Robotech Defense Force

The Robotech Defense Force (RDF) is the military defense arm of the United World Government.

History

The RDF can trace its roots back to the United Nations Forces that participated in the Global Civil War. In the wake of the crash of the SDF-1 the UN created a special task force to reverse engineer and exploit the alien technology found in the vessel. This task force was called the United Nations Space Command, referred to as the UN Space-C (commonly abbreviated to UN Spacy). Under the auspices of the UN Spacy the new technology, dubbed Robotechnology, was used to develop new weapons systems to help defend Earth against the expected arrival of more aliens seeking the crashed spacecraft.

By the mid-2000s the UN Spacy forces were operating in the public eye, but since the existence of aliens and details behind the SDF-1 were still classified its primary mission of protecting the Earth against an unspecified alien threat remained a secret. Publicly the UN Spacy forces saw action as a peacekeeping force in the few remaining regional conflicts and, more importantly, they fought frequent battles against Anti-unification (Anti-UN) forces that sought to disrupt the new United Nations and its movement towards a unified world government. Despite the Anti-UN efforts, the Unified World Government (UWG) was formed in 2005.

Robotechnology made its public debut in 2007, during a series of battles with Anti-UN forces and in 2008 the UN Spacy was renamed the Robotech Defense Force, or RDF (though it was still referred to as the UN Spacy, or just the Spacy in many circles). Though the initial Zentraedi invasion of 2009 was kept a secret from the general public (the attack on Macross Island being blamed on Anti-UN terrorists) it did put the RDF into the forefront of planetary defense.

The Zentraedi planetary assault of 2011 and near annihilation of the planet dealt a major blow to the UWG and the RDF. In general the most senior officers left were those who had been aboard the SDF-1 during the attack or had been in heavily fortified facilities that managed to escape direct attack. The RDF was at the vanguard of the relief and reconstruction efforts and was the de facto global military force as most national armies had been devastated. Between maintaining order and battling rogue Zentraedi elements the RDF was vary busy for most of the next decade.

The RDF's last major action was the Malconent Uprisings (2018-2020). After this period the Army of the Southern Cross began to take control of planetary military operations, leaving the RDF to prepare for its new off-world mission. By 2022 the majority of the RDF forces had been transferred to the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF) or their mission to Tyrol. After the REF's departure only a handful of RDF troops and mecha remained on Earth, reporting to the weakening Unified World Government.

Organization

When it was initially formed as the United Nations Space Command, the RDF was one part of the larger UN Forces. While the majority of the UN Forces were national military groups from member nations assigned to UN roles, the UN Spacy was the only one that answered solely to the UN and not to an individual member nation. With the formation of the Unified World Government the armed forces of the member nations were slowly being unified under a single command as well, with the idea that they would all form part of the larger Robotech Defense Force. This all became irrelevant after the Zentraedi planetary assault of 2011 when most of the world governments were wiped out. During the Reconstruction and the re-emergence of the UWG the RDF became the sole global military force, under the control of the UWG.

The RDF follows a command hierarchy inherited from its days as a United Nations space defense force. Initially the UN Spacy ultimately answered to the UN Security Council, via the special task group assigned to the SDF-1/Robotechnology project. With the creation of the Unified World Government and the transformation of the UN Spacy into the Robotech Defense Force the RDF now reported to the Defense Ministry of the new UWG. Control of the RDF generally fell to the senior flag officers that were part of the RDF Central Command. Under the Central Command the RDF was broken down into specific divisions based on specializations such as Navy, Air Force, Space, and Army as well as technical divisions like Communications, Research and Development, Engineering and Military Intelligence.

After the Zentraedi planetary assault and the restoration of the UWG  the RDF Central Command was also recreated, though many of the senior flag officers had been killed in the orbital bombardment and had to be replaced. During the Reconstruction the RDF was the sole military force so an additional level of senior command was created with groups responsible for control of RDF assets in the various geographic regions of the Earth (as well as the Space Command responsible for orbital and extra-planetary oprations).

Ranks

Since the RDF was created as an amalgamation of national militaries a composite ranking system was devised to accomodate the different armed forces. Enlisted ranks were based on an army-style ranking system while officer ranks were based on naval traditions. The RDF does not have any Warrant Officer grade.
Enlisted
  • Private (E2)
  • Private First Class (E3)
  • Corporal (E4)
  • Sergeant (E5)
  • Staff Sergeant (E6)
  • Sergeant First Class (E7)
  • Master Sergeant (E8)
  • Sergeant Major (E9)
Officers
  • Second Lieutenant (O2)
  • First Lieutenant (O3)
  • Lieutenant Commander (O4)
  • Commander (O5)
  • Captain (O6)
Flag Officers*
  • Commodore / Brigadier General (O7 - 1 star)
  • Rear Admiral / Major General (O8 - 2 stars)
  • Vice Admiral / Lieutenant General (O9 - 3 stars)
  • Admiral / General (O10 - 4 stars)

* When the RDF was formed, flag officers were taken from a variety of national armed forces and generally kept their original ranks, resulting in an inconsistent mix of army, navy, and air force rankings in the upper levels of command.