[StavOnTheRun]

Hello.

I'm new to the forums, but not new to the setting or the system. I was creating a runner from the Sioux Nation, and since I am a story-heavy character creator, started to look more into the Sioux Defense Forces since they are a pretty large part of Sioux national culture and would have been a big part of my runner's previous life. I came to find that relatively little information existed about them, so I started up a little blurb in my character's backstory. That blurb became this project: To create a mildly-detailed set of information about the Sioux Defense Forces that could be used to help flesh out Sioux Nation characters.

This is still a work in progress and I am open to suggestions or alterations. Most of the information is from source material when it exists, such as the tribes that make up the Sioux Nation, or it is from educated inference, such as the number of active personnel (Based on a 1-in-14 ratio, which what Israel currently has approximately). If you have questions or suggestions, please offer them.

Thus, I give you the following.

Sioux Defense Forces

Overview

The Sioux Defence Forces constitute the combined arms wing of the Sioux Nation. With no oceans, the SDF is primarily ground-based, with 80% of their overall manpower and funding going to the Army. Thanks to this funding, and mandatory military conscription, the SDF is relatively large, well trained, and well equipped for a nation with as small a population as the Sioux.

Each of the recognized tribes of the Sioux Nation makes a manpower contribution, and the various brigades are mostly ethnically homogeneous in an attempt to increase cohesion and esprit de corps. Some of the tribes are small and cannot field a full detachment on their own, and instead contribute men and women to the units of a larger related tribe or combine their men and women with other small tribes that are ethnically similar. For example, none of the woodlands tribes are large enough to field their own brigade, so the six tribes all form one unit together.
   
The land of the Sioux Nation is large, rugged, and has many wide-open spaces. Such terrain has historically proven to benefit artillery, motorized infantry, and armored fighting vehicles. With this in mind, the SDF has a high percentage of artillery, all of their Rifle Brigades are motorized, and armored vehicles feature heavily.
   
The Sioux Nation is subdivided into 6 Operational Zones: North, North-East, South-East, South, West, and Central. Each Operational Zone has 4 active brigades permanently assigned to it for defense: 3 Rifle Brigades and 1 Armored Brigade. The exception to this is the Central Operational Zone, which has no Armored Brigade.

The Wildcat Brigade has 9 Squadrons, with one assigned to each Operational Zone, one assigned to executive protection duties, and two assigned to the Office of Military Intelligence directly.
   
When the SDF Reserves are activated, the Army more than triples in size. It gains an additional 40 Reserve Rifle Brigades, 10 Reserve Armored Brigades, and 2 Reserve Wildcat Brigades.

Sioux Defense Forces Statistics

Army: 80,000 Active in 18 Rifle Brigades, 5 Armored Brigades, and 1 Special Forces Wildcat Brigade.
Air Force: 20,000 Active in 7 Fighter Regiments, 7 Transport Helicopter Regiments, 4 Attack Helicopter Regiments, and 2 Bomber Regiments.

Sioux Defense Forces Tribal Contributions

Cherokee and Lumbee
   -x3 Rifle Brigades (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Tsalagi Rifle Brigades.).
   -x2 Armored Brigades (1st and 2nd Tsalagi Armored Brigades.).
Sioux
   -x3 Rifle Brigades (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Sioux Rifle Brigades.).
   -x1 Armored Brigade (Sioux Armored Brigade.).
Cheyenne and Arapaho
   -x2 Rifle Brigades (1st and 2nd Cheyenne Rifle Brigades.).
   -x1 Armored Brigade (Cheyenne Armored Brigade.).
Creek and Seminole
   -x2 Rifle Brigades (1st and 2nd Muscogee Rifle Brigades.).
   -x1 Armored Brigade (Muscogee Armored Brigade.).
Navajo and Apache
   -x2 Rifle Brigades (1st and 2nd Dene Rifle Brigades.).
Crow and Hidatsa
   -x2 Rifle Brigades (1st and 2nd Crow Rifle Brigades.).
Woodlands (Mohawk, Mohegan, Mahican, Onondaga, Delaware, and Oneida)
   -x1 Rifle Brigade (Woodlands Rifle Brigade.).
Shoshone
   -x1 Rifle Brigade (White Knives Rifle Brigade.).
Ojibwe, Cree, and Potawatomi
   -x1 Rifle Brigade (Stone Child Rifle Brigade.).
Chickasaw and Choctaw
   -x1 Rifle Brigade (Muskogean Rifle Brigade.).

Sioux Defense Forces Brigade Structure

   Rifle Brigade (~3,500 Men.).
      Brigade Headquarters (850 Men.).
      Tank Battalion (150 Men.).
      3 Rifle Battalions (500 Men Each.).
      Artillery Battalion (250 Men.).
      Multiple Launch Rocket System Battalion (250 Men.).
      Air Defense Battalion (250 Men.).
      Engineer Battalion (250 Men.).

   Armored Brigade (~2,800 Men.).
      Brigade Headquarters (850 Men.).
      3 Tank Battalions (150 Men Each.).
      Rifle Battalion (500 Men.).
      Artillery Battalion (250 Men.).
      Multiple Launch Rocket System Battalion (250 Men.).
      Air Defense Battalion (250 Men.).
      Engineer Battalion (250 Men.).

   Special Forces Wildcat Brigade (~3,000 Men.).
      Brigade Headquarters (300 Men.).
      9 Wildcat Squadrons (300 Men Each.).

Sioux Defense Forces Training

   
The training cycle for the Sioux Defence Forces really begins two years before conscription. The Sioux Scouts is a youth paramilitary organization that almost everyone, including Anglo residents, is a part of. Starting at the age of six, Sioux Scouts are trained in basic survival skills, wilderness navigation, first aid, and other such useful skills. At the age of sixteen, the Sioux Scouts are then trained in firearms handling, marksmanship, military command structure, and simple battle tactics. When a Sioux is conscripted and begins their service commitment, they are already a well-rounded recruit with a lot of training underneath their belt.
   
The first week is in-processing, followed by three weeks of primarily remedial instruction on what was covered in the Sioux Scouts to ensure everyone is on the same page. What follows is seven months of intense physical, emotional, and mental preparation. The first two months are spent rotating through the various specialties of the SDF with training and testing in each area. At the end of this period, a conscript is offered one of three specialties that they scored well in. The last five months are spent in more specialized training, culminating in a one-week period where a conscript must survive on their own in the Sioux wilderness with only their rucksack.
   
Once the eight-month training cycle is completed, the conscript is approved and spends the last four months of their service commitment in active duty with one of the SDF brigades. Once his year is completed, a conscript may elect to extend their active enlistment or proceed to the reserves, where they will remain for four years.

Sioux Defense Forces Equipment

SDF equipment is neither high tech nor expensive, but extremely reliable and durable. The philosophy of the SDF high command is to equip it’s men with the basics and rely on the ferociousness and tenacity of the warriors to overcome any deficiency in arms. How effective this strategy is remains an ongoing debate, but no one can question the training and fighting spirit of the SDF. The standard arms and armor of the SDF are inexpensive, reliable, and bomb-proof.
   
In addition to whatever arms and special gear they carry, all SDF troopers are expected to be relatively self-sufficient when it comes to equipment. Each one carries a good quality backpack with a survival kit, at least two liters of water, a rating 6 respirator, a combat knife, an Urban Tribe Tomahawk, a folding entrenching tool, a Rating 1 Advanced Medkit, a weaponry cleaning kit, rain poncho, and whatever personal items they would want to carry with them.

Front-line combat troops rely on the tested, reliable, and affordable AK-97 series, even going so far as to use modified versions as squad automatic weapons. Combat support troops use instead the Cavalier Gladius as a lightweight sub-machine gun. The Colt L36 is the standard sidearm carried by officers, whereas armored vehicles crews, non-combat staff officers and NCOs, and even military police are issued the Ceska Black Skorpion as a PDW.

Standard Weaponry and Armor
-Pistol: Colt America L36.
-SMG: Cavalier Gladius.
-PDW: Ceska Black Skorpion.
-Rifle: AK-97 or AK-98.
-Automatic Rifle: AK-97 with Long Barrel, Shock Pad, Bipod, and Extended Magazine.
-Marksman Rifle: Ruger 101 with Suppressor and Bipod.
-LMG: Shiawase Nemesis with Shock Pad, Bipod and 100-round belts.
-Armor: Armor Jacket w/ Securitech PP Arms and Legs, SWAT Helmet.

Sioux Defense Forces Organization

   This section will look at the basic organization of the SDF brigade, starting with the most simple battlefield unit, the Rifle Squad.

Rifle Squad - 8 Men.
   Sergeant - Squad Leader, armed with AK-97.
   Corporal - Assistant Squad Leader, armed with AK-97.
   Automatic Rifleman - Fire Support, armed with AK-97 w/ Long Barrel, Bipod, Shock Pad, and Extended Magazines.
   Grenadier - Fire Support, armed with AK-98.
   Medic- Medical Support, armed with Cavalier Gladius.
   Rifleman x3 - Assault Trooper, armed with AK-97.
      
The Rifle Squad is 8 men and can be functionally divided into two teams: The Support Team made of the Sergeant, Grenadier, Automatic Rifleman, and one Rifleman, and the Assault Team made up of the Corporal, Medic, and 2 Riflemen. Motorized with a modified ten-seat Toyota Gopher, the Squad can carry enough food, water, and ammo in their vehicle for 48 hours of independent operation. A vehicle-mounted, satellite-linked comm system is used for command communication, and the Sergeant and Corporal both carry encrypted micro-transceivers for tactical communication.

Rifle Platoon - 28 Men.
   -Platoon Headquarters - 4 Men.
      Platoon Leader - Lieutenant, armed with AK-97.
      Assistant Platoon Leader - Senior Sergeant, armed with AK-97.
      Radio Operator - Communications Specialist, armed with Cavalier Gladius.
      Marksman - Fire Support, armed with Ruger 101 w/ Bipod and Suppressor.
   -x3 Rifle Squads - 24 Men Total.

The Rifle Platoon is composed of 28 men. The Platoon Headquarters has no vehicles of it’s own, and instead divides themselves between the Toyota Gophers assigned to each Squad. The Radio Operator carries a manpack satellite-linked comm system used for exchanges with upper levels of command and like the Squads that make it up, a Rifle Platoon can operate 48 hours without resupply.

Rifle Company - 110 Men.
   -Company Headquarters - 8 Men.
      Commanding Officer - Captain, armed with AK-97.
      Executive Officer - 1st Lieutenant or Captain, armed with AK-97.
      First Sergeant - Senior Sergeant, armed with AK-97.
      Technical Sergeant - Senior Technician, armed with Cavalier Gladius.
      Supply Sergeant - Supply Specialist, armed with Cavalier Gladius.
      Matrix Support - Decker, armed with Cavalier Gladius.
      Magical Support - Mage, armed with Cavalier Gladius.
   -x3 Rifle Platoons - 84 Men Total.
   -Weapons Platoon - 18 Men.

The Rifle Company is composed of 110 men and is capable of 96 hours of independent operation. The Weapons Platoon provides fire support and is composed of a four-man Headquarters, an ATGM Squad of seven men with three ATGM Launchers, and a Machine Gun Squad of seven men with three Medium Machine Guns. It has two Toyota Gophers for transport. A twelfth Toyota Gopher is provided for the Company Headquarters.

Rifle Battalion - 500 Men.
   -Battalion Headquarters - 70 Men.
      Battalion Staff - 12 Men.
      Support Company - 50 Men.
      Medical Platoon - 8 Men.
   -x3 Rifle Companies - 330 Men Total.
   -Mortar Battery - 60 Men.
   -Anti-Tank Platoon - 20 Men.
   -Air Defense Platoon - 20 Men.

The Rifle Battalion is composed of 500 men total and is capable of ten days of independent operation. It combines infantry, artillery, anti-tank, air defense, medical, and support personnel into a maneuverable, versatile, and capable unit.  The Battalion Headquarters has six Toyota Gophers and ten heavy-duty cargo trucks for transport. The Mortar Battery provides high-angle fire support from six 120mm tubes and has eight Toyota Gophers for transport. The Anti-Tank Platoon supplies four four-man Heavy ATGM Teams with one launcher each and has four Toyota Gophers for transport. The Air Defense Platoon supplies four four-man MANPADS Teams with two launchers each and has four Toyota Gophers for transport. In total, a Rifle Battalion has 58 Toyota Gophers and 10 cargo trucks.

Rifle Brigade - 3,500 Men.
   -Brigade Headquarters (~850 Men.).
      -Brigade Staff (60 Men.).
      -Support Battalion (500 Men.).
      -Medical Company (60 Men.).
      -Reconnaissance Company (60 Men.).
      -Electronic Warfare Company (60 Men.).
      -Magical Warfare Company (60 Men.).
      -NBC Company (50 Men.).
   -Tank Battalion (150 Men, 40 Tanks.).
      -Battalion Headquarters (30 Men, 1 Tank.).
      -x3 Tank Companies (40 Men, 13 Tanks Each.).
   -x3 Rifle Battalions (~1,500 Men Total.).
   -Artillery Battalion (~250 Men, 18 Howitzers.).
      -Battalion Headquarters (40 Men.).
      -x3 Howitzer Batteries (70 Men, x6 Howitzers Each.).
   -Multiple Launch Rocket System Battalion (~250 Men, 18 MLRS.).
      -Battalion Headquarters (40 Men.).
      -x3 MLRS Batteries (70 Men, x6 MLRS Each.).
   -Air Defense Battalion (~250 Men, 18 SAMs.).
      -Battery Headquarters (30 Men.).
      -x3 Air Defense Batteries (70 Men, x6 SAMs.).
   -Engineer Battalion (~250 Men.).
      -Battalion Headquarters (30 Men.).
      -x3 Combat Engineer Companies (70 Men Each.).   

The Rifle Brigade is the most common formation in the SDF and is combined-arms in its approach to warfare. With a full complement of Matrix, Magical, Armored, Rifle, Artillery, Support, Recon, NBC, and Engineering personnel, it is totally self-sufficient and capable of combating the enemy in any battlefield type. The only difference between brigade types is that a Rifle Brigade has three Rifle Battalions and one Tank Battalion, while an Armored Brigade has three Tank Battalions and one Rifle Battalion.

[Wakshaani]

*puts a pin in this for later*

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Overall pretty good, but honestly, they should all be rocking Full Body Armor and Helmet (core rule book) with the Chem Seal and environmental adaption as their armor, at least, this get their armor to 18 before Cyber, Bio, or magic. We are talking about a society (Sioux) where wearing a real Leather Armored Jacket to a fancy dinner is normal and not viewed as weird. Even fitting within the older more reliable stuff, they should be using FBA. Leave the fancy Mil-Spec armors to those who can't move quickly or silently and requires far more maintenance. Also, figured they should have the tomohawk from Run and Gun, which can easily be used in melee or thrown over the folding one, which can only be used in melee. Otherwise this looks pretty good. Some of the vehicles could be not picked, but nothing major. Cheers. Fun side note, Last character I played in SR, Bladz, was Sioux.

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

One of the more recent sources that covers Denver (anything post Ghostwalker is 'recent' to me, so it could still be a book 10-15 years old by this point) mentions that the former USAF Academy is now the all-services military academy for the entire NAN.

Of course, according to the Denver Box set (2055 era) the USAFA was levelled rather than handing it over to "the Injuns" and its ruins are the secret home to the Denver Data Haven that was the most important node on the matrix to pre-Crash 2.0 shadowrunners.

So pick your own truth, I guess.  Maybe the DDH was never rebuilt post Crash 2.0 but the NANners did rebuild the ruins into a functional academy.

[StavOnTheRun]

Thanks for the input so far.

I'll change the folding hatchet to the Urban Tomahawk, it's probably a better idea in retrospect. Credit to Rift_of_Bladz. As for the armor, you don't think FBA sort of breaks the character of the NAN? FBA seems more to be in line with more advanced, tech-based nations, IMHO. I thought about using Light Security Armor, but the cost is way too high for what it offers (Unless it has been corrected in errata I haven't seen.).

On the subject of the USAFA, the conflicting source material does present an issue. For whatever reason (and I have no source material to corroborate this), I thought it might make more sense for the training of the various Sioux Nation tribal groups to be run by each individual contributing tribe. That presents it's own set of problems though, since it could lead to varying levels of competency in the curriculum.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Thanks for the credit!

As to the armor. No, FBA is the minimum Heavy Armor for Militaries. True Mil-Spec, aka Hardened Armor, is what most modern military groups would be using, especially for their heavy troops, along with stronger weapons. Hell, the new Bug Stomper Armor (Ares) is not only Hardened, but also no restrictive for movement. What you have for armor basic Gangers have access too. Military weapons and ADPS will shred that. They have to have something tougher. FBA will give that, but not be state of the art, unlike the Mil-Spec Hardened Armors. But that is my opinion, which is worth less than .02 ¥.

[Tecumseh]

I know you have Shadows in Focus: Sioux Nation because a lot of your information lines up with it. The "Facts at a Glance" section at the front has some numbers in them that might be useful for a sanity check for some of your estimates. I don't know if the values actually hold water from a macroeconomic perspective, but here's what we have:

Population: 6,950,000
Per Capita GDP: ¥31,000
National GDP: ¥215.5 Billion
Military Expenditures: ¥17 Billion (7.9% of GDP)

I have no idea how much brigades cost and if the above is sufficient to support what you've outlined. Per canon, these numbers are from 2073-2075, which is now 5 years out-of-date, so these values could potentially be 10%+ higher now.

As for Sioux strategy and training, I actually find this piece of shadowtalk to be the most insightful:

Let’s not ignore the elephant in the room that gives the war chiefs nightmares. President Colloton threatened to steamroll right through the Sioux to get at Ghostwalker during the big showdown a few months ago, and there’s not a damn thing the Sioux Defense Force could have done to stop it. The Sioux strategy is for defense-in-depth and long-term guerrilla action. They’re not prepared to deal with an enemy that doesn’t plan on occupying their territory, and the Pentagon knows it.

This is backed up by the Lifestyle Modules for the "SDF One Year Wonder":

Serving for one year in the SDF will not make you an elite killer, but it provides training in a range of skills that could prove very handy in fighting a war from the shadows.

The skills included are Automatics (Assault Rifle), Demolitions (Improvised), Disguise (Camouflage), Sneaking, and Unarmed Combat. Again, all of that strongly suggests a citizenry trained for guerrilla warfare and long-term insurgency, rather than a stand-and-bang military trying to go toe-to-toe with larger opponents. I think this supports your "SDF equipment is neither high tech nor expensive, but extremely reliable and durable" approach, at least for the conscripts and the reserves. Those that sign on for extended service then get access to the heavier equipment, which is reflected in their Heavy Weapons, Gunnery, and Electronic Warfare (Communications) skills from their Lifestyle module.

I'm glad to see the Sioux Scouts in your write-up but the supplement is a bit contradictory about what it entails. Rigger X says it provides "the equivalent of UCAS Army basic training" while the Lifestyle module makes it sound more outdoorsy and less militaristic. Thus it's debatable whether they go so far as to get into military command structure and simple battle tactics in the Scouts training. From the Lifestyle module, the skills from Scouts are Archery (Bow), First Aid, Longarms, Navigation, Survival, and Swimming.

[StavOnTheRun]

On the topic of population, military expenditures, and the like, I went with a rough modern comparison being Israel, which is referenced several times in the sources. The last census there (2008) listed roughly 7 million inhabitants, so pretty close to the Sioux Nation, and a national defense budget of 5.1% GDP. Their own active component is ~170,000, with another ~465,000 in reserve, which boils down to a ratio of 1 soldier to every 11 citizens. Quite high. However, in the Sioux Nation, I believe only Tribal members can serve in the military, so only 65% of their population is ellegible. Hence why I put their numbers lower, despite a higher budget overall.

On the cost of each brigade? Hell, that's a lot of number's crunching, but I just might do it.

Being more organized towards long-term, insurgency operations against an invader is why I went with the idea of motorized infantry capable of relatively long periods of independent operation. Is this an incorrect idea?

On the topic of the Sioux Scouts, I ran with the idea that it was the rough equivalent of UCAS Army basic training, which (As far as I know, being a stinkin' civy) would include arms training and basic battle tactics. I'm perfectly willing to change this assessment if it is incorrect.

[GloriousRuse]

Going to jump in here with some notes and questions that occurred as I went through this:

Macro Level

Force Size: You have 22x brigades there, roughly analogous to a US brigade combat team (BCT) in their composition (except for the MLRs, more on that later), sturctured on the Russian/Chinese territoriial command HQ concept. All of them motorized or armored. This requires significant logistical and institutional support beyond just money...

For comparison, the active US army, with ~475k soldiers, fields 31x active BCTs.  The russians field considerably more - perhaps 38x or so, though with substantial variation in logistics, training budgets, equipping, and maintenance - with ~350k soldiers. They are somewhat less invested in all the institutional goodies western armies take for granted (do the Sioux like having plenty of military hospitals, education programs for enlisted, consistent officer training, incentives to keep career soldiers, research labs, significant over-carriage of leaders to allow rapid expansion in war time, decent instructor to instructed rations in basic training  and so forth?) to get there. At "Russian" levels you would have ~200k Sioux in service in the ground forces alone in any given year. At "US" levels you would have over 300k. 

That is about 3-5% of the population in the army alone, which is only 80% of the SDF. While not full on World War levels, you are surpassing Cold War Soviet per capita manpower commitments to the active force. That's a hell of a bill to keep paying in peace time.

 It's even more enormous when you realize that if the army is predominantly conscripts, then with a population that small you are looking at a very high draft rate. The Israelis draft about a quarter of their eligible draft class each year, and they only manage to keep about ~100k conscripts in the forces despite having 8.7M citizens. Even at the low end, close to 45% of any Sioux high school class will end up in the army for 2.5 years or more. Over 50% with the other services.  And that's at the low end. At a "US" end of required backside support for a "well trained, well equipped" army, 2/3rds of every draft class are being called up in peace time. I'm not Milton Friedman, but I'm guessing the effects on the national economy and character would be dramatic. 

Simply, if the SDF was this big it would come at a pretty vast societal cost. Not an unpayable one - look at North Korea, they do it - but profoundly high and society shaping.

Force Cost. So, SR costs are always wonky based on developer absurdism and play balance, but 22x armored and motorized brigades won't be cheap. They will, even with "T-72" design mentality, be very expensive to maintain, train on, base, provide sufficient training areas for, and so forth.  They'll be even less cheap if you do things like include extraordinarily expensive MLRS systems with every brigade. (Already expensive to procure, long range MLRS as opposed to MRLs maintain prohibitively high "per shot" costs which makes the mere act of keeping enough ammo on hand a national endeavor with full military-industrial complex coordination involved to prevent inefficient "everyone gets a basic load" approaches, let alone keeping crews and systems certified...) Anyhow, the question would come on whether or not the NAN could afford to maintain a great power class military investment.

Force Composition The more or less modified 2019 US BCT is questionable given that SR features substantial autonomous drone capability, magic(hell, these guys only exist because they managed to be the only magical WMD game in town for a bit), an omnipresent Matrix, and so forth. It is unlikely they would have drag and dropped a basic human oriented force structure into a world where there are several other options.
 
Strategic Sense You've got the SDF set up to fight a big, conventional, mechanized war. Sweeping movements across the American southwest. You also have them set up on a "good enough guns" mentality. The problem is that in a big, sweeping, armored war in the desert and high plains, "smaller than you and only ok in gear" is not a winning combination. Second best means lots of armored coffins and shrapnel shredded howitzer crews. And if you have 60,000 T-34s to beat 6,000 Panthers with, that's fine. The Sioux, alas, are not in that situation. So you are having them invest in a capacity that is prohibitively expensive, but likely will only create a bunch of prohibitively expensive hulks if they square off with the UCAS.

Aztlan has shown a preference for limited, hybrid warfare based in Amazonia which is not what a big mech and artillery based force is built for. No doubt Aztlan uses ethnic differences to keep a constant low grade "Reconquista revolution" going on in the south NAN. Which means a lot of these very expensive motorized, armored, and rocket artillery forces will be parking their heavy stuff. Unless they plan on patrolling their slums in tanks.

Perhaps they can deter the CAS? But given the CAS are likely allies of convenience against the two biggest regional threats to the Sioux, they are probably lowest on the "people we need to be able to win a war against, or least force it to the negotiating table before the government collapses" list, and even if it came to slugging it out with a similar force in the CAS the price will get prohibitive pretty quick.

I guess I would ask why the NAN would invest in such a strategically inappropriate force concept? While no government is ever going to say "we will simply let them roll over us and then see how they like guerrilla war" (it tends to shorten the life expectancy for sitting heads of state, for one), nor are they going to embrace foolish attempts to draw a line in the sand they know will end in their obliteration. You might want to brush up on Iranian mosaic defense, North Korean defense en-masse, or other regional power military structures and doctrines
 
I think I've probably got long winded here, so I'll refrain from going into descending levels of detail.   

[StavOnTheRun]

...in other words, the whole thing is wrong in your opinion?

You'll have to forgive me for not being a great military theorist, this whole thing is an experiment. Let me see if I can summarize what I think you are saying in a bulleted list.

-Reduce total number of brigades due to manpower constraints.
-Reclassify remaining brigades to lower the motorized/armored number to increase cost effectiveness.
-Eliminate rocket-launching units to increase cost effectiveness.
-Increase Matrix and Magical Warfare specific units and introduce Drone Warfare specific units.
-Restructure units for hybrid, low-level warfare.

[GloriousRuse]

I think this force structure does not serve the NAN's strategic needs, largely because it is not tied to feasible concepts for them. Rather than try a bullet point adjustment, you might want to do a full review of the types of wars and "not-war-but-actually-really-kinda-wars" they might end of up (or are currently) fighting in the gray areas, what their anticipated goals are in those conflicts, how they would achieve them, and only then what means they would have and create to that end. Right now you have them locked very much in a very much great power mindset - big, mechanized, homogenously organized, offensive capable armies for imposing positive goals rapidly by occupation or control, generically tooled because there are so many possible uses. Nations like Russia, China, and the US maintain these types of armies. Not many other people have the need, or luxury, of investing like that. Even Israel has a different force structure, and they are probably the most "western standard" of the second tier powers. I think this likely has to be addressed before you can start switching out items. 

That said, there are plenty of real world examples of catastrophic force design, or force design that was meant for one situation failing horribly in another, so it is entirely possible (though not very canon, as Tecumseh has pointed out) that the SDF has been lured down a dead end into something like you have them at.

After all, when the Iraqi Army rolled forward forth into the desert to take on the Americans in a game of armored warfare, their leadership no doubt thought that they could win - or at least achieve a negotiated peace. After all, they had a vaguely Soviet organizational concept, with export Soviet (and some American) stuff - and hadn't the Europeans spent decades proving this type of force worked? It was certainly good enough to stand off their much larger Iranian neighbors for a decade, and while they were there, didn't they prove they could slaughter wave of holy cannon fodder? Why build something else when clearly this worked, when no doubt it could at least do something against an invader? Sure, it wasn't as technolgically advanced or professionally trained as the Americans, but it was a pretty big army and had some not-bad equipment. Understandable assumptions, just ones that turned out to be horribly wrong. Maybe the Sioux have made simple errors in judgement.

Maybe they've been lured in by the promies of technology, like third world countries buying a handful 1970's fighter jets for prestige or the delusion that four old Migs will somehow make them a power plyaer. it is far from impossible that the Sioux would end up where you have them, it would just the type of mistake that tends to end with the end of a nation.

[Beta]

Another model to possibly look at it how Finland organized its forces in the cold war.  Its situation with respect to the Soviet Union (or even now with respect to Russia) was not too far off the Sioux with the UCAS, and Finland is anothe rcountry with universal male conscription (or at least was, they could have dropped it more recently and I might not have noticed)

[StavOnTheRun]

Alright, so thanks to GloriousRuse, the diagnosed problem with the initial model is that it is stuck in a Cold War-era, Great Power paradigm that is unsuited to the 6th World in general and the Sioux Nation in specific. Or so at least that is what I am gathering so far, if I have misinterpreted you, please forgive me.

Wiping the slate clean then, as suggested, let's start at the beginning with position, needs, and strategy, pulling from source material as much as possible.

General Position
-The Sioux Nation is largely bordered on three sides (South, West, and North) by other Native American Nations that they have good relations with and thus are very unlikely to be the scenes of large-scale conventional warfare (6th World Almanac.).

-The Sioux Nation is bordered on the Eastern side by the UCAS, the largest adversary, which it cannot compete with in typical stand-and-deliver conventional fashion (Shadows in Focus: Sioux Nation.).

-The Sioux Nation has taken on the role of 'NAN Police', involving itself in the security matters, training, and equipping of other NAN militaries along with regime changes when necessary. (Sixth World Almanac.).

General Strategy
-Fighting withdrawals to the western regions while a Ghost Dance is organized, large-and-small scale insurgent operations with little direct oversight in occupied regions, conventional operations aimed at strategically important points (Shadows In Focus: Sioux Nation.).

Strategic Needs
-Protection of the borders with NAN nations are at a lower priority than the border with the UCAS due to friendly relations and the lack of a conventional threat.

-Protection of the border with the UCAS is at the highest priority. The SDF cannot compete directly for very long, and so must operate primarily indirectly with asymmetric warfare.

-Deployable expeditionary forces to be utilized in the assisting, training, and equipping of fraternal Native American Nations.

Solutions to Strategic Needs
1. A small amount professional and conventional forces to be a show of power, to be morale-boosting formations, to slow down UCAS advances, and to conduct the aforementioned strikes at strategically vital points.

2. A much larger number of smaller, local, more independent forces to handle the three relatively safe borders, to conduct COIN operations in case of foreign proxies (The aforementioned Aztlan influences), and to conduct insurgent operations themselves in occupied zones.

3. A small number of highly trained, professional, and experienced troops available for foreign deployments.



Am I getting in the right direction here, GloriousRuse?

[Voran]

My opinion would be to make sure they aren't all considered Professional 2+ ratings.  Like any large organization, they'll be scrubs and those that got ahead despite sheer weight of 'lack of qualifications'.  Also again, my opinion, but I like the general notion that while NAN (including Sioux) can have some trained skirmishers and special forces types, the nature of how they won the war (basically super magic bullshit rather than skill) would lean to later generations actually thinking they're all top tier operators and badasses.  But unlike Aztlan, don't really have 'full war' experience against decent opponents.

A 'numbers vs quality' kind of thing, but as their own nation they have an even more limited pool of active service types.  Also considering that with their lower overall population they'll have less ability to support a standing military via taxes and stuff.  Plus the support/logistic structure needed to support the field numbers.  I'm thinking in general Sioux operate kind of an Israel model, with a relatively high number per capita (25ish per 1000 people maybe?), bit smaller than overall Israel population too.

[GloriousRuse]

I think that's a pretty decent starting off point. From here you might want to start saying " ok, so who would do what mission, what do they look like, and how does the siux nation generate that force?"