Planetary Security Forces

The Planetary Security Forces (PSF), also known as the Planetary Defense Forces (PDF), were the loosely affiliated military forces of the various planetary and sector governments of the galaxy.

The Planetary Security Forces association began around 15,000 BBY and during most of the Galactic Republic's years, the PSFs served as little more than an auxiliary to the Republic Navy. This changed with the Ruusan Reformation in 1000 BBY which saw the Republic Military disbanded and its remaining elements reorganized into the Judicial Forces who were charged with rapid crisis reaction and frontier patrol. The PSFs became primarily responsible for maintaining peace and security though they were also hampered by strict regulations on the size and armaments of their fleets. However the Republic allowed great flexibility in the management of the PSFs causing a wide variety of ranks, traditions, and in some cases, blatant corruption and incompetence.

Beginning in 22 BBY, the Clone Wars saw many PSFs come under a limited, nationalized control while many joined the reestablished Republic Navy or the non-clone Republic Army. The formation of the Galactic Empire in 19 BBY sealed this whereupon the remaining PSFs were formally placed under direct control of the Imperial Navy while still others were used as a pool of resources for the various Moff's Sector Groups. The formation of the New Republic government, saw Chief of State Mon Mothma issue the Defense Declarations which would denationalize the restored PSFs and give control of them back to the sector and planetary governments. This caused many local governments to swing their support from the Empire to the New Republic.

The PSFs would become a point of contention under the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances when the Galactic Alliance Senate passed the Sector Defense Limits in 37 ABY. This in effect limited the sizes of the PSFs and required an increase of military personnel and resources for the Galactic Alliance Defense Force, as provided by local governments. It became a major issue that escalated into the Second Galactic Civil War. After this, the Galactic Alliance allowed planetary and sector governments to keep their increased local PSFs yet still required the pre-war numbers in military resources.

Text and facts from the “Planetary Security Forces” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.