6-Commando

Okay, good news and bad news.  Bad news, I’m not back to normal this week, so here’s what I would have posted for you last week if I hadn’t been rushing out the door at the last minute: a UNA Light Brigade, completing the UNA MOBAS Triad and filling out the main force TO&E of the Allied Armed Forces.

Now for the good news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4sT0NFcEus

Yes, I am finally at the end of a very, VERY long stretch of what you might call “Way Too Much Work.”  It’s been good, in the sense that it’s been good for my career to have a set of skills that are in demand right now.  But it has been a bummer to have to sideline so much personal stuff that I really do value, most especially this comic.  And so with those words in our ears, let me say this: Next week, 6-Commando will return to its regular schedule!

Until then, here’s the text from the card above!  Thank you all for being so damned patient with me while I’ve been bumping over this rough spot.  I really can’t tell you how deeply I appreciate it.  You guys are the ones who make it possible.  Thank you all!

United Nations Alliance Light Brigade
Table of Organization and Equipment
Light Brigades, also referred to as Lift Brigades, are organized, on paper, as maneuver units comparable to Heavy and Battle Brigades, but are not deployed as such.  They contain far fewer effective personnel and far more specialized equipment, and are better thought of as advanced support units.  No comparable structure exists in any other armed forces on Earth, with the possible exception of Aviation Regiments used in some specialized formations of the FSR Ground Forces.  Light Brigades fill the “Cavalry” role in MOBAS operations, ranging ahead of heavier combat forces and raiding the enemy, gathering intelligence, and making rapid withdrawals to help lure enemy forces into confrontation with armored battle lines.
Light Brigades were first introduced as Lift Regiments in the middle 1970s, and replaced a number of earlier Cavalry Regiments.  As a result, Light Brigades have not made a full transition to combined forces or force integration imposed on other units my Strategic Posture Review 1985, and a “modernization” scheme has only been suggested for future study by SPR-95.  The structure of Light Brigades is very different from other maneuver units, with the GEV units organized in “Wings” of four “Squadrons” each, with a varying number of units based on intended functional analogues from air and mechanized infantry units, and a far more lean command structure that confines most field command duties to the HHQ.
Light Brigades depend entirely on air superiority to function in a given operational theater.  As a result, they are the only maneuver formation that forward-deploys anti-aircraft forces, in the form of a dedicated AAA Laser Battalion armed with M1000 “Zeus” Laser Vehicles, capable of line-of-sight aircraft interception.
Although a potentially very potent formation, in actual practice, a given Light Brigade is more of a paper unit than an actual combat group, an operational reserve with its component companies on call for deployment in ground support, gunship, reconnaissance, air defense, and rapid airmobile deployment operations, usually in support of multiple forward Heavy and Battle Brigades.  They rarely operate independently in the field, as their equipment requires a much larger than average support tail, and their lower number of combat personnel make them less useful for continuous combat operations.
Because of this insular structure and independence of other combat branches, the Light Brigades have been very slow to implement multinational integration policies, with squadrons, even entire wings, being drawn directly from single national armies.  This is particularly true of formations from the Free French Forces and the Quebecois Republic, where whole Brigades are drawn from French-speaking forces, and buck the trend towards international integration.  In Africa, a number of Light Brigades deployed in East and Central Africa have been seconded to multi-unit “Commandos” for specific mandate deployments, and it is hoped that this will ease the transition to multinational organizations, which is scheduled to begin in earnest starting in 1999.
There are currently fifteen Light Brigades in active UNA service, with plans for a further three to be drawn from the United States, Cuba and the United Provinces of Central America, due to enter duty rotations in 1998.  In the event of war with the FSR, CONASUR or the Arab League, there are no immediate plans allowing for the expansion of Light Brigade units, although it is probable that an additional eight to ten would be needed to maintain the same level of force flexibility with expanded armored and infantry forces in the field.