EarthForce is the military branch of the Earth Alliance, Earth's governing body in the fictional
Babylon 5 universe.
== History == Earthforce was founded as a peacekeeping militia
with the majority of its members deployed to counter terrorist aggression on the ground.
It was initially formed from contingents provided by Earth Alliance member countries and later
transitioned to direct individual recruitment.
The Fleet was not formed until after the Earth Alliance purchased Jump technology from the
Centauri.
The first major action of Earth Force was the war against the Dilgar which ended in
victory.
Unfortunately, this made the force overconfident and they decided to approach the Minbari despite
warnings that doing so would be dangerous.
As it happens, the warnings were correct as an inadvertently premature first contact ended
violently due to a serious misunderstanding that provoked the Earth-Minbari War in which
EarthForce found itself hopelessly outmatched.
The war culminated in the climatic Battle of the Line, in which the bulk of EarthForce's
remaining forces were annihilated before the Minbari mysteriously surrendered on the brink
of absolute victory (or not so mysteriously as it later turned out).
== Organization == EarthForce, as part of EarthGov, is headquartered
in EarthDome (Geneva, Switzerland) with the President of the Earth Alliance as Commander-in-Chief
with the Joint Chiefs of Staff responsible for the day-to-day operations with final authority
reserved for the Earth Alliance President.
All EarthForce officers and crew train at EarthForce Academy.
(The Psi Corps was also founded as part of EarthForce.)
Divisions:
Joint Chiefs of Staff, advised by the Committee on Planetary Security (AKA the Office of Planetary
Security) Earthforce Command,
Earthforce Research & Development, Earthforce Bioweapons Division,
EarthAlliance Presidential Security, Earthforce Special IntelligenceEarthForce
is organized into three separate branches:
EarthFleet/Navy (blue uniforms) - although the full dress uniform is grey trimmed black
EarthForce Marines (brown/olive) Security (light gray) - a Gendarmerie (military-police
type) force.There is also an Internal Affairs division of EarthForce, which can draw personnel
from any one of the three divisional branches.
("Eyes") Officers and crew are allowed to transfer between branches; Richard Franklin
(father of Dr. Stephen Franklin) once served as first officer on the EAS Ares, but by the
time we actually meet him, the elder Franklin was a general in the EarthForce Marines.
("GROPOS")
== Ranks == EarthForce uses a unified rank system, with
both Army/Marine and Navy-style ranks:
General/Admiral Lt. General/Vice Admiral
Colonel Lieutenant Colonel
Captain Commander
Lieutenant Commander Major
Lieutenant Lieutenant Junior Grade
Ensign
== EarthFleet == EarthForce operates one of the largest military
fleets in the known Babylon 5 universe, with approximately 20,000 EarthForce ships during
current B5 time-frame.
EarthForce had up to 50,000 at one point according to "in the beginning", though many of these
were conscripted civilian ships.
EarthForce warships comprising such vessels as the Cotten class tender, Olympus class
corvette, Omega class destroyers and Hyperion class heavy cruisers, Nova class dreadnought,
and numerous smaller support craft.
Their newest design is the Warlock class destroyer, which incorporates several new technologies
such as artificial gravity.
The Victory class starship Excalibur, designed and built for service with the Interstellar
Alliance, was loaned to EarthForce for the mission to scour the galaxy to find a cure
for the Drakh Plague that had infected Earth in 2267.
All EarthForce ships have the registry prefix EAS, which stands for Earth Alliance Starship.
EarthForce may have many hidden black ops projects some of which could have been seen
in the Earth Alliance Civil War where Omega class Destroyers were merged with Shadow bio-tech
to create powerful warships for President Clark's regime.
Even after Clark's defeat, these rogue operations continue to experiment with the technology
to create even more powerful ships, one of which was responsible for the destruction
of the Cerberus, a ship of which Matthew Gideon (then an ensign, later captain of the Excalibur)
was the only survivor.
EarthForce One is the ship of the President of the Earth Alliance.
== See also == Babylon 5 influences
List of Babylon 5 articles Babylon 5's use of the Internet
The Be Five List of television series that include time-travel
rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5