The Intersystem Alliance Marine Corps (IAMC) is the light fighting force of the Intersystem Alliance (IA), occasionally responsible for security aboard naval starships but largely conducting expeditionary operations. The Marine Corps has been a component of the Alliance Navy since its foundation in 2261, and with about 600 million personnel in active and reserve service, the IAMC is the smallest branch of the IA military - though still larger than the entire militaries of some star nations. Alliance Marines are trained to operate anywhere, in any world, in all environments, under any condition and circumstance, as a rapid reaction force. As such, Alliance Marines train in many different terrestrial and voidborne environments. The Alliance Marine Corps can be deployed with limited response to any domestic location in the IA within 24 hours.
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History
The Alliance Marine Corps was initially founded as a suppression operations force against colonial insurgents and criminal organizations operating in Alliance space and mustered from the marine corps of the United Nations of Earth and Martian Federation as well as dozens of veterans from the Jovian and Saturn corsairs. Initially, this took the form of the Alliance Naval Infantry, which was not considered a separate branch until its reorganization under the Second Alliance Charter.
Personnel numbers were severely reduced during the peacetime period following the First Stellar War and operations for the ANI were primarily shipboard security punctuated by the occasional boarding raid on criminal vessels and stations. During the Protest Wars of the 2320s, expeditionary missions became more common, with Alliance Naval Infantry units establishing bridgeheads and conducting counterinsurgency operations against rebellious factions. Over the next three centuries, the Alliance Navy saw a steady increase in size as the threats to the Alliance – mostly in the form of sporadic organized crime and even pirate nations - and so the ANI was often the tip of the spear in countering these threats.
Following the colonial Reunion period, the Intersystem Alliance formulated a response to the hostile encounters with colonies that had formed governments and empires independent of Mother Earth, such as Ishara and the Empyrean See. As part of the Second Alliance Charter, the Alliance Naval Infantry was reorganized as the Intersystem Alliance Marine Corps and established as a separate branch, though still operating as part of the Navy. With the augmented taxation revenues generated as a result of the Second Charter, the Alliance Marine Corps received increased funding that swelled the ranks and triggered a flurry of new research and development.
Over the last century, a number of military occupations in the Alliance armed forces have become merely avenues of easy service, intended as a method of acquiring advanced educational sponsorships. However, the Alliance Marine Corps has steadfastly remained a serious and honorable service, stoutly maintained as one of, if not the, hardest branches to serve in. Alliance Marines take fierce pride in their work and in their reputation as the IA's attack dogs.
Structure
Marine units are divided into two basic types: Expeditionary and Marine Detachment. Expeditionary units are assault formations tasked with landing on and securing key strategic points – establishing bridgeheads. This is accomplished through what is still called “amphibious” operations, a term that originally referred to an assault from the sea onto a littoral zone; contemporarily, the term applies to assault forces launching from space to a terrestrial surface or voidborne installation. Specialized Marine expeditionary units, called Commandos, are typically stationed at strategic orbital bases and aboard Navy starships so they can function as first responders to incidents both terrestrial and voidborne. Marine Detachments (MARDETs) operate as shipboard security and defense on Alliance Navy vessels of corvette class or larger and occasionally on civilian ships deemed highly important.
Objectives
The Intersystem Alliance Marine Corps was founded as part of the Navy under the 2nd Amendment to the Alliance Charter, initially called the Alliance Marines (AM). Since its founding in 2261 - reaffirmed in 2802 after reorganization under the Second Alliance Charter - the IA Marine Corps has been tasked with the following mission:
To establish and maintain a rapid reaction force capable of responding to any crisis in support of the Navy
To develop tactics, techniques, and equipment used by amphibious landing forces in coordination with the Navy and Army
To carry out such duties as the President of the Alliance or Ministry of Defense may direct
Doctrine
The Alliance Marine Corps practices a combat doctrine known as "Asymmetrical Expeditionary Operations". This means deploying against superior numbers and prevailing through the use of superior tactics and assets and fulfills a critical military role as an amphibious warfare force – where amphibious as a contemporary term means from space to surface. The Alliance Marines are capable of asymmetric warfare with conventional, irregular, and hybrid forces that can rapidly deploy a combined-arms task force to almost anywhere in the IA within a day. The close integration of disparate Marine units stems from an organizational culture centered on the infantry. Every other Marine capability exists to support the infantry, as the primary purpose of the Alliance Marine Corps is to take and hold area. The Marine Corps relies on the Navy for voidlift to provide its rapid deployment capabilities.