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- "The First Order is a remnant born of a war thirty years gone. Yes, they persist, yes, they continue, but by all accounts they do so barely. They are, at best, an ill-organized, poorly equipped, and badly funded group of loyalists who use propaganda and fear to inflate their strength and their importance."
"They're flying state-of-the-art TIEs, they're using commando boarding parties and latest-generation attack shuttles in clear violation of the Galactic Concordance. […] That's not a poorly organized force. That's not a poorly motivated force. That's a real threat." - ―Major Lonno Deso of the Republic Navy and Commander Poe Dameron.
The First Order military was the military force of the authoritarian First Order born to oppose the New Republic and the Resistance in the wake of the former Galactic Empire. It included both the Army, Navy, and Special Forces, and was led by General Armitage Hux of High Command, along with Snoke, who acted as Supreme Leader.
History
Following the defeat of the Galactic Empire, the First Order and subsequently its military would rapidly expand in clear violation of the Galactic Concordance and Republic laws, and would plan its return to power throughout its tenure in the Unknown Regions. There, military bases and shipyards were constructed to churn out some of the technologically superior weapons and starfighters utilized by the military, with many of the Old Empire's greatest military secrets falling into the hands of the new successor state. To avoid treaty restrictions banning the sale of weaponry to the First Order, galactic arms manufacturers BlasTech Industries and Merr-Sonn Munitions, Inc. spun off a subsidiary known as the Sonn-Blas Corporation, which manufactured much of the First Order's weaponry within First Order space, while Sienar-Jaemus Army Systems and Aratech-Loratus Corporation provided spacecraft and vehicles to the Order.[3]
In violation of New Republic laws regarding capital ships, the Resurgent-class Battlecruiser would be developed by Kuat-Entralla Engineering and feature more than three-thousand turbolasers and ion cannons, and was specifically designed to evoke the fearful image of the Old Empire's Imperial-class Star Destroyers.[3]
Starkiller Base firing with its superweapon.
Thirty years after the Battle of Endor one of its primary bases of operations was known as Starkiller Base, an ice planet converted into a stronghold. Utilizing it as their unofficial headquarters, the base housed a superweapon capable of destroying entire star systems by firing a planet-destroying beam through hyperspace, and was led by an unofficial triumvirate of General Armitage Hux, Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma until it was destroyed in the Assault on Starkiller Base.[1][4][3]
Organization
Ground forces
Main article: Like its predecessor, the First Order employed the use of stormtroopers, including variants such as snowtroopers. It also utilized specialists including megablaster heavy assault troopers, flametroopers and riot control stormtroopers and selectively had one of the three variants placed in every ten-member stormtrooper squad. Unlike the inconsistent academy standards of the previous Galactic Empire, training of the new generation of stormtroopers emphasized improvisation and counter-insurgency operations, including guerrilla tactics. With the First Order lacking the numerical superiority of the Galactic Empire, better equipped and trained soldiers resulted in higher trooper proficiency than the previous Galactic Empire. Soldiers were often trained on capital ships and underwent vivid simulations to create the most loyal soldiers, which was an extension of the ideas of Commandant Brendol Hux and his Commandant's Cadets.[3]
To help infantry in snowy environments the Order deployed Light Infantry Utility Vehicles, a fast snowspeeder.[3] More armored were the base defense walker used, for example, on Starkiller Base.[1]
The First Order Navy was mainly based on Battlecruisers like its Imperial predecessor. Resurgent-class Battlecruisers were the threatening capital ships deployed against Order's targets, but the Resistance believed that vessels even larger than them were in existence.[3] The First Order also used older Imperial-class Star Destroyers and smaller ships compared to Resurgent-class Battlecruisers, as Lancer-class frigates, Maxima-A class heavy cruisers, Dissident-class light cruisers and Nebulon-Ks.[2]
For ground assaults the Order made a great use of Atmospheric Assault Landers; a hundred of them could be carried by Resurgent-class Battlecruisers. They also used Upsilon-class command shuttles. To achieve space superiority the Order deployed TIEs in two variants: TIE/fo space superiority fighters and its two-seated version, the TIE/sf space superiority fighter, this one used by the First Order's Special Forces.[3]
Appearances
- Star Wars Battlefront II
- Before the Awakening
- Poe and the Missing Ship
- Poe Dameron 1: Black Squadron, Part I
- Poe Dameron 2: Black Squadron, Part II
- Poe Dameron 3: Black Squadron, Part III
- Poe Dameron 7: The Gathering Storm
- Poe Dameron 11: The Gathering Storm, Part IV (In flashback(s))
- Poe Dameron 13: The Gathering Storm, Part VI
- Poe Dameron 14: Legend Lost, Part I
- Poe Dameron 15: Legend Lost, Part II
- Poe Dameron Annual 1
- Poe Dameron 17
- Join the Resistance
- Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens (First appearance)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens novelization
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens: A Junior Novel
- The Force Awakens, Part I
- The Force Awakens, Part II
- The Force Awakens, Part III
- The Force Awakens, Part IV
- The Force Awakens, Part V
- The Force Awakens, Part VI
- Captain Phasma 1
- Captain Phasma 2
- Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi
Sources
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary (First identified as First Order military)
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Incredible Cross-Sections
- Star Wars: ABC-3PO
- Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy
- Star Wars: Poe Dameron: Flight Log
- Entertainment Weekly's Ultimate Guide to Rogue One
