Sci-Fi Military Analysis
"The art of war is of vital importance to the State." - Sun-Tzu, The Art of War
Most science fiction series and shows end up having military involvment of some kind. In fact, most are set on military-run installations such as Babylon-5 or starships. This creates conflict in that, well, to be blunt, most TV science fiction writers know little to nothing about the military! Ever watch Star Trek (specifically, the more recent incarnations) and hear them spout technobabble? You wouldn't see that on a modern warship or installation. Acronyms, buzz words, and spliced words (a word formed from two larger words) dominate the military vocabulary. Why? Because in combat situations, where seconds count, you need to say as much as possible in as little time. And it's not just the military that does this, go watch Apollo 13, which took it's script straight from the original transcripts of the communications between the Apollo 13 crew and Ground Control.
However, the purpose of this page is not to gripe about treknobabble. What I am intending to do is compare the apparent military doctrines and strategies of various sci-fi powers (the United Federation of Planets, the Galactic Empire, the Star Kingdom of Manticore, etc.) to modern military doctrines, to see how they match up. The sad truth is, while modern sci-fi writers take ideas for things such as uniforms and ranks from the military, they rarely seem to understand or properly apply true military concepts. Much like the rest of Hollywood, they've gone for Ramboization of fighting, ignoring the brains behind it in favor of shoot-'em-ups. Regardless of what you see in the movies, modern combat is not "run around and shoot the bad guys with one gun in each hand".
Modern Warfare
Naval warfare
Star Trek Warfare (Under Construction)
Star Wars Warfare (Under Construction)
Babylon-5 Warfare (Under Construction)
BattleTech Warfare (Under Construction)
Starship Troopers (Movie) Warfare (Under Construction)
Honorverse Warfare (Under Construction)