Officer Training Institutes of the Golden Empire

The Officer Training Institutes of the Golden Empire were the institutions charged with training civilians or enlisted military personnel for commissions as officers in the Empire's Royal Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Starfighter Corps.

Overview

At its onset, the Glorious Armada of the Golden Empire consisted entirely of Massassi warriors and droids. Massassi served as both officers and enlisted personnel. However, as the Empire began to expand, new species were incorporated into the military and the droids were gradually phased down, then out, and the vital importance of the Massassi declined. However, as with the training of enlisted personnel, on-the-job training by the Massassi (and by Tariun Sakaros and Keltrayu, for senior commanders) proved woefully insufficient to provide education for the many officers it took to crew the Prime Fleet, lead the Army, and man the starfighters.

Bases were established only on very loyal, easily-defendable systems. Locations which had previously been without the requisite technology were given planetary shields and various ground weapons emplacements to defend themselves against attack. As time went on, most such bases also acquired small Army garrisons and a squad or two of fighters.

Training standards were set by the various High Commands of the Army and Starfleet. All training was conducted entirely in Orhyo, and unlike training for enlisted personnel, officer candidates were not allowed translator droids or other translation aids.

All candidates shared the special paygrade of OT ("Officer Trainee"). Candidates of the Army and Navy were given the rank "Cadet"; RSC candidates were titled "Cadet Pilot".

Service training processes

Royal Army training institutes

The Royal Army's officer training focused on the development of basic military skills and leadership abilities. It was divided into two portions totaling almost half a standard year: a twelve-week Officer Qualification Course, and a twenty-four week Officer Training Course.

Officer Qualification Course

The Officer Qualification Course was designed to indoctrinate candidates into the military way of life and strip them of civilian habits, as well as assessing them for leadership potential and suitability for service life. It was broken into two phases:

• Phase One: Lasting four weeks, Phase One was devoted entirely to drill, discipline, military law and culture, personal hygiene, and physical fitness. Officer candidates (formally ranked "Cadet") were monitored at all times for self-discipline, integrity, and strength of will in overcoming challenges. At any point, Cadets could be dismissed for poor performance.
• Phase Two: The remaining eight weeks of the OQC were devoted to testing Cadets for suitability as officers. Cadets were introduced to weapons systems (personal and artillery), navigation, and a variety of military field skills, while maintaining drill and physical fitness training. Academic instruction was also heavy, and Cadets were frequently tested on military law, command strategy, basic tactics, and Army history. In addition, Cadets were monitored for willingness to assume leadership and devotion to various tasks, and were given opportunities for weekly minor command posts over other Cadets to assess their leadership styles and give the opportunity for correction. Phase Two concluded with several tests; passing every test was mandatory for advancement. These tests were:
  • An overall academic test on Army history, doctrine, and law, along with various practical subjects such as format of orders.
  • A physical fitness test.
  • A three-day field exercise, with Cadets broken into teams of six; command of each team rotated every twelve hours.

If a Cadet successfully passed all exams and was approved by his instructors, he would be promoted to cornet and enter the Officer Training Course.

Officer Training Course

The twenty-four week Officer Training Course took newly commissioned cornets and trained them in the day-to-day practicalities of military leadership. Subjects included marksmanship, weapons systems, leadership and command, tactics, hand-to-hand combat, basic reconnaissance and scouting, live fire exercises (including fire support), medical evacuation procedures, and basic field first aid.

Like enlisted soldiers, officers spent a week each in desert, arboreal, jungle, and cold-weather locations, learning to apply tactics in various terrains and conditions. Officers also continued to have physical fitness tests, with major exams in the first, eighth, sixteenth, and twenty-fourth weeks of training.

The final two weeks of training were devoted to a massive field exercise called the Simulated Battle Exercise ("SimBat" for short). Cornets were inserted into mock-hostile territory by air, with a series of standing orders and a one-way holocomm, which allowed them to receive contact from base command, but not establish it. When the officers reached milestones in their goals, they would receive revised and updated orders, along with new intelligence.

Officers who passed all phases of training were sent to their branch-specific training locations, after which they would go to the field for their first commands.

Both the OQC and OTC for a given command were located on the same planet. Royal Army OTIs were located on Gamus and Bolera; officers of the Massassi Cohorts, like their enlisted equivalents, were trained on Kavez Massass.

Royal Navy training institutes

The Royal Navy's OTI was an intentional mirror of its enlisted training, though longer and more complex. Officers, like enlisted personnel, had only minimal surface-based training. After initial training on Sileria, the rest of officer education was conducted aboard the Victory Star Destroyer Maestro. Also like enlisted training, there was only one Navy Officer Training Institute. Like Army training, it lasted thirty-six weeks, nearly half a standard year.

At all stages of training, Cadets were monitored for hard work and willingness to volunteer for tasks, even menial ones. They were also given opportunities to lead various training exercises, under the watchful eye of their enlisted instructors. Those who seemed to be deliberately absenting themselves from any meaningful volunteer opportunities, and who resisted attempts at correction, could be dismissed from training as "unsuitable for leadership".

Royal Navy officer training was conducted in phases:

• Phase One: Six weeks in length, Phase One taught Cadets basic military skills such as drill, physical fitness and conditioning, personal hygiene (with an emphasis on close-quarters living and neatness), military law, and the chain of command. It was the phase with the least tolerance for individuality and questions, as the goal was to break candidates down entirely and rebuild them into something more suitable for service aboard a Navy ship. Phase One's final week added a course on firefighting and basic emergency response skills, in preparation for shipboard training.
• Phase Two: Phase Two moved training to the Maestro, where it would remain until graduation. The second phase itself lasted eight weeks. Emergency response training continued while Cadets were introduced to life aboard ship and the various departments. In addition, Cadets attended classes on the basic physics of ship movements, shields, energy weapons, navigation, and hyperspace. In this period, Cadets were taken to various locations in the ship to see their theoretical lessons put into practice; groups commonly visited the bridge or a tactical monitoring station to track the ship's movements based on engine adjustments. Like that of the Virtuoso, the hangar bay of the Maestro had mostly been gutted and reorganized as a gymnasium, where Cadets continued their physical fitness training.
• Phase Three: Phase Three began formalized leadership training and orientation to major departments of the ship. Divided into groups, Cadets would spend three weeks in each major department, including weapons, propulsion, sensors, communications, shields, and the bridge. Every day had classes on military law and discipline, leadership, command style, and other shipboard operations, and firefighting classes continued, at least one a week. A further two weeks at the end of this period were devoted to an interim leadership and operations midterm, as well as a physical fitness test, bringing the total time of Phase Three to twenty weeks. Several other complementary and simultaneous "tests" occurred repeatedly during this phase:
  • At the end of its three-week stint, the Cadet class manning the bridge was allowed to take the Maestro on a short hyperspace jump to the Waldo system, the site of Navy enlisted training, and back. This allowed the engineering and hyperdrive groups to practice their new skills as well.
  • In the Waldo system, the Maestro would drift along the perimeter of the system's asteroid belt. The sensor rotation would coordinate with the weapons rotation, who were allowed to live-fire lasers and turbolasers at asteroids. At the same time, the shield rotation would test the effects of particle shields against asteroid fragments, while orbital weapons platforms would fire laser blasts at the Maestro's non-critical areas, testing energy shields as well.
• Phase Four: The last phase of Navy officer training took two weeks. The first week was devoted to academic examinations, a physical fitness test, and a review by the commanding officer of the training program, who would assess the Cadets in formation; after the formation review, Cadets were interviewed by senior officers, to ensure that they possessed the self-control, discipline, and bearing necessary for field service. Any officer Cadet recommended for recycling or dismissal had a final review with the commanding officer. After the exam portion, the Maestro engaged in a simulated field exercise against another Navy ship, which launched droid fighters, allowing the crew of the Maestro to practice shields, maneuvering, and laser and turbolaser attacks. Unlike the similar final exercise for enlisted personnel, however, a second Navy light cruiser would decant from hyperspace partway through the exam, assessing Cadets' ability to react to multiple threats and changing battle conditions.

Having completed the entire training process, officers were formally commissioned as Ensigns and sent to their branch-specific training locations.

Royal Starfighter Corps training institutes

All officers of the RSC began their careers as pilots, and consequently RSC OTI was by far the longest of the three service branches, extending between seventy-three and eighty-three weeks. It was conducted in phases.

• Phase One: Lasting eight weeks, Phase One introduced Cadet Pilots to military life, including drill, discipline, personal hygiene, physical fitness and conditioning, and military law and the chain of command. The phase was dedicated entirely to breaking down civilian habits and replacing them with military ones, in light of the long and difficult training which followed.
• Phase Two: Phase Two lasted ten weeks, and was a scientific and theoretical course covering the basic physics of space and atmospheric flight of a starfighter-sized craft. Cadet Pilots were required to have tertiary study of physics and engineering, and so Phase Two was more review than teaching, with emphasis on the specifics of small-craft flight, along with hyperspace theory.
• Phase Three: Lasting twenty weeks, Phase Three was spent largely in flight simulators, practicing all aspects of flight, including takeoff, landing, maneuvering, and use of weapons systems. The time not spent in simulators was devoted to further academic study of both flight and the military operations system, along with physical fitness. The focus on multiple unrelated subjects was intentional, and designed to forge pilots who could focus on many things at once.
• Phase Four: Fifteen weeks in length, Phase Four applied the lessons students had learned with practical exercises. It was subdivided into two sections, ten and five weeks in length:
  • Section One put Cadet Pilots in the cockpits of airspeeders, where they practiced various flight maneuvers only within the atmosphere. The first eight weeks of training were conducted with a copilot, usually an experienced enlisted pilot. The last two weeks consisted of solo flights.
  • Section Two was like its predecessor, but used space-capable fighters instead. Cadet Pilots maneuvered their craft out of the atmosphere and into orbit, putting their training in the use of inertial compensators to work, and making short hyperspace jumps out of the system and back. They also fired the training lasers of their fighters on stationary, shielded targets, and practiced docking aboard a Navy fighter carrier.
• Phase Five: Cadet Pilots who passed the first four Phases were divided and sent to their various piloting schools, choosing to specialize in bombers or heavy, superiority, assault, or high-speed fighters. Each training pipeline had different times, but the shortest (for the Hadrago heavy fighter) was twenty weeks. The longest, for the Ziltik fighter, was thirty. Cadet Pilots who repeatedly failed training for their chosen fighters could be reassigned to a different fighter class or dismissed from training, based on the decision of their commanding officers.

After being approved for service in a fighter type, Cadet Pilots were formally commissioned with the rank of Pilot and sent directly to the field.

All phases of training were conducted at the same location, and consequently required systems with large tracts of open terrain. RSC OTIs existed on Varga and Wemod.