Why the Imperial Military Used Outdated Tactics

The Galactic Empire is supposed to be one of the most powerful government in galactic history and it's military force is the emperor's joy and pride. The Imperial military enjoys unlimited political support and a huge chunk of the empire's budget goes towards maintaining it. Yet we still see the Imperial Army using trench warfare against lightly armed insurgents and the Imperial Navy using battleship era line tactics. Why is this happening?

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[silverjohn]

West Germans did a trial back in the 1970's. They set a platoon's worth of mannequins in an area laying on the ground and hit them with artillery and mortars equivalent what a Warsaw Pact standard barrage would be. Every one of the mannequins received damage that would have killed a person or wounded them so badly they wouldn't have been able to keep fighting.

They followed this up with simple slit trenches (the size of a grave but only 2-3 feet deep) and placed the mannequins so they were below ground level. Only 30% of the mannequins received any damage. After that they did a trial where they had proper trenches (4-5 feet deep and reinforced with sheet metal walls and simple overhead protection of a couple of feet of dirt) and the casualties dropped to 10%.

Moral being that, even in the modern age, trenches are used because trenches work. In the Star Wars Universe, which only seems to have line of sight energy weapons, they'd also be useful. You only have to move a small amount of dirt to create an angle where they'd have to burn though meters of soil to hit a target. A target that they may not be able to see in the first place.

[enoughothis]

Another problem with dictatorships is what they do to the officer corps. Dictators know that the most likely place for a rival to emerge will be in the military, hence they promote officers that are personally loyal to them and not too bright or ambitious. New ideas and thinking are pushed out and corruption thrives.

[Arkancide]

Trenches, like infantry, will never be outdated. They are a limited use tactic, but not useless. One of the oldest weapons known to man, a sharp object, is not outdated.

[CTViewer]

Trench Warfare won’t totally go away and is part of our warfare toolbox. Even in recent memory, trench warfare was seen during the Iran-Iraq War during the 80s.

[domaxltv]

Trench warfare is by no means outdated. The star wars universe lacks... Sensible military vehicles and weapons as a rule of thumb so the humble shovel will get you a lot further than an AT-AT if you're facing an enemy that will not fold in the face of attack. Trenches are an infantryman's best friend, you will invalidate all but the most precise of weapons with one simple trick... Even an orbital bombardment would essentially need to scorch every inch of land to make a trench system become obselete

[ella_dee]

6:40 "Tarkin became one of the best recruiters for the rebel alliance"
Ngl I laughed hard at that one 😂

[silentfox]

Let's talk about how they cut out so many scenes in solo especially the battle on mimban. Made you feel bad for the imperial army mud trooper. Regular soldiers not storm troopers

[reecedignan]

I really don’t know why we’re saying trench warfare is “outdated”.
Literally the war in Ukrainian is primarily being fought by men in entrenched positions and foxholes and actual similar positions to WW1 trenches.

Why? Because they work.

The reason we’re more accustomed to “Modern” warfare being all about the manoeuvre and attack is due to how we’ve fought modern conflicts like Nam, Iraq and Afghan.
Thing is, those ain’t the same conflicts you’ll run into consistently.
We are facing a quite inferior enemy who uses guerrilla tactics to fight.

However, find an enemy with the firepower to make a stand and hold you to your point… well? Do you retreat or stand around with your wangs out just waiting for an opening?
No, you hunker down and build up positions to protect oneself until either a offensive is required, or your siege pays off.

[LysimedVenteel]

Excuse me, but if trenches are good enough for Krieg then they’re good enough for the Empire.

[weldonwin]

I recall something about the Battle of Mimban being a horrifying meatgrinder on purpose. Basically, it was a place to dump Clone Wars veterans who weren't deemed loyal enough to the New Order

[bjornancraite]

I'm guessing the mimbam conflict in particular devolved into trench warfare is because it's a backwater world the empire doesn't want to waste many resources on. A few army divisions with maybe one or two clone wars era capital ships, that's it. And probably second rate army divisions at that. The empire isn't wasting a stormtrooper legion or a star destroyer's worth of material to quell some backwater rebellion when there are better uses of the resources involved.

[matthewwalkemar]

I think an additional reason for the trench warfare on Mimban is that it’s purposely designed to inflict high casualties on not just the mimbanese but imperial forces as well as a form of punishment or fear tactic for imperial dissidents and rogues while stormtroopers are there not just as additional units but as enforcers to keep the rest of the army personnel in line. That if there was any imperials who weren’t falling in line they would be sent there in hopes of dying while at the same time helping eliminate enemy combatants. As we see with solo for being too much of a rogue, which could be perceived as a threat by the empire in keeping order, being sent to mimban. That by imposing trench warfare you knock 2 birds with one stone, kill off any imperials that don’t fit in that could possibly be a future threat and kill off any mimbanese enemies in one action.

[theliato]

Its the old Fighting the last war problem. Same thing happened in the change up to republics military doctrine when they became the empire, switching from venator carrier based fleets to Imperial class star destroyer ones

[Jay]

Yeah in star wars they have all this advanced technology, yet use WW1 or WW2 tactics.

[ryanedgerton]

Counterargument: the seeming incompetence was intentional, and accomplished two of Palpatine's strategic goals.

First, as you pointed out, the incompetence of the Empire led to massive amounts of needless suffering galaxy-wide at the same time when the behemoth features of the Imperial military caused widespread fear. Fear, anger, hate, suffering -- it all fed into saturating the Dark Side with power and keeping any Light Side force users weak and ineffectual.

Second, let us not forget that while Sidious had indeed rebranded the Republic as the Empire no one would ever really think of it as a Sith empire like those of old. The Galactic Empire was still fundamentally the Republic in many, many ways -- bleeding that out of it over time, changing the fundamental identity and self-concept of the largest galactic governing body, would take more than just 40-odd years and crushing rebellion after rebellion. In a way, the Empire was never really Sidious' empire -- since he planned to live forever, it's reasonable to assume he planned to grind down the Empire down to its most useful components and then, when he had satisfied himself in mastering all the secrets of the Dark Side, rebuild it from the ground up as a true Sith dominion.

[rexlumontad]

Death Korps of Krieg: "Bunch of amateurs. Let's show you how it's done! Fix bayonets but don't stop the artillery!"

[Global-yt]

Once again A. Xie proves himself a better political scientist than half the governments on earth.

[DAVIDMcDonald-ufep]

I want to see the Imperial Empire VS just a single solar system, but that solar system uses the most modern and efficient tactics and strategies possible while the Imperials continue with their goofy blitzkrieg

[lordMartiya]

In Tarkin's defense, he was extremely competent before the Empire, and his methods worked for years.
Then he befriended Palpatine.

[rexlumontad]

Grand Admiral Thrawn would facepalm at the Galactic Empire's outdated tactics and decided to rectify them himself.