The Imperium of Japan has started referring to stellar warfare units as if they were organized into ground unit formations: Brigades, Battallions, Divisions, etc.
The reason for this is because in the war against the BETA, the 'soldier' was basically an obsolete unit. No armament at the time could penetrate the BETA's skin. And even Tanks, with more than 100mm diameter shells could not penetrate the armored front and underside of some of the larger BETA classes. APBC (Armor Piercing Ballistic Capped) rounds found limited success, and APHE (Armor Piercing High Explosive) even less. However, due to the nature of the BETA's skin and armor, HESH (High Explosive Squashed Head) had great success, by damaging the BETA's internal organs.
Because of this, a new type of armament was created, which could maneuver itself to the BETA's weak spots, and fire either 36mm HESH rounds, or 64mm HESH rounds. This new weapon was the Tactical Surface Fighter, and was organized into Fire-Teams, Squads, Platoons, and so on- taking the place of the obsolete Soldier in the organization structure of the military. This further evolved later into Element (2 TSFs), Platoon (4 TSFs), Company (12 TSFs), Battalion (36 TSFs) and Regiment (108 TSFs)
With the advent of Space weapons, the organization took a different route when it came to counting ships. At first, the manpower of operating a ship was used, but later, and currently, two metrics are used: How many TSFs it can carry, and comparable firepower.
An element of Destroyers equals a Company, as does an Element of Frigates. A Carrier can carry a Company of TSFs. Thus, a order of battle that constitutes a Carrier, two destroyers and two frigates, along with any support vessels, constitutes a Battalion.
However, different to the 20th century unit organizations, Stellar Organization does not have Regiments and Brigades, which remain a purely Ground-focused unit structure, and instead, 3 Battalions are subordinate to a Division. Only under rare circumstances, is a Brigade formed, with a very specific task. Either Orbital Drops and Bombardment, or Defense. But they have no superior formation.
