The AFRF is like any military in its need to recruit new members to maintain their strength and readiness. The old Lyran Commonwealth mandated civil service in the military or other civil bodies and many worlds on both sides of the old Lyran-League borders maintained some form of mandatory service or conscription well into the Second Age of War. But the legacy of forced labor and service imposed by warlords and petty nobles during the Collapse period created a social and institutional hostility against peacetime conscription or drafts amongst the Arcadian populace, and this has persisted in the culture of the AFRF and the laws related to its recruitment. The current law of the Royal Federation restricts mandatory service to planetary militias during time of war or "planetary emergency' and requires volunteers for frontline service short of a royal emergency decree. The AFRF is therefore reliant heavily upon voluntarily recruitment compared to the old LCAF.
Nevertheless recruitment has only rarely fallen short of desired targets. The AFRF's pay levels are at least competitive on all but the most wealthy worlds and districts once you factor in pensions, educational grants, and lifetime access to the Veteran Hospital System. Additionally a number of cultures within the Federation promote martial virtues as religious or social duties, often recruiting at higher rates than others. As the AFRF is widely respected on most worlds, even those outside these martial cultures, "taking the King's pound" is seen positively by many. And on border worlds in the regions of Bolan, Atreus, and Skye, with their long histories of conflict with the neighboring powers, the dominant view of the AFRF is that of the protectors of the people and the shield against pillaging and conquest.
Basic Recruitment and Education
The AFRF maintains recruitment offices on all worlds of the Federation. The offices are spread according to population and population density, typically one per mid-to-large-size city or settlement but more for major metropolitan areas. Regions with higher recruitment figures have more recruitment offices than average. These are sometimes shared with planetary force recruiters for local defense armies and militia, though on major worlds and planetary capitals the AFRF maintains its own.
Enlistment in the AFRF begins with the Armed Forces Vocational Assessment Test, a multiple choice examination to determine potential specialties for a recruit. Aside from combat personnel, which are always in demand, technical personnel like MechTechs or naval ship crews are tested for extensively. A medical assessment is likewise ordered and the recruit sent to a nearby AFRF base or post for examination, with the Veteran Hospital System or local medical professionals contracted if necessary.. After the AFVAT is taken and processed and the medical examination is passed, the potential recruit is informed of their results and offered the official enlistment contract. Once it is signed and the legally-mandated waiting period passes, the recruit is given official orders to report to Basic Training Camp for an eight week training course in basic military discipline, physical fitness, self-defense, and field work. This is followed by four weeks of specialty training for their assigned vocation. Depending upon their AFVAT scores and the service needs, further education may be assigned for particular assignments like naval crew service.
Most worlds have at least one accredited AFRF Basic Training Camp. Advanced Specialty Training Schools are on most worlds but there are some that require a recruit to travel to another world; specifically those for MechTech, naval, or MechWarrior training, which are often limited to march capitals or major population centers like Campbelton and Gienah. These schools can run very long, with MechWarrior Training Schools taking eighteen months to produce a pilot believed capable of combat.
An alternative path for enlistees comes with collegiate-level education. Many major universities and regional colleges across the Federation have local personnel from the Reserve Officer Training Command. Students signing up for the ROTC are subjected to military discipline within the program and given specialty educations to complement their regular studies, with graduates made commissioned officer ranks upon their college degrees being secured. This is a common source for educated support personnel like doctors, surgeons, chaplains, lawyers, and construction engineers.
Depending upon their AFVAT scores and their early career behavior, enlistees have further chances to rise into the officer corps. Officer Commissioning Schools are on all the march capitals and several other major worlds. Additionally a number of staff colleges, such as Eilat Staff College on Gienah, provide education to enlisted and officers in the administrative tasks that keep an interstellar military functioning.
Higher Education
The AFRF maintains a number of collegiate-level military academies for training its officer corps, including first line regiment MechWarriors and aerospace fighter pilots. As with much of the Royal Federation and AFRF, it is a combination of old and new schools, with institutions raised before and after the Fall of the Star League.
The terms of these schools vary by the coursework. Most will only issue degrees and commissions with a minimum of a three year course study, and most cadets will spend four years before they receive their commissions.
Entry into a military academy is not easy. Even the nobility, who could once be guaranteed class berths, are subjected to testing to ensure fitness. A bias in attendance remains, however, with nobles having the advantage in attendance of preparatory academies and special training programs that most lower class commoners do not gain the advantage of. Some of the academies have a reputation for unfairly favoring applicants from the right families, with occasional scandals over the decades from suspected bribery or influence-peddling. The Senate is also permitted to sponsor a certain number of candidates to the military academies and schools every year, with Senate sponsorships guaranteeing attendance within two years.
Once an applicant is accepted and named as a first year cadet, they are given the formal instruction to attend and placed under military discipline. Uniforms, academic standards, and military bearing are all judged extensively, and between years cadets are expected to study and provide service in local militia or AFRF formations to provide practical study (the exact nature of this service determined by the academy in question). Graduations see families brought in from across the Federation to celebrate the moment, regardless of economic capability, as transport and housing is paid for by the alma mater associations. These are moments of immense pride for the graduates and the ceremonies are attended by speeches by the academy commandant and selected speakers from across the AFRF's upper echelons.
Those who fail the academies are typically given options to repeat failed courses or transfer to other academies, depending on the failing cadet's deportment and reputation. A hard-working, disciplined cadet suffering academically is more likely to be treated with leniency than a lazy or misbehaving cadet. The choice of expulsion is left with the academy's current commandant, ultimately, and even a reconsideration by the Military Education Department will more likely see a cadet sent to a different academy than returned against the will of an academy's leadership.
For a cadet who does not appeal expulsion successfully, or does not try at all, downgrading to the non-commissioned or warrant ranks is a possibility, albeit one in which they will endure some teasing or outright stigma for failing (particularly if they are from the nobility). Many noble children, or those from wealthier families, simply decide to eschew further thought of military service, or pursue careers with planetary defense forces or mercenary units.
Ayrshire Military Sciences Academy
During the Star League, Kong Interstellar build a training center on Arcadia for testing pilots for its BattleMech factories, choosing the small city of Ayrshire on the Islay coast near Roslyn. The facility fell into disuse after the fall of the League and the Lyran Commonwealth. In 2958, the newly-formed Arcadian Free March purchased the facility and equipment from Kong and established the Ayrshire Military Sciences Academy. For over eighty years, the ASMA served as the AFFM's largest military college and training center, producing officers for all branches of the Arcadian military.
The foundation of the Royal Federation and expansion of the military's needs eventually brought significant competitors to AMSA. In the century since the founding of the Federation AMSA has fought a long campaign to maintain its high position. Successive commandants have maintained discerning standards for both cadets and instructors. It remains a favored choice for members of House Proctor and it is the tradition for the heir to start their service as an AMSA cadet.
Part of AMSA's survival is its proud history while another is the choice of specializing. Aerospace and naval programs were scaled back for a focus on Army officer programs. The MechWarrior program remains known for graduating some of the best MechWarrior commanders of the AFRF. AMSA is also known for its leading engineering program. Most of the engineering officers of the AFRF received degrees from Ayrshire. The importance of the Corps of Engineers to the school can be seen in the work put into its new campus expansion, the Verdes College of Military Engineering.
Due to the relatively small size of the service, the Royal Federation Marine Corps maintains its sole academy officer program with AMSA, the Marine Officer School, which primarily focuses on spaceborne armored infantry operations and graduates a relative handful of VTOL and DropShuttle pilots as well. The MOS maintains a second facility on the moon Artemis, the Space Operations Training Center, where Marine cadets and enlisted train in zero-G and micro-G operations alongside applicants to Special Forces Command's Operations Teams.
Atmosphere
Institutionally AMSA and its leadership consider themselves responsible for educating the future commanders and leaders of the AFRF. As such, Ayrshire can be a demanding school. The traditions of the academy come from a time when it was responsible for most of the old AFFM's officer corps. The culture demands personal and academic discipline to create classes of capable officers to defend the realm. Admissions standards and expectations are accordingly high. Demerits for bad or 'unfitting' conduct can quickly see a cadet dismissed from Ayrshire's campus. Military drill is augmented by mandatory sports activities for purposes of promoting athleticism, with football, cricket, and Arcadian-rules baseball the team sports of choice.
Despite some expectations to the contrary, the majority of attendees are not from the old Free March or the current Arcadian Royal March. They are a plurality, but the proximity of AMSA to the AFRF leadership in Roslyn, House Proctor's long preference for the school, and the prestige of the academy itself draws applicants from across the Federation in recognizable numbers. The school represents a vision of the Federation as a unified whole of peoples. This is amplified by the attitudes and environment fostered by the instructors and many of the students themselves. Arcadian exceptionalists are not the norm that others might assume given location or experience from other academies. Regional separatists from restive sections like Skye or Tamarind are not intentionally excluded, nor are avowed Lyrantreu. Political reliability is barely a factor compared to the other admission standards (save for the usual reservations for blatant terrorism or rebellious politics). Nevertheless very few separatists or other stringent regionalists ever come to AMSA.
A continuing element of the academy culture, going back to its founding, is an egalitarian attitude towards the student body and faculty. Noble address is limited to visiting functionaries as a matter of politeness, and no student or instructor can expect to hear a "Your Lordship" or "Your Grace" during their attendance.
While discipline is highly expected for cadets both on and off academy grounds, the academy is not as restrictive to off-grounds touring and visitations by cadets. It is common for cadets to spend their little free time during classes in Ayrshire. The city's local culture and economy is heavily-influenced by the academy's presence and catering to the academy's cadets, instructors, and support staff. Clubs, restaurants, and stores provide discounts or benefits to academy cadets and staff, though typically taking one set over the other. The regular presence of their instructors and professors undoubtedly contributes to the cadets' good behavior.
Special Notes
Ayrshire's MechWarrior and engineering programs remain its most prominent. All other branches of Army personnel continue to be represented. While the naval college is no longer active, the Verdes College of Military Engineering maintains a highly respected program for naval engineering officers, often taking in cadets following midshipman studies at Alarion. The academy's traditions and institutions lead to many graduates being fervent House Proctor supporters.
The Nagelring
For many years in the Star League era and beyond the Nagelring produced fine officers for the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces. The collapse of the Commonwealth in the 29th Century, and the abandonment of Tharkad in the chaos, led to the school's closure. Under ComStar's authority it was preserved but went unused.
After the planet's capture in 3052 and resulting absorption into the Royal Federation, High Queen Johanna Steiner immediately funded programs to reopen the Nagelring as part of her program to restore Tharkad's faded luster. Her son Prince William Proctor-Steiner would be among the school's first full class of cadets when courses began in 3062. The talent drawn to the restored university drew heavily from the Donegal half of the Federation, including prominent officers who had once served in the fallen New Commonwealth.
In the years since the Nagelring has prospered and effectively become the second school of the Federation, with only AMSA surpassing it in the diverse origins of the cadets (primarily due to cadets from the former Marik Commonwealth and Free Worlds League being sharply underrepresented among applicants). It produces officers for a variety of branches and has a larger aerospace program than AMSA and Sanglamore. The Nagelring is often selected for post-graduate studies by commissioned officers looking to specialize with advanced education and has the largest command college in the Federation as of 3142.
While the academy draws widely from much of the Federation, there is no avoiding that proximity to the former capital of the Lyran Commonwealth, and the fierce pride of Tharkadians in the old state, has an effect upon graduates. Many influential Lyrantreu officers in the AFRF are graduates of the Nagelring.
Atmosphere
The Nagelring's long history and connection to both the SLDF and the Lyran Commonwealth remain major influences on the modern academy. Discipline and form is as strict here as it is at AMSA and other leading academies, if not moreso. The academy is virtually a city in of itself and steeped in history. Cadets are constantly reminded they are treading the same ground Aleksandr Kerensky and a host of other worthies once trod.
The surviving Lyran culture of Tharkad is another influence. German is the primary language of social interaction by custom, with non-German speakers quickly picking up conversational German if they want to avoid being socially excluded from most cadet interactions; indeed being at least functionally fluent in the language is an unofficial requirement for applicants, with the requirement only waived for nobility. Lyran culture and its classism remain a strong influence. "All cadets are treated equally, but some are treated more equally" is a common critique found by Nagelring alumni. Social class can dictate prospects for membership in the many clubs among the cadets. Favoritism is a constant specter that the successive administrations of the academy fight to contain, knowing it would undermine the academy's reputation in the rest of the Federation if it became a "commoners need not apply" school.
Aside from the rigor of military discipline the Nagelring demands intellectual rigor as well. High marks are demanded in courses on strategy, tactics, and logistics, and a cadet must complete at least one course in history, law, or civics before their third year begins. The Nagelring's focus is not just on military excellence but on creating officers with an appreciation for civic culture and the capacity for government, another indication of the school's tendency towards classism and the educational requirements of the noble class.
The discipline does not let up off of class grounds, but an unofficial rule is that breaches of the discipline code of cadets only apply if the cadet is caught. As a result it is not unknown for cadets to behave in more libertine fashion in the private clubs and establishments of Tharkad City that are more interested in their money than their purity. "Don't get caught" remains the watchword for cadets looking to unwind from the strictness of their on-campus routines.
Special Notes
The Nagelring remains a pride for its MechWarrior and aerospace programs and its staff college. A Nagelring graduate with high test scores can expect to be assigned into the most prestigious of AFRF formations on the strength of that performance.
For all its prestige, the school has in recent years invited some concern by MCIS and the SIS Government Protection Department for the strength of the Lyrantreu movement reported among the recent classes of graduates. No investigations or procedures of note have been conducted but it may only be a matter of time if the Lyrantreu become a perceived threat to Federation unity.
Sanglamore
The academy of Sanglamore served for years as a major facility for educating SLDF officers. Much of this glory would be undone during the Combine's attacks on Skye in the Succession Wars, leaving the school a hollow shell of its former self by the time the Great Houses collapsed and the Skye Federation was again an independent state. The school faculty and students became a perpetual thorn in the side of the Cultural Reformation Movement of the 30th Century, ultimately resulting in the Great Siege of 2944 and the academy's desolation by the victorious reformers. For the next ninety years, Sanglamore was reduced to a basic training camp for recruits to the Bundeswehr of the Federal Republic of Skye.
After House Brewer conquered the planet at the end of 3032, they ordered restoration work started. In 3040, the first class of the restored Sanglamore academy graduated and were given their commissions in the DISC. The academy was shut down during the six year occupation of Skye by the Terrans and re-opened in 3060. Since then it has not missed a class year and offers courses in every branch of the AFRF. Sanglamore's demanding curriculum and prestige has not wavered since its restoration. Many in House Brewer who choose military careers take at least a year at Sanglamore.
As a cadet High Queen Jacqueline transferred from AMSA to Sanglamore and became a graduate of its MechWarrior program. During her reign she made sure to represent the academy, wearing its traditional green sash on all ceremonial occasions while promoting the school's interests within the senior staff of the AFRF. It is the preferred academy for all who hail from the Isle of Skye and its respected programs draw applicants from sections of the Federation.
Atmosphere
Sanglamore emphasizes its long history and SLDF roots as much as the Nagelring. The discipline code is demanding, as is academic rigor and physical athleticism. Sanglamore maintains a mandatory physical training regimen for all cadets, regardless of specialty or final service commitment, which is often expressed in a passionate devotion to team sports. Football, rugby, and Skye-rules shinty are the most popular sports among the cadets, with fields devoted to each, and many instructors and students compete fiercely in tennis clubs. Devotion to sports among the faculty and student body has grown to such a proportion that starting in 3093, Sanglamore fielded a collegiate-level football team for competition with the Skye Collegiate Athletics League. They have a history of high performance in those competitions, including winning the SCAL Global Cup Championships several times.
Sanglamore's diverse array of programs for AFRF cadets, including post-graduate programs for aspiring command officers, makes it the largest and one of the busiest academy grounds in the Royal Federation. All services of the AFRF are represented among the offered courses and have provided commandants. In spite of, perhaps because of, this diversity, Sanglamore's student body is bound by fierce pride in the school. It is a pride that often transcends social class, service branch, and all other differences, and it persists long after the graduates go to their posts. Graduates go to commands and formations all over the Federation. That said, former DISC formations remain the popular destination for many Sanglamore grads, especially the famous Skye Rangers. This preference has led to a common stereotype of the Rangers is that they all wear the green Sanglamore sash and might as well paint it on their machines.
The dark side of Sanglamore's common pride is a lingering association with Skye nationalism. The same nationalism once fiercely suppressed by the Teutonizing "Reformists" has grown in ferocity since the marriage of Ethan Proctor-Steiner and Mathilda Brewer-Steiner guaranteed the fusion of the Consolidant into the Federation. Sanglamore's place of pride for the people of Skye makes it a natural point with which to espouse nationalism, even separatism. The Government Protection Department of SIS and AFRF Military Intelligence internal security are rumored to maintain clandestine surveillance of the most outspoken faculty and students. The majority take it in stride and even humor, but it is occasionally a matter of complaint, especially now that High Queen Jacqueline has passed on.
Special Notes
Sanglamore's diversity of respected programs has placed their alma mater in many posts across the Federation, including high command positions, and their capabilities have merited a number of honors over the years. Having the monarch as an alumni certainly aided in Sanglamore's continued access to resources and influence with the Military Education Department of the AFRF.
The matter of Skye nationalism, especially separatism, is a growing concern among many. Most of Free Skye's retired AFRF membership graduated from Sanglamore and the Sanglamore sash remains a common sight at Free Skye demonstrations and ceremonies. Over time this may degrade Sanglamore's status outside of the Isle of Skye, and indeed may already be doing so in the heart of the old Lyran Commonwealth. It is common for Sanglamore graduates to oppose open Lyrantreu influence in the service. They remain staunch defenders of the Federation over any reclamation of the Commonwealth name.
Atrean Military Academy
The Atrean Military Academy was built outside of Atrean City as a training facility by the briefly-lived Atrean Kingdom of the 29th and 30th Centuries. Upon Marik reconquest in the early 30th Century the site was changed to a garrison for the defense of the capital. Fighting on Atreus in the early Second Age of War led to the devastation of these facilities. In rebuilding them, Archduke Joshua Marik chose to re-establish the AMA to make Atreus an equal with Donegal, Tharkad, and Arcadia in the military education of the AFRF's officer corps.
As one might expect for such a school, the MechWarrior program was given focus and resources, including regular cooperation with the Atrean Dragoons formation to give the cadets direct instruction by active duty pilots and officers. The Dragoons draw most of their new personnel from AMA graduates as a consequence. AMA operates an aerodrome complex for training Aerospace Force cadets and provides courses for most Army-related services. The Artillery Officer School is considered the best in the AFRF for its cadet and post-graduate officer programs.
Given the school's open connection to House Marik it is no surprise that it pays particular attention to discipline among the student and faculty body. It is also widely preferred among more regionalist-minded elites of the Principality of Atreus. But most particularly is the school's long and bloody history as a battleground. Atreus has been invaded four times since the school's founding. The student body's coursework and duties include combat readiness drills and a more intensive training regimen than most other AFRF academies. "Other academies' cadets compete in sports leagues. AMA cadets compete in drill and shooting leagues" is a boast many alumni make. For a long while AMA was the only academy to maintain a training formation akin to the Sun Zhang regiments of the DCMS or the Federated Suns' academy training battalions, but the AMA Training Regiment was stood down after being virtually destroyed in the 3118-19 invasion of Atreus. The academy and AFRF have so far not had sufficient resources to re-establish the formation, and the fate of the cadets in the fighting may be too great a burden for the institution to ever bear again.
Atmosphere
Due to its history and aspirations, AMA is not simply a military academy but a military base. The cadets live as they eventually will in the forts and bases across the Federation. Drilling and marching is a sight on any academy ground, but AMA sees it more than any other, and is often the highest ranked among institutions for its drilling performance. The curfews are strict and enforced by academy MPs. There is no "don't get caught" attitude among the cadets when it comes to violations of the honor code and rules. The honor of AMA demands cadets police each other, an attitude that does leave feelings of betrayal and bruised egos when infractions are reported. Rivalries among cadets can be born of such accusations that last into their standard AFRF service. Paradoxically, this strictness tends to see those ejected from AMA suffer the least in perception among the rank and file. A common joke among enlisted personnel in the Atrean Dragoons and other formations is that you can tell an AMA graduate apart is that their backup weapon is "the stick up their ass".
AMA's perfectionism and strictness should not be confused for rigidity. "Discipline is not inflexibility" is the motto of their combat tactics course program. AMA's programs favor instructors and professors with deep experience, especially combat experience, over any academic polish. Practicality, resourcefulness, and cleverness in combat scenarios are emphasized in training operations and classroom studies. The school's teaching of theory and doctrine is less developed. As they are on the frontline of any renewed war with the Oriento-Capellan Empire, it is little wonder that this attitude has developed.
Unsurprisingly AMA receives a full majority of its cadets from former Free Worlds League worlds, with over sixty percent of the Class of 3141 coming from this section of the Federation. Most of the remainder are from the Arcadian Royal March or the former Terran worlds of the New Earth March. A paltry two percent hail from the heart of the old Lyran Commonwealth. Post-graduate students and OCS-trained commissioned officers are of a more diverse proportion and overwhelmingly represent the artillery branch. There is little agitation for any separatism of the old Marik Commonwealth, however, with this regionalism most evident in support for militant anti-Imperial parties like the Fortress Party and for the policies they represent.
Special Notes
AMA enjoys particularly good relations with Armstrong Industries of Bainsville, who provide yearly grants to the Artillery College's operations and are known to recruit from retired graduates for their artillery production operations. Some cynics note this is done to ensure their continued contracts with the AFRF for the provision of Long Tom and Sniper artillery pieces.
The academy is by far the favorite for the descendants of Joshua Marik and the "loyalist" branch of House Marik. Support for the family is fairly strong among the faculty and student body, as is support for the Federation and continued association with House Proctor. If there is any political attitude widely noted among AMA alumni and faculty, it is a profound dislike and distrust of House Halas-Liao and the entirety of the Oriento-Capellan Empire. They are ambivalent or even hostile to High King Nathaniel's border drawdowns.
Tamarind Military Institute
Following the collapse of the Free Worlds League and the formation of the Grand Duchy of Tamarind, the newly-empowered House Shah invested in the construction of an officer academy for their defense forces. Using hired Terran expertise and an immense budget, the new complex was erected near their new capital of Tamarind City and named the Tamarind Military Institute. After a century of operation, it would be temporarily shut down after the planet's conquest by the legions of Corvus O'Reilly.
When Tamarind was transferred to Arcadian control at the start of 3037, the Royal Federation embarked on a campaign of investment and reconstruction that included restoring TMI to its full glory. Its relative security during the Terran War and afterward ensured it remained a prominent academy, even boasting High King Ethan as an alumni of the College of Military Analysis postgraduate program. Its star waned with the horrible destruction wrought on the facilities during the Scipian Dominate's invasion in 3097, the occupation of the world until early 3100, and a subsequent attack in 3118 by mercenaries under Oriento-Capellan contract. House Shah's reduced resources and other priorities on the AFRF budget prolonged the academy's recovery time and ultimately mandated significant local investment to bring all the facilities back online at reduced capacity.
While again an officer academy of some renown, TMI's reputation is no longer what it was a half century ago. Institutionally it has become regionalized, with House Shah and other Tamarindian notables filling the ranks of the faculty and student body. Where once over a third of the cadets came from other sections of the Federation, now it stands as barely a tenth, almost all from the rest of the Arcadian Royal March or the Principality of Atreus. This number is even more stark when the class sizes have likewise halved. TMI has become primarily an officer academy for Tamarindian regiments, with a great number of its graduates being drawn into the Tamarind Guards. It remains to be seen if the AFRF can, or will, act to change this direction.
Atmosphere
The Tamarind Military Institute maintains a variety of programs, including aerospace and DropShip officer courses, that were all founded in the 30th Century. MechWarrior training is a former specialty that has lost its primacy with TMI's rebuilding and limitations on resources. Cadets at TMI are keenly aware of the academy's lost luster with many buildings repaired but not restored to full use for lack of resources. Only a few dozen MechWarriors and aerospace fighter pilots are graduated each year, most of which are pipelined straight into the Tamarind Guards. Infantry and vehicle officers, including VTOL and conventional fighter pilots, make up a larger share of combat branch graduates.
In the years since the Dominate War, and especially the Fourth Succession War, TMI has become more and more a regionalist institution. The financing to rebuild the damaged academy is primarily local, and the focus has since become one for Tamarindian cadets and those from adjacent worlds. Tamarindian nationalism, especially separatism, is a growing problem among faculty and the student body, bolstered by resentment against Federation policies towards the Principate. Every year over a dozen admission slots are reserved for immigrants from the "lost" worlds now part of the Principate's Timbiqui Province. The Foreign Office, Military Intelligence, and the SIS have protested to Military Education in vain, as the latter department is not willing to cause a further breach with the Tamarindians over the matter.
TMI's main draw to the whole Federation remains the excellent College of Military Analysis and Policy. The courses are offered for both cadets and commissioned officers. Admissions to the strategy and planning courses offered are limited and competition is fierce among the most ambitious junior officers. Over half of the Planning Staff's senior officers are graduates from the college. Many will return as professors for a term or two, and all deans have been drawn from their ranks.
Special Notes
TMI graduates outside of the College of Military Analysis are more likely to end up in the Tamarind Guards or related Tamarindian formations than any other formations and make up a majority of the current faculty as well. Tamarindian insignia, national colors, and cultural affiliation are widespread in the academy to the extent that other affiliations are, if not actively repressed, socially awkward to present among large groups. The school has been cited for concern in recent studies by the Military Education Department on anti-Federation sentiments given the widespread influence of Tamarindian nationalism on the institution. Given the importance of the College of Military Analysis to the AFRF, these concerns are likely to grow if TMI continues its current course.
Raquel Steiner Memorial Academy
Following the 29th Century Kuritan bioplague that drove the Lyran Royal Court from Tharkad, the need to replace the Nagelring prompted the foundation of Donegal'ss Royal Officer's Academy to educate the officers of the Kingdom of Donegal. Up through the 30th Century and into the 31st it graduated all of the leadership of the often fractious state. A culture of political apathy in the cutthroat familial strife of House Steiner kept the school from being mired in the many civil wars and conflicts waged over the throne, a practice that saved them from the rigorous attentions of Queen Raquel when she secured power in the early 31st Century.
The War of Donegalian Succession saw the academy's neutrality violated by the warring forces, with several fierce battles between the Loyalists and Legitimists wrecking sections of the campus. Upon her victory in the war, High Queen Johanna invested substantially in the academy's restoration, not just as a loyal alumni but to give Donegal an equal to AMSA on Arcadia. The rebuilt academy was renamed for Queen Raquel and paired with a new military base, Fort Marsden. For a time it seemed it would regain all its lost prominence, but the capture of Tharkad in the Terran War brought with it the restoration of the Nagelring. The Raquel Steiner Memorial Academy would soon fall behind the former SLDF academy in luster and glory.
Nevertheless the school has retained a standard for academic excellence and has never fallen short of its yearly classes. Those who hew towards favoring Donegalian heritage over remnant Lyran pride prefer RSMA to the Nagelring, and it is a second pick for many applicants who fail in applications to AMSA and Sanglamore. The aerospace college graduates a handful of fighter pilots every year but produces a sizable number of officers for the JumpShip fleet. The institutional knowledge has likewise ensured the school's successful classes of 'Mech and vehicle officers.
Atmosphere
The academy forms part of Fort Marsden's facilities and larger community, giving the cadets plentiful access to social circles outside of the student body and faculty staff. Few academies have the same relationship that RSMA enjoys with the personnel of Fort Marsden. Many officers and NCOs assigned to duties there will volunteer time to help with the cadets training. It also provides a further measure of control on the student body, as any misconduct off campus is likely to be observed and noted not just by base personnel but by their dependents. Some of those dependents end up in the academy themselves, typically attending the Johanna Steiner Military Preparatory School that is co-located with the Fort Marsden Secondary School as a means to promote their candidacy for the available class positions upon reaching graduation age.
RSMA's primacy within the Donegal Royal March was undone by the refounding of the Nagelring, but it remains a respected academy with alumni that fiercely uphold and defend their alma mater among the AFRF's ranks. In some ways the RSMA's culture has become the polar opposite of the Nagelring. Social class distinctions are deliberately downplayed in favor of egalitarianism, to the extent that most established nobility eschew the school. Aside from Star League English the primary tongue of social interaction is Donegalian Gaelic, the third official language of Donegal, which is used in preference over German in an almost defiant manner. Indeed, the RSMA and Fort Marsden can be fairly hostile towards the Lyrantreu, at least socially, and few Lyrantreu apply to the school.
The proximity of the academy to the major field formations that take up residence at Fort Marsden provides a unique opportunity for the cadets by ensuring constant access to a range of units, and attendant tactics and methods, for their wargames and field exercises. The Royal Cuirassiers are particularly influential with the presence of their HQ and the attendant corps-level staff. The Commanding Officer of the Corps of Royal Cuirassiers is a frequent guest of academy ceremonies and is always invited to give an address at the yearly graduation ceremonies. This connection has resulted in a slow shift of the academy towards specializing its graduates in the mixed heavy cavalry and line operations and tactics favored by the Royal Cuirassiers.
Special Notes
The centuries of Steiner rule on Donegal have given the school some lingering attachment towards House Steiner. Johanna's daughter Raquel was an alumni and most of Raquel's daughters attended as well. The academy is one of many indicators in the quiet split of House Steiner into regional factions, with the Donegalian-leaning Steiners favoring RSMA instead of the Nagelring.
RSMA cadets often stand out for their opposition to Lyrantreu politics. They tend to be partisans of the Federation's current structure and to the union of House Proctor and House Steiner governing it, with Donegal held as the rightful co-ruler of the Federation (a status Tharkadians scoff at and Arcadian exceptionalists sometimes forget). Aside from the Donegal Guards and the Donegal Cavalry, the highest-ranked graduates seek and win positions in the Royal Guards and Household Guards, with the remainder distributed to various other formations.
Defiance Industries Military Academy
The collapse of the Lyran Commonwealth affected Defiance Industries, and House Brewer, as it did many others. Hesperus was the greatest surviving BattleMech factory outside of the Terran Union and the wellspring of House Brewer's wealth. But the system lacks worlds for easy human habitation. Nevertheless, the uncertain political loyalties of the adjacent worlds in the early Consolidant compelled the Brewers to find room on their cramped factory world of Hesperus II for an academy to train the newly-formed Defiance Industry SecuriCorps' officers.
The facilities in question are understandably space conscious and quite small, with accordingly-smaller classes. With other factors it does much to explain why DISC relied so heavily on mercenaries up through the early Second Age of War. The DIMA focused on quality over quantity in its classes, creating a demanding curriculum that would guarantee every graduate would be a high-quality MechWarrior, aerospace pilot, or soldier. The academy was granted more space when it could be clawed from Hesperus' defiant biosphere, a process that allowed for the creation of the Armored Infantry Warfare School to train officers in battle armor tactics and operation. Altogether an astounding one trillion C-bills have been spent enlarging the school to its modern size, with the recorded deaths of over six hundred workers reported through the 31st and 32nd Centuries. Such is the price of human settlement of Hesperus II.
The marriage of High King Ethan Proctor-Steiner and Princess Mathilda Steiner-Brewer, resulting in their daughter inheriting both states and the folding of the Consolidant into the wider Federation, resulted in a particular new status for DIMA. House Brewer extracted several concessions for their future political and economic power base once their state was folded into the Federation, including the use for DIMA. The academy does send graduates to the AFRF, but one precondition for attendance is that the highest ranking cadets are diverted. Cadets swear oaths of loyalty to the Principality of Hesperus as well as the Federation and agree, in their admission contract, to serve with the DISC if they are chosen for service with Defiance Industries. This does see many potential candidates choose other schools, but the known quality and rigor of the academy's programs and the financial incentives involved in serving in DISC attract applicants from across the Federation and beyond.
Another addition to the academy dates to the 3080s, when Defiance agreed to have DIMA host the Hazardous Environments Warfare School for the AFRF's Special Operations Command and Federation Ministry of Security's Irregular Operations Office. This annex of DIMA trains the AFRF's Special Operations Teams and IOO field operatives in combat and SERE in the hostile jungles and wastelands of Hesperus II. It needn't be said these operations are confined to those sections nearest the settled zones, and this still produces a steady stream of casualties, even fatalities, for these operators-in-training.
Atmosphere
DIMA enjoys prestige for the challenge it represents to cadets. It is a cramped, confined campus even today, and while there is some social life to be had in the facilities adjacent to the campus, it is a far cry from the inhabited garden worlds the other academies enjoy. DIMA cadets go in knowing they will be challenged at all levels while isolated from access to wider society past factory personnel and miners. The planet's history of being targeted lingers still, and while it has not faced significant invasion in nearly a century, raids up through the Fourth Succession War mean the cadets are considered available for defense call-up in the event of an attack and are drilled to match this expectation. These are all costs the successful applicants are willing to pay in the name of securing a well-rounded military education and the perks that lie beyond. Graduation carries with it the reward of bragging rights in their AFRF careers or, if they are so lucky, a plum posting with a DISC formation protecting a Defiance factory complex, perhaps even the Brewer Life Guards, an outcome that will most assuredly ensure their financial security in the future.
This does foster a more competitive atmosphere than most other academies. A shot at a lucrative future as a DISC officer, and all the social connections and perks that come with it, makes a cadet's peers opponents to be bested in the testing as much as they are fellow students with common challenges. DIMA graduates have a checkered reputation in the AFRF due to those who maintain these behaviors past commissioning. The academy is well aware what a danger it is to the operation of a military and has long included measures and tests to emphasize teamwork over individual competition. Deliberately sabotaging a fellow cadet is harshly punished whenever detected, a practice that is usually effective if ineffective against cadets of particular cunning and subtlety. But until the DISC's recruitment policies changes to disincentivize competition, it is unlikely this will ever be truly curbed.
Graduates from DIMA appeal to formations more likely to deal with extreme environments given how baked in such training is to the cadets' education. Many cadets from the Armored Infantry Warfare School apply to Special Forces Command given their exposure to the operators' training. Paradoxically, they tend to be the least likely to pass the training, as the SOT trainers and officers see them as too competitive and incompatible with the "team player" aspect special forces demands of its personnel.
Special Notes
It goes without saying that just attending DIMA is stressful due to the reduced personal space and the cramped conditions. Hesperus' infamously-hostile biosphere makes it very easy for cadets to get themselves killed if they're incautious during even the most regular field exercise at the edge of the settled zone. DIMA consistently records the highest casualty rates on training maneuvers or from accidents due to this condition.
The special circ*mstances under which DIMA operates lends itself to obvious concerns of mixed loyalty. Anyone attending the academy agrees to serving House Brewer if they are selected for DISC. While so far there is no obvious political issue, the day may come when an assertive Prince of Hesperus creates perceptions of loyalty issues between their subordinates, and the cadets who swear oaths to them, towards the Federation as a whole.
Rivka Shaltiel Flight Academy
By the late 3030s it was clear to the AFRF that it was desperately in need of an expanded education system for military officers. The losses incurred in the expansion campaigns, the Second Skye War, and the Second Andurien War were not being met by even expanded classes at Ayrshire, which was at reasonable capacity. With this in mind, Duke Haim Shaltiel of Gienah proposed to help fund a long-time dream of his family and many in Gienah's government and industrial leadership: an academy for aerospace personnel that would take advantage of his world's significant aerospace industry. The offer was accepted and ground was broken in 3039 for a site near the planetary capital of Eilat, adjacent to the Eilat Staff College.
The subsequent outbreak of the War of Donegalian Succession delayed construction, as did a raid by Brethren troops after the Compact powers' intervention. The academy didn't welcome its first class until 3043, and was only ready due to generous contributions from Gienah Aerospace Industries and RAFAEL-Gienah. At the opening ceremonies Duke Haim revealed that the school was being named for a cousin, Rivka Shaltiel, who was killed in action during the fighting over Concord.
Now the Rivka Shaltiel Flight Academy, the academy quickly established its reputation with the assignment of the best veterans the AFRF had to offer. The academy persevered through the attacks on Gienah during the Terran War. Its first graduating classes proved themselves in the skies over Arcadia, Atreus, Hesperus, Skye, and New Earth, eventually reaching Terra itself. By the time of the Fourth Succession War, the "Rivshal" was recognized across the Inner Sphere for its successful piloting officer programs. A continued association with GAI and RAFAEL-Gienah provide the faculty with numerous resources for training their cadets to be the best pilots the AFRF could hope for.
Atmosphere
The particular demands of aerospace operation and combat create a unique environment at the Rivshal. There are no firing ranges and practice grounds like other academies to accommodate 'Mech and vehicle crews training on equipment. Simulator pods provide most immediate training for the cadets with hands-on training employing nearby Egozi Aerospace Station and the collection of reserve fighters and light DropShips maintained there. Third year cadets are the first to make regular manned flights as part of their training, and fourth year cadets are sent on weekly flight drill exercises in the company of pilots from the Gienah Aerospace Regiment and any aerospace formations attached to the garrison. These exercises add to the tension and excitement found on campus as junior cadets often review the battleROM footage of the exercises as part of their own training and education.
Outside of flight training the cadets undergo the demanding academic training to make them into functioning aerospace personnel. Trigonometry and calculus classes demand mathematical excellence. Tactics classes examine the differing ways aerospace craft maneuver in atmosphere and in space and the necessary tactics demanded in each environment. Veteran pilots often give seminars to classes, showing the footage of their missions and explaining the elements and demands they experienced.
The stress of the academy is noted, and every year reaches it's peak during "Suicide Week", when third-year cadets undergo their final testing to determine their final year courses. Aerospace fighter pilots by nature demand the ability to understand maneuver and combat in both space and atmospheres. Those who fall short of this requirement are relegated to the DropShip officer track, for those who perform better in space, or the conventional fighter track for those who show capability in atmospheric operation. The cadets who do not manage to clear the testing demands are relegated to the support track as either pilots or ground-based officers. Needless to say the last track is the one most cadets fear the most and who are most responsible for the macabre nickname for the testing exam week, though the conventional pilot track contributes. As the cadets' saying goes: "Aerospace pilots get the glory, DropShip pilots get the money, support staff pilots get the Bronze Wings, and conventional pilots get a coffin."
Given the stresses of the academic environment, it is seen as a good thing that the Rivshal is one of the more pleasant academies in terms of environment. Eilat's coastal climate allows for mild winters and warm summers with usually pleasant weather. The city's culture and entertainment scene is thriving, giving cadets plentiful outlets for the stresses they experience in their studies and training. Enforcement of the conduct code tends to be limited when it comes to liberty time permitted off-campus. "No handcuffs, headlines, or hospitals" is a rule that first year cadets learn from their upperclass colleagues.
Special Notes
The Rivka Shaltiel Flight Academy is officially a four year academy, but the first three years are the most crucial and the final year is primarily flight training and exercises. Consequently, the washout rate is dramatically lower for final year cadets, while the third year is often the leader in cadets who fail to maintain passing grades or are dropped from the school for behavioral issues.
A handful of those who qualify for aerospace pilot duty do not finish graduation from the Rivshal. Every year the third-year class is winnowed away by those who win berths at the AFS Independence Naval Aerospace School and transfer to seek service in the Royal Navy's Fleet Aerospace Arm.
The close relationship with Gienah's aerospace manufacturers means the students typically do all their training on locally-built designs like the older marks of the Viper, Ra'am, and Darter fighters.
Defiance Armored Combat School
Following the collapse of the Republic of Skye in the First Skye War, the Defiance-Hesperus Consolidant assumed control of Carnwath as part of its general annexation of its vanquished foe. This included the grounds of the Skye Republic's Panzerkriegschule, their primary officer academy. The institutional biases of the republic kept the academy from having as capable a MechWarrior program as other Successor State academies, so when House Brewer took over the grounds they found themselves with an academy with minimal infrastructure and materials for MechWarrior training. Given the desperate need for funding to expand the Defiance Industries SecuriCorps, the decision was made to accept the school as it was. In keeping with the Brewers' "Skye restorationist" policies, the academy was re-designated to the Defiance Armored Combat School.
DACS or "daks", as it came to be known, proved a vital asset to the Consolidant in those years. The graduating program allowed for expansion of the DISC's vehicle regiments with trained and capable officers, especially after the first full classes came in 3037. The Combat Aviation Academy on campus gained a particular reputation for graduating well-trained and capable officers for VTOL units. It explains the school's woes through the mid-31st Century as it came under direct attack by the Azami in 3041-42 and would be nearly destroyed by the Terrans during the fighting on Carnwath in 3051-55. It wasn't until after the Terran War that DACS would be rebuilt to full capacity. Defensive positions and expanded armories were established so the cadets could better defend the academy, which proved necessary during the fighting of the 3080s-90s and later the Fourth Succession War.
As with DIMA, DACS today graduates officers to both the DISC and the AFRF. DISC gets first rights to all graduates as well, save from the Combat Aviation Academy. The AFRF Military Education department paid over a hundred million pounds through the 3120s to expand and refurbish the VTOL section of DACS, giving them the leverage to negotiate this exception for cadets graduating as VTOL pilots and officers. The AFRF gets the priority among that group and DACS graduates now provide many promising young officers to the aviation regiments and light horse regiments of the AFRF's vehicle forces.
Atmosphere
DACS is a no-nonsense school. This is not the same as it was under the Skye Republic, but reflects the business mentality of the DISC officers who reopened the institution and influenced its opening classes. Cadets arrive to an academy with no pretensions, no paegentry, and little ceremony beyond standard military practice. War is a business, and they are the students looking to make it their trade. Since vehicles are all crewed craft, it is a trade that demands teamwork. Early on cadets are divided into crews within their class. They are bunked together and in field and drill exercises work together, rotating roles in their assigned vehicles to ensure familiarity with all the jobs their future subordinates will perform. In addition to their individual grades they are graded as a crew. This encourages common effort in both the classroom and on the field. No matter how great a cadet is as an individual, they will not rank highly if they are not working with their fellow crew. This respect makes DACS an almost mirror image of DIMA and the competition that is endemic to the student body there. Some attribute this to the lack of a MechWarrior program. "MechWarriors are individuals, vehicle crews are teams," the alumni association often points out in their publications.
For a long time DACS' primary source of applicants was the Isle of Skye and other adjacent systems. The school's increasing reputation has it cooming into the notice of the wider Federation, now. For ten years now, every class has admitted a wider variety of cadets from across the Federation.
While there is no nearby Eilat or Roslyn or New Glasgow, DACS enjoys the nearby presence of Dumfries Bay and the adjacent townships of Lanarkshire and Sommerville. The North Medwyn River runs through the academy grounds (and provides the means for cadets to practice vehicular river-crossing) and the small villages of Bryceville and Dalzellton provide for scenic river parks for exercise and recreation. Lanarkshire has a club scene for its local youth that draws attention while Sommerville is the seat of the Baron of Dumfries, whose family is known to invite instructors and cadets alike on hunting trips, boat parties, and other festivities. As with all things, cadets will typically take leave with their assigned crews, a practice widely encouraged by the faculty.
Special Notes
Given the stake Defiance Industries and House Brewer hold in the academy, it should be no surprise that the majority of hardware that DACS cadets train on are Defiance-built vehicles. Hunters, Pattons, Saxons, and Manticores that were surplus to DISC needs fill the warehouses and vehicle hangars on the academy grounds, and the helipads abound with Defiance-built Thundercopters and Hummingbirds.
Unlike DIMA graduates, DACS graduates enjoy a good reputation amongst the AFRF. Those not brought into the DISC have a high rate of acceptance into royal formations.
Alarion Naval Academy
Alarion began as a means to an end during the Terran War. Damage to the AMSA and RSMA campuses, the loss of AMA for several years, and the remnant danger to the Rivshal left the Royal Navy with a shortage in capacity for cadets. The need for naval officers for the Terran War demanded a solution, and with its shipyards already in place, Alarion provided the obvious answer. A rushed construction effort through 3052, funded by donations and subscriptions from the depleted coffers of the AFRF, saw the completion of a new officer academy specifically for the Royal Navy. The first classes began courses in 3052 even as construction continued on the campus erected outside of Port Sydney. The needs of the war meant the faculty was primarily retired officers or survivors from the lethal battles with the Terran Union Navy, a combination that proved effective as time passed.
As the war continued and Alarion produced succeeding classes, it was clear the academy had potential beyond an emergency wartime measure. By the time Terra fell the Royal Navy was already prevailing with the Military Education Department to expand the Academy. The failure of the Robinson Accords to keep the peace after the war made the Navy's needs clear and Alarion was promptly expanded to its current size, making it the largest naval academy in the Inner Sphere. Through the remainder of the century the majority of Royal Navy officers would be graduates of Alarion, either as cadets or at the post-graduate colleges for commissioned officers.
This narrow focus did cause some trouble during the Dominate War, given Scipio's legions lunged at Alarion in 3099, but with the restoration of the Principate and continued peace from the Imperators on Alphard, Alarion's old security seems once more firm.
Attached to the campus is the Alarion Naval DropPort and Port Sydney Shipbuilding's Terrestrial Complex. Cadets are often assigned to do field studies working or observing on the DropShips carrying raw materials or finished cargoes to and from the complex as well as the military transport traffic moving supplies to the Alarion Naval Shipyard overhead. All cadets are required to perform yearly midshipman cruises in between their class years, lasting several weeks up to two months, to complement their classroom studies with on-hands experience. This culminates in the fourth year when the second and third quarters are spent in a six month midshipman's tour aboard either the AFS Sentinel, a rebuilt Second Age of War frigate, or with the AFS Independence to support the Naval Aerospace School.
Some of these cadets will return as lieutenants to attend the Advanced Naval Command School, a post-graduate institution within the academy to prepare junior officers for command positions through three or six month courses. Every chief of naval operations of the last half century is a graduate of this school.
Atmosphere
Alarion Naval Academy is the most collegial academy in the AFRF. The atmosphere is close to a university's, with a similar diversity in courses. Military discipline is present and enforced while academically the institution exists to grow the minds of the future officers of the Navy. Classes teach everything from military history and strategy to civics and political science. Medicine, engineering, and computer sciences all have their own dedicated colleges on the campus. The Navy itself has been shaped by Alarion's academic focus to the point a number of naval officers have retired to become professors at civilian universities.
Given the Naval Academy's overwhelming precedence within the Royal Navy, it should be no surprise that its classes come from across the Federation. It is not just that the naval officer programs at other academies fill up quickly with local students. Alarion's reputation is widely known and more than makes up for its relative youth compared to venerable institutions like Ayrshire, Sanglamore, or the Nagelring. This diversity extends to the faculty as many officers find a year or two of teaching classes at Alarion to be a benefit to their careers. The collegiate atmosphere overlaid with military discipline and uniformity provide a cohesive force to reduce strain from accommodating the multitude of creeds and cultures.
That is not to say there are no issues, especially when contrasting Lyrantreu to Tamarindians or Atreans or Skynans. Cadets who go too far can face harsh discipline for violations of the student code, even expulsion. In recent years there has been some scandal about such expulsions being focused primarily on non-Lyran or Skye-based cadets while those from Lyran worlds are given more leniency, and a recent change in leadership may yet see more come of this issue.
Given the requirements for midshipman tours between years there are no prolonged periods between classes for students to pursue local distractions. That said, Port Sydney's vibrant economy and social scene for naval and civilian spacers attracts the cadets as well, and their rare leave weekends are often spent in the pubs, clubs, and other establishments.
The Academy also fields a collegiate football team that competes in the Alarion Collegiate Football Federation's Class A Division, with first through third year cadets filling the roster. Games are widely attended and major social events for the student body as well as those officers attending the Advanced Naval Command School. Most of the permanent residents of Port Sydney consider the school their home team as well and the team's home games are typically sold out. Many a fourth year cadet regrets the timing of the team's schedule as the yearly season and championships fall within their final midshipman tour. Despite not being able to field fourth year cadets, the team recently clinched an upset victory over the University of Craiova in the 3141 Alarion Collegiate Cup Series, winning the global title for the first time in an "underdog" sports story that has won attention across the Federation.
Special Notes
As an academy for naval officers the facilities are primarily classrooms and lecture halls. Simulators are not the simpods used for training MechWarriors, vehicle crew, or aerospace pilots, but large command theaters emulating the CICs of WarShips or DropShips. These are arguably the most expensive simulation systems ever made, as they often make use of the same parts and equipment found in actual ships, just relaying simulated data from computers and not live data from sensors.
AFS Independence Naval Aerospace School
During the Terran War, the urgent need for both WarShips and more aerospace carrier capacity led the AFRF to revive the SLDF's concept of an escort-weight Carrier WarShip. The first such vessel was named AFS Independence, and she served proudly in the final years of the war, including participating in the Battle of Brahe Station and the Battle of Titan. Over ten years later the ship nearly met its end at the Fourth Battle of Tikonov. The AFRF concluded such dedicated carrier WarShips were suboptimal and decided to retire the surviving class ships.
Independence was saved from decommissioning by a unique proposal from the Royal Navy. They had inherited the Free March's devotion to rigorous training and high quality for naval aerospace fighter pilots, but to this point were required to rely on trawling from various aerospace pilot programs and applied field training. With the Independence no longer considered viable for active naval service, it was felt it could still be quite valuable serving as the base for a school for applicants to the Fleet Aerospace Arm. Given the sunk costs of the ship versus the real costs of building a new station or ground campus from scratch, Military Education agreed to the idea of turning the carrier into a dedicated training ship. In 3078, after several years of rebuilding and restoration, the first class of 200 prospective naval aviators were gathered to attend the AFS Independence Naval Aerospace School.
Independence is, understandably, not a four year program, nor does it have much variety. It is a one year course meant to train qualified aerospace fighter pilots to the high standards demanded by the Fleet Aerospace Arm. Applicants must already have a minimum of three years military aerospace piloting training on their records. Testing in the mathematical foundation for space-based fighter combat is performed and the demanded standards higher than the other branches. The two hundred and twenty billets are always filled, year after year, with over sixty percent of applicants turned away, often eighty percent. The successful applicants range from twenty-year-olds near the top of their third year classes at the Nagelring or Rivshal to thirty-three-year-old squadron captains and wing commanders making a final effort to prove they can fly with the best.
The Independence does not function like a regular academy. The crew is a combination of naval cadets working as midshipmen, typically from ANA, and regular personnel on assignment to the ship. The ship's captain acts as the final authority for day-to-day matters and is for all intents and purposes the equivalent of a commandant. The CAG (Commander Air Group) is the head instructor and in charge of implementing the directives of the training program.
Once the class begins, the ship departs port and operates under regular naval operational discipline and regulation. The ship independently cruises for nine months, typically jumping around the Alarion March conducting flight training operations. Pilots experience firsthand the demands of long periods of time spent traveling in space, the constant shifts between living under thrust or living in the micro-G pattern of jump recharge times. Their days are spent either in lectures on formations, tactics, and doctrine or on active flight testing. Mock dogfights and test flights are common, as well as practicing all of the emergency launch and landing and recovery procedures a naval pilot can expect in their prospective careers. They are organized into squadrons and kept on flight readiness watch like any regular carrier would. At any time the Independence's CAG can call a full scramble alarm on the students, forcing them to quickly suit up and report for launch duty. The captain can likewise summon them to emergency stations to act as damage control personnel or any other role that a member of a ship crew would perform during a shipwide emergency.
Upon the conclusion of the nine month cruise with a return to Alarion Naval Station, the final flight tests are held and graduates are confirmed in a ceremony on the Independence's flight deck, where they are formally inducted into the Fleet Aerospace Arm.
The intensity of the training and operating environment is notorious for how quickly it produces wash outs. A starting class of two hundred and twenty might end with a hundred successful pilots, though the passage rate is an acceptable sixty percent on average over the past twenty years. Considerations for relaxing the standard to more easily meet personnel demands dies upon every consideration. For those who pass the course comes the coveted black-on-gold wing patch of the Fleet Aerospace Arm and the recognition of being one of the best pilots in the Inner Sphere. Those who serve the full class term but do not graduate for failing to meet the final test scores are permitted to try again, though they must take their place in line with other applicants and so rarely get to make a fresh attempt in the following year. Whatever their intention on trying again, they are invited to join the System Patrol Service as fighter pilots for the patrol carriers, and those acclimated to space service often do so.
Atmosphere
AFS Independence might be a training vessel only, but she is still a military-crewed WarShip, not a campus. The trainees and their instructors are members of a crew and operate as such. Recreation is limited to the crew facilities on the ship's two grav-decks. Living spaces are confined and privacy is non-existent for all but the ship's senior officers. During their training course the Independence does put into port on occasion and liberty is granted like with any crew, with strict guidelines and requirements for the trainees. One drink too many and one minute too late can ruin a trainee's record and cause them to fail the course. "Save the bullsh*t for when you get your black wings" is the traditional exhortation by instructors to their students during these port calls.
Dogfight training often involves student-vs.-student battles. To avoid letting this escalate into competition instructors frequently change up the combatants. The pilot who outflies you today may be your wingman tomorrow. Defeats are analyzed and students encouraged by instructors and peers in examining their mistakes and improving on their performance. The final tests are not one-on-one dogfights but formation exercises with the students flying as flights and squadrons against their instructors and volunteers from whatever aerospace formations are available. The end goal is a core of pilots who recognize each other as the best in the Inner Sphere and who will always have one another's back.
It is inevitable that some trainees washout. This is not from lack of piloting skill, which is unlikely given the prerequisites to even get into the school, and a number of failed graduates go on to respectable careers in the System Patrol Service or within the Aerospace Force. No less than two Chief Air Marshals of the Aerospace Force washed out of the Independence Training School. A life spent in the conditions of a space vessel, especially a military one, is more trying on some than others, and the duties of the Fleet Aerospace Arm demand the ability to live in these conditions for long cruises, year after year. The Independence provides the unique environment to sort out those who can endure these conditions from those who cannot.
Special Notes
Being a training ship does not exempt the Independence from the rules and regulations that all Royal Navy vessels fall under. The ship is under obligation to answer distress calls, provide emergency support, and take on refugees as needed. Training classes have endured everything from sheltering the population of a blown habitation dome on a mining asteroid to fighting raiders during the Dominate War and the Fourth Succession War. The random difficulties and interruptions this poses on operations are seen as valuable to the process for both the cadet midshipmen serving with the crew and the trainee pilots by reminding them of the uncertainties and dangers of space travel and operations.
The school will temporarily cease in 3150 for a two year period to perform system upgrades and repairs and other yard work vital to maintaining its space-worthiness and functionality. During this period naval pilot training will be transferred to the AFS Assurance, a Majestic-class fleet carrier DropShip kept at the Fleet Reserve Yard that will be reactivated for this purpose. The classes on the Independence will resume in 3153.
Royal Infantry Officer College
The development of battle armor infantry suits produced one of the most critical changes to warfare in the 31st Century. WIth the lessons of the early Second Age of War demanding an increase to armored infantry formations, the AFRF needed to not just expand its capacity for academy-trained infantry officers but create a framework for studies and enhancement of armored infantry training and doctrine. When High King Thomas came to the throne, he promoted the measure with greater vigor than his civilian mother had, pushing AFRF Military Education to establish a specialist academy for infantry officers. The result was the foundation of the Royal Infantry Officer College. After consideration of potential host facilities McAffe was chosen, primarily due to its own history of producing hard-fighting infantry regiments. The College was co-located with Fort Wallace outside the planetary capital of New Edinburgh and started admitting classes in 3046. The academy would be damaged during the infamous raid by the Sixteenth Terran Armored Cavalry in April 3057, but never ceased classes and has not through to the modern day.
The RIOC's main purpose is as it always has been; prepare its cadets for careers in the AFRF's infantry forces with a minimum three year course. From the first day cadets are placed in drill teams and run through standard infantry training. The classes emphasize teamwork as integral to successful infantry combat practices. Veteran infantry officers from across the Federation come to give lectures every term on their careers and experiences. By the middle of the first year cadets are suiting up for early familiarization training with infantry armor suits. They progress from there to squad, platoon, and finally company-sized infantry exercises, with second and third year cadets in command positions as cadet-lieutenants and cadet-captains. It is not unheard of for graduates to come under the command of officers they'd once followed as first year cadets in these exercises.
Among many elements, one thing that the college drills into its cadets is that well-led infantry can face and defeat BattleMechs, and the veteran instructors and guest-lecturers often present armorcam recordings showing these successes. While it is not the only military academy in the Federation to not have any MechWarrior programs, the RIOC actually takes a particular relish in encouraging the cadets to defy the common perception of the BattleMech's battlefield primacy. AFRF MechWarriors often refer to the campus as "enemy territory" for the near-hostility they face when present for any reason. Many have testified privately how off-putting it can be to experience quiet contempt and superiority, which some wits note is turn around from the usual MechWarrior behavior towards other military personnel.
At the end of the third year, most cadets are considered graduated, taking on commissions as second lieutenants and reporting for assignments to regular infantry regiments across the Federation. Those who pass qualifications remain for a final year of testing and classes in advanced infantry operations, becoming candidates for the Royal Grenadier or Royal Jaeger infantry regiments or even the much-coveted Special Operations Teams. Those who successfully pass these courses typically rise to high rank in the AFRF during their careers.
Additionally, every year several hundred captains and majors arrive from across the Federation to attend the Infantry Command Program, a six month series of courses to prepare field officers for the responsibilities and demands of battalion and regimental command. Lectures, simulations, and field exercises introduce larger unit tactics and command practices, as well as good command post and HQ protocols and practices, communications doctrine, and other vital roles for someone assuming command of hundreds of soldiers taking the field.
Atmosphere
As young as it is, RIOC is a school steeped in tradition. From its opening days the institution worked to incorporate traditional military academy ceremony into its daily functions. From the morning rouse playing over the facility's loudspeakers and cadets' perscomps to the lights' out call in the evening, rituals abound for the students. Drill call, mail call, and mess call are done precisely, and cadets are singled out for honors in participating in them. Class changes are by bugle and not by bell. In many ways the RIOC employs centuries' old practices from pre-spaceflight Terra, drawing from the camp routines recorded for the British and Commonwealth armies of the 19th and 20th centuries.
This is not a mere case of aesthetic taste. The choice is deliberate in invoking an era when infantry, not BattleMechs, held the battlefield. Through ritual and ceremony the cadets are reminded daily that they are the inheritors of an ancient tradition of foot soldiers who formed the backbone of brave and strong armies. "The Infantryman holds the ground" is the academy motto.
The routine and constant drill is calculated to reinforce cadet solidarity. It works quite well for most, and those cadets who fail to fall in have a greater chance of washing out or not completing the three year course. The RIOC considers this an acceptable price for accomplishing its goal of graduating high-quality infantry officers capable of leading soldiers on the modern battlefield against even the heaviest 'Mech opposition. Being infantry on the same battlefield as a BattleMech is a demanding job, and it is the one the RIOC prepares its cadets for.
Off-campus activities often see visits to New Edinburgh or the House Wallace Public Estate. The former provides access to the clubs, pubs, and establishments that cater to the cadets and instructors' social and entertainment needs on liberty while the latter provides plentiful opportunities to physical sport and recreation. During football season the New Edinburgh Football Club provides an entire box of seats at their home games for the academy's use, and the awarded tickets are prizes for excellence in the classroom, drill grounds, and exercises. The colors of the team are a common sight in cadet dorms though by academy regulations are barred from the academy's open spaces and main buildings.
Special Notes
Graduates are authorized to wear the university's official tartan — red on blue and gold — if their regiments permit, and they are known for being assertively proud of the school.
George S. Patton Jr. School of Mechanized Warfare
The expansion of AFRF officer education programs commenced in fits and starts given the struggles of the War of Donegalian Succession and the shocks of the Terrans' ban on all arms exports. In 3044, Duke John Franklin of Concord proposed to lease (and eventually sell) his family's lands adjoining Fort Patton on his homeworld. The properties would not only provide for a new faculty ground but include a variety of hilled, forested, and riverine terrain for the students to train on. After three years the new School of Mechanized Warfare was opened. Duke John pushed for, and won, the naming of the school for the famous 20th Century American commander General George S. Patton Jr, one of a number of historical figures he was enamored with. For many in the rest of the Federation the school was not a choice pick and was seen as something of a joke, an act of fancy by the otherwise-powerless Duke Franklin. When the Terrans occupied and leveled most of the school during their attempted conquest of Concord, the campus was granted minimal resources for repair. By the end of the Terran War the Military Education department was considering closing the facility down.
The Patton School's fate changed direction with its first post-war commandant. In 3061 General Sir Alexander Penton, the famed former commander of the Eighth Strikers and wartime commander of the Striker Corps, accepted a terminal posting as Commandant of the Patton School before his final retirement. Penton immediately shook up the school's moribund curriculum and practices. Programs for MechWarrior and armored infantry cadets were added to represent a shift. Instead of a pure vehicular officer academy as originally envisioned, the PSMW (as it came to be known in shorthand) would be geared towards producing cavalry officers for infantry, armor, and 'Mech formations. This reinvention of the school proved a rousing success, and while Penton only served as commandant for three years, he is still fondly remembered among the alumni and the academy's main hall bears his name. Many have quietly renamed the school for Penton even if the official designation is unchanged.
The Patton School exists to extol the importance of combined arms warfare and the teamwork essential between MechWarriors, tankers, pilots, and infantry. Combined arms tactics and exercises dominate the education and training curriculum for cadets whatever their chosen specialty and program. The school is the only academy in the Federation to offer courses exclusively for conventional fighter pilots without any aerospace training, with the Aerospace Force grudgingly supporting the operation with instructors and material. Veteran soldiers assigned to Fort Patton provide lectures and support in training exercises to give cadets the benefit of their experience. By the fourth year, cadets are assigned to training maneuvers with the militia forces based out of Fort Patton and will even participate in exercises with whichever AFRF formations are present.. Until the Fourth Succession War this included yearly exercises with Striker brigades present, but the demands on the Striker Corps since the war typically see them posted elsewhere. The graduates of the school often end up in the Strikers or the Donegal Cavalry. Most will spend the majority of their careers in cavalry formations of various kinds. Like Sanglamore cadets and their sashes or RIOC graduates with their tartans, Patton School graduates on formal occasions will wear a green sash with crossed cavalry sabers pinned to the shoulder.
Like other academies the PSMW does run a post-graduate officer program. The Advanced Mechanized Warfare Program often fills its slots and puts captains and majors through six months of classroom exercises, field training, and lectures to teach interoperability between the branches of ground warfare.
Atmosphere
The PSMW operates like a military base as much as a college. The students use the same PT course and recreational facilities as other Fort Patton personnel. They are in day-to-day contact with base personnel crossing the campus to see to their own duties within the base. The school and the main base share a common news service for local stories and base support personnel provide staffing for the PSMW's mess hall and other facilities. Final year cadets have training exercises in the Fort Patton Command Center and those who join drop operations classes typically perform their training at the Fort Patton training ground.
One of the many means used to promote cadet solidarity is the forming of intramural competitions in sports. International rules football, Concord-rules football, and basketball are all popular activities, provided the cadets are not behind on their studies. Studying is another common practice among the cadets given their course work and the demands made upon them. The school library is open through most of the day and night for students looking up materials ranging from old historical works to officer memoirs to official battle reports and battleROM collections.
The PSMW is the only academy where daytime base departure would not be seen as an extraordinary circ*mstance or a violation of the student code. Cadets are permitted to go off-base in their free hours to do everything from attending religious services to shopping to seeing a holovid. The nearby city of Gainsville is a university city and provides interaction with other students the same age groups as the cadets. This is a tradition of the school; cadets are expected to show self-discipline and not abuse this unique privilege. Those who do rarely last long.
Special Notes
Given the school shares a world with them, it should be little surprise that most of the training equipment at the PSMW is provided by Reddington Armaments. Surplus 'Mechs and vehicles produced by the Concord-based arms manufacturer fill the hangars.
For all its emphasis on cavalry officer education and combined arms warfare, the Patton School is joined with an institution that is often overlooked outside of specific AFRF and legal circles. The Alexander Penton School of Military Law is second only to Ayrshire in prominence within the circles of JAG. Non-law cadets are sometimes put off by sharing space with the "ambulance-chasers" but are reminded the main reason the PSMW still exists is because of an "ambulance-chaser". The Penton School is primarily known for the Rabb Program, a specialized course for AFRF combat arms personnel seeking a law degree. Many note with amusem*nt that this is a reverse of Penton's own military career.
