According to the terms of use for the background image, my image is rendered in 1600x900 resolution.)
After the Twelve Colonies merged with the surviving Cylon rebels from the Cylon Civil War to form the United Tribes of Kobol, the two Colonial-Cylon wars and the time between them were studied in detail to identify mistakes that could be avoided. It was important to prevent events such as the genocide of the Colonial population by the Cylons in the future.
After analysis, the combined force of the thirteen tribes, the Kobol Defense Force (KDF), realized that the previous fleets of both sides had remained in orbit of their respective worlds in the period between the Colonial-Cylon wars, waiting idly for an attack, which was considered the most fundamental mistake.
In response, maximum mobility was declared an absolute strategic priority for the KDF, known as the "Doctrine of Mobile Defense". In accordance with this doctrine, most KDF ships, organized in BattleGroups (BG), patrol almost continuously outside the Cyrannus system cluster in the Astraeus galaxy.
Astraeus, the home galaxy of the UTK, has been divided into various security perimeters for this purpose. A quarter of all BGs remain in the Cyrannus system cluster, the sector of the 12 colonies of Kobol, to directly protect the UTK worlds. These BGs patrol the system cluster and carry out necessary repairs to the ships in the rebuilt Scorpia Fleet Yards. Another quarter of all BGs patrol outside the system cluster on fixed routes in the nearest sectors of the surrounding security perimeter around the Cyrannus system cluster.
However, at least half of all BGs fly without fixed flight routes and cross all security perimeters that extend across the entire galaxy. This means that the majority of BGs do not wait for a potential enemy, but actively and continuously search for possible threats.
A BG only remains in one place for a longer period of time if supplies have to be taken on board, if crews have to be replaced or if absolutely unavoidable shipyard visits are necessary, i.e. if a ship is so badly damaged that the damage cannot be repaired with the resources of the respective BG.
On the one hand, this approach facilitates the early detection of potential threats to the UTK. On the other hand, a potentially hostile power can only estimate the actual combat strength of the UTK with difficulty, as the position of most KDF ships is only known to the respective ship commanders, the highest-ranking admirals and the government. It is almost impossible to monitor the KDF ships, as even a dwarf galaxy like Astraeus is too large and the ships are too widely dispersed.
Nevertheless, thanks to the hyperjump engine and a well-developed hyperjump gate network, an enemy force must always expect unexpected attacks by KDF reinforcements when attacking UTK worlds. At the same time, however, it must also expect counter-attacks on its own bases and worlds at any time.
Due to this strategic orientation, the battlestars are no longer the core of the BattleGroups, as in the colonial military, but the Hephaestus-class basestars. A Hephaestus basestar is practically capable of producing any kind of supply a BG needs on the spot. This ranges from mundane items such as furniture or uniforms to fuel and ammunition of all kinds. In addition, each of these Basestars maintains an extensive supply fleet consisting of 960 Kratos Mk XII multipurpose shuttles, which can be equipped as mining ships to extract resources from asteroids, moons or planets.
In order to further increase the capacity of these flying factories, all technical possibilities of technology transfer with the Tau'ri were used to automate these factories to a high degree. This measure was so successful that they could even afford the luxury of equipping the Hephaestus class with a generous habitat module. This habitat module forms an artificial landscape that enables the Hephaestus basestar not only to process inorganic raw materials, but also to produce food. In addition, the habitat can also be used to regenerate the crews of a BG.
To simplify BG resupply, the Hephaestus class is equipped with variable docking latches on the arms. When a KDF ship docks with a Hephaestus basestar, this system allows for more than a simple connection between the ships, as is the case with standard docking maneuvers between starships. The Hephaestus-class docking latches can actively adapt to the hull shape of another KDF ship, so that there are up to a dozen docking locations in the outer hull of all KDF ships, depending on their size and hull shape (e.g. Zeus-Battlestar). This allows personnel, materials and consumables (such as water and food) to be exchanged more quickly and efficiently than would be possible via a normal docking connection or shuttle service.
You can see such a docking maneuver in the picture. The Hephaestus-class basestar has unfolded so that several battlestars, including a Zeus-class (largest, in the foreground), an Artemis-class (the small one above the Zeus battlestar) and an Athena-class (on the other side of the Hephaestus basestar), can now dock. To protect the BG during this maneuver, all the other ships have gone on alert and taken up defensive positions. The Basestars in particular have almost all unfolded, except for two Hermes-Class Basestars in the foreground. Hermes-Class basestars are high-speed patrol ships, the fact that these two ships have not unfolded means that they are on patrol, while the unfolding of the other two Hermes-Class ships indicates their combat readiness.
BattleGroups, at their nominal strength (see description in Image 1), can be deployed for up to 5 years without a single direct contact with a stationary base or even a planet. Technically, the ships could carry out much longer missions, but a longer separation of the crews from their home is avoided for psychological reasons.
A total of 3,024 capital ships belong to the Kobol Defense Force. This number may seem small at first glance, and in purely numerical terms the KDF is indeed a comparatively small military force. However, when the conditions in their home galaxy of Astraeus (also known as Barnard's Galaxy) are taken into account, it becomes clear that the UTK actually have a large space fleet and a significant military force.
There are unusually few Class M worlds in the Astraeus Galaxy, which means that no indigenous civilization has ever developed there. All known civilizations in this galaxy are immigrants from other galaxies or their descendants. Therefore, the KDF has no direct competitors, and the only other (official) major military power is the IUSP, which is closely allied with the UTK. However, the galaxy of Astraeus is conveniently located between the galaxies of the Local Group, making it a stopover for many intergalactic traders. The UTK capitalize on this by offering various starship-related services to traders for a fee.
One disadvantage of this favorable location, however, is that the galaxy of Astraeus has also become a hotspot for piracy. As the only real fleet in the galaxy, apart from an single IUSP fleet, the KDF has virtually sole responsibility for combating piracy.
Due to the lack of potentially colonizable worlds, the UTK were hardly able to expand. Even 350 years after the 2nd Colonial Cylon War, colonization is mainly concentrated on the 12 colonies of Kobol, the rediscovered Kobol and the world that was mistaken for Earth by the original Cylons more than 4000 years ago and is now being recolonized by the UTK as Iniuriam.
The world known as New Caprica during the 2nd Colonial-Cylon War was ceded to the Tau'ri and later the IUSP to literally bind these powerful allies closer to the UTK.
@Support @GateGirl86 What do you two think of image 2?
