Imperial Military Tactics in Rogue One

So far I have seen quite a bit of talk about how Rogue One shows the military tactics (or lack thereof) utilized by the Rebel Alliance. One piece that I think it is interesting that hasn’t been touched upon at all is Imperial military tactics in Rogue One.

Please note: I am not a tactician, just a geek who has a love for military history. Also this should go without saying. SPOILERS below.

So, what does the Imperial Military have to show for itself after Rogue One? One might say that talking about the tactics exhibited by the Empire in this movie is something that really isn’t necessary or interesting. I disagree strongly! The Empire has quite a bit of interesting tactics on display during Rogue One.

Our first introduction to the Imperial Military in Rogue One is the Death Troopers (Interesting tidbit. Apparently they got their name from some sort of Zombie Project. Don’t believe me. Look it up in the Star Wars Visual Guide!). These troopers initially look like some sort of simple henchmen and on first viewing I thought quite the same. Then I watched the troopers confront Lyra and noticed something interesting. The two troopers that were still with Krennic at that time utilized a squad covering tactic with both troopers moving towards Lyra but one aiming at Galen and one aiming at Lyra. This tactic covered both of them however put them closer to the actual threat of Lyra.This small introduction set the tone for later Imperial Engagements.

Our next taste of the Imperial military is on the Ring of Kafrene. Here we see Stormtroopers moving about the area as if they are police officers. In their encounter with Cassian Andor two troopers are taken out quickly however then we see troopers swarming the area, pushing citizens out of the way and acting much how police officers responding to an officer down might respond in our own world. These troopers acted more like cops than they did military soldiers.

This is sharply contrasted by how the Stormtroopers are shown to be in the Holy City of Jedha. Here we see Stormtroopers acting less like police and more like a cross between soldiers on convoy duty and ‘secret police’ looking for suspects in a crime. We see scenes of Stormtroopers harassing civilians and pushing them around, turning over their belongings in the search for a defector. We also see them guarding a tank in a convoy style movement. They are fanned out, acting as soldiers would around a tank in an urban setting. It is obvious that they were not only escorting the tank because it held the Kyber crystals but also because they were working as part of a combined arms team of armor and ground infantry. Not only are the operating in combined arms, it is obvious they had a quick reaction force as more Stormtroopers and an AT-ST can be seen entering the battle as reinforcements.

This brings us to Eadu. This is obviously a secret installation that does not have a planetary shield nor does it have an active space defense force. When raided by Rebel starfighters it is seen to have some solid defenses however obviously a few things are lacking. Either the installation is seen as so secretive that it does not require a space defense force or planetary shield or the weather conditions are seen as a protection against attack. If the later is true then it is likely that sensors are also affected by the storm and that is why such a small amount of alarm is given when the rebels launch their raid. As can be seen, when the Imperial fighters take to the skies they begin to give the rebels quite a bit of a fight and only thanks to some ground support that the rebels had, not to mention the will of the Force, was the strike successful. I think it is quite likely that if more warning had been given to the Imperial defenders that the rebel strike would not have been quite as successful.

Finally, this brings us to Scarif. Something bothered me about the battle on Scarif from the very beginning. It seemed to me that the Imperial forces were only able to start winning on the ground due to overwhelming forces, not superior tactics. This raised a serious question for me as I watched it. Were the Rebels just that good on Scarif or were the Imperials that incompetent? Obviously in warfare a guerrilla force has the advantage and also the side with overwhelming superiority is typically able to rule the day. That all being said, it seemed like a very small group of rebels were able to cause quite a large problem for Imperial soldiers that earlier had shown themselves to be students of combined arms tactics and capable soldiers.

In reading the novelization I discovered that both of my thoughts were in fact correct! The novelization talks of how the rebels who went with Jyn were mostly Pathfinders, or Special Forces of the Rebel Alliance. We also discover that Scarif is seen as an easy assignment that politically connected or high ranking Imperials wind up getting. Scarif is seen as a fortress world and attack would be impossible so instead of having crack units you have soldiers who are more interested in the sun and beach than rigorous military training. It is no surprise then that a small, well trained force, is able to cause so much havoc to such a large base. These soldiers likely were not training as much as they should or could have been training.

In closing while the Imperial military tactics are not quite as interesting as the Rebel tactics in Rogue One I think it is evident that we learn a few key things. Yes, the Empire is prone to the same nepotism and lack of training that any Earthly military could become victim of and yes we also see that they have highly trained units that are able to execute combined arms tactics in urban areas. This is one Star Wars fan that hopes we get to see more of the Imperial military in action in subsequent books and films!