Hi Kath,
The traits explain it this way: a 1D affiliation means a small or poorly kept force, a 2D affiliation means a sizable and well-trained force, and a 3D affiliation means a large and elite force. How exactly that breaks down into actual numbers is up to you and your group and what feels right for the world you’ve got.
As far as tech goes, check Contacts and Technology on page 350. They have tech appropriate to their station and index. The GM gets to decide what that means. To my mind, a 1D Anvil Force should be Assault Guns and Ballistic Armor, yeah. A 2D force could be large with Assault Guns and Anvil Armor, or a small force with Iron. A 3D force would be large and have Anvil and Iron.
The Outnumbering disposition modifiers are meant to scale to the conflict you’ve got. If you’ve got 1 guy against 8 guys, that would justify Outnumbered by a Staggering Amount. If you’ve got 500 guys against 600 guys, then it’s probably only worth the +1s bonus. If it’s 20 guys against 22 guys, there’s probably no bonus at all.
Note that just because you’ve got a 3D affiliation, it doesn’t automatically mean that you get the Outnumbering advantage. You might have a 3D Hammer force, but if I’ve lured one of your patrol ships into an ambush with my building scene, then my 1D Hammer force might very well get the Outnumbering bonus. It’s all about how you set up the situation in play.
You’re correct on the obstacle for advancing the affiliation (personally, I would be inclined to base it on the disposition bonus offered by your Predominant Military in this case, but you are correct by the book).
You can color it how you like. New recruits and retraining could account for it. Just raise everyone to exponent 4. The original grunts don’t stay at exponent 3.
As to your final question: The trait means that you can bring in Runners, Soldiers, Medics, Scouts and Signal Techs without having to roll Circles for them. You just say they’re in the scene and they’re there. They have the technology/tools appropriate to their lifepath and exponents determined by the level of your affiliation (at 1D they have exponent 3, at 2D they’ll have exponent 4).
Same deal with the Hammer, except you can access Yeomen, Shipfitters, Sensors Techs, Signals Techs, Turret Crews, Fire Control Techs, Cooks, and Coeptirs. Since your Hammer is 3D, they all have exponent 5.