Looking Back at Confed's Space Force (June 24, 2018)

[Bandit LOAF]

There's been a lot of talk about the "space force" in the news lately, so we took a look back at the origins of the Terran Confederation Space Force. Where do they come from? Wing Commander's Space Force is a retcon! There's no mention of it in WC1 or 2. It was created for WC3 to explain why the earlier games used a mix of Army and Navy ranks (for instance, General and Admiral.) Here's the design doc that introduced the idea:






In lore, the Space Force seems to be a subset of the Navy. Blair and Maniac attended a Terran Confederation Space Naval Academy and then went on to receive specialized flight training at the Space Forces Flight School. Transfers between the two groups are possible. The Space Navy, then, seems to have developed from the United States Navy rather than some new branch of the military; the Terran Confederation Naval Academy on Hilthros continues many Annapolis traditions and is said to have an eight hundred year old honor concept. Here's the Space Force insignia on a Rapier; it was created as set decoration for the Wing Commander movie (where it wasn't strictly necessary as the film gave everyone Navy-style ranks.)




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Original update published on June 24, 2018

 

[Hunter_13]

Interesting read, and likely possible in reality. A heavy mixture of Navy and Air Force influences has already been the trend (yes, well before Trump). The Air Force has had such an involvement with space operations, there was talk of changing the name to "Air and Space Force" or "Aerospace Force". Assuming that we would one day operate in space to a degree where we are on large ships launching smaller ships, Naval nomenclature and operational procedures seem a given to me.

 

[Quarto]

Really, if you think about it, the unusual thing in WC's rank structure is not that it does some major things like the SF/Navy mashup differently than are currently done. What is unusual, is the fact that it does so many things exactly the same as they are done today. Think back to six hundred years ago: in the 1400s, how many of the ranks we know existed in the form we recognise? So why would things suddenly stop changing for six hundred years?

 

[Dyret]

Gotta keep your space-WW2 authentic.

 

[-danr-]

Really, if you think about it, the unusual thing in WC's rank structure is not that it does some major things like the SF/Navy mashup differently than are currently done. What is unusual, is the fact that it does so many things exactly the same as they are done today. Think back to six hundred years ago: in the 1400s, how many of the ranks we know existed in the form we recognise? So why would things suddenly stop changing for six hundred years?

I suppose that's one aspect they could have got away with completely overhauling. Completely new ranks wouldn't look out of place in 500 years time.

...but then, neither would anything else. From the clothes we'll be wearing by then to the food we eat. We could well have 'built in virtual warmth suits' and consume only nutrient pills in half a millennium's time. I'd wager if humanity still exists, that most things will be pretty alien by today's standards.

We can't get away from the 20th century in Wing Commander, the TFT screens, drinking glasses and even smoking tobacco, but these things make the universe much more relatable than the weird-ass unknowns that will be the norm by then.

Imagine taking somebody from the 1400s and dressing them in today's clothes, giving them a smartphone and hopping aboard a transatlantic flight. They'd be lost!

By 2654 things will be...unrecognisable.