The Titan command structure

[Phantomexe87]

How exactly does the Titan command structure work? Jamitov has the rank of Admiral and seems to be their undisputed commander in chief, but then Bask Om being only the rank of captain is their second in command? So does this mean the Titans have no other officers ranking higher than captain? Given how the Titans are said to be 30% of the Earth Federation fleet, this seems highly unlikely. Proportionally I would think the Titans numbers far exceed that of all the US military branches combined, so it seems hard to believe that the entire force is run by such a small group. Or are there Titan admirals just off screen?

[Fritz Ashlyn]

"Only" a captain? He's one rank below the Admiral pay grades. Bask holds the equivalent to an army rank of Colonel; I think his rank fits nicely for the main toady of Admiral Jamitov. I don't think Hymem would be one to have other admirals tooling around, possibly plotting against him.

Is the "30%" thing said during Zeta? I don't remember hearing that figure.

[Phantomexe87]

Well actually, that would mean Bask Om is only O6 compared to Jamitov's rank of O10, leaving Rear Admiral Lower Half, Rear Admiral Upper Half, and Vice Admiral, before reaching full Admiral. Schemeing or not, that would be a highly unusual command structure. Given their size, there should be dozens of admirals of each rank, etc. Just strikes me as odd, even though Bask is "only" a captain in rank, he seems to have the authority and power of a Fleet Admiral.

As for the 30% I recall reading that somewhere, probably unofficial, but it seems a fairly good estimate.

[wing zero alpha]

I don't think Jamitov is a full Admiral/General; it's said that he had an equal rank to his AEUG counterpart Blex, who was incidentally a Commodore/Brigadier General. That being said, yeah, Bask is only one step down from Jamitov "Couldn't Have A Funnier Last Name" Hymen.

And as for Bask having the rank and privilige of a Fleet Admiral, Gundam never made much sense in those areas. Garma Zabi was only a "mere" Captain like Bask, yet he was officially in charge of all Zeon forces on Earth. Yet when Bright gets the rank himself as well as his own force, he barely gets three-four cruisers and a battleship to his command.

EDIT: 1000th post FTW.

[Wingnut]

It should also be noted that in more casual conversations most people call a flag officer simply Admiral regardless of their actual level of Admiral. So for all we know there may only be one grade of rank difference between the two.

As seen early in the series being a Titan can give you more power than the regular EFF officers to where a junior Titan officer, can order around a senior EFF officer without anyone really questioning it.

[Cardi Doorl]

On GundamOfficial, though, Jamitov's rank is listed as "Admiral".

[toysdream]

Jamitov's definitely a full Admiral (taisho in Japanese), putting him far above Bask Om - or Blex Forer, for that matter. But I don't think he's technically a Titans officer.

The Titans are actually a pretty small-scale organization with just a handful of ships, and they have to commandeer regular Federation Forces to carry out large-scale missions. Bask Om, a mere Captain, is in charge of the entire organization, while his patron Jamitov pulls the strings from behind the scenes.

-- Mark

[razgriz]

kinda reminds me of how the sith ran the empire despite the fact there were only 2 of them. when fear is involved the fewer in power the better, well usually better for the ones in power of course.

[Phantomexe87]

I always figured Bask Om was just the commandant of the Gryps base. As the Titans have their own entire terrestrial force, with numerous bases, like New Guinea, Jaburo (prior to getting exploded) and the short lived Kilimanjaro. I'm just amazed there is no middle man between Bask and Jamitov, or any other high ranking Titan official.

While the Sith ran the empire, they also had Grand Admirals, Generals, etc and of course the Moffs and Grand Moffs, who had a lot of power, the latter as much as Darth Vader.

[toysdream]

I always figured Bask Om was just the commandant of the Gryps base. As the Titans have their own entire terrestrial force, with numerous bases, like New Guinea, Jaburo (prior to getting exploded) and the short lived Kilimanjaro. I'm just amazed there is no middle man between Bask and Jamitov, or any other high ranking Titan official.

Like I said, as far as I can tell Bask is the highest-ranking officer in the Titans. Anyone above him in the military hierarchy, like Jamitov, isn't officially a Titans member. There appear to be a few other Titans officers with the rank of Captain, so perhaps Bask is "first among equals," but there's nobody above him and he reports pretty much directly to Jamitov.

As Zeta begins, the Titans don't really have a terrestrial force. Jaburo is a rear support base operated for their benefit by the regular Federation Forces, and the Titans use the staff of the Newtype Labs to chase the Audhumla.

-- Mark

[Qubeley]

As seen early in the series being a Titan can give you more power than the regular EFF officers to where a junior Titan officer, can order around a senior EFF officer without anyone really questioning it.

I think the magnitude was on the order of a rank in Titans carries the weight of a standard Federation officer one rank higher. It was the sort of boost to an ego that Jerid needed (lol), and why Bask behaves like a commodore more than a captain.

Aren't task forces supposed to have as narrow an administration as possible, to avoid bureaucratic slowdown?

[Cardi Doorl]

Aren't task forces supposed to have as narrow an administration as possible, to avoid bureaucratic slowdown?

That's one of the ironies of the Titans - rather than limiting their administration, Jamitov was able to weasel the Federation into giving them broad autonomy, especially in space, even before the Titans came to essentially control the Federal military later in the series. That's one of the main reasons they became such a problem.

[mutantshark]

It seems like in Gundam, officers/NCOs always seem to have more responsibility than you might think their rank entails. I never thought it was that strange Bask was only a Captain - the Titans always struck me as verging on paramilitary and fairly informal compared to the pomp of OYW federal and zeon officers. Maybe it was an attempt to make the Titans seem more compact and elite as a unit and cut down on Bureaucracy - or maybe it was just Jamitov wanting to be the only flag officer (and being the highest grade available).

[Duo]

Yeah him being only a Captain isn't all that strange. The Titans were supposed to be a small organization and under the command of a higher officer that wasn't a 'member' of the organization.

For the whole rank thing have more responsibility then it really should have, look at CCA. Char was a Captian... but the head of Neo Zeon... that is sorta weird in and of itself.

Speaking of Titans and CCA... in the english version Char calls them the 'TEE-TANS.' Now all my knowledge of the Titans is from what I've read at MAHQ and here on the forums, and I haven't seen Zeta yet. It is pronounced 'Teetans' or 'Titans' as in the mythological Greek creatures that ruled the Earth before Zeus and the Gods overthrew them?

[Draco Starcloud]

They pronounce Titans properly in Zeta.

[Ascension]

*sigh* This keeps coming up...

"Titans" is the English/American pronunciation, "Tee-tahns" is the Japanese and Greek pronunciation. CCA and Zeta wer dubbed by different groups at different times and they made different decisions on what pronunciation to use...

[Phantomexe87]

I believe they pronounce Titans the Japanese way in CCA, as it hadn't been officially translated yet. Like how they said Duchy of Zeon, Jabrow and GM in 0083. They also mispronounce Medea in Gundam Crossfire as Media, so it is a bit of a trend, though the latter was pure stupidity, rather than an understandable mistake taken by the dub group.

[razgriz]

just easier to consider it char slipping on his words. he was a little tongue tied due to oh hell im not gonna say

[Phantomexe87]

One more question relating to the Titans (no sense in starting a new thread).

Are all Titans Earthnoids? At first that seemed obvious, but then, seeing as how they are based in space, and recruit people like Scirocco (from another planet), they might use spacenoids, who have proved to be loyal to the Federation.

[Hyakushiki]

For the most part they are, Bask Om once rejected a suggestion from Jamaican that he should reconsider his stance on accepting spacenoids into their ranks. Scirocco seems to be a special case, he swore an oath of "loyalty" to the Titans but I don't think he officially joined them. Though near the end they may have had to relax their "Earthnoids only" policy, Reccoa managed to join though she had issues to overcome other than that.