SF Military Tropes

[Coyote]

Here's one-- it affects general fiction as well as science-fiction-- but every soldier has a degree in "military" and can operate tanks, aircraft, helicopters, submarines, and do infantry special forces work all equally well.

[Batman]

Here's one-- it affects general fiction as well as science-fiction-- but every soldier has a degree in "military" and can operate tanks, aircraft, helicopters, submarines, and do infantry special forces work all equally well.

That's one of the things that annoyed me about S:AAB, really. Hey, we just finished training those people to be competent fighter pilots, let's use them to man gun turrets on a transport!
Not that other series are any better of course. Nevermind Pensacola, is there ANY military B5 main character who ISN'T qualified to do infantry work, close combat, fighter combat, infiltration/guerrilla work AND command a starship?

[adam_grif]

Here's one-- it affects general fiction as well as science-fiction-- but every soldier has a degree in "military" and can operate tanks, aircraft, helicopters, submarines, and do infantry special forces work all equally well.

This is more a videogame trope than anything else.

[Darth Wong]

Here's one-- it affects general fiction as well as science-fiction-- but every soldier has a degree in "military" and can operate tanks, aircraft, helicopters, submarines, and do infantry special forces work all equally well.

The Fifth Element was a good example of that. I like the way the general briefly shows a list of all the military vehicle types Bruce Willis' character is qualified on (in addition to being a Special Forces badass), and there appear to be dozens.

[MKSheppard]

This is more a videogame trope than anything else.

Actually no. See: Honor Harrington for very egregious example of that. Honor is not just a excellent Starship captain, but she's also execellent in everything!

It also occurs in Walter Jon William's Dread Empire's Fall series (along with a lot of Trek Tropes); but that can be explained away actually pretty well. See, in DEF; the Praxis, an alien race; imposed a huge empire onto the known galaxy, due to their early mastery of antimatter. So they simply showed up and rained antimatter bombs down onto defenseless worlds; and the entire empire has become incredibly schlerotic after thousands of years -- the entire Imperial system is run by Peers who have gained their position by dint of sheer heredity.

The Imperial Navy can best be described as the Royal Navy of the 1880s on crack. Sufficiently Wealthy Peers can have their frigates repainted to look like soccer balls, and spend inordnate amounts of their own money to recruit aboard the best soccer players, and then give them fake rates -- like giving your star soccer end a fake Chief Master Rigger rating.

So when the last Praxis dies, the entire empire begins to splinter; and ground combat / guerilla combat has been entirely neglected; because for thousands of years, all the praxis simply did was rain antimatter bombs onto worlds in rebellion. So that entire section of war has to be rediscovered.

[Darth Wong]

It also occurs in Walter Jon William's Dread Empire's Fall series (along with a lot of Trek Tropes); but that can be explained away actually pretty well. See, in DEF; the Praxis, an alien race; imposed a huge empire onto the known galaxy, due to their early mastery of antimatter. So they simply showed up and rained antimatter bombs down onto defenseless worlds; and the entire empire has become incredibly schlerotic after thousands of years -- the entire Imperial system is run by Peers who have gained their position by dint of sheer heredity.

The Imperial Navy can best be described as the Royal Navy of the 1880s on crack. Sufficiently Wealthy Peers can have their frigates repainted to look like soccer balls, and spend inordnate amounts of their own money to recruit aboard the best soccer players, and then give them fake rates -- like giving your star soccer end a fake Chief Master Rigger rating.

So when the last Praxis dies, the entire empire begins to splinter; and ground combat / guerilla combat has been entirely neglected; because for thousands of years, all the praxis simply did was rain antimatter bombs onto worlds in rebellion. So that entire section of war has to be rediscovered.

I always thought this might be a workable explanation for dubious clonetrooper tactics in AOTC. Yes, they've been training, but who trained the trainers? The Republic hasn't experienced real combat for a thousand years, and in real-life armies, it's considered seriously deleterious to lack trainers who have not personally experienced combat. To be fifty generations away from real experience is to probably allow an ungodly number of bizarre made-up ideas to percolate into military training regimens, and to allow an ungodly number of good ones to percolate out.

[Gil Hamilton]

The Fifth Element was a good example of that. I like the way the general briefly shows a list of all the military vehicle types Bruce Willis' character is qualified on (in addition to being a Special Forces badass), and there appear to be dozens.

That was the joke.

"Three reasons. One - as a member of the elite special forces unit of the Federated Army, you are expert in the use of all major weapons and space craft needed for this mission." *list rolls out of his hand and the bottom of the list hits the floor*

Note: as far as the General knows, "the mission" is travelling by a spaceliner to a hotel to pick up some stones and then flying back to Earth. It's making fun of the science fiction action hero cliche.

[MKSheppard]

I always thought this might be a workable explanation for dubious clonetrooper tactics in AOTC. Yes, they've been training, but who trained the trainers? The Republic hasn't experienced real combat for a thousand years, and in real-life armies, it's considered seriously deleterious to lack trainers who have not personally experienced combat. To be fifty generations away from real experience is to probably allow an ungodly number of bizarre made-up ideas to percolate into military training regimens, and to allow an ungodly number of good ones to percolate out.

Also, as Sea Skimmer likes to keep telling me -- the military places a great amount of weight on combat experience. Even if it is the wrong kind of experience. Look at how the US Army took a decade long detour from modernizing it's ground forces by drawing the wrong conclusions from it's 1998-1999 Kosovo experience in transporting troops over to the Balkans; and convinced it self that it needed C-130 transportable vehicles to avoid a repeat of the Kosovo Fiasco of deploying an Apache unit.

It could be that the last large scale war that the SW galaxy had before the Clone Wars occured at a time when personal shielding in both energy shields and personal armor was at a peak compared to the weapons effects from blasters at the period. So walking in massed ranks wouldn't be stupid -- you would be maximizing your shield/armor advantage against incoming fire.

The problem would be that since then weapons technology has really overtaken protective technology by the Clone War period.

Also, they just picked the wrong person to train the GAR in Jango Fett. He had all the wrong skillsets that were needed for the job.

[Darth Wong]

Speaking of the "wrong kind of experience", that's another good point. What if the last thousand years of Republic ground combat experience was mostly peacekeeping and glorified police work, doing things like riot control? These are alternate scenarios where it might make sense to adopt these "wall of men" strategies. If it's been so long since they faced real massed firepower, they might have completely forgotten why it's so important to spread out.

[MKSheppard]

It might also explain some of the "removal of initative" that the Kaminoans did to the Block I clones. Because according to the experience they consulted in designing the clonetroopers, standing like a wall leads to victory. And people saying "this is retarded" would not be welcome in the cloning batches.

[Darth Wong]

It might also explain some of the "removal of initative" that the Kaminoans did to the Block I clones. Because according to the experience they consulted in designing the clonetroopers, standing like a wall leads to victory. And people saying "this is retarded" would not be welcome in the cloning batches.

They might not even think to say it anyway. Some things just don't seem obvious unless someone teaches you or shows you (of course, when an enemy shows you, it's the most emphatic lesson of all). There's a psychological boost from being close to your comrades, after all. A lot of what we do to modern soldiers is to break down what feels right and natural, and replace it with what is logical.

[spaceviking]

This is probably best seen in Stargate… putting extremely valuable people in harms way. Samantha Carter your top scientist in seemingly every scientific field,give her a rifle and put her on the frontline. Tilk(sp) an important political symbol to bring about a Jaffa uprising, give him all the most dangerous jobs.

Of course there are real world examples of this like when Einstein and Charles De Gaulle stormed the beaches of Normandy together.

[MKSheppard]

Trope 2: A Single Special Uber-Forces Soldier Is Worth Fifty Infantrymen And Wins Wars By Himself

I'm sure you've read many stories where a single person (or squad) can telepathically sense the approach of the enemy, and can kill hundreds of enemy soldiers without breaking a sweat.

Telepathic Senses Are Nothing of the Sort

The reasons why SF can magically detect the approach of the enemy are for several reasons.

• The Special Forces soldier is employed in small units, ranging from two man buddy pairs to a squad (8 men). Some units may deploy in platoon strength (30+ men), but those are rarities in the world of SF. Obviously, eight people walking in single file in the jungle will be less easily spotted than a platoon of infantrymen walking in a loose diamond formation spread out over fifty meters.
• They've received training in 'reading' the environment, and can recognize the telltale signs of human foot travel. The average mechanized infantryman will overlook anything smaller than tank treads, generally.
• I'm sure you've read or watched the traditional "okay turn in all your dog-tags" sequence. Usually, this is couched as "you guys are so secret we will deny all knowledge that you ever existed" by the author. But there's actually a more prosaic reason. Dog tags jingle and make noise as you walk. You can apply duct tape to them to make them less noisier, but the best solution is to leave them at home.
• All that early entry training in extreme environments to prove willpower comes to the fore here with water discipline. If you take a swig out of your full canteen and then replace it on your hip, the now partially full/empty canteen will begin to slosh/gurgle. Multiply that by several men, and that's noticeable noise. So you do not take sips from your canteen as you feel thirsty. You instead fight the urge to take a drink until you and everyone else in the team is thirsty enough to drink all of the water in their canteens, leaving them empty and noise-free.
• Relaxed standards in apparel, grooming, and feeding generally apply to any competent Special Forces Unit. For why this is, see the factoids below.
• Factoid 1: Did you know that in South America, many soldiers wear pretty strong cologne when they go out into the jungle? It's a manhood thing down there. This means that the bad guys can smell the unit approaching before they see them, and set up an ambush or undertake evasive action.
• Factoid 2: Many hunters in the US when they go out to hunt; don't shave, shower, or put deodrant on for several days prior to the hunt. This prevents animals from smelling the characteristic smells of detergent, deoderant, shampoo, shaving cream, etc that any survivor of a few hunts will soon associate with getting shot at. The same thing also applies to the most dangerous prey of all, sentinent beings.
• Factoid 3: The foods that you carry on your back and eat have an effect on your smell which becomes noticeable in numbers. So many SEAL teams in Vietnam before they went out on missions would eat only Vietnamese cusine and eat rice balls on missions. This meant the Vietcong would smell the smells of people who are eating rice balls, and assume that they are friendly or themselves; and let their guard down.

Of course, there's also the fact that SF simply don't talk on a mission unless they have to (the radio). Human voices carry a long ways. So it's not a good idea to curse that donkey you've piled up with 50 billion rounds of 14.5mm or food as it refuses to do what you want it to do...

[Darth Wong]

That reminds me of the widespread sci-fi faith in the effectiveness of rapid-deployed unsupported light infantry. Using some sci-fi stand-in for parachutes (usually something called "drop pods"), these men are basically a sci-fi writer's adaptation of the famous World War 2 paratroopers deploying over Normandy. One problem: those guys weren't that effective. The Allies got the idea that this was a brilliant tactic from the Nazis, who used it themselves earlier in the war (but the Nazis actually found the results so unsatisfying that they vowed never to use them again).

They're not very effective (especially relative to their small numbers and extensive training) because of precisely what they are: unsupported light infantry. There are pretty strict limits to what such a unit can do on its own, especially if the drop doesn't go perfectly or the enemy is aware of the attempt. You send them in to accomplish a specific goal (probably one which will allow heavier forces to land more easily), not to fight normal infantry battalions on their own. And yet, in sci-fi this often seems to be a preferred (and in some cases, almost exclusive) means of deploying combat troops.

I chalk this up to the "it just seems cool!" factor.

[Sarevok]

Well to be fair most space opera have dropships for deploying armies. The dropships usually have enough armor and weapons to blast a landing zone and support the troops after they disembark.

[Simon_Jester]

I think the supermen thing is a problem itself, independent of training. When the commercials say "Army of one" they don't literally mean one superman. The individual's role is only as important as what he contributes to the unit as a whole.

A superman seems to me that it would be even less than useless, but might even be counterproductive. Soldiers don't work alone; you want team players, not guys who think they can do it all on their own.

The classic example of the SF military superman, the Warhammer 40k Space Marine, is a team player... but only with other supermen. At least the authors had the decency to note in the canon that Space Marines working with normal human infantry tended to cause problems because they didn't take the humans' limits into account.

In some settings, of course, that gets forgotten and it's all "lone warrior who can dodge bullets and spit fire" trash, of course.

Actually no. See: Honor Harrington for very egregious example of that. Honor is not just a excellent Starship captain, but she's also execellent in everything!

She's a Mary Sue, though. Most other characters in the setting are more specialized, and only excel at a few specific things. The first example that came to mind was "Scotty" Tremaine, who is basically only good at piloting small craft (and, OK, has a high-grade certification on a specific infantry weapon). Everything else he's good at he had to learn slowly over the course of a career; what powered him through the ranks was his mastery of small craft tactics and operations.

Speaking of the "wrong kind of experience", that's another good point. What if the last thousand years of Republic ground combat experience was mostly peacekeeping and glorified police work, doing things like riot control? These are alternate scenarios where it might make sense to adopt these "wall of men" strategies. If it's been so long since they faced real massed firepower, they might have completely forgotten why it's so important to spread out.

I've heard someone talk about this in real life, talking about the recent Israeli invasion of Hezbollah-held territory in Lebanon:

I suppose what makes it all worse for the IDF is that they're now almost assured to be incompentent at this kind of combat; the kind that involves fielding company and larger formations against people who can meaningfully shoot back. It's been many years since they've faced a heavily armed foe instead of rifle and occasional IED armed Palestinians; and as one chap Haaretz quoted said "...I trained to destroy Syrian tanks, my son trains to knock down doors and arrest a terrorist." An army grown soft on occupation duty is not an army that remembers the basic rules of being shot at, like `don't bunch up' and 'duck'; both of which failings have led to rather more IDF infantry being killed with single anti-tank missiles than really should be the case.

Now I'm certain they'll learn (the survivors always do); but it will cost them a fair number of casualties that they didn't really need to lose that way. What with the dozen reservists killed by that rocket yesterday, they've already blown past the U.S. losses in Iraq (proportionally speaking) to little effect; so they'd better learn fast...

That reminds me of the widespread sci-fi faith in the effectiveness of rapid-deployed unsupported light infantry. Using some sci-fi stand-in for parachutes (usually something called "drop pods"), these men are basically a sci-fi writer's adaptation of the famous World War 2 paratroopers deploying over Normandy.

I think this is a brainbug.

As far as I can tell it started with Starship Troopers... but Heinlein wasn't dropping unsupported light infantry from orbit. The Mobile Infantry were about as well armed as a modern helicopter gunship (lots of explosive ordnance), and about as fast and (seemingly, relative to the available weapons) as well protected as a modern tank. Functionally, I'd place them somewhere between air cavalry and armored cavalry in a modern context. And air/armored cavalry M.I. units can accomplish a lot more unsupported than light infantry could.

To make matters worse, Heinlein's M.I. could rely on orbital fire support for major operations; space bombardments went up to and included "cracking the planet open." A science fiction author trying to emulate him may forget or handwave away the role of fire support.

[Batman]

So why not use the DROPSHIPS to do a lot of the initial fighting? Sure, they can't do all of the infantry's work, but they CAN thin out the enemy defenses beforehand.

[MKSheppard]

So how do they manage to score such absurd kill ratios?

We've proved earlier that SF aren't supermen. So how do they score such absurd kill ratios; such as 200 dead Vietcong for no casualties other than minor wounds over several missions in the bush?

Choosing your Enemy: Special Forces avoid pitched stand-up battles whenever possible. If they come across a unit that is significantly larger than them, they let it pass, and when possible, pass the word on about that unit. ("This is Fox Five, large amount of VC entering grid square FG51, recommend artillery strike in battalion strength to eliminate VC").

Smaller units are more to their picking and will be attacked, depending on the mission orders. SF teams might have orders to avoid all enemy contact and set up reconnaisance outposts in a vital mountain pass in advance of a major search-and-destroy operation by a friendly unit. Thus, when the enemy begins fleeing through that pass; the SF team can then call in artillery and airstrikes via radio or laser designators.

Excessive Firepower for Size:: Special Forces aren't subject to the whims of TO&Es like normal units are. If they want their 8-man squad to carry four automatic rifles, two 7.62mm machine guns, and two grenade launchers; then they'll do that, instead of the standard 11-man squad carrying nine automatic rifles, one 7.62mm MG, and one grenade launchers. That firepower when concentrated into a kill sack is pretty devastating; in addition to whatever mines and booby traps they can emplace.

Ambushes: These are glorious things.

Spot an enemy platoon walking it's way down a trail in the jungle?

While the enemy platoon sacks down for the night; keep moving and pass them to set up an ambush position down the trail with claymores and bouncing betties.

Important Tip: Do not place all of your booby traps straight along the path. Only put a few on the path; and then place the majority of your traps where you imagine the enemy will dive for cover.

So the ambush would proceed as thus:

You let the advance scouts pass you first. If you fire on them, then the main body will halt and then attempt to outflank you. Bad juju that way.

Engaging the first half of of the main body isn't a good idea either. You want to cut off their escape route; so you want to at least get some of their rear guard as well.

So you wait until it's the right time for the ambush; and you then personally trigger the claymores and bouncing betties by electrical wire.

Why electrically?

Setting up pressure/tension based traps works if you just want to harass the enemy over several days; but if you want to do an ambush, you need to be assured that your trap springs on the enemy group, and not some farmers driving down the road or poking their cow down the trail.

The first blasts go off, cutting down the front and rear of the enemy element. You wait a couple seconds for the enemy to realize he's under attack, and to move out of the kill zone and dive for cover by the sides of the path; then you trigger the majority of your booby traps aimed at where you judged cover to be. All during this, your men are pouring automatic and grenade fire into the enemy body. You let it go on for a couple more seconds; then give the order to retreat.

As your troops retreat, you set up noise makers and booby traps to cover your escape. The noise makers give the impression that you're still firing hundreds of rounds, while the booby traps prevent anyone from following you down your escape path.

Done right, you can pretty much eliminate smaller groups; and put a serious dent in medium sized groups. The key here is to not stay behind for a stand up fight -- in those kind of fights, you lose; as it then becomes a game of chance and attrition, and those favor the person with the bigger army, and that person isn't you.

Once you've exfiltrated the immediate ambush area; you go to ground and wait several days before resuming operations against the enemy, if you have enough ammunition to set up another ambush. Why wait? Because you want to see if your operation has caused a hornet's nest of enemy activity in the area -- you might need that ammunition you have left to cover your escape from a battalion of troops sent out to beat the country for you.

Plus, you don't want to make it really obvious that a SF group is operating in the area via a whole string of attacks in a short time in a smallish area (remember, once you've parachuted in, you're basically light leg infantry; so you can't move that far in a short period of time).

[adam_grif]

This is probably best seen in Stargate… putting extremely valuable people in harms way. Samantha Carter your top scientist in seemingly every scientific field,give her a rifle and put her on the frontline. Tilk(sp) an important political symbol to bring about a Jaffa uprising, give him all the most dangerous jobs.

Of course there are real world examples of this like when Einstein and Charles De Gaulle stormed the beaches of Normandy together.

It's Teal'c. And yes, this sometimes bothers me. Of course, Stargate doesn't even try at realism, it's just standard SciFi adventure stuff. Might be wrong (don't watch it), but doesn't Trek do a similar thing in how they beam the Captain and/or high ranking officers down on a regular basis instead of some kind of dedicated ground team?

[Sarevok]

So why not use the DROPSHIPS to do a lot of the initial fighting? Sure, they can't do all of the infantry's work, but they CAN thin out the enemy defenses beforehand.

Thats what Star Wars does. See the Republic LAAT gunship for instance. It blasts its way to a planets surface then loiters above and provides air support as the clonetroopers advance. You also see this is in Battletech sometimes. Their dropships are VERY heavily armed and armored massing thousands of tons. These leviathans are not worth risking in direct combat but their considerable armament can devastate any enemies approaching the landing zone. Another example would be Covenant dropships in Halo. They are both well armed and very durable. Frequently the dropships are found blasting enemies after deploying infantry squads.

[Revy]

This is probably best seen in Stargate… putting extremely valuable people in harms way. Samantha Carter your top scientist in seemingly every scientific field,give her a rifle and put her on the frontline. Tilk(sp) an important political symbol to bring about a Jaffa uprising, give him all the most dangerous jobs.

Of course there are real world examples of this like when Einstein and Charles De Gaulle stormed the beaches of Normandy together.

It's Teal'c. And yes, this sometimes bothers me. Of course, Stargate doesn't even try at realism, it's just standard SciFi adventure stuff. Might be wrong (don't watch it), but doesn't Trek do a similar thing in how they beam the Captain and/or high ranking officers down on a regular basis instead of some kind of dedicated ground team?

Pretty much the case in every Trek series bar TNG, in which Riker insisted that he go in place of Picard. Of course Picard wasn't exactly action hero material (movies not withstanding) so maybe that was why. Main characters are usually protected by character shields, but the characters shouldn't actually know that, and shouldn't be putting the entire senior staff of a starship in harms way for every little away mission. I think TOS was the worst offender for this, though I may be wrong.

To be fair though, I think both Trek and Stargate are somewhat justified in doing this for simple entertainment value. People don't want to watch generic security guards/airmen going on exciting sci-fi missions and adventures, we want to see the main cast in the thick of things. You know, the famous actors that are getting payed the big bucks to actually star in the shows in the first place. Watching Jack O'Neill and the rest of SG1 go on a mission is more interesting for me than watching SG2 go on a mission (though every once in a while focus on background characters is nice). So I'd forgive them for putting such important people in harms way all the time.

[Batman]

You CAN have it BOTH ways you know. While the main characters having to go on the mission is more or less a given that doesn't require the Bad Guys to be abysmally stupid, something Stargate DID actually remember every once in a while.

[spaceviking]

This is probably best seen in Stargate… putting extremely valuable people in harms way. Samantha Carter your top scientist in seemingly every scientific field,give her a rifle and put her on the frontline. Tilk(sp) an important political symbol to bring about a Jaffa uprising, give him all the most dangerous jobs.

Of course there are real world examples of this like when Einstein and Charles De Gaulle stormed the beaches of Normandy together.

It's Teal'c. And yes, this sometimes bothers me. Of course, Stargate doesn't even try at realism, it's just standard SciFi adventure stuff. Might be wrong (don't watch it), but doesn't Trek do a similar thing in how they beam the Captain and/or high ranking officers down on a regular basis instead of some kind of dedicated ground team?

Pretty much the case in every Trek series bar TNG, in which Riker insisted that he go in place of Picard. Of course Picard wasn't exactly action hero material (movies not withstanding) so maybe that was why. Main characters are usually protected by character shields, but the characters shouldn't actually know that, and shouldn't be putting the entire senior staff of a starship in harms way for every little away mission. I think TOS was the worst offender for this, though I may be wrong.

To be fair though, I think both Trek and Stargate are somewhat justified in doing this for simple entertainment value. People don't want to watch generic security guards/airmen going on exciting sci-fi missions and adventures, we want to see the main cast in the thick of things. You know, the famous actors that are getting payed the big bucks to actually star in the shows in the first place. Watching Jack O'Neill and the rest of SG1 go on a mission is more interesting for me than watching SG2 go on a mission (though every once in a while focus on background characters is nice). So I'd forgive them for putting such important people in harms way all the time.

I think the worst for Star Trek was when Jellicho was given command while Picard was a comando against the Cardassians.

[Zixinus]

I think that you could go with having the cabbage and leaving the goat (that makes more sense than having a cake and eating it too): you don't have to have the main character be the most important or high-ranking people. In Star Trek's case, you could have the security team being the main cast instead of the captain (or make only the captain a member of the main cast).

Or alternatively, do as in Firefly, and make a crew small enough that even the senior staff's help would be invaluable.

[adam_grif]

You can simply have more than four main characters. People expect SG-1 to go on away missions, but nobody expects General Hammond to do any fighting. We never see any of the Starship captains in SG-1 act like Kirk, but Jack does get called back into a grunt role for the movies.