The standard of organisation for the Colonial Fleet, is the squadron. Vipers are organised into squadrons, and so are the main capital fleets. As few as a single Battlestar can be a squadron, or as many as a pack of light cruisers.
Squadrons are then brought together to make a fleet.
Vipers are organised into the following terms:
The smallest combat formation of fighters is the flight. A flight consists of around 8 fighters and is commandered by a Flight Sergeant.
A wing is sometimes referred to as a short squadron. It consists of 2-3 flights of fighters and is led by a Lieutenant.
A squadron is controlled by a Captain and contains from 4-6 flights of fighters, or around 75 craft.
Asps tend to fall outside this organisation and are attached to flights and formations as and when needed.
As stated, a Fleet is composed of squadrons of ships, and these squadrons are the building block of the whole fleet. Squadrons can be a standard formation, or they can be completely uneven in strength being built up from whatever is available at the time. The one thing a squadron should have in common though, is that it should be able to fight - and win - aganst a single Cylon Baseship.
Obviously there were many exceptions to this (support ships and tenders being one, still organised into squadrons but not with the intent to fight Baseships), and rarely would a squadron leader willingly go into battle against a Baseship with the minimum amount of ships because the losses would be high, but it was a standard that was to be maintained all through the war.
A typical squadron organisation would consist of the squadron leader ship, a fighter carrier, and the escorts and combat ships.
The squadron leader is typically the largest ship in the squadron, or one with proper command ability. If any Battlestars are present, they will automatically be the flagship of that squadron (and generally the fleet too).
Fighter carriers generally consist of the CVL Light Carrier, and it was a rare squadron that did not have at least one of these ships.
The rest of the squadron was then escorts to these core ships, or additional combat ships equipped with additional Baseship busting weapons.
The biggest component of any squadron though, is the fighter complement. Fighters are everything, and are expected to handle fleet defence, attack and recon missions. Whilst Fleet squadrons can operate without many fighters, it takes a crack crew to survive an encouter with a Baseship without them.
Fighters are also the biggest threat to any squadron - a Cylon Baseship carries almost double the amount that a Battlestar does, and any squadron is hard pressed to counter the Raider menace.
Every major ship or squadron of smaller ships usually has their own Viper helmet and rank pin design. Major ships includes Battlestars, Gunstars and similiar CA type ships. As squadrons tended to be broken up when needed, helmet design between constantly changing squadrons tended to vary widely. However, it was usually considered a point of honour to get the change done as soon as possible, it being bad luck to be wearing the design of another squadron or ship.
Squadrons are listed mainly by their flag ship or squadron leader, and some typical Colonial standard squadrons are listed here:
Consisting of a CVS Pulsar Class Gunstar and two CVL Light Carriers, this squadron packs a powerful anti-ship punch, and also carries a respectable amount of fighters to fend off the enemy. Alas, Gunstars were rarely assigned as escort vessels to Battlestars, although this was always an effective coupling but this type of squadron was quite rare.
While called a Gunstar squadron, it was common for CAD Teucer Missilestars or CA Spawn Fighting Stars to be substituted for the Pulsar Class Gunstar. While slightly lacking in the long range firepower department, these squadrons were generally considered to be more versatile than a typical Gunstar one.
Cruiser squadrons were quite common during the war, and these usually consisted of a single cruiser with the addition of a couple of light cruisers, mainly CVL Light Carriers. Most cruisers carried quite a respectable amount of fighters so additional light cruisers types could be assigned as needed instead of just CVLs.
The Tiger squadron however consisted of almost nothing but CVLs with the Tiger cruiser. A typical squadron being 1 cruiser and 3 CVLs. A heavy Tiger squadron actually consisted of 2 cruisers and 2 CVLs, or a single Tiger combined with a Battlestar.
The Triton squadron however, was a little different though. Because the Triton was a fast hyperspeed cruiser, it was attempted to combine this ship with additional fast hyperspeed ships, and thus these squadrons were always ad-hoc and formed as needed.
The most common Destroyer squadron (and the one associated with the term Destroyer Squadron), is one that contains a standard Libra Class DD destroyer, two CVL Light Carriers and an CLE Fleet Escort Cruiser. It packs a reasonable punch, has adequate fighter coverage, and can make a reasonable showing of itself in a stand up punch.
The Fast Destroyer Squadron was one that consisted of a Leosia Class DDD Missile Destroyer and two Aquaria Class DDV Destroyer Carriers. It was intended as a strike squadron, not intending to stay around, but to engage in hit and run attacks. It was fast and had a decent close range punch if the Cylons were having a bad day with their turbo lasers. It did not have half as many fighters as it needed to survive though and thus it would be desperation that would lead it into combat with against a full Raider complement. However it was fairly successful at times, and in fact was the one of the main reasons that saved the Destroyer Carrier from being an obsolete design.
Another common destroyer squadron was one which was commanded by a CLC Light Command Cruiser, had a CVL Light Carrier for fighter coverage, and for offensive punch had two standard Libra Class DD destroyers present. Almost as common as the standard destroyer squadron, but mainly used in groups for fleet actions so that the fighter coverage could be complimented by other squadrons.
Yet another squadron type was used solely in fleet actions. Consisted of three Libra Class DD destroyers and a CLE Fleet Escort Cruiser, it needed fighters from other areas to protect it from almost certain destruction. However it is offensive punch was one that few Baseships could stand for any reasonable length of time.
However, if at all possible, late in the war the ideal destroyer squadron was formed. This consisted of a CVM Thera Class Medium Carrier, a DDS Destroyer Scout and then two or three additional destroyers. This had fighter support, electronic warfare capability and packed a punch. Unfortuntely demand always outstripped supply.
Or more commonly referred to as 'pack squadrons' as the only way that light cruisers could damage a Baseship was in numbers. As many as possible.
There was almost no standard for light cruiser squadrons, there being so many variants around, each with differing capabilities, but two common groupings included one that had 3 CVL Light Carriers, commanded by a CLC Light Command Cruiser, and the other was intended more for fleet actions, and consisted of two CLS Strike Cruisers, one CLC Command Cruiser, one CLE Fleet Escort Cruiser and one CVL Light Carrier.
The problem with the cruiser squadrons was that the ships themselves almost fell apart at the lightest touch, and casualties in these vessels were always very high.