Deterrence Doctrine

The Deterrence Doctrine is the main doctrine used by the Imperial Sea Legion. The initial doctrine emerged in 1972 after a four year naval tactics study by the Imperial Legionary Academy in Marvius. The doctrine consists of four distinct parts and is taught to each commander.

Coastal Defence

The first and primary part of the doctrine is an extremely high emphasis on coastal defence over power projection. Tarsas has historically been a land empire. The navy has never had the funding that the Imperial Legion has access to. Even with the introduction of aircraft and the creation of the Imperial Air Legion, the navy took back burner still. The doctrine had to be shaped around a lower budget. Coastal defence operations under the doctrine would require extensive support from land based assets. Many land launched anti-shipping missiles would aid the fleet in repelling enemy forces. Up until recently, a large emphasis was placed on ships that mostly operated in littoral waters. This consisted of mostly corvettes and patrol boats. Though the navy has possessed capital ships for some time, only recently has large numbers of them been authorized for construction.

The ships are still configured for mostly coastal defense operations with equipment for short to mid range operations stored at port. The most important vessel for the coastal defense doctrine would end up being the submarine. The navy was authorized to build large numbers of submarines. These could effectively serve as hidden escorts for trade ships in the event of war and could still conduct long range operations if necessary.