Following the end of the Human-Covenant War, Spartan super-soldiers who had previously
served in the UNSC Army, Navy and Air Force, were consolidated into a separate but equal branch of
service. The eponymous “Spartan Operations” would be dedicated towards unconventional warfare,
emphasizing sufficiency, stealth, speed and coordination.
Was this a good idea? I don’t necessarily think so.
Just as a quick refresher, let’s talk military branches for a second. As the armed forces of
a nation grow in size, it makes sense to divide them into various sub-divisions for administration
and logistical purposes. Branches are based around a specific role that they perform,
with the most common; an Army, Navy and Air Force responsible for land warfare, naval warfare and
aerial warfare respectively. Of course there are plenty of others; strategic deterrence branches,
military logistic services, cyberware, military medicine, maritime security, the list goes on.
And these branches also heavily differ between nations.
What might be an independent branch in one armed forces,
might be merely a component service of a different branch in another. The People’s Liberation Army
for example maintains an independant rocket force responsible for strategic and tactical missiles,
while the United States Armed Forces distributes this same authority across a Functional Combatant
Command whose service components include those from other branches and institutions.
If this all sounds complicated, that’s because it is. The decisions and factors surrounding how
to organize and divide the armed forces of a country are enormously complex,
always evolving, and subject to external, usually political pressures.
Not to mention what makes sense on paper might be a disaster when actually implemented.
So let’s get back to Spartan Operations. Given its role within the UNSC,
I would classify it as a Special Forces Branch. And as it happens, we have examples in our own,
contemporary world of countries with their own separate special forces branches,
such as Poland, and those without them, such as the United States. This is great because it
allows us to look at the arguments for and against such independent branches.
To boil it down to a few key points, proponents of a separate Special Forces branch argue that
with independence comes political influence, bureaucratic weight and a greater command of
resources. Commanders of conventional forces don’t always understand how best to use special forces,
meaning their unique capabilities are wasted, and as a result, these units might take higher
casualties than necessary. Opponents would counter by saying that an independent branch would burden
forces that are supposed to be highly-reactive, nimble, and unconventional, with non-operational
concerns like bureaucracy, institution building, procurement and personnel issues.
Now far be it from me to determine who is right and who is wrong in this argument, but I think
the UNSC has made an enormous mistake by taking a wishy-washy approach with the Spartan branch.
Now earlier I compared Spartan Operations to a Special Forces branch, but that’s not entirely
accurate. While the role of this service is the same, it doesn’t unite all of the UNSC’s special
forces under it, only the Spartans. The UNSC Marine Corps has Orbital Drop Shock Troopers
while the Office of Naval Intelligence has its own special security force for some reason
these are both notably excluded. And while I can’t find any direct information on them,
the UNSC Air Force likely has a unit similar to the modern French Commando Parachute Group,
the UNSC Army likely has something the equivalent of the British Special Air Service
or the American Green Berets and the UNSC Navy probably has something similar to the
American Navy Seals. These units are all staying wthin their respective branches.
So because only the Spartans were integrated into this new branch, the UNSC is getting the worst of
both worlds here. Simultaneously operating both an independent special forces branch,
and dividing its special forces across the other branches. This situation gets
even worse when you consider that Spartan Operations recruits from these other branches.
What admiral in the UNSC Navy is going to be eager to see his best special forces members
be transferred to a different branch? It’s a recipe for a toxic inter-service rivalry.
A suitable comparison might be if the UNSC developed a very capable type of bomber,
far more effective than anything that came before. Would it make sense to split these
bombers alone off into their own new branch separate from the air force? No.
So why did the UNSC do this? Well, there’s a few vague mentions that the Spartans
shouldn’t be under anyone’s thumb, and that as an independent branch they now have more leeway.
But that doesn’t seem right. In practical terms, they’re now completely reliant on the other
branches for recruitment and equipment, branches without any real motive to help them. A separate
branch just for Spartans almost comes across as more of an ego thing. There’s a few contradictory
mentions over whether or not Spartan Operations fall under HIGHCOM and NAVCOM. But The implication
seems to be that the Spartans are too important and elite to be included , but the whole purpose
of those Commands is to integrate the different branches together so they don’t work against each
other’s interests in specific environments. If both the Navy and Spartans have special
forces on a battlefields, it’s important that each branch knows that. Excluding the Spartans
doesn’t make them better than everyone else, it impacts their ability to conduct a mission.
Now, normally, I’d be willing to give the UNSC the benefit of the doubt here. I’m judging their
decision from a few snippets of information and don’t have a clear view of the larger picture.
Maybe there is some element related to the Spartans and the process of augmenting them
that makes a separate branch completely practical. Surely the UNSC studied the
performance of the Spartans in the war against the Covenant, weighed the costs and benefits
before deciding a separate branch was the way to go. Except, we do know, that's not what happened.
After the UNSC Infinity was briefly captured by insurrectionists and then retaken by Spartans,
Commander Musa Ghanem leveraged the victory to achieve the independence for the branch.
Here’s what he said
“Spartans are why you are still in possession of Infinity. …You have thanked, yes, but now you will
pay the bill that is due. As of today Spartans stand on their own. Not as Navy or ONI assets.
We are our own branch as of now. Spartan’s like Navy or Army or Marines are UNSC.
Spartans are humanity's first line of defense against threats from within or without.
Spartans are what will see us through the darkness ahead into the dawn beyond.”
I suppose this is supposed to be inspirational and brave, but Ghanem here instead comes across
more petulant and cynical. Here is an officer in the UNSC referring to national service as
some kind of transaction. “My Spartans saved the Infinity, now you owe me.” Ask not what the UNSC
can do for you Commander Ghanem. But this speech is also heavy on melodrama and light on details.
If someone in the UNSC were to respond “Commander Ghanem,
we have concerns that compelling the Spartans into their own formal service
would force them to behave in a way intrinsically opposed to their purpose for existence.
An independent branch would divert the Spartans massively and disastrously from their original
intent to be operationally focused, towards redundant human capital realignment, and imposed
bureaucratic and institutional concerns. All to fix a problem that hasn’t been clearly defined.”
Faced with that, “Spartans are what see us through the darkness” isn’t much of an argument.