Chain of Command

As a member of UNITAF you're assigned to a small group with a single point of contact, the leader of this group is your go to guy for any issues you have, any help you need and the one you'll hear from most. In turn, your small group will be attached to a larger group, the leader of this group is someone you can go to if you can't get a hold of your assigned leader and so on.

This structure, is illustrated live here - https://unitedtaskforce.net/roster This structure continues up the chain of command, the more members you're responsible for, the higher your rank.

UNITAF uses a military rank system and like most all things in UNITAF in accordance with "Realism Where it Matters" it's usage is not solely for simulation, but rather serves a function in the running of the organisation.

Ranks are broken down as follows;

• Enlisted Ranks
  • Recruits (Cdt, Rec)
  • Privates (Pvt, PFC)
  • Specialists (SPC3, SPC2, SPC1, MSP)
• Non-commissioned officers
  • Junior NCOs (Cpl, Sgt, SSgt)
  • Senior NCOs or SNCOs (SFC, 1SG, SgtMaj)
• Officers
  • Junior Officers (2Lt, 1Lt, Capt)
  • Senior Officers (Maj, LtCol, Col)
    
    

Enlisted ranks

Enlisted ranks cover all persons who take no additional responsibilities beyond mission attendance and general contributions and is where most all members reside. These persons generally take no direct leadership roles in or out of the game, but will often setup up when required. Promotion is achieved through a combination of operational and practice hours as well as good conduct.

NCOs

Non-commissioned officers are managers as well as leaders, they allow the day-to-day functioning of UNITAF, all enlisted members are assigned to an NCO in the chain of command. The more persons assigned under an NCO the higher his rank will be. Rank for NCOs denote their level of authority/seniority within the chain of command, that represents all persons in UNITAF. NCOs are expected to be more active than enlisted members as well as leading on the battlefield when required. NCOs have additional admistration duties to assist their superiors with the smooth running of UNITAF.

SNCOs

Senior non-commissioned officers are similar to NCOs in function, except rather than having enlisted persons assigned directly to them, they are paired with Officers in higher level units such as platoons, companies and battalions. SNCOs are the right hand and key advisors to their officer. They act as a vital function to develop and support the NCOs under them. SNCOs will lead by example on the battlefield when required.

 

Officers

Officers are less management focused and in UNITAF provide strategic direction to the groups aims, objectives and direction. Officers support and are supported by SNCOs and NCOs in order to deliver the objectives of the whole. While ultimately remaining responsible for all those under them, and representing them in top level discussions.

UNITAF is a hierarchical organization, meaning that every entity in the organization, except one, is subordinate to a single other entity. This arrangement is a form of a hierarchy. Members chiefly communicate in a official capacity with their immediate superior and with their immediate subordinates. Structuring organizations in this way is useful partly because it can reduce the communication overhead by limiting information flow.

In UNITAF no matter how many active members there are, they are divided up into smaller groups no bigger than 10 people (typically 6-8), where Corporals are given the responsibility to support and administrate them, Corporals in turn report to Sergeants and so on. These leaders manage any conflict, disputes, entry and exit of members of the organisation, but only for those members who specifically fall under them in the chain. This avoids centralising these tasks and helps to spread the workload.

Ranks scale with the size of the total force, so for leaders to maintain rank, they must have more than the minimum number of required subordinates under them. This not only promotes recruitment and retention at the mid-level, but creates a unform system of authority.