Post by Robert C. Graham on Oct 12, 2013 15:18:25 GMT -6
Originally published by StarbaseUGC
1) Overview:
Given the current fleet operational commitments it is useful for new commanders to receive a quick overview of general fleet organization to the wing level, deployments, nomenclature, etc. It should be noted that this information is only as accurate as the last update of this instruction.
2) Glossary:
2a) Fleet – The top-level operational element, a Fleet is assigned a fixed geographical responsibility for security and administration. Currently there are approximately fifteen such Fleets. Historically, during the Dominion War period there were up to fifty fleets, this was due to “administrative creep” during the relatively long period of peace prior to that conflict. At the end of the Dominion War that system was transitioned to a more flexible organization that retained fewer “fixed” fleets that could be quickly augmented with the more mobile Strategic Task Forces.
The Fleet geographical areas are the operational reporting commands for ships that are on independent assignment in addition to any formally attached sub-units. Fleets are usually comprised of up to ten Task Forces that are identified by the fleet number and task force number combined (i.e. 1st Task Force of the 1st Fleet = Task Force 11; 2nd Task Force = Task Force 12, etc.) The “zero” Task Force is reserved for the “command” or “headquarters” Task Force, but in practice this command element often remains at Starbase and is only operational if the entire fleet is mobilized for an out of geographical area deployment. (It should be noted there is often a negative or sardonic connotation used in the fleet about ‘Task Force Zero’ in reference to Fleet HQ.
2b) Fleet Task Force – The technical name of Task Forces that are organic components of a Fleet, as differentiated from a Strategic or Special Task Force.
Tactical Wings assigned to Fleet Task Forces inherit the task force number and then wing number (i.e., the 1st tactical wing of the 1st task force of the 1st fleet would be the 1101st Tactical Wing, the 2nd tactical wing of the same unit would be the 1102nd Tactical Wing…the first tactical wing of the 2nd tactical force of the 1st fleet would be the 1201st Tactical Wing, etc.)
2c) Special Task Force/Group – These are terms applied to Task Force/Group sized elements that are formed for a specific purpose or mission (Borg Special Task Force, etc.); this organization is theoretically temporary, existing only as long as required. Internal organization of such units is often exceptionally ad hoc, but in theory would follow that of the Strategic Task Force or Tactical Force/Group, depending on the size required.
2d) Squadron – due to the literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, squadrons that are and can be part of Star Fleet operations, the deployments at this level are not covered directly by this instruction; a squadron level unit is the most basic tactical component and is comprised of three to twelve ships depending on mission.
For whatever reason, most Star Fleet capital ship squadrons never exceed five ships. Within Tactical Wings squadrons are usually identified via a letter designator (“A”, “Alpha”, “Bravo”, “Red”, “Blue”, etc.) or for the capital ship of that squadron (“Enterprise Squadron”, “Excelsior Squadron”); however it is done it is normally consistent within that wing. (It should be noted that confusingly enough there is also another capital ship method that you will find in use that utilizes “group” or “task force”, as in “Enterprise Group” or “Task Force Enterprise”, so commanders should be aware that this often as not refers to a Squadron level unit.)
2e) Strategic Task Force – These nine units are really minor fleets, but a more operationally mobile element than the Fleet, unencumbered by that unit’s geographical and administrative requirements.
They were formed after lessons learned during the Dominion War regarding slow response and poorly coordinated movements of the more Peace-time oriented Fleets which contributed to so many of the early setbacks in that conflict. The nine Strategic Task Forces can be rapidly deployed to a Fleet in crisis, or used as assault or “shock” fleets anywhere they may be needed across the Federation.
These units are effectively “always underway” and ready to respond immediately to strategic crisis. When individual components need extended yard or shore leave time, they are swapped out with a similar component command from whatever Fleet is resident in that geographical area (normally at the squadron or individual ship level.)
The Strategic Task Forces are numbered from one to nine, their component Tactical Wings are numbered from zero-one to nine-nine (ex. 1st Tactical Wing of 1st Strategic Task Force = 101st Tactical Wing, etc.) The command/headquarters wing of the Strategic Task Force is often just the same number as the force itself (i.e., Strategic Task Force 1’s command wing is Strategic Tactical Wing 1, or simply Tactical Wing 1, etc.) Thus there would be (for example) no 100th Tactical command wing, although this was specified in the original organization charts, the usage of the “zero” wing was dropped by the Strategic Task Forces (This may be a response of the Strategic forces seeing themselves as the more dashing, elite fighters of Star Fleet and was a way to differentiate these units from the more traditional Fleets command elements, see “Task Force Zero” note under Fleet.)
2f) Strategic Wing – originally only referred to the command wing of a Strategic Task Force, it can be used interchangeably with Tactical Wing when referring to any wing of a Strategic Task Force. (i.e., the 101st Tactical Wing and 101st Strategic Wing are the same unit.) Internal organization of the Strategic Wing is the same as the Tactical Wing.
2g) Tactical Wing – the base operational unit covered by this instruction. Tactical Wings are composed of the myriad of squadrons from Star Fleet and Federation member world and allied sub-units, although generally numbering less than a hundred and fifty ships, but not much less than two dozen. Normally there are no less than four squadrons (i.e., one Tactical Group) assigned to a Tactical Wing, in practice the maximum is twenty-five squadrons.
2h) Tactical Force / Group – These are internal organizational maneuver units of Task Forces (Fleet or Strategic) and can be comprised of a number of Tactical Wings, although in Star Fleet practice not more than four. (Again, to add a level of confusion, you will sometimes see “Task Group” applied to these maneuver elements, this is an artifact from Dominion War nomenclature.)
2i) Task Force – The Task Force is the primary top-level maneuver element in fleet operations today. Whether Fleet Task Force or Strategic Task Force, the organization is thankfully consistent, being of not more than one hundred Tactical Wings sorted into Tactical Group maneuver elements as needed by Task Force command.
2j) Task Group – see Squadron, also see final note under Tactical Force / Group.
3) Examples of unit identification nomenclature:
a) Second task force of the first fleet: Task Force 12
b) Command wing of Task Force 12: 1200th Tactical Wing
c) Third tactical wing of Task Force 12: 1203rd Tactical Wing
d) Fourth tactical wing of the 3rd Strategic Task Force: 304th Tactical Wing
e) Command wing of the 3rd Strategic Task Force: 3rd Tactical Wing
f) Command task force of the first fleet: Task Force 10
g) Command wing of Task Force 10: 1000th Tactical Wing
h) First task force of the 5th Fleet: Task Force 51
i) Sixth wing of Task Force 51: 5106th Tactical Wing
4) The standing operational Fleets and Strategic Task Forces:
a) Background: Historically, there were seventeen planned geographic fleets each was to correspond to and be based at the similarly numbered seventeen planned starbases outlined in the Articles of Federation, the assumptions being the rough boundaries and frontiers of the four founders and the average warp speed of 3 in commercial use (one of the primary responsibilities of starbases being postulated at the time were defense of the commercial lanes against piracy.)
This was more or less the system in place until 2279, when after the inquiry into the Bozeman Incident it was decided that with the average speed of Warp 5 in commercial and Star Fleet use, the existing starbases and fleets were over tasked both geographically and administratively by the expansion of the Federation.
Over the next nine decades of relative peace and continued expansion over forty more geographic fleets are created under the administration of Sector Commanders, with most of the actual power gravitating to the frontiers and a patchwork of “filler” fleets radiating out from the Federation core worlds, often assigned no more than a token number of starships spread across a central starbase and subsidiary bases.
In 2367 after the Battle of Wolf 359, Star Fleet Command initiated a project study on potentially reorganizing the Fleet system to be more responsive, this study languished in bureaucratic limbo for four years, the Borg threat having abated and no others were perceived to be proximate.
Then the events of the Klingon conflict again illustrated the need for reform, the study was completed and outlined the basic structure in use today, however the transition was rapidly overtaken by the events of the Dominion War and Star Fleet found itself fighting most of the conflict with the same inflexible Fleet system, but reforms were happening from the Wing level upwards at the tail end of the war. However the consolidation and transition of the Fleets to their current form was not completed until 2385.
The new organization proved its worth in 2389 when Star Fleet was able to rapidly deploy Strategic Task Forces to the Romulan-Klingon border in response to Klingon aggression against the splintered Romulan state (note the difference between Star Fleet’s response to this incident, which involved the rapid movement of hundreds of starships to the crisis point and the response in 2368 to the same region during the Klingon Civil War which was an ad hoc collection of twenty-four available, and not so available, 12th Fleet ships; basically what would be considered the minimum for a four squadron Tactical Group today, or 1/6th of the force that was assembled and deployed over the same period of time in 2389.)
b) The state of Federation member fleets:
a. Earth: the United Earth Space Probe Agency’s ships were the first to be referred to as “(United Earth) Star Fleet” prior to the founding of the Federation and formed the core of Star Fleet in 2161. Even after founding the UESPA was continuing the process of absorbing existing member mega-states ships, a process that was not completed until around 2200. After that the UESPA continued to perform independent exploratory and colonial operations until around 2300 when United Earth was synonymous with Federation Star Fleet operations. There has been much debate as to why the more advanced and powerful worlds of the founding selected Earth as the comptrollers of the Federation’s fleet, these debates seem to ignore the residual distrust the more established founding worlds had toward each other and the impact of certain key Earth officers in core world events.
b. Andor: as one of the two primary powers of the pre-Federation core area, the Andorians had amassed a substantial fleet. For many years they maintained their fleet to be an equal to Star Fleet, until the advent of starship-class vessels by Star Fleet in the 2240’s. At that point the Imperial Guard began (grudgingly) downsizing their homegrown fleet as they realized that Andor could no longer keep pace with Star Fleet’s quantitative production without sacrificing technical parity. As ships of the Imperial Guard became obsolete and decommissioned, their crews transitioned to Star Fleet.
However, the Imperial Guard did not stop producing their own ships or maintaining an Andorian fleet, the ships they did produce became highly specialized tactical pursuit escorts and cruisers on a technical par with Star Fleet. Up until the eve of the Dominion War the 5th and 7th Fleets of Star Fleet were heavily Andorian and where one would most likely find Imperial Guard ships serving alongside (Andorian crewed) Star Fleet vessels. Post-war the losses taken by the 5th and 7th Fleets were not replaceable by Andor and during the fleet consolidation/restructing period the remainders of those fleets were combined with Sector Command and other remnants to form the 8th and 9th Fleets based out of Andor.
c. Vulcan: the Vulcans were relatively quick to subsume their warships to Star Fleet, albeit still Vulcan crewed. By 2200 the Vulcan shipyards were producing almost exclusively science ships, the only exceptions being a handful of powerful system defense craft for protection of Vulcan and her associated colonies. By the 2270?s the warships that had been given over to Star Fleet in 2161 had all be decommissioned from Star Fleet service, and (mostly) found their way back into Vulcan hands. They were refitted for science duties under the aegis of the Vulcan Science Academy. Asides from the VSA’s fleet of science ships, the Vulcan National Merchant Fleet, and their system defense ships, Vulcans are content to serve in and rely on Star Fleet.
d. Tellar: Until Earth came along; the Tellarites had been the weakest major system of the core area. While they were sometimes bellicose in nature, they always had a bigger nose for commerce than combat and since long before the founding of the Federation Tellarite freighters could be found rooting out a profit in the core area and beyond. With the advent of Star Fleet they maintained their extant fleet for system defense, updating it as needed. By 2300 they were doing as the Vulcans were, only maintaining a home fleet of system defense ships and relying on Star Fleet for overall defense against external threat. However, their shipyards and ship design bureaus have never been silent, but instead have churned out top quality long distance commercial ships (indeed, Tellarite built freighters are have been so ubiquitous since before Federation founding that for the longest time they were synonymous with freighters as a whole and the ships themselves are referred to by owners or organization contracting class to distinguish them) and contracts for Star Fleet and exporting updated Tellarite warship designs to Federation friendly-neutral systems and states (Tellarite frigate and light cruisers are a common sight in neutral fleets and smaller Federation world system defense forces.)
It should be noted that the Tellarite dominance in the commercial field has since been eclipsed by Cardassia’s resurgent shipyard output. Since before the 2370‘s the Cardassians had built the only mass produced ships that competed with the Tellarite market dominance, but after the 2386 agreement and rebuilding efforts the Cardassians began turning out their highly versatile and cheap to operate Groumall freighters and by 2405 the variations of that class have become the freighter of choice for almost every carrier, including Star Fleet contractors. The Tellarite shipyards reduced sales have kept that world in a long term recession which has had the side effect of making careers in Star Fleet more attractive for Tellarites than at any time in the past century.
c) Current Fleets
1) 1st Fleet: the 1st Fleet (“The Old Union”) is the oldest and most storied in Star Fleet, at one time 1st Fleet was synonymous with Star Fleet itself, being originally based out of Star Base 1, Earth Space Dock. During the fleet expansion period after 2279 the 1st Fleet was moved to fill the void that would have been left by the 2nd Fleet leaving Starbase 2. The nickname of the 1st Fleet is an allusion to its origins in the United Earth forces. The 1st has had forces participate in the Cardassian and Talarian border conflicts, the Klingon War of 2267, Klingon War, and the Dominion War.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 2
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 11, Starbase 2
2. Fleet Task Force 12, Starbase 2
3. Fleet Task Force 13, Starbase 11
4. Fleet Task Force 14, Starbase 47
5. Fleet Task Force 15, Starbase 129
6. Fleet Task Force 16, Starbase 211
7. Fleet Task Force 17, Starbase 214
2) 2nd Fleet: the second oldest Fleet, affiliated with Starbase 2. The 2nd was conceived as a warship heavy defense fleet, the 6th Fleet did the exploration of its region of space while the 2nd defended the borders. When hostilities between the Federation and Cardassia became chronic, it was decided the larger 1st Fleet should assume the position between the Cardassian and Klingon Empires and the 2nd Fleet would move to the Cardassian border closer to the Federation core where it has remained. In that position the 2nd Fleet was on the front lines of the Cardassian border wars and the Dominion War from start to the bloody end. They are known as the “Battered Bastards of Betazed” for the bitter fighting they did around that system during the war and veterans of the 2nd Fleet always receive warm treatment from the inhabitants of that world.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 375
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 21, Starbase 375
2. Fleet Task Force 22, Deep Space 9
3. Fleet Task Force 23, Starbase 621
4. Fleet Task Force 24, Starbase 310
3) 3rd Fleet: the 3rd Fleet was moved to fill the core defense void left by the shift of 1st Fleet to the frontier. In that capacity it has defended against a number of assaults against Sol and other core systems. They are known as “Neptune’s Own” for the fleet’s valiant actions attempting to hold the surprise Breen assault against Earth at the gas giant of the same name. Most of the symbols associated with this Fleet feature a trident, ala the mythological god.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 1, Earth Space Dock
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 31, Starbase 1, Earth Space Dock
2. Fleet Task Force 32, Teenebia
3. Fleet Task Force 33, Memory Alpha
4) 4th Fleet: the “Fighting Fourth” was one of the three fleets that fought at Wolf 359 and had not been reconstituted to full strength by the time of the Dominion War. During the period between Wolf 359 and Dominion War the 4th was deployed in strategic defense of the Romulan border. Meanwhile it’s base at Starbase 4 transitioned into a full-fledged Federation colony named Ajilon which suffered direct Klingon attack during the short Klingon War. During the restructuring period the 4th was stationed at Starbase 343 and was still undergoing a long term rebuilding when it was ordered to return to Ajilon while the 12th Fleet took up interior patrol duties in 2391.
i. Headquarters: Ajilon
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 41, Ajilon
2. Fleet Task Force 42, Ajilon
5) 5th Fleet: the “Blue Stars” of the 5th Fleet were originally composed mostly of Andorian squadrons in the early days of Star Fleet. The 5th Fleet was one of the three fleets to be decimated by the Battle of Wolf 359, but was quickly reconstituted with Pursuit Squadrons of the Imperial Guard allowing the 5th to be instrumental in Operation Return during the Dominion War. The relationship with Andor end during the post-war restructuring which transferred the bulk of the Andorian crewed ships into the 8th and 9th Fleets and closed Starbase 5. However, the 5th Fleet retained the “Blue Stars” nickname and was deployed to the Eta Eridani sector block, since then it has been the primary offensive/defensive force in the Klingon conflict.
i. Headquarters: Deep Space K-7
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 51, Deep Space K-7
2. Fleet Task Force 52, Eta Eridani Defense Outposts
3. Fleet Task Force 53, Starbase 157
6) 6th Fleet: the 6th Fleet “Pathfinders” have always been an exploration outfit, their base at Starbase 6 (now Starbase G-6) at the time of founding was on the cutting edge of Alpha Quadrant exploration. Since it was composed primarily of exploration and science oriented ships, many in need of the most modern updates, the 6th Fleet was deployed off what had become the front lines of the Dominion War (the USS Odyssey was an early 6th Fleet war casualty.) The 6th took up headquarters at Bolarus and and Starbase 10, patrolling along the Romulan border to coreward. The 6th had to move and expand its patrol area to cover for other fleets that were moved to perform Operation Return. During the war Starbase 6 had transformed itself into a vital weapons development hub, and since the “real” exploration efforts of the Federation had moved on from that location, the 6th was relocated to the frontier where her veteran explorers could get back to what they do best.
i. Headquarters: Deep Space 3
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 61, Deep Space 3
2. Fleet Task Force 62, Deep Space 3
3. Fleet Task Force 63, Starbase 514
7) 7th Fleet: like the 5th Fleet, the 7th began its existence as the Star Fleet home for ships of the Andorian Imperial Guard. The 7th contributed ships to the Battle of Wolf 359, and at the start of the Dominion War was deployed from Andor to Betazed. The 7th was heavily engaged throughout the war and by the time of it’s assault on the Dominion in the Kalandra sector, it had become a shadow of its former self. After the war the remaining Andorian ships and squadrons were consolidated in the 8th and 9th Fleets. The 7th was reformed from forces consolidated out of over twenty of the former Sector Command “fiefdom” fleets. Enough forces to outfit seven Fleet Task Forces, making it one of the larger formations in Star Fleet, responsible for defense in the Iota Pavonis sector block and beyond towards the galactic core. Essentially a whole new organization, the 7th has yet to acquire a nickname.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 718
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 71, Starbase 718
2. Fleet Task Force 72, Starbase 718
3. Fleet Task Force 73, Deep Space 5
4. Fleet Task Force 74, Deep Space 4
5. Fleet Task Force 75, Starbase 10
6. Fleet Task Force 76, Deep Space 4
7. Fleet Task Force 77, Starbase 10
8) 8th Fleet: at the formation of Star Fleet under the Federation, the 7th and 8th Starbases were essentially former Andorian bases and their associated fleets were weighted with Imperial Guard ships. Starbase 8 was shutdown; the 8th Fleet was transferred to Starbase 201 to the coreward of Betazed. It was from here that the 8th intercepted one of the Dominion thrusts towards Betazed, however most of the time the fleet, equipped with older ships, was patrolling the convoy routes and core sector blocks. After the war the fleet headquarters was relocated to Andor and it was augmented with two Task Forces worth of Imperial Guard ships, the surviving war veterans of the 5th and 7th Fleets.
i. Headquarters: Andor
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 81, Andoria
2. Fleet Task Force 82, Starbase 23
3. Fleet Task Force 83, Starbase 173
4. Fleet Task Force 84, Starbase 24
9) 9th Fleet: Starbase 9 always had a bit of an identity crisis, but Teneebia (as it was also known) emerged as an early candidate for Human-Andorian cooperation. It’s associated fleet reflected this, being the first to integrate ships from the United Earth Star Fleet and the Imperial Guard within the same long term command structure. The moons were admitted as a Federation member in 2378, while retaining the Star Fleet facilities the system was no longer referred to as a Starbase. The 9th Fleet itself had been called away to fight in the Dominion War, and absorbed enough damage that after the conflict it was combined with elements from the former 5th and 7th Fleets to regain it’s pre-war strength.
i. Headquarters: Andor
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 91, Andor
2. Fleet Task Force 92, Starbase 23
3. Fleet Task Force 93, Starbase 173
4. Fleet Task Force 94, Starbase 24
10) 10th Fleet: The “Wing Clippers” of 10th Fleet were based out of Starbase 10 and patrolled the Romulan Neutral Zone for over a century. However, the need to have a veteran fleet swap out with the 6th Fleet brought the 10th to join the 4th Fleet in the battle for control of Betazed during the Dominion War. The 10th had received a mauling during the war and was kept in the core sector block for a long term rebuilding; the headquarters of the 10th is temporarily relocated to Vulcan since Starbase 24’s facilities have been wrecked.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 24 (Vulcan)
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 101, Betazed
2. Fleet Task Force 102, Vulcan
3. Fleet Task Force 103, Risa
4. Fleet Task Force 104, Starbase 24
11) 11th Fleet: The 11th Fleet was another exploration/science ship oriented fleet that was base out of Starbase 11 since it became operational in 2190. The fleet operated to rimward, expanding the range and knowledge of the Federation. The bulk of the fleet was mobilized in the defense of Benecia during the Dominion War and was virtually eliminated while deflecting a joint Cardassian/Dominion thrust towards that world after the fall of Betazed. The remaining cadre of the 11th was removed from the combat zone to Starbase 39-Sierra, where it has remained, still far understrength. After the Hobus supernova the 11th was (and continues to be) Star Fleet’s primary responder to the Romulan old-core. The 11th units often use an hourglass in their logos, no one is exactly sure why, but the most often used explanation is some reference to their “11th Hour” rescue of Benecia…or possibly a reference to time travel.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 39-Sierra
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 111, Starbase 39-Sierra
2. Fleet Task Force 112, Benzar
12) 12th Fleet: one of the few fleets to maintain its geographical identity in the post-war restructuring, the Starbase 12 based 12th Fleet was the only major combat formation to not contribute significant forces to the Dominion War. Due to vital strategic positioning the 12th Fleet was kept as a check against the Romulans (or Klingons for that matter) being tempted to take advantage of the Federations crisis along the Cardassian border. A role the “Peacekeepers” of the 12th had been familiar with since the fleet was formed in the 2160’s.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 12
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 121, Starbase 343
2. Fleet Task Force 122, Starbase 343
3. Fleet Task Force 123, Starbase 12
4. Fleet Task Force 124, Starbase 12
5. Fleet Task Force 125, Starbase 234
6. Fleet Task Force 126, Starbase 24
13) 13th Fleet: the 13th is another exploration/science formation, it traces its lineage to the old Tellarian pre-Federation fleet, although at this point in time it is not especially Tellar-centric in crews or identity; its two main task forces are comprised of older heavy science cruisers and a great number of the remaining Constitution-class cruisers in Star Fleet can be found in the ranks of the 13th. This fleets strength is almost always augmented by a large number of independent cruising science and exploratory ships. The 13th was the primary provider of combatants during the early Sheliak and various Tzenkethi conflicts, until recently Task Force 132 had held most of the non-science/exploration ships of the 13th, but recently the fleet has received a priority of more combat oriented ships with the ongoing Borg and Breen aggressions, converting Task Force 133 into a nearly all warship formation.
i. Headquarters: Tellar
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 131, Tellar
2. Fleet Task Force 132, Vega
3. Fleet Task Force 133, Starbase 621
4. Fleet Task Force 134, Sauria
14) 14th Fleet: during the post-war restructuring Starbase 14 was another closure and the 14th Fleet, an exploration oriented fleet, was transferred to Starbase 82 and became responsible for the area of the Federation from Gamma Orionis sector block to rimward. When the Borg assaulted the battlegroups of the 14th suffered the brunt of the attacks, until falling back unto the Transwarp Conduit where they were bolstered by reinforcement by Strategic Task Force 6. After the formation of the Borg Special Task Force it replaced Task Force 6’s presence on the rimward side of the conduit. The only surviving task force of the 14th within the Gamma Orionis sector block has been reinforced with the best of Borg defeating technology, effectively making Fleet Task Force 141 the administrative component of Star Fleet’s Borg STF commitment Gamma Orionis. Starfleet has built a defensive logistics station at the coreward side of the conduit that has been christened Starbase Omega. Fleet Task Force 142 has been filling the role of two missing 14th Fleet Task Forces to rimward.
i. Headquarters: Starbase Omega
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 141, Battle Group Omega
2. Fleet Task Force 142, Pacifica
15) 15th Fleet: another core starbase closure orphan, the 15th was transferred to the rim-trailing sectors of the Federation as an exploration fleet made up of Sector Command science ship remnants. It was transferred to Starbase 27, since the Borg incursion and Tholian threats the 15th has received two task forces worth of reinforcements so that if that section of the Federation is cut off it can defend itself adequately.
i. Headquarters: Starbase 27
ii. Active Task Forces:
1. Fleet Task Force 151, Starbase 27
2. Fleet Task Force 152, Cait
3. Fleet Task Force 153, Cait
4. Fleet Task Force 154, Typerias
d) Strategic Task Forces
i. All of the Strategic Task Forces are maintained at a full strength of twenty-five squadrons.
1) Strategic Task Force 1: has been deployed to the Alpha Trianguli sector block to conduct operations against Cardassian separatists in the gap between the 1st and 2nd fleets.
2) Strategic Task Force 2: is supposedly in strategic reserve behind the wormhole, however it has found itself conducting more operations against Cardassian, Breen, and Dominion forces. Essentially they are now in direct support of 2nd Fleet.
3) Strategic Task Force 3: has been deployed to counter the Breen aggression in the Orellius sector block and points towards the galactic core.
4) Strategic Task Force 4: was shifted over from the Alpha quadrant in response to the unrest in Romulan space after the Hobus supernova to assist Task Force 9.
5) Strategic Task Force 5: this unit’s most notable action to date was its deployment to the Klingon-Romulan border to deter Klingon aggression following the Hobus supernova. It is currently conducting combat operations in the Pi Canis sector block.
6) Strategic Task Force 6: Task Force 6 was rapidly deployed to reinforce the 14th fleet in the Gamma Orionis sector block until the ships of the combined Federation/Klingon Borg Special Task Force replaced it. This unit was moved to strategic reserve in the Sirius sector block, and was the first response to the Starbase 24 incursion, which has since been defended by combined fleet forces so that the 6th could return to strategic reserve.
7) Strategic Task Force 7: this task force has been engaged in combat operations in support of the 4th and 5th Fleets across the Eta Eridani sector block.
8) Strategic Task Force 8: this unit had been in strategic reserve to galactic coreward, but with the multitude of threats against the Federation core, it was brought down to act as a second strategic reserve (along with the 6th) and help defend the Regulus Sector block.
9) Strategic Task Force 9: was the unit originally in strategic reserve along the Romulan frontier, but has taken up operations in defense of the Alpha Centauri and Regulus sector blocks.
e) Special Task Forces
1) Borg Special Task Force: the original Borg Task Force was another victim of the fleet consolidation/restructuring. It was believed the Borg threat was gone, but that proved short sighted and the task force was reformed along with the combined forces from the Klingons.
2) Romulan Aid Special Task Force: miscellaneous forces and independent sailing ships from 8th, 9th, and 12th Fleets, sometimes combined with Klingon ships under truce that are assisting the Romulan faction based in the Tau Dewa sector block.