Design Federation ground forces

[Srelex]

Your little challenge is to try and conceptualize how proper Federation ground forces would look like if the Star Trek writers had the budget and desire to show epic land battles with combined arms in a similar vein to Geonosis, or, if you prefer, simply ground forces with a modicum of sense. This would include armor, infantry classes, etc, keeping it all in context and within the realms of tech presented, naturally. So, for example, phaser tanks, jetpack infantry, and so on. The nuTrek film certainly suggested that that particular UFP can deploy ODST-style troops if it so desires.

For extra points, you can have a go at the Klingons, Romulans, Borg, etc.

So, go!

[Aaron]

Lets just save time and put phasers on everything on this list. Because thats what your going to get in the thread, baring BS like power armour.

[Teleros]

A lot depends on how much orbital support the troops are expected to have (ie, think Marines vs Army). To start with though...

Infantry
1. We've seen infantry wearing full-body cloaking suits - something like this is obviously going to be useful in a scouting and sabotage roles, even if the stealth tech involved isn't perfect. I'd anticipate a broad range of weapons depending on mission, including but not limited to sniper rifles, demolition charges, and some anti-tank weaponry.

2. Most infantry forces to be mechanised in APCs capable of surviving in most hostile environments, as well as re-entry. This will allow for rapid deployment and recovery in situations where transporters aren't working.

3. Powered armour and exoskeletons are almost possible today, so something along these lines should be used for most soldiers. At the very least, it enables them to carry a bundle of sensors around more easily, which will also be useful when faced with cloaked enemies, Changelings, and the like. Plus, being able to go one-on-one with Klingons, Borg or what-have-you will come in handy. Finally, powered armour should be able to mount personal shields if Borg drones' shields are anything to go by.

4. Non-visible personal weapons. By this I mean beams that don't shoot out bright sparkly orange beams and such. I don't want my snipers giving away their position.

5. Miniature photon torpedoes could be used both as RPGs, missiles and traditional artillery, in cases where sensor jamming is operative.

6. Depending on the size and capability of the powered armour, personal point defence systems. In a worst case scenario, they'll provide an additional weapon against enemy attack, but if they can explode a few "Photon RPGs" a safe enough distance away then they should be useful.

7. Portable mini-theatre shield generators, to help protect against light artillery attacks etc. Against heavier artillery you'd hold out for proper mobile theatre shield generators (below), but smaller ones can help negate smaller scale enemy advantages and hopefully force them into fighting on your terms.

8. We've already seen ship-powered ground beam weapons in TOS - if we can get semi-portable versions that would also be great.

9. As said in the OP, jetpacks and the like will be able to offer infantry an unprecedented level of mobility compared to modern soldiers.


Vehicles & Aircraft
I'm putting the two together here as I expect Starfleet to be able to blur the line somewhat.

1. Depending on reliability and the like, traditional tracked or wheeled vehicles should still be in use.

2. In the main, I don't really see many differences here from modern armour: one should still expect to see tanks, artillery, scout vehicles and the like all in use. The fact that the UFP's Abrams might also be able to fly is just an added bonus.

3. As with the note about infantry APCs, all vehicles to be capable of surviving in most hostile environments, as well as re-entry.

4. As you can probably guess, I want either starships or shuttles capable of deploying said vehicles to a planet more or less as quickly as the LAATs we see in AotC.

5. One might expect more specialised mobile theatre shield generators to cover large advancing bodies of troops & armour.

6. Similarly, heavy siege platforms, probably armed with phasers to limit collateral damage, should be useful.

7. Anti-starship vehicles. They may not be the most powerful, but they should be capable, in numbers, of acting as a threat to enemy starships. Will likely use a combination of photon torpedoes and energy weapons. I'm a bit iffy about putting too many big phasers on things in case we accidentally get the maths wrong and turn the entire atmosphere into an NDF chain reaction (!).

8. Dedicated mobile transporter pads. These would essentially be high-visibility targets to aim for when sending down reinforcements by transporter in the event of jamming. Would need protecting though, because if they're powerful enough to make easier targeting for transporters, they'll show up like a sore thumb on enemy scanners too.


UAVs etc
1. Really, you could argue for a large portion of any UFP army being made up of remote-operated robots and the like (assuming they can't built AIs powerful enough to function autonomously... then again given the whole "AIs always turn on their masters" meme this is probably safer anyway).

2. UAVs and the like could be used for just about everything we use them for today - and a bit more. A tiny drone with tricorder, camera and anti-grav unit would be infinitely more replaceable compared to a trained soldier when it comes to spying for example.

3. Given the relatively low cost of robotics and the like, I'd expect this kind of equipment to be distributed at all levels. A single squad or fire team with a couple of UAVs in tow for anti-tank or recon work should be perfectly normal.


Starfleet Marines vs the Army of the Federated Planets
A lot of things here will change depending on what sort of ground forces you're after.

By Marines I mean troops expected to operate with the close support of their home starship most, if not all, of the time, as opposed to the USMC which is in many ways a miniature army, navy and airforce all rolled into one. These guys would likely have lighter equipment in general, on the basis that if they can't take it out then that's what the starship is for, and if the starship can't then none of their ground-based vehicles they could have fitted into said starship could have either. Such forces would consequently be more thanks to starship support, but might do away with most of the heavy armour.

The regular Army would have access to most of the other stuff, but be less mobile in that it would require Starfleet to pick it up and move it to wherever it was needed, whilst the Marines would often be found on board Starfleet vessels in the first place.

If you really wanted to min/max your planetary army or whatever, you'd use the transporters to cheat by creating cloned remote-controlled robots to do all the fighting, with perhaps only their control teams on the surface at all - and then under a powerful shield generator, point defence lasers and such. Specialised ships with large transporter bays and extra reactors could literally make an army on the spot for you. This would, of course, require that the Federation have even moderately secure comms and computers...


Right, very broad I know, but it's a start at least.

[RedImperator]

Trigger guards.

[Bakustra]

Trigger guards.

I, too, will give this thread the full respect it deserves. Firstly, I would put everyone in power armor. By everyone, I don't mean such limited ideas as putting every infantryman into a suit that makes 'em a walking tank. No, the bridge crews, the regular spacemen, and even the ship's counselor would wear full suits of power armor at all times. When we see civilians, they would also be in power armor, or on special occasions in ninja costumes. And there would be none of this paltry "distinguishing features" stuff either! All the suits would be virtually identical, and you could only tell characters apart by their voice actors, of which we would only have five, to save on costs.

That's not all! The aliens would be aliener; paging-Dr.-Lovecraft is what I'd go for. I'd fully expect to have at least thirteen mental breakdowns a year in our viewers from these aliens. Vulcans, Klingons, Andorians et al wouldn't vanish, though; I would make them actually modified humans from a time-traveling, post-apocalyptic-Singularity Clarketech civilization, which would be explained over five minutes at the beginning of every episode in a boring voice.

For military vehicles (for in the grim future of Star Trek: The Bakustra Generation, there would be only war and cheesy melodrama) I would use walkers. Gigantic walkers, about fifty feet tall, that we could do in stop-motion out of clay. They would have gigantic phasers welded to their hands, along with trigger guards. I would expand on Red's brilliant idea and have at least five, and preferably twelve trigger guards on each model phaser.
Spoiler

This is not a serious post, but this is not a serious thread either.

[Eleventh Century Remnant]

Probably. On the other hand, maybe there is something different that can be done.

For a start, what is the mission? "fight great big battles that look good on TV" doesn't really make sense in universe, and I doubt that everything in the US Army's equipment list will remain relevant in a situation driven by the advantages of space fire support, and the disadvantages of space- based logistics.

I want to start by thinking TOS for the time being. Let the series after that look after themselves.

I can see four primary missions;
Exploration escort, protecting and probably doing some of the gruntwork for survey parties and initial terraforming expeditions; long duration stays, in contact with small numbers of civilians, in unpredictably and not- necessarily hostile conditions.

Law enforcement, which on some colonies could reach the paramilitary- think about the suppression of the rule of Kodos the Executioner. Probably has to be done in accordance with the principles of the federation- I don't see frontier justice flying particularly well.

Ship combat support- boarding and counterboarding, highly probably by teleporter in either direction.

Major surface combat- probably against other powers, most probably against the Klingons at this point in the timeline, and a three edged problem; one, how do you take and hold a Klingon populated planet? Two, how do you defend a populated world against an invading Klingon force with starship support? Three, how do you remove a Klingon occupation force from a Federation populated planet?

Partly out of prejudice, partly out of post- WWIII limitations, automated units are out. They certainly ought to be possible and practical, but was there anything in TOS that would suggest the use, or rule out the feasibility, of unmanned remote- control vehicles? (Not asking in general, of course they are in real life, but specifically Trek.)

Starship phasers can do vast amounts of damage, or stun areas city- blocks across. With starship support, energy artillery becomes not a problem. Without starship support, the options reduce to guerilla warfare or surface to orbit artillery.

I see main missions one and three as arguing for the greatest practical individual survivability and firepower- boarding is infantry work, I think, and considering some of the things that have been known to go wrong on planetary surveys, well. Walking around in suits of packing crate material plate armour might be a shade too intimidating for law enforcement, though.

Personal shields...not at this level. Ideally, yes, but not yet- they might take some time to happen.

I think the primary outfit of the Federation Marines might/should/could be something like- dammit, I can't find the original image, but the picture of the armoured spacesuit just a little way down from the top and on the left of Atomic Rocket's Spacesuits page. Enough resistance to phaser fire to give the guy inside it time to get out of the line of fire, at least. Although the agility of it may need a little work. Apparently, according to some of the links I came across, NASA have been thinking about hardsuits since Gemini, so it's not that far a stretch for a sci fi series that came out of the sixties.

Buit in tricorder and other sensor suite, of course. For backup on the survey support mission, we're looking at some kind of mobile base vehicle/armoured rover for crew rest and suit recharge and maintenance, or hell, a slightly spiffier version of a shuttle would probably do. (Is it just me, or does the original shuttle resemble an M113 from the side,anyway?)

Law enforcement- add a forensic science attachment to the tricorder and I really don't think there's much to be added here.

Major combat, well, this is where it gets fun, isn't it? Damned if I can think of a ground vehicle that looks recognisably trek in my mind's eye, but- ah, that would be fun. Picture an open topped UFO, about 15 feet across, call it, hell, call it an Impulsejeep; should only be a few feet thick, two or three maybe- as much ridden on as in, four armoured marines, possibly shielded- damn' well ought to be actually, at least as well as the shuttle; the main battlefield taxi/planetary mobility unit of the Federation Marines. Armed versions replace the two guys in the back with a mortar or support phaser, both of which have been seen anyway- although I doubt you'd get something as powerful as the unit from The Cage on that small a vehicle.

For that, you need to move to the next size up. What's the point in the middle of the scale? The next logical step is units powerful enough to support you when there is no starship there, mobile phaser emitters capable of surface to orbit defence, mobile shield generators to hold off orbital counterfire. Probably have to be moved in by specialised carriers, I can't think of anywhere on a Constitution they might fit. Possibly treaded, looking a bit like the shuttle transporter.

De- Klingonifying a world, although I hate to admit this, might be best done by something a bit more discriminatory than gunfire- biowar might be the go-to option, some debilitating illness that only affects Klingons, and ideally fast enough that they have no time to conduct reprisal executions.

[Stofsk]

Your little challenge is to try and conceptualize how proper Federation ground forces would look like if the Star Trek writers had the budget and desire to show epic land battles with combined arms in a similar vein to Geonosis, or, if you prefer, simply ground forces with a modicum of sense.

That would disqualify Geonosis.

This would include armor, infantry classes, etc, keeping it all in context and within the realms of tech presented, naturally. So, for example, phaser tanks, jetpack infantry, and so on. The nuTrek film certainly suggested that that particular UFP can deploy ODST-style troops if it so desires.

For extra points, you can have a go at the Klingons, Romulans, Borg, etc.

So, go!

I'm just gonna go with TOS and ignore everything else. Phasers set to kill vapourise/disintegrate/hit-an-enemy-and-that-enemy-DIES. There may not be any armour possible to deflect this kind of firepower, but I did read a ST novel where the premise for hard-hitting ground forces wore a kind of ablative armour that's designed to dissipate destructive energy from a kill-shot from a phaser. Trouble is the ablative nature of the armour means it'll eventually be rendered ineffective, but I guess a ship's replicator could be designed to build replacements.

TOS also had mortars, and orbital bombardment that could be either devastating (General Order 24) or less so (stunning a city block in 'A Piece of the Action'). I also don't recall transporters being limited like they were in TNG+, though it would make sense to have transporter scramblers. Even so, I wouldn't pull the transporters teeth like TNG did.

[Teleros]

De- Klingonifying a world, although I hate to admit this, might be best done by something a bit more discriminatory than gunfire- biowar might be the go-to option, some debilitating illness that only affects Klingons, and ideally fast enough that they have no time to conduct reprisal executions.

I've got this sudden image of hypospray missiles now ...

[Aaron]

I'm just gonna go with TOS and ignore everything else. Phasers set to kill vapourise/disintegrate/hit-an-enemy-and-that-enemy-DIES. There may not be any armour possible to deflect this kind of firepower, but I did read a ST novel where the premise for hard-hitting ground forces wore a kind of ablative armour that's designed to dissipate destructive energy from a kill-shot from a phaser. Trouble is the ablative nature of the armour means it'll eventually be rendered ineffective, but I guess a ship's replicator could be designed to build replacements.

TOS also had mortars, and orbital bombardment that could be either devastating (General Order 24) or less so (stunning a city block in 'A Piece of the Action'). I also don't recall transporters being limited like they were in TNG+, though it would make sense to have transporter scramblers. Even so, I wouldn't pull the transporters teeth like TNG did.

The armour thing isn't that big of a deal, modern BA is only good for a few rounds and then has to be replaced; insert and everything. This ablative armour at least has the advantage that they may be able to replicate it on site, depending on how the thing works.

Just to tie into what Destructionator mentioned, it's all wel and good to design a Fed Army but without the logistics support behind it, it's just a wank off. You'd need to design ships and a training package to go along with all this. Which would really need to be started before anything else.

[Stofsk]

The armour thing isn't that big of a deal, modern BA is only good for a few rounds and then has to be replaced; insert and everything. This ablative armour at least has the advantage that they may be able to replicate it on site, depending on how the thing works.

That's what I figured re: modern day armour only good for a bit before needing to be replaced/repaired.

Just to tie into what Destructionator mentioned, it's all wel and good to design a Fed Army but without the logistics support behind it, it's just a wank off. You'd need to design ships and a training package to go along with all this. Which would really need to be started before anything else.

Dedicated troop transports would be required for a full army. Generally speaking, for the kind of things they're usually used for, redshirts seem to handle the low-grade conflicts they routinely go up against. I agree with you.

[Batman]

Body armour being worthwhile against phasers (or not) is something that I suspect is hard to really determine as we don't really know how the bloody things work. OVERALL, hand phasers seem to be more effective against low density materials vs high density ones, but that's about the best we can tell. Trek (meaning TNG mostly) people rarely using the 'disintegrate' option may result from anything from the thing actually using a too large fraction of the phaser's powerpack through higher density materials/metals actually being immune to the reaction to a combination of both where body armour was considered useless because while hand phasers COULDN'T defeat it EASILY, they COULD defeat it if need be.

[Stofsk]

This is a conceptual thread Batman, not a canon one.

[SapphireFox]

Lets see first both pistol and rifle would use an easily replaceable energy clip, if it is designed well then it would be comparable between both weapons. For the pistol I see no reason that the mechanics of it could not be placed in comfortable balanced design like the M1911 or similar. Definitely including trigger guards. For armor I would start with the standard space suit and armor it up with the best armor available. (even the damned packing crates material if we had to ) integral tricorder with a HUD and a extended power pack/life support systems. This would make a good start with existing systems. Heavy weapons would include a portable mortar or a mini-photon launcher dependant on the mission. But most important of all TRAINING proper training and lots of it, use of cover and photon grenades to clear rooms areas when necessary. For vehicles I suggest a compact attack craft like a light tank to conserve space on the starships that are having to transport them. a small two person tank would be best no bigger than jeep with a driver and the commander/gunner operating the phaser cannon. There is no reason not to have a small shield generator on said tank. Hopefully the tank will fit into an extended type 6 shuttle just in case the transporters are offline for whatever reason.

[Batman]

This is a conceptual thread Batman, not a canon one.

It seems to be a conceptual thread working with the canon limitations of Trek technology from what I can tell. So while the Feds no longer suffer from the stupidity that in canon keeps them from making the best USE of the technology available to them, the inherent limits OF that technology still apply. Thus hand phasers MAY (not WILL, MAY) render body armour as available moderately pointless if one is willing to expend a sufficiently large portion of the phaser's charge to do it.

[Formless]

If you are expecting to have to deal with explosives and artillery you want something to protect yourself from shrapnel at the least, Bats. NBC protection optional.

[Bakustra]

If we're going to be serious, then there's not much of a reason to have mechanized ground forces within the "regulars". They take up space on board the ships for a minimum of efficiency. There are few situations that Starfleet would get into in the regular course of their duty that would require an APC, let alone a proper tank. While such units should exist, they would probably be best served as training units to be cadred out in case of full-scale war. Within Star Trek, space battles reign supreme over ground forces when it comes to military effectiveness.

The only things that I would add "in-universe" would be a set of armory blueprints for the replicator with stuff like a heavier support phaser, a mortar, and grenades, that the security teams could potentially need for emergencies and wouldn't take up a lot of replicator supplies.

Within the actual context of the show, these weapons would probably never actually show up, or maybe in one episode like the mortar and grenades in TOS. Of course, I'm talking about the TOS/TNG conception of an exploration vessel. When it comes to shield generators, I'm leery about using them indiscriminately, since their use on mobile vehicles may be a little impractical, if shields have to have a bubble shape.

[open_sketchbook]

Build a highly-shielded, low to the ground tracked tank with heavy armour as the "basic unit" of the new Federation marines. Fill it with computer banks, and put a big-ol' hologram emmitter on it, with a rack of weapons on the side.

Roll up to a spot, and deploy two dozen simplistically programmed combat holograms. They grab the guns off the side of the tank. If they get hit hard enough to disrupt the tactile field that gives them cohension, you just respawn them at the tank. Now you have an infinite supply of respawning redshirts that can operate within the tanks range. A launcher of the top of the tank propels special mines that also contain emitters and a hand phaser, meaning you could literately shoot a holographic soldier into windows of buildings or over obsticles, for example.

I'm not aiming for super effienciency, but come on, wouldn't this look freakin' awesome onscreen?

[CaptHawkeye]

It's going to be extremely difficult to just up and order a military force for the Federation. They have no doctrine, history, or real training base to work off of. Culturally the Federation even seems to be opposed to the visible presence of ground based arms. They must have planetary militias in order to keep security. I can't imagine much more than this though.

It's not as easy as just copy/pasting US Army equipment and procedures into the Feds. If I had to start somewhere though, i'd give Federation Ship Security teams something approaching actual boot camp training. A lot of training to be performed without all of their fancy gadgets like tricorders and com badges. Navigation, survival, endurance, and marksmanship.

I'd also recommend the Feds get their hands on a Phaser equivalent GPMG quickly. A lot of ground fights in Star Trek have frequently become melees because everyone's tactics seem to match 19th century Musket/Line Infantry. Give Fed squads some kind of high RoF, high range, crew served weapon to cover wide open areas and that will change fast. Mortars are another simple yet extremely useful toy the Feds could use.

We have to start simple and work our way up. The Feds need to firmly grasp small unit tactics before they can graduate to the bigger stuff.

[SapphireFox]

If we're going to be serious, then there's not much of a reason to have mechanized ground forces within the "regulars". They take up space on board the ships for a minimum of efficiency. There are few situations that Starfleet would get into in the regular course of their duty that would require an APC, let alone a proper tank. While such units should exist, they would probably be best served as training units to be cadred out in case of full-scale war. Within Star Trek, space battles reign supreme over ground forces when it comes to military effectiveness.

The only things that I would add "in-universe" would be a set of armory blueprints for the replicator with stuff like a heavier support phaser, a mortar, and grenades, that the security teams could potentially need for emergencies and wouldn't take up a lot of replicator supplies.

Within the actual context of the show, these weapons would probably never actually show up, or maybe in one episode like the mortar and grenades in TOS. Of course, I'm talking about the TOS/TNG conception of an exploration vessel. When it comes to shield generators, I'm leery about using them indiscriminately, since their use on mobile vehicles may be a little impractical, if shields have to have a bubble shape.

`

I have to dissagree with you there Bakustra. Having an allready made light tank means your not spending precious energy and time in and on the battlefeild to produce a tank. While I agree that space is at a preimium on any starship there is a ready made space avalible within the expansive shuttlebay for a few vehicles and it makes for a proper loading and unloading area as well. However since I agree with the space issue all vehicles should be designed with a minimum footprint on ship, just like on a carrier or perhaps more appropriately like airborne units everything has to be air transportable. To address the sheild issue there is no reason that the tank cant be a repulsorlift type tank Trek has alredy shown anti-gravity technology, this would allow any sheild bubble to pass underneath the vehicle.

Build a highly-shielded, low to the ground tracked tank with heavy armour as the "basic unit" of the new Federation marines. Fill it with computer banks, and put a big-ol' hologram emmitter on it, with a rack of weapons on the side.

Roll up to a spot, and deploy two dozen simplistically programmed combat holograms. They grab the guns off the side of the tank. If they get hit hard enough to disrupt the tactile field that gives them cohension, you just respawn them at the tank. Now you have an infinite supply of respawning redshirts that can operate within the tanks range. A launcher of the top of the tank propels special mines that also contain emitters and a hand phaser, meaning you could literately shoot a holographic soldier into windows of buildings or over obsticles, for example.

I'm not aiming for super effienciency, but come on, wouldn't this look freakin' awesome onscreen?

Would it look awesome yes yes it would. practile probably not. First off the whole system is a HUGE energy hog. I dont know what kind of generator you plan on running but its going to have to be powerful and likely heavy. Secondly how easy do you think it is to put out a feild that disrupts the holograms. *poof* where did my troops go While I have to give you props for inventiveness and coolness I just dont think it will work.

[Teleros]

It's going to be extremely difficult to just up and order a military force for the Federation. They have no doctrine, history, or real training base to work off of. Culturally the Federation even seems to be opposed to the visible presence of ground based arms. They must have planetary militias in order to keep security. I can't imagine much more than this though.

Hence this thread - designing a proper one.

Would it look awesome yes yes it would. practile probably not.

It would though be perfect for keeping low-tech systems or powers in line. The UFP's equivalent of a punitive expedition could be a holo-army. Even if the generator wasn't truly mobile, dropping them down near any strategic points would work.

[SapphireFox]

Would it look awesome yes yes it would. practile probably not.

It would though be perfect for keeping low-tech systems or powers in line. The UFP's equivalent of a punitive expedition could be a holo-army. Even if the generator wasn't truly mobile, dropping them down near any strategic points would work.

An cool idea with a few squishy organics to guard the generators incase of attack or sabotage and it makes for a sound emergecy stratagy. The only problem I can see with this Teleros-sempai is that the federation dosent accept pre-warp civilasations into the federation,so there not going to use it for policeing so who are they going to use it on?

[Teleros]

They don't have to be pre-Warp civilisations, just ones incapable or incapable of easily disrupting whatever projects the holograms. Of course it may be that simply recruiting and training sufficient regular soldiers is more cost-effective anyway, given the power requirements and such for this method, but if it isn't too expensive it should be a nice, casualty-friendly way of interfering.

[SapphireFox]

I can see holographic soldiers used as a kind o militia or national guard on federation worlds great for emergencies like disasters or surprise attack but poor for front-line combat with well equipped foes. I can foresee them being very useful in support roles like combat engineering, demolitions, mine clearing, or even civilian roles like fire fighting and mining.

[avatarxprime]

Build a highly-shielded, low to the ground tracked tank with heavy armour as the "basic unit" of the new Federation marines. Fill it with computer banks, and put a big-ol' hologram emmitter on it, with a rack of weapons on the side.

Roll up to a spot, and deploy two dozen simplistically programmed combat holograms. They grab the guns off the side of the tank. If they get hit hard enough to disrupt the tactile field that gives them cohension, you just respawn them at the tank. Now you have an infinite supply of respawning redshirts that can operate within the tanks range. A launcher of the top of the tank propels special mines that also contain emitters and a hand phaser, meaning you could literately shoot a holographic soldier into windows of buildings or over obsticles, for example.

I'm not aiming for super effienciency, but come on, wouldn't this look freakin' awesome onscreen?

That's the first thing I thought of when I read the OP.

If we're worried about energy efficiency then let's look to Data to save us. Just build a bunch of Androids that combine what the Feds know about constructing a Soong-type android with the Exocomp's built in replicator. Since intelligence is the issue in Federation robotics, have them all function as networked drones tied to a starship level computer core. The core (by virtue of the holodeck) has proven itself more than capable of running sufficiently intelligent AI to function as soldiers and contains its own power supply. Based on Voyager the cores aren't actually that big so you can make sure to stick it in a heavily armored/shielded deployable bunker with additional power and a few holo-emitters to be on the safe side so it can rapidly deploy insta-soldiers should the need arise. The drone themselves can just be stored in pods that can be beamed down.

Now you have an army that is loyal (no starship core, other than the M5) has turned against the Federation, relatively energy efficient (Data never complains), and highly adaptable thanks to the Exocomp portion of the design. All it needs, if you really want to, is a fleshy commander to direct its efforts should you not want the computer to have some default Command program like the ECH's program running the core.

[SapphireFox]

Build a highly-shielded, low to the ground tracked tank with heavy armour as the "basic unit" of the new Federation marines. Fill it with computer banks, and put a big-ol' hologram emmitter on it, with a rack of weapons on the side.

Roll up to a spot, and deploy two dozen simplistically programmed combat holograms. They grab the guns off the side of the tank. If they get hit hard enough to disrupt the tactile field that gives them cohension, you just respawn them at the tank. Now you have an infinite supply of respawning redshirts that can operate within the tanks range. A launcher of the top of the tank propels special mines that also contain emitters and a hand phaser, meaning you could literately shoot a holographic soldier into windows of buildings or over obsticles, for example.

I'm not aiming for super effienciency, but come on, wouldn't this look freakin' awesome onscreen?

That's the first thing I thought of when I read the OP.

If we're worried about energy efficiency then let's look to Data to save us. Just build a bunch of Androids that combine what the Feds know about constructing a Soong-type android with the Exocomp's built in replicator. Since intelligence is the issue in Federation robotics, have them all function as networked drones tied to a starship level computer core. The core (by virtue of the holodeck) has proven itself more than capable of running sufficiently intelligent AI to function as soldiers and contains its own power supply. Based on Voyager the cores aren't actually that big so you can make sure to stick it in a heavily armored/shielded deployable bunker with additional power and a few holo-emitters to be on the safe side so it can rapidly deploy insta-soldiers should the need arise. The drone themselves can just be stored in pods that can be beamed down.

Now you have an army that is loyal (no starship core, other than the M5) has turned against the Federation, relatively energy efficient (Data never complains), and highly adaptable thanks to the Exocomp portion of the design. All it needs, if you really want to, is a fleshy commander to direct its efforts should you not want the computer to have some default Command program like the ECH's program running the core.

Congradulations you just described the droid army in the battle of Naboo, pure genious. And what hapens to your army when the control core is destroyed whether on ship or ground, they keel over and die. Anyone with good ECM could jam the control transmition and defeat said army.

On an ethical matter would the federation condone creating a sentient being like Data/Exocomps just to fight/kill their enemies. Would the people condone it?