Filtvelt Military Academy

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Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field A torch of knowledge in a ocean of under-education, the Filtvelt Military Academy was one of only two military academies servicing the Federated Suns' Periphery-facing Outback region, later becoming the sole military academy of the independent Filtvelt Coalition.[1]

Filtvelt Academy
Filtvelt Academy logo
Filtvelt Academy logo
Academy Information
Previous Name(s) Filtvelt Military Academy
Location Filtvelt
Founding Year Third Succession War
Course Information
BattleMech Unknown-3079[2]
Aerospace Unknown-3079[2]
Armor Unknown-3079[2]
Infantry Unknown-3079[2]
VTOL Unknown-3079[2]


History

Federated Suns

Built in the later years of the Third Succession War[3] and located in or near the capital city of Undredal.[2] The Filtvelt Military Academy had much in common with the Kilbourne Academy. Like Kilbourne, the lack of educational options in the region would also lead the FMA to permit civilians to attend the academy's non-military classes. Primarily intended to help supply the Periphery units of the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns, units within the Crucis March such as the Crucis March Militias and the former FedCom RCTs recruited heavily from it.[3] [1]

The Academy was built without any research laboratories or high-tech simulators, and as a consequence it was forced to rely upon the innovation and dedication of its staff as they attempted to teach advanced subjects to a shockingly under-educated population with meager resources to draw on. Students at the Academy viewed it as their only hope to escape otherwise dead-end lives and many would do anything to gain admittance to the school, hoping to use it as a ticket to a new life.[4] Despite their determination many of the students simply couldn't handle the Academy's academic demands and the dropout rate was high every year.[1][4] Applicants were transferred to other academies when they went further in their academic field of studying. Graduates from Filtvet were considered second-rate compared to those from premier academy members like the NAIS or Albion.[1]

Filtvelt Coalition

During the Jihad the Filtvelt Academy training battalion formed the core of the First Filtvelt Citizen's Militia.[5] After the Jihad the independent Filtvelt Coalition attempted to expand the Filtvelt Academy just as the Coalition's industrial and economic base was rapidly expanding. Unfortunately, this proved harder than hoped; the demand for qualified officers from the expanding Filtvelt Citizen's Militia (FCM) continually outstripped the number of graduates from the Academy.[6]

The Coalition attempted to deal with the need to rebuild the FCM as quickly as possibly by curtailing the training programs for the lower ranks, while continuing to put officer cadets through a full term of education. Working against the Coalition's efforts was the need for officer candidates to have a functional education not just in terms of military tactics and the mandated standard academy curriculum dictated by the Coalition, but also in mathematics and reading. These problems led to the Vagabond Schools of the Federated Suns era being regarded as a failure, and the demand for officers for the FCM's officer corps was predicted to continue to outstrip the ability of the population to supply suitable recruits until the average level of education in the Coalition reached at least a secondary education level.[7]

This continuing demand from the FCM plus the paucity of secondary education within the Coalition rapidly created a "brain drain" in the early part of the thirty-second century, forcing Prime Minister Berko Okeke, ruler of the Coalition, to push through a combination of tax and spending increases that increased education facilities at both primary and university stages throughout the Coalition. These measures were successful to such an extent that worlds bordering the Coalition began to adopt them, but it took until 3138 for the Academy to be capable of producing enough trained personnel to meet the FCM's requirements.[6]

Despite the problems with obtaining enough trained graduates from the Academy, the Academy remained an exceptional military academy for a Periphery nation and one that turned out quality graduates, even if those graduates had been derided by larger military organizations. As the Academy continued to lack the advanced training simulators and other resources that were commonly found in Inner Sphere nations, one of the methods by which the Academy bridged the training gap was to give its students more training time on actual battlefield equipment. This meant that while training accidents at the Academy were above the norm compared to an Inner Sphere academy, those students who graduated tended to have a better feel for both what actual combat was like and how to prosecute a battle than their Spheroid counterparts.[8]

Notes

  • At some point after 3067 the Filtvelt Military Academy appears to have been renamed to the Filtvelt Academy.
  • Security at the Filtvelt Academy after the Jihad was provided by the student body, in a fashion consistent with that of military academies throughout the Periphery, although the security patrols were usually headed up by an experienced instructor. The typical security force in place at the Academy as of 3079 consisted of a pair of aerospace fighters, a lance of BattleMechs, a company of infantry, a platoon of tanks and a squadron of VTOLs.[9]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Field Manual: Federated Suns, p. 41, "Filtvelt Military Academy Profile"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Objectives: Periphery, p. 24, "Filtvelt Academy"
  3. 3.0 3.1 House Davion (The Federated Suns), p. 156 "Military Forces - Military Education - Filtvelt Military Academy"
  4. 4.0 4.1 Handbook: House Davion, p. 129, "Filtvelt Military Academy"
  5. Field Report: Periphery, p. 14, "Filtvelt Coalition"
  6. 6.0 6.1 Field Manual: 3145, p. 189, "Filtvelt Coalition"
  7. Objectives: Periphery, p. 23, "Strategic Integrity"
  8. Field Report: Periphery, p. 7, "Academies and Command Centers"
  9. Objectives: Periphery, p. 41, "Academies and Local Training Centers"

Bibliography