Federation Marine Corps¶

Service chief: Commandant of the Federation Marine Corps Active strength: ~100,000 Reserve: ~50,000 Doctrine: Expeditionary combined-arms — transitioning toward naval commandos + littoral combat regiments

The Federation Marine Corps (FSMC) is the amphibious / expeditionary land-warfare service of the Federation. Marines fall under the Department of the Navy administratively but maintain their own service chain of command.

Doctrinal transition (current era)¶

The FSMC is in the middle of a generational doctrinal shift. Through the late 20th century the Corps was structured primarily as a regimental-combat-team (RCT) land force — three Marine Divisions optimized for sustained ground combat alongside the Army. Under the post-2020 Force Design reforms the Corps is transitioning toward two complementary roles:

Naval commandos — smaller, more mobile distributed-maritime-operations forces optimized for sea control, anti-access denial, and stand-in operations from contested littorals (the F-35B-aboard-LHA model). This is the design the Independence-class LHAs and the new Stratford-class LHDs are being built to support.
Littoral Combat Regiments (LCRs) — composite formations replacing select traditional infantry regiments, built around anti-ship missile batteries, distributed sensors, and small assault elements rather than mass infantry.

The traditional RCT and Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) structures are preserved for major land warfare and continue to form the basis of MEUs (Marine Expeditionary Units), MEBs (Marine Expeditionary Brigades), and MEFs (Marine Expeditionary Forces) — but the long-term direction of the Corps is smaller, faster, and more naval-coupled than the WWII-derived ground-warfare model.

Canonical source

data/oobs/fed_arcadia/marines.json.

Marine Expeditionary Forces (MEFs)¶

The three MEFs are the FSMC's principal operational formations. Each MEF combines a ground division, an air wing, a logistics group, and an information group under a single Marine commander.

MEF	HQ	Mission	Division	Air Wing	Logistics
I FMEF	Camp Stratford	Endorin theater	1st Marine Division	3rd MAW	1st MLG
II FMEF	Camp Sullivan	Hesperian theater	2nd Marine Division	2nd MAW	2nd MLG
III FMEF	Camp Stratford-Forward	Forward-deployed	3rd Marine Division	1st MAW	3rd MLG

Marine Divisions — Battalion Landing Team (BLT) organization¶

Each division fields three infantry regiments (3 BLTs each = nine BLTs per division) plus an artillery regiment HQ and five divisional parent battalions (tank, AAV, LAR, combat engineer, recon) from which platoons/batteries are sliced forward into the BLTs. The traditional H&S-Company / rifle-companies / weapons-company battalion has been task-organized into a permanent combined-arms BLT as the FSMC's standard deployable maneuver unit.

1st Marine Division — "Founders" (template)¶

Regiment	Type	BLTs
1st Marines	Infantry	1/1 BLT (HIMARS), 2/1 BLT, 3/1 BLT
5th Marines	Infantry	1/5 BLT, 2/5 BLT, 3/5 BLT
7th Marines	Infantry	1/7 BLT, 2/7 BLT, 3/7 BLT
11th Marines	Artillery	HQ Bn (firing batteries sliced forward to BLTs)

Plus divisional parent (admin) battalions: 1st Tank Battalion (M1A2 — the FSMC retains MBTs, unlike sister marine forces elsewhere on Europa), 1st AAV Battalion (ACV 1.1), 1st LAR Battalion (LAV-25), 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. 2nd Marine Division (2/6/8 Marines + 10th Marines artillery) and 3rd Marine Division (3/4/9 Marines + 12th Marines artillery) follow the same shape.

Battalion Landing Team (BLT) — combined-arms standard¶

A BLT is the FSMC's task-organized battalion-equivalent and is the embarked land component of a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Each BLT is ~1,500 personnel and fuses:

HHC + BLT HQ Detachment — ~180 personnel command & control
Three Rifle Companies (A/B/C in 1/X, D/E/F in 2/X, G/H/I in 3/X) — ~180 each, M27 IAR / SAW / Javelin
Weapons Company — ~150 personnel; 81mm mortars, TOW, M2 .50-cal, Mk19
Tank Platoon (4× M1A2) — sliced from divisional tank battalion
Assault Amphibian Platoon (12× ACV 1.1) — sliced from divisional AAV battalion
LAR Company (16× LAV-25 + LAV-AT/M/C2 variants)
Artillery Battery (6× M777 — or 6× M142 HIMARS in the one designated HIMARS-BLT per division)
Combat Engineer Platoon + Recon Platoon — sliced from the divisional engineer and recon battalions

This gives every deployable Marine battalion organic armor, amphibious lift, light cavalry/anti-armor, indirect fires, breach engineering, and ground reconnaissance the moment it steps off the ramp.

Marine Special Operations — FMARSOC¶

Marine Raider Regiment (3 battalions) — Special operations
Marine Raider Support Group
Marine Raider Training Center

Marine Aircraft Wings¶

Each Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) typically contains five Marine Aircraft Groups (MAGs):

Fixed-wing MAGs (F-35B, F/A-18, AV-8B legacy)
Heavy-helicopter MAGs (CH-53K, MV-22)
Light/attack heli MAGs (AH-1Z, UH-1Y)
Wing Headquarters Squadron (MWHS)
Wing Support Group (MWSG)