Klingon Defense Force

Heirarchy and History

• Standing military of the Klingon Empire
• Officers
  • Officer rank structure, highest to lowest:
    • General
    • Captain
      • Senior commanding officers of a full fleet of vessels granted title of "Fleet Captain" (TNG Novel: A Time to Kill)
    • Commander
    • Lieutenant
• Enlisted
  • Enlisted rank structure, highest to lowest:
    • Bekk
• Chief of staff for the Klingon Defense Force holds the title of Fleet Admiral with the rank of General
  • By examples of Krell, Chang, Martok
• Standard uniform consists of warrior's traditional armor, shoulder-length hair
  • All members required to carry mek'leth, disruptor
  • During their existence, QuchHa' were barred from wearing standard Klingon Defense Force uniform, in order to better distinguish them from HemQuch (ENT Novel: Live by the Code; TOS)
• Education
  • All officers taught standard fighting techniques (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword)
    • As of 23rd century, this does not include mok'bara (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword)
• Fleet details
  • All KDF vessels bear individual prefix codes restricting command-and-control access (TNG Novel: A Time to Kill)
    • With vessel prefix code, a vessel can be controlled by outside systems as needed (TNG Novel: A Time to Kill)
    • Code can be configured individually by each commanding officer (TNG Novel: A Time to Kill)
  • Additionally, all vessels have single fixed override code set, held by Klingon High Command in the event a vessel goes rogue (TNG Novel: A Time to Kill)
  • Bridge configuration places commander at the fore of other bridge officers (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow; TNG Novel: Q & A)
    • Represents that commander should lead into battle, holding enough trust to turn their back on their crew (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow; TNG Novel: Q & A)
• Positions
  • High commander (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
    • Existed as position or rank by 2260s (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
      • Distinction from commanding officer unclear
      • Potentially a field commander specifically, or a rank akin to commodore
  • Commanding officer
    • Directs operations of a vessel or outpost, as in Starfleet
    • As of mid-23rd century, one of only two positions allowed personal guard on the bridge of a vessel (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
  • First officer
    • Second in command of a vessel (Various)
      • Title literally translates into Standard as "second officer" (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
    • Represents the crew and their concerns to the commanding officer
    • As of mid-23rd century, one of only two positions allowed personal guard on the bridge of a vessel (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
• Divisions
  • Engineering
    • Weapons control
      • Aboard birds of prey, bridge weapons officer leads both disruptor weapons control teams; general equivalent of Starfleet chief tactical officer (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
        • Reports directly to first officer (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: Killing Blow)
      • Senior weapons officer leads individual disruptor room (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword)
      • Lower-ranked members known as junior weapons officers (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword)
        • Junior weapons officers man firing consoles, coolant controls (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword)
        • Firing consoles considered more significant of the two, indicative of higher status and position (TOS Novel: Errand of Vengeance: The Edge of the Sword)