The Classis Imperialis (Imperial Naval Legion) is the sea branch of the Roman armed forces. It fields more than 2500 ships of varying sizes and classes, as well as nearly 1800 aircraft. With only 1,240,000 active crewmen though, along with several thousand officers, the Classis is by far the smallest branch of the Roman military. Nevertheless its importance to the Roman economy can not be overstated due to its necessity for controlling Rome's assets at sea. In the past few decades however, the Space Legion has been taking on many of the duties of the navy, namely their most important one of patrolling Rome's waters. The fact of the matter is, automated systems in space can patrol sea borders far more quickly and with less cost than a boat full of trained soldiers.