Battlegroup, a catch-all term.
--- Carrier Group, a group of Carriers.
--- Surface Action Group, a group of Battleships or Heavy Cruisers.

A "Squadron" is a grouping of similar ships, for example a Frigate Squadron or Destroyer Squadron. "Flotilla" is another term for "Squadron".