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I doubt SQ 42 is ready to ship or even complete. But it does sound like they are getting close to the Beta phase, where it's mostly testing. That being said I am almost sure that we will be seeing some versions of these suits in the next year if Squadron is coming out next year.

@@TheAstroHistorian All I wanna hear :D I also find your opinion on SQ42 interesting. Last I checked it was feature complete, and they are just polishing it right now.

To answer the first question there are two reasons for the shift. The first being that we lack a ton of hard information, mostly vague illusions to what was available at the time and a lack of hard evidence in terms of even the ships they had and the make up so I can only give a high level overview. Second being this is a video on a video on a fictional naval force which was already over 40 minutes long which I knew was going to be the niche of the niche for viewers. As for the eras, as a historian you know we love our made up periods that don't fully encompass all aspects and then argue over the definite times and themes of these eras constantly. I wanted to present the eras more as a general flow of the changes of how humanity used it's Navy. So I simplified the eras to a degree to get the general gist of how the Navy went from relying on large capital ships to fighters over time to explain why fighter squadrons are so omnipresent in the Navy today. There was a doctrinal shift on how humanity used it's fighter and bomber forces during and after the 2nd Tevarin War. The Gladius was seen as a propaganda piece first and foremost, relegated to escort duties and system defense before the war, but after the war it became the main ship the UEE Navy used to to throw first at any opponent. For instance the first to respond to the initial Vanduul raids was the 36th Squadron, a squadron that had initially been set up to train other pilots on how to use the Gladius and had become famous during the 2nd Tevarin War for their effectiveness. They even developed the first tactics to deal with the Vanduul effectively called the Carry and Leap Maneuver. So the Navy did pivot its fleet makeup around this time towards a hybrid fighter and large ship combination. As for the Squadron Era it's a combination of propaganda, Aegis Dynamics becoming Persona Non Grata, and a breakdown of logistics. It was just too expensive to maintain a grand fleet like was present in the Messer Era in a period when even the UEE couldn't even enforce it's will on multiple systems that had been part of the UEE political sphere for centuries. Systems like Idris and Charon either split with the UEE during the revolution or had Messer holdouts which refused to give up power. So if the Navy couldn't even bring its forces to bare to support popular rebellions or prevent chaotic separatists it's clear they weren't in any shape to support large vessels. The Navy was basically neutered and it was far less expensive to design, build, and support a squadron of fighters or bombers than it was to keep cruisers and battleships flying when much of what made up the ship in terms of even spare parts were from companies that didn't exist anymore because of the purges in the post revolutionary government. As I said the eras and names are made up mostly to try and allow people to understand the shifts that took place and explain what was going on at the time these ships were built and why they were built. It classify the New UEE period as the militia era isn't entirely wrong though towards the latter half of the 29th Century the need for militia declined. Militias were needed in the immediate aftermath, just after the Fall of Caliban, and sometime in the early 2910's. However just after the Fall of Caliban the Bengal seemed to take center stage, mostly because its emphasis on massive numbers of squadrons of fighters and bombers it could bring to bare. I would say the Squadron Era is still relevant though could use some more defining, as with all the Eras there were multiple things happening all over human space and with more information as to the different levels of doctrine it would be easier to define. Something I can return to in the future as more info is available.

@@TheAstroHistorian Thanks for this excellent response. I agree that there is an overarching narrative that moves from all gun-cobbled-together battleships similar to Pre-Dreadnoughts to Dreadnought and finally gets to the period we are currently in with WWII in space. Using real history informs the SC universe a lot. However, it's important to remember that it's not a 1 to 1 comparison, nor is it linear because some things appear in SC before other things do in our current reality. I apologize that much of this is just a reiteration of the original tome I wrote; I missed some context, so I wrote another extended response. (In reality, it just gives me an excuse to write again because I haven't done so in a while; my skills are rusty, and I need practice.) Ultimately, there's a lot more emphasis on decentralization after the fall of the Messers, which is justified by using symbolic language from the Tevarin Wars. Specifically, when regarding the First Tevarin War and the transition to the Second, I Interpret the UPE at the start of the First War as the human fleet being most similar to that of the British fleet at the Battle of Jutland (the first naval battle where aircraft played a role) versus the Tevarin Fleet which operated more similarly to an American or Japanese Interwar carrier fleet. Before the first war ended, the UPE Navy grew into something similar to our timeline's early interwar carriers, but with the understanding of the doctrine developed by Billy Mitchal rather than the doctrine used at the time of carriers just being used to support big gun ships rather than the other way around. The leadership of the navy in the SC universe knew that carrier-based strike craft represented the future and were furiously trying to play catchup with the Tevarin, who, even with their limited resources, remained technologically ahead of human fighters. Unlike our timeline, where the era of the all-big-gun battleship came to a close well into the interwar era, the SC change happens during the first war. It's a revolution vs. the evolution of doctrine that occurred in the second war. What's great about fictional universes is that, like in real life, we have very limited sources from which to draw and interpret the data. This can lead to disagreements and debates that make the lore a lot more fun. The period you've called the Squadron Era is all about propaganda rather than doctrine because, under the Messers, the Empire grew stagnant and is currently in a state of decline. The Messers were ousted, but the Navy poured way too many resources into fighting them, and there might have been a full-scale civil war that no one likes to talk about anymore. (It is very common in many countries to avoid discussing losing or winning a civil war.) Additionally, Synthworld has pulled so many resources away from the economy that a runaway effect is underway. The new regime isn't as revolutionary as the propaganda stories show us since most of the Messer state structure still exists in the UEE. There isn't a push to return to the UPE or form a new government. They gave more agency to citizens of the Empire by voting for the Imperator rather than following the family lineage of the Messers. It is more akin to regime change than a revolution. The elites who opposed Messer still have power, while the elites who supported Messer, like Ageis Dynamics, are, as you say, persona non grata. The leadership of the nonrevolution knows how precarious their situation is, and propaganda is a cheap and effective way of shifting focus from real problems that can't be solved to the extraordinary. Featuring squadrons in propaganda is effective because Messer used his military record to secure legitimacy for his revolution. The new regime relies on the techniques that individual pilots used in the days after the Second Tevarin War to elevate their political careers in the new Messer government as a way to foment nostalgia for an era when humanity wasn't suffering defeat after defeat, like the Empire is with the Vanduul. However, they couldn't focus on individual pilots because they didn't want a repeat of Messer, so they contributed the actions to the squadron. Since the Naval budget has been hammered, defensive formations have mainly been handed over to militia units responsible for guarding their home planets and systems. At the same time, offensive forces rely on quick-reaction carrier-based forces. The politicians aren't short of heroic tales of the squadrons because they do all the super dangerous stuff. Again, circling back to history here, it closely resembles the division of the Roman Legions with the Auxilria. The Legons got the glory while the Auxilria did the specific tasks that the Legionnaires could never do, like riding horses, shooting bows, and carrying a spear aka. All the stuff that the Romans believed was beneath their glorious Legionares. Since the government can't afford to maintain ships, they've opened them up for sale, which has supplied the militia units with hardware just as good as the UEE Navy. Civilians also have access to this equipment, and that's important because it is the hope of the propaganda campaigns to inspire private individuals, especially veterans, to join the CDF or other militia organizations and take on the role of the Navy, freeing up critical resources to fight the Vanduul. That gives the backbone of the UEE, the Militia, and all the crap jobs so that the squadrons can ride off in the sunset like the heroes they pretend to be. You're right. Since the end of the Messer regime, there has been a shift toward squadron-level organization. Unfortunately, I don't know how squadrons are organized and deployed (If you have a video about that topic, I will gladly watch it). We know Squadron 42 has at least two fighters on board the UEES Stanton, but surely that can only be part of the squadron. They have to operate spread out across various ships and facilities. However, that presents its own problems with the chain of command because that could mean that the squadron commander could override the orders of a ship's captain. If the primacy is on the squadron, then the doctrine you've laid out is correct. That odd chain of command is not without historical precedence because onboard Spanish ships during the age of sail, army commanders could order naval captains to change course or use specific tactics in battle even though they knew very little to nothing about ship combat. Squadrons could include their logistical elements so the UEES Stanton could be assigned to Squadron 42 as part of a fleet element. In this case, that command structure problem isn't one; it is just a smaller formation of ships rather than the formation of small ships.

Because I have a general hate for the UEE

I know! It's awful. I hoped they'd sell for 100-300 so that it would be comparable to gem mining