Earth Force ranks: The Earth Alliance military is divided in two main sections; a Space Navy, incorporating an “Air Force” and wearing blue uniforms, and an Army, being apparently divided
into “Marines” (GROPOS) and “Security”, in green/olive uniforms.

Both divisions are apparently headed by at least a dozen Generals (no actual Admiral exists although the position is mentioned, probably as a title, not rank), who have authority over all (commissioned) officers below that rank, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (equivalent to Admiral?) above them. It is, however, equally possible that there is no “Navy General” rank as such as the only Generals in the Navy who actually appear
in B5 are also members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (“Admirals”), with Marine Generals, like General Franklin, apparently below them. This assumes that there is great deal of crossover between the Navy and Marines, especially as General Franklin defers to Captain Sheridan almost as an equal or second in the episode “GROPOS” (2^nd series), but does this mean that if a Captain is promoted, he/she goes straight to the Joint Chiefs, just as General Franklin would under the same assumptions? This may be reinforced in "The Lost Tales", as Captain Lochley has been promoted to Colonel.

Although the Navy and Marines are separate entities with appropriate ranks, “Navy” officers are
occasionally, and confusingly, described as having “Army” ranks (i.e. Colonel, Major and Sergeant). The B5 Online Technical Guide adds further confusion by placing all officers in a Naval format, with Warrant Officer (Garibaldi’s rank) being below Ensign and above Enlisted Man (which appear to include Marine ranks from Private to Sergeant Major; Zack Allan is referred to at least once as “Sergeant Allan”).

Army ranks for Commissioned Officers below General are mentioned only in terms of their equivalence to Naval Commissioned ranks. This plain doesn’t make sense, as Garibaldi belongs on the command staff of B5, so how can he be below Ensign if there is no real separation between the Space Navy and Marines?

I would suggest that the Space Navy and Marines are in fact separate entities, but with the ranks being slightly less than equivalent so that a higher Commissioned Officer in Marines/ Security can give orders to an apparently equivalent Naval Officer.

Assuming the ranks are as follows:

1. Captain-(no equivalent below General)

2. Commander-Colonel

3. Lieutenant Commander-Major

4. Lieutenant-Lieutenant

5. Second Lieutenant/ Lt Junior Grade-Sergeant Major (NCO)

6. Ensign-Sergeant

7.Technician 1st Class-Private First Class

8. Technician 2nd Class-Private

This way a Colonel or Major can command a space station manned mainly by technical personnel (“Eyes” and “Babylon Squared”) while a Captain can command as many as 18,000 troops aboard an Earth Force Destroyer. Chief Warrant Officer Michael Garibaldi, then, probably has the rank of Major (based on experience-conjecture for Marines/Security).

The rank of Captain is probably equivalent to that of Brigadier General and considering the size of the Navy (between 20,000 and 60,000 including tenders and corvettes) there ought to be more divisions for the equivalent to “Admiral” than in modern navies. Alternately, it is very likely that there are at least forty Generals on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In keeping with the Babylonian connection, perhaps the number is sixty?

Assuming Naval ranks represent graduation from the officer academy, does a blue uniform and an Army rank indicate the officer is a qualified Starfury pilot who did not attend the academy or does it refer to an officer who has transferred from Marines/ Security to the Space Navy and retained their
old rank? Is lack of academy attendance a bar to becoming one of the Joint Chiefs?

Certainly three forms of Earth Force training are mentioned: Aerodrome, Officer Cadet Core/ “Earth Force Academy” and the basic infantry/ combat training all recruits would presumably attend, except medical and technical staff. It is possible that the position of “Major” in the Navy (General Hague’s second/ XO in “Severed Dreams and Sheridan’s would-be assassin both had this rank) refers to a promotion above Squadron Leader (equivalent to Lieutenant Commander?) and into a command position for Starfury pilots without attending Officer Training. The position of Major in the Space Navy may refer to an officer having some skill, like being a qualified Starfury pilot, and being below the rank of Captain.

Size and disposition of the Fleet: In total Earth probably has around 3-5,000 actual Destroyers, being a mix of the old Hyperion-class Cruiser and the newer Omega-class Destroyer which came into service after the Minbari War. Assuming a maximum of 100 Omegas could be built each year, 1800 could have been produced by 2267. Based on this, and assuming the equivalent of Rear Admiral Commands 30 warships, there are then at least a hundred officers with this rank (and their GROPOS equivalent).

Above these would be commanders of large military outposts, fleets operating outside and along Earth’s borders and those in charge of planetary defenses of each of the sixteen off-world colonies. Presumably above them would be what could be termed “System Admirals” or the equivalent to the Moffs in Star Wars, commanding the forces of an entire star system, Earth having thirty in total.
However, this would put too much power in the hands of individual commanders so it is more likely that Earth has a total of at least three hundred Generals (i.e. above Brigadier General for Marines/Security) from both divisions, with 30-60 on the Joint Chiefs and around 80 with the rank as Major General (equivalent to Vice Admiral). The number of GROPOS Brigadier Generals could be as many as 20,000; a similar number to Captains in the Space Navy.

The higher ranks for Navy and GROPOS can then be classed in the following order:
Navy Ranks (and GROPOS equivalent)

1. General of the Fleet (Four Star General)

2. Lieutenant General (Lieutenant/Three Star General)

3. Brigadier General (Major General)

4. Captain (Brigadier General)

Earth Force can then be considered to be run on these lines (and adding the rank of Technician 2^nd Class):

1. Joint Chiefs of Staff-

At least thirty officers in total from both divisions, maybe as many as sixty

2. Lieutenant General-120+ officers

3. Brigadier General (Major General)-

600 officers off world, probably around 2000 on Earth and/or attached to one of the Joint Chiefs

4. Captain (Brigadier General)-30,000+ officers

5. Commander (Colonel)-60,000+ officers,

Commanding 1,500 officers and crew/ troops each

6. Lieutenant Commander (Major)

7. Lieutenant-200K+ based on estimated Starfury numbers,

Probably around two million in service

8. Lt Junior Grade (Sergeant Major)

9. Ensign (Sergeant)

10. Technician 1^st Class (Private First Class)

11. Technician 2^nd Class (Private)

This gives a total of ninety million total personnel from both divisions. However, I would suggest that the total number in actual active service is around 20 million, assuming that Earth Force is ten times the size of the Armed Forces of the United States and Earth Force effectively representing the old (in the 23rd century) Global North.

Note: where no rank is given for Marines/Security, it is the same as the Navy rank.

Wikipedia gives the EarthForce ranking system as:

Navy	Marines/Security
Ensign	2nd Lieutenant
Lieutenant j.g.	1st Lieutenant
Lieutenant	Captain
Lieutenant Commander	Major
Commander	Lieutenant Colonel
Captain	Colonel
Rear Admiral (lower half)	Brigadier General
Rear Admiral (upper half)	Major General
Vice Admiral	Lieutenant General
Admiral	General
Fleet Admiral	Five star General

EarthForce is organized into three separate branches:

• the Navy (blue uniforms)
• the Marines (brown/olive)
• and the Security forces (gray)

Officers are apparently allowed to transfer between branches - Richard Franklin (father of Dr. Stephen Franklin)

once served in the Navy, as first officer on the EAS Ares, but by the time we actually meet him, the elder Franklin

was a general in the EarthForce Marines (which, in the episode "Gropos", were specifically identified as

"EarthForce Marine Corps" in their marching song).

Each branch of EarthForce uses the appropriate style of ranks for that branch:

• Flag officers from all three branches comprise a Joint Chiefs of Staff which is mentioned in a few episodes.

(As an interesting aside, the number of Earth Destroyers is roughly the same as the number of
Star Destroyers employed by the Galactic Empire in Star Wars.
There the ranks are as follows: Grand Admiral, Grand Moff, Moff, Admiral, (Governor/General?),
Captain Etc, with maybe twelve Grand Admirals and several thousand Moffs)

The total number of Starfuries, the single-man fighter craft used by Earth Force, could be as many
as 200,000 over all the carriers, warships and bases in operation. The design of these craft is such
as to minimize the effects of acceleration on the pilot. Starfuries have an X-wing design, with eight
thrusters (four facing forward and four back) at equidistant points from the pilot, who is in a standing position. Starfuries can rotate 180 degrees in one second by firing two thrusters on one side.

To reach combat velocities and negotiate hyperspace, a Starfury’s total acceleration would have to be at least 4g, maybe as much as 6g for a fighter to be able to negotiate hyperspace with two thrusters working in order to compensate for any damage caused during combat.

Calculations: 8 gees acceleration (78.48 m/s/s) in sixty seconds= 8x9.81x60=4708.8 meters per second (or 16,951.68 km/hr). If this acceleration is even, the thrust from all thrusters should all negate each other in terms of pressure on the pilot, but any higher and it would still be difficult for the pilot to breathe and for his cardio-vascular system to operate. A pilot would probably be able to cope with an “uneven” acceleration of 4g over one second for sudden maneuvers and trained pilots should be able to manage this for thirty seconds at a time.

Psi Corps: The Psi Corps is a semi-autonomous branch of the Earth Alliance government, set up in 2161 and dissolved in 2265. Its official aim is to control human telepaths and regulate their activities, but this remit often extends to “Mundanes” (ordinary humans) who interfere with Psi Corps operations and policies by, for example, helping telepaths escape the Psi Corps. Over human telepaths themselves, the Psi Corps hierarchy acts like a military government similar to that of ancient Sparta, with Mundanes as Helots.

One in a thousand humans (nine million) has some telepathic ability, ranging from P1-2 (the ability to sense some emotions and tell when scanned by a more powerful telepath) to P5 (ability to casually tell truth from lies and carry out passive scans on volunteers) to (officially) P11-12 (able to carry out deep scans). P10 telepaths are recruited as instructors for lower level telepaths. P12s are conscripted into the “Psi Cops”, the police and secret intelligence wing of the Psi Corps. Presumably about one in twenty or thirty telepaths are rated P10, with one in a hundred or so being P12. P11s were recruited in President Clark’s “Bloodhound Units”, these divisions also help to find and capture rouge telepaths (called “Blips”) in certain circumstances and probably run the secret prison camps used to hold telepaths who refuse to join Psi Corps or take drugs to reduce their abilities. These camps also house Mundanes who help “Blips”, or at least those who aren’t executed or “Asimoved”.

Psi Corps is described as having a ‘Director’, probably a P10 or 11 selected by the Senate, who has at least theoretical power over the Psi Cops and who directs policy. Whether they are really in charge and not the Psi Cops is an open question, but their aim is to seize direct control over EarthGov and create a totalitarian state based on Psi ability. This was apparently done more or less openly during the Telepath War of 2264 (exact year conjecture) and in the preceding years with experiments to improve telepathic ability, producing drugs to turn mundanes into telepaths so they would automatically have to join the Corps (this plot failed) and in their policy of keeping telepaths in Earth’s solar system and away from contact with mundanes so telepaths would breed more telepaths under Psi Corps supervision.

All to increase the number of telepaths to build up an economic and military base.