David Johnson wrote:

> But it seems like a large Federation military presence is taken for
> granted throughout the Federation era. The Terro-Humans on Uller
> aren't worried that the Ulleran uprising will be successful in seizing
> control of the planet, but merely that it might result in their deaths
> before Federation forces can arrive to restore Federation rule.
> Commodore Napier does not seem to be at all concerned that his
> intervention on Zarathurstra might make it more difficult for him to
> see to wider military duties in that region of Federation space. When
> the _Stellex_ shows up at Yggdrasil, the local Army unit is able to
> send a section of troops to Freya to "represent the [Federation]
> Government till something permanent can be set up." It even has arms
> and ammunition to sell to the Freyan explorers.
>
> We don't see it much, but when we do the Federation military always
> seems to be "close by" and assumed to be able to respond with
> "overwhelming force" throughout the Federation era.

I am going out on a limb here. Doesn't the very extent of the Federation
require massive military redundancy? Supposition: an emergency on Uller
demands a prompt presence of military personnel. Now it takes time to
travel from system to system. If a vessel with data on an emergency
needs a week to travel to local military HQ, then the earliest a
response will take involves another week of travel time. Too little too
late is a prescription for disaster.

So how late would too late be for the Federation? A week? Less than a
week? Each The same for too little.