[Mefustae]

Maybe i've seen too much Battlestar Galactica, or read too many trashy Tom Clancy novels (i'm a bad man), but i've slotted/plan to slot in quite a bit of pointless military and pseudo-military speak into my SOC campaign, almost none of which is canon, just to spice it up. Basically, i've derived a lot from US Naval terminology, a bit from Galactica, and a bit just made-up, but I need some more ideas and opinions on current inclusions.

What i've got and used/plan to use/will possibly use in the future:
CinCVEG- 'Commander in Chief, Vega', basically the Commander of the Vega-based 4th Fleet. Also applicable is CinCCAP [Capella], CinCEPEG [Epsilon Pegasi], CinCPOL [Polaris], CinCREG [Regulus], and so on.
CIC- Central Command deck of a given ship, pretty self explanitory, really.
OOD- Officer of the Deck, basically the officer currently in command, not neccissarily the Captain.
[Ship-name] Actual- Right off Galactica, i'm using it for talking directly to the OOD or Captain, as opposed to being relayed through the Ops or Communications officer.
CBDR- Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range. A ship on a collision course.
Baffles- Blind spot behind a Destroyer's engines, derived from a Submarine's sonar blind-spot behind its screw.
CAP- Combat Aerospace Patrol. ()
Blue on Blue Encounter- Friendly-fire incident.
HUMINT/ELINT- Intelligence gathered from human or electronic sources, respectively.
Sierra [Number]- A term of designation for a Shivan Target. Eg, "A Shivan Cruiser - SC Iblis - inbound, target designated Sierra 11!". Not as messy as using arbitrary names, and a bit more formal.
Master [Number]- A term of designation for a Non-shivan Target. Eg, "An NTF Cruiser - NTC Phelps -  inbound, target designated Master 12!".
TMA- Target Motion Analysis, basically the speed, heading, and range of an enemy.
DESGRU/CORVGRU/CRUSGRU [Number]- A designation for a Destroyer, Corvette, or Cruiser Battle Group, respectively.
CORVRON/CRUSRON [Number]- A designation for a Corvette or Cruiser Squadron, respectively. [There is likely no dedicated Destroyer Squardrons [DESRON], so it'll just be 'vettes and Cruisers.
TERCOM- Designation for Central Terran Command in Beta Acquilae.
IASS- Integrated Aerospace Surveillance System, a combination of individual ships sensors, and stationary dedicated arrays. [Based off the IUSS; an Undersea system made up of dragged arrays and stationary sound sensors.
Snap-shot- Firing weapons without a TMA, namely in an emergency situation when there is no time to sufficiently track and target the enemy.
ADCAP- Advanced Capability. In this context, it'll be referring to specific ship(s) modified/improved by the SOC, such as the Artemis D.H.

Opinions? Suggestions?

Edit: Few corrections, added a few new ideas. For the record, i'm going specifically for the over-the-top, technophile, Clancy-esque angle, but rest assured there will be a handy glossary included.

[NGTM-1R]

To avoid your embaressing yourself...

CIC=Combat Information Center. Developed during WWII from the previous "radar plot", it gradually absorbed other functions and eventual usurped the bridge as the nerve center of the ship.

The Con is the condition of being in control (hence "con") of the ship at that point in time. The person who "has the con" is currently in command.

"Sierra" contacts are misc. sonar contacts. "Master" contacts have been confirmed via some other sensor, or are considered to be of some importance (i.e. something that you might shoot at or that might shoot at you).

"Actual" would be the person in command at the moment in a general sense, but in practical useage it's probably going to refer to the captain/admiral.

And if you're going to use CAP...IT'S AEROSPACE, FFS!

Ahem, sorry about that. Pet peeve.

Suggestions now;

Flag: In reference to a ship, the ship embarking the leader of a group, i.e. the flagship. In reference to a person, anyone who has "Admiral" in their title; they are considered to be "flag-rank", a throwback to the days of sail when the ship embarking the admiral would fly an additional flag to signify that.

Lieutenant Commanders are referred to as "Commander" under most circumstances. Anybody who has "Admiral" in their rank is, by the same token, normally referred to as "Admiral" rather then by their full rank.

[knn]

CBDR, Baffles: Collision course and Blind spot are better because a) everyone understands them, b) noone knows what CBDR and Baffles is, so you'll have to explain it ingame and c) Collision course is easier to pronounce than CBDR

Using Sierra and Master is going against Freespace naming tradition, and if you name a cruiser Master 12 and 3 fighters Master 13,14 and 15, the player's going to confuse them. Different names for wings also make it easy to separate bombers from fighters for example, or wings with different objectives.

CinCVEG - Depends on how you plan to use it and you'll probably have to explain it ingame. Remember that the majority of people who are going to play the campaign won't know these. And if it's going to be in the middle of a briefing text, how will it be pronounced?

CIC/Con - forgive me if I'm confusing terminology, but wouldn't C&C be better? It was used in B5, so more people would recognize it, and it's shorter.

OOD, Actual: I don't really think it would be of much use in an FS campaign, and if you want someone to speak to the captain directly once or twice during the entire campaign, it's better to just make him say 'Get me the Captain' or something, instead of having to introduce a new word. Also remember that many players never go to the techroom, they just want to play the game and not to learn a new language.

CAP: Only if you are going to use it in every mission to designate the mission role of different squadrons. If not, and this term is going to be used once or twice, do not use the abbreviation. You'll have to explain it somehow (the abbreviation) (not necessarily in the techroom though, if you can put it into dialog like clicks in FS2), and it's not worth it if it's not used a lot. *GRU and *RON are the same, it has to be explained, e.g. during a command briefing, the officer says Destroyer Group something went to Vega and destroyed something, and the animation shows DESGRU something.

Blue on Blue: If one pilot persona says it instead of 'Watch your fire', it's strange but fine. I don't really know how/when it's used in RL, so I'm just guessing, but I'd rather use friendly fire.

Humint, Elint: depends on how you use it, has to be explained.

TERCOM - sounds very Battlecruiserish. Speaking of which, if you use too many abbreviations and military lingo, your campaign is going to end up like BC3K. Potential player's will be scared of the lingo and won't play an otherwise good campaign. Putting a little bit of it in just to spice it up is fine, but don't overuse it. Remember, this game is not meant for US Navy officers.

[Fergus]

CinCVEG- 'Commander in Chief, Vega', basically the Commander of the Vega-based 4th Fleet. Also applicable is CinCCAP [Capella], CinCEPEG [Epsilon Pegasi], CinCPOL [Polaris], CinCREG [Regulus], and so on.

Personally I feel that something like CinC4th would make more sense, as we've seen how despite the fact a fleet may be based in say Delta Serpentis, it may find itself deployed in several systems at once, and it would seem much more obvious who was who, instead of trying to remember what system was where and under who's command..or something like that

[Mefustae]

Personally I feel that something like CinC4th would make more sense, as we've seen how despite the fact a fleet may be based in say Delta Serpentis, it may find itself deployed in several systems at once, and it would seem much more obvious who was who, instead of trying to remember what system was where and under who's command..or something like that

I disagree. It is common place for ships to be transferred between fleets in a time of war, thereby coming under the command of the commander of that theatre. For example, a US Pacific-based fleet might require extra Submarines to counter an enemy, so Naval Command would send across a few such vessels through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic, leaving the Atlantic-based fleet and coming under the command of the CINCPAC for the duration of the conflict. Indeed, the CINCPAC is only in command of those forces currently in the Pacific, and the CINCVEG is hence only in command of those forces currently in Vega, for when a given ship leaves said system, it temporarily leaves the jurisdiction of the given CINCFLT, coming under the command of either the local CINCFLT of the system through which it is travelling, or simply TERCOM.

Now, to adress the issues you raised concerning large contingents of fleets moving beyond their home systems, when there has been an instance of said action [such as the Capella-based 3rd Fleet moving into the Northern Systems] it has been under the guise of assaulting an enemy system. Indeed, all the instances of the 3rd Fleet moving around GTVA space, has been due to exploration or extended combat operations, to which I would assume they would either remain under CINCCAP's command [due to there being no local CINCFLT], or under command of TERCOM [which seems more likely due to the state of war].

Basically, when you're operating in the Beta Aquilae system, you're under the jurisdiction - and as such the command - of the CINCBAQ along with the rest of the 5th Fleet. I find this to be a little more real-world-accurate and just plain straight forward rather than retaining individual fleet associations no matter what, which would be a real pain when dealing with mixed-fleet operations where multiple commands wouldn't make sense.

[achtung]

CBDR seems kinda useless.  Saying "The [ship name here] is on a collision course with the [ship name here]!" seems much easier to understand and relate to in the heat of battle.

[Cobra]

N-O-E Approach: (would be good for atmospherical attacks) I forget what it stands for, but it's basically a low-altitude attack to avoid most enemy fire.

[CaptJosh]

Nap of the Earth flying. It's something only helicopters do, for the most part.

[StratComm]

Nap of the Earth flying. It's something only helicopters do, for the most part.

Helicopters pretty much do it by default, but most pilots are trained for it.  Fighters are manuverable enough to be able to pull it off most of the time (see the Swiss alp ski lift incident a couple of years ago) and even some heavier aircraft can do it.  The B-1 bomber is one of the more famous examples; it's designed to make its attack runs at a couple of hundred feet IIRC.

[Cobra]

Nap of the Earth flying. It's something only helicopters do, for the most part.

Helicopters pretty much do it by default, but most pilots are trained for it. Fighters are manuverable enough to be able to pull it off most of the time (see the Swiss alp ski lift incident a couple of years ago) and even some heavier aircraft can do it. The B-1 bomber is one of the more famous examples; it's designed to make its attack runs at a couple of hundred feet IIRC.

The B-1 is a bomber, right? i'm surprised it doesn't flag itself.

[CaptJosh]

B-1 Lancer. First generation low-observability bomber. Its radar cross-section is something like a fighter or smaller depending on detection angle. It is reported to handle something like a large F-4 Phantom.