The DDS have decided to sell their last remaining Solaris II class frigate which has been part of the training fleet. T121 Solaris II has been little used since mid-2107 as the Starsystem fleet has been easily sufficient for training tasks and has spent most of the time laid up at Rathun's World. The DDS did intend to keep it until 2120 following a refurbishment around 2112. However now Solaris is included in a 210 million zark deal with the Aritans (the deal has been co-funded by the UNP and Artic, with whom the Aritans have a defence agreement, in roughly a three way split between the 3 parties).
The deal also includes updates for the Aritans' 8 Intrepid IIs. The Intrepids will have their sensors refitted with cascaded equipment from Isometrics after they receive their ILU next year. The Intrepids will be made TPM-2 compatible though no missiles will be supplied yet, its thought the Aritans will build a factory for TPM-2 production for both the DDS and themselves (the DDS are to have at least 5 factories making TPM-2 learning from their mistakes - the Utrek destroyed 80+% of TPM production capacity in 1 attack). The fleet of now 5 Solaris IIs will also receive updates of various systems though not tactical, T121 itself will receive localisation updates. The deal also includes funding for decommissioning the last Yeoman class frigate which will be withdrawn when Solaris II is transferred and operational.
The deal is expected to be signed next month and T121 Solaris II could be transferred in the Summer bringing to an end over 10 years of Solaris operation with the DDS. One problem that is looming on the horizon for the Aritans is that both the Intrepid and Solaris fleets are aging and will require an extensive refurbishment early in the next decade in order to keep them operational. This refurbishment is estimated to cost over 300 million zarks.
