Publication and delivery
This course is published for study. Publication does not confirm an available class, appointed instructor or completed practical validation. Before booking, obtain a session brief naming the organiser, instructor and assessor, equipment access and any independent review arrangements.
Discussion and written work may be prepared independently; assessed completion still requires an appointed assessor and evidence against the published criteria. A material game update calls for a check of affected tasks, not cancellation of earlier academic achievements.
Your brief
For command candidates writing resource-aware operation plans.
The command programme tests whether a plan remains usable when the promised resources are removed, not whether the briefing sounds decisive.
A backup that depends on the same ship
Practice case · CT 320 · 2956 teaching edition
- The objective is to move six case units to an accepting receiver.
- The main plan uses Vessel A. The proposed backup also requires Vessel A.
- Vessel A withdraws before launch. Vessel B is available for three units, subject to receiving acceptance.
Before you begin: entry and equipment
Complete these courses
One completed specialist certificate or an independently approved equivalent outcome portfolio, with evidence reference and reviewer.
Reasoned command recommendation or independent entry review; no insider sponsor is required.
Bring or arrange
The case operation and available-resource list.
The organizer must confirm equipment access before booking. No ship purchase, pledge tier or donation is required.
Technical knowledge and game skills
Practical instruction revision 1 · 9 October 2026
Plan branches around flight, ground and medical limits
Reconnoitre the mission chain
Check approach, landing, ground access, work area and departure in sequence. A good landing zone can still leave the team unable to reach the objective. Verify that every participant has the required mission and that the selected ship can lift the planned load. Record any route leg that depends on a single ramp, elevator or receiver.
Write triggers that operators can observe
Use events such as an unresolvable trespass warning, loss of vertical support, a blocked casualty route or an unsuitable medical tier. Pair each with a specific action: hold, move to the alternate, reduce the task or withdraw. Avoid vague triggers like “if things become dangerous,” which different crew members will interpret differently.
Rehearse the branch before relying on it
Walk or fly the alternate access with a small team and test the communications fallback. Two routes using the same broken lift are not independent alternatives. Check the fuel and crew capacity remaining when the branch would actually be invoked. A workable cancellation can be the correct contingency when no independent recovery route exists.
Practical drill
Plan a lawful ground-support sortie with primary and alternate extraction. Rehearse the alternate, then inject one explicit access or handling limitation and execute the corresponding branch.
Observed-skill checks
- The plan covers both vehicle and ground access.
- Each trigger has a named observer and an executable response.
- The alternate survives the specific failure it is intended to address.
Use these checks to document the technical evidence supporting the course outcomes in your agreed role. Record what you personally performed, what assistance you needed and what remains unobserved. A discussion or simulated action does not certify live equipment handling; Crew Support evidence does not confer Pilot qualification.
Game references and build-sensitive details
The linked pages were read for this revision. Community references mix release eras; each source note identifies what is used and what is excluded. Technical explanations below are an Academy synthesis, and drills and performance checks are Academy-designed. Before practice, compare the named actions with the installed LIVE build and actual equipment. Bind actions by name rather than copying old default keys. Research is not an in-game validation.
- Star Citizen Wiki — Defend Occupants
A specific lawful bunker mission, shared access, allied NPCs and friendly-fire consequences. Other contracts have different conditions. Squad drills below are Academy teaching methods, not claimed game rules.
- Star Citizen Wiki — Controls
Control categories, movement axes and targeting concepts. The page contains legacy bindings and flight-system descriptions; use the installed game’s bindings, not its key table.
- Star Citizen Wiki — Medical
Body-part injuries, Hemozal, symptom medication, BDL, bed tiers and regeneration. Ship tables, resource costs and ranges change; inspect the actual bed and tool.
- Star Citizen Wiki — Quantum drive
Spooling, calibration, obstructions, orbital markers and interdiction. Its proposed quantum-boosting section is not used as a live procedure.
Check the official LIVE release notes and record the session build, equipment and observed limitations before practical sign-off.
Learn the method
1. Define a result the crew can recognize
State what must reach whom, by which condition, and who authorizes the task. Avoid objectives such as “ensure success” that cannot guide a completion decision. Include what the operation is not being asked to do.
Describe completion from the receiver’s perspective. “Deliver the load” becomes testable when the brief identifies the consignment, accepting role and condition of receipt. Add explicit exclusions so a transport task does not expand into an unbriefed rescue, escort or recovery commitment merely because the crew encounters another need.
- Practise
- Write the mission objective and completion condition.
- Ready when
- The objective is observable and the stated authority covers its scope.
2. Check the plan’s dependencies
List the people, equipment, route and receiving capacity the plan requires. Mark each confirmed or unconfirmed and name who is checking it. Test the backup plan too: it is not a backup if it depends on the same unavailable vessel.
Look for common dependencies between the primary and alternate plans. Two destinations may rely on the same unavailable receiver; two vessels may need the same absent pilot. A contingency is independent only to the extent that it survives the failure being considered. Where none exists, define a controlled hold or cancellation.
- Practise
- Draw the dependency list for the main and alternate plans.
- Ready when
- Each essential dependency has evidence or a specific contingency and owner.
3. Pair every major risk with an action
Choose the condition that triggers holding, diverting, reducing scope or stopping. Name who decides and who must be told. Revisit those conditions before launch rather than treating a risk list as permission to continue regardless.
Distinguish the likelihood of a problem from the consequence of being unable to respond. A rare failure may still require a firm stop condition when recovery is unavailable. For each material risk, name the observation that triggers action, the authorised decision and the person who confirms the crew received it.
- Practise
- Revise the plan after a critical resource is lost.
- Ready when
- The revision applies the agreed limit and assigns a feasible response.
A worked decision
Reception has not confirmed capacity. Command sets a hold condition and checks an alternate receiver instead of listing “reception pending” without an action.
- Mark both the main plan and supposed backup unavailable. Explain the shared dependency rather than counting them as two options.
- Check whether a three-unit movement meets a useful reduced objective and what happens to the remaining three.
- Seek the authorized reduced-scope decision and receiver’s acceptance, or hold. Publish the new stop conditions before the crew launch.
Try it yourself
Produce the mission brief and dependency list, then revise them after A withdraws. Identify the authority approving any reduced objective.
What changes during the exercise
A critical resource is withdrawn before launch.
Keep this record
- Objective / completion condition / approving authority
- Dependency / confirmation / alternative / owner
- Trigger / hold or stop action / revised scope
Plain-text worksheet with this case, your working fields and the assessment criteria. Fill it in privately; downloading does not submit work or record completion.
Check your reasoning
Your alternate plan uses the same unavailable transport. What is missing?
Compare your reasoning
An independent way to meet the task, a reduced task or a decision to wait. Renaming the original dependency does not make it a contingency.
Answer first, then compare. In a later session, explain the decision using a changed case without referring to this answer.
How completion is judged
An operation brief, dependency list and revised decision.
The assessor checks your own work against all three “Ready when” criteria above. Use the observed-skill checks in the technical chapter to establish the applicable game-handling evidence in your agreed role. A successful team result does not replace an action they did not observe.
Findings, another attempt and review
- Demonstrated
- Your observed work meets the criterion in the agreed role.
- Further practice required
- The assessor identifies the observed gap and the specific practice needed.
- Interrupted
- Equipment, staffing or personal circumstances prevented a valid assessment. This is not a failure.
- Not assessed
- There is not yet enough evidence for this outcome.
A fresh attempt
Withdraw the receiver rather than the vessel. Require a checked receiving alternative or an explicit hold.
Reassess the missing outcome, plus any linked skill that needs new evidence. For prior learning, compare existing work with the same criteria and observe any missing practical action.
Ask for the reasons behind a finding. Reviews must be handled by someone independent of the original decision; defer the review if that person is not available.
Read the Academy Ordinance and review rulesFor instructors
Session setup and coaching
Prepare the session
The case operation and available-resource list.
Assign crew stations and tell each learner what they will practise. The instructor must be able to hear the calls and see the action being assessed. Brief the callsigns, channel, route and expected duration. Replace the example locations with the places you will actually use.
- Ask the learner to explain the relevant earlier procedure without notes; correct any gap before the practical.
- Teach and demonstrate the technical chapter using the actual game indications. Run its drill with feedback before connecting those skills to the three methods and worked decision. Use the observed-skill checks to identify missing handling evidence.
- Let the learner complete the normal procedure first, then introduce the change described in the exercise. Give them time to respond without coaching. Keep unrelated failures out of this attempt.
- Record the learner's action against each criterion. Give one specific next step for any gap and transfer unfinished operational work before closing.
What to watch for in CT 320
Ask how the alternate avoids the failed dependency. A differently named route using the same missing resource is not independent.
If another attempt is needed
Withdraw the receiver rather than the vessel. Require a checked receiving alternative or an explicit hold.
Running the exercise
Give the learners the brief and the source documents before the discussion. Ask them to explain what they would do, then change one condition and hear their revised decision.
Brief the command “Stop exercise” before starting. On that call, cease the drill and tell the instructor what needs attention. For weapons practice, identify the participating ships and crew; anyone else entering the area is a reason to hold fire.
Session administration: use player handles in your notes. Ask before recording voice or video, and agree when the recording will be deleted. Academy rules and review procedure.
Reading into practice
ATP 3-21.8 · Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad · United States Army (11 January 2024)
Read: Chapter 2, Section II: Troop Leading Procedures. Focus on the warning order, tentative plan, reconnaissance, orders and supervision.
Send a warning order early enough for the crew to prepare: task, departure point, expected timings and equipment. Refine the plan as reports arrive. Rehearse the difficult transition rather than reading the entire brief aloud again.
Crew exercise
Plan a pickup from a moon outpost with one transport and two escorts. Send the warning order before choosing the final approach. Ask one pilot to check the landing area. Brief loading, cover, departure and an alternate pickup. Then remove one escort from the available crew and revise the plan before launch.
Debrief
- What can the crew prepare before the final order?
- Which report would make you change the landing plan?
- Rehearse the call that stops boarding and orders withdrawal. Who needs to acknowledge it?
Applying the source aboard ship
Troop leading procedures organise preparation; infantry formations and weapon effects are not ship tactics. Check the actual approach, transport capacity and available landing area in the session.
This is a supplementary discussion exercise, not an additional completion requirement. Use the source to examine the decision; the course criteria above remain the assessment standard.
Sources and edition
Lex Astra · Command Studies programme
Course CT 320 · edition 2956.3 · 2956 teaching edition · revised course text.
Case CT–2: relieving an unavailable commander
Command Studies case issued by CDR Maren Haldorsen in 2956. The course variants develop its test: can the next leader continue without access to the original planner’s private assumptions?
Professional references and instructional revision
Instruction revised 9 October 2026. Lex Astra cases supply the teaching situations. Professional references inform communication, decision-making and instructional design; they do not confer external qualifications. LIVE capabilities remain subject to the recorded session check.
Editorial context and teaching basis
The lessons are current Academy teaching, not newly discovered historical records. Lex Astra opened in 2891. Historical sources keep their original issuer and date; all case callsigns, quantities, times and conditions are supplied for practice.
Your session brief names the instructor, the crew assignments and the equipment provided. Contact the teaching office above to arrange a place.
Course-text revision: 8 October 2026. Educational references were reviewed for the framework on 8 October 2026; they inform the teaching approach, not external accreditation or current game-capability claims.
Teaching research and its limitsWhere this leads
Command Studies requirementsCourses that use this work
Course records retain the edition and role assessed. New teaching text does not erase earlier achievements.