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Randomonioum wrote:Besides, any rogue trader worth his salt is going to be piloting a ship that wouldnt be worth attacking unless you had to.

Or an entire fleet. And the Imperium's ships have IFF machine spirit, so there is no such accidents.

After the Heresy no commander is allowed to have command of both Imperial Navy Fleets and Imperial Guard Regiments in order to prevent wide spread future rebellions. In addition, Imperial warships have their own on board security forces known as Naval Armsman.

Amaya wrote:After the Heresy no commander is allowed to have command of both Imperial Navy Fleets and Imperial Guard Regiments in order to prevent wide spread future rebellions. In addition, Imperial warships have their own on board security forces known as Naval Armsman.

This. The change happened because, commanders with both a ground force and a ship/fleet would conquer a world for their own after HH, and the High Lords of Terra (or was it Guilliman) separated the two so that no general haves that kind of power to abuse. In the long term that led to quite the rivalry between the IG and IN and conflicts between troopers from both sides are common when transporting IG units (normally small things such as bar fights). However they are easily contained and judged by a member of the commissariat who haves the most say in the matter despite the ship captain being in charge of the ship and all hands on it while in space and having the ability to outweigh an order/s from the Lord general/General in command of the IG regiment/s.

Despite the split of Guard and Navy, all that division really means is that the Navy isn't allowed to use tanks and artillery. They still have thousands of men, ranging from armed Ratings to elite Stormtroopers. Although you might not find them operating on the ground for conventional assaults. Navy elites might go planetbound to secure locations of value to the Navy. And of course, they are under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, who can request assistance from Navy forces, such as when Eisenhorn is rescued by Navy Security Forces on a planet.