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IKA All The Way
Ronald heads into the mysterious IKA Federation (Long Shot P1)

Other Fleet News (07/02/13)

• The Dinos have built 3 Dinomark XTs this month, one each for Sirikwan, New Arit and themselves. They have also built a Dinomark PT and a Provider MX for the Dino Army.
• Molab has taken delivery of its first 2 Pentekonter-ME minesweepers, though they will perform MCM duties for the Free Eritran States as a whole.

Dinos to form unified DTA academy

All military training in the DTA is to be centralised as the various militaries come closer together (or rather closer to the Dino Army). The Dinos will host academies for land and space forces with an air forces academy to be on New Arit and a naval forces one on Sirikwan. 

Senator Zanus, the Dino Minister of Defence, said that he hoped the new academies would be on-line by 2117. 

DDS agree go-ahead for 2 new versions of F-10

The DDS has given the go-ahead for the development and building of a new version of the F-10S fighter as well as the development and building of a prototype third generation F-10, currently known as the F-10X. The new version of the F-10S, the SNG, will be an upgrade over the current SEP version. Around 50 will be built from 2115 to replace the ageing F-10ASE. Details of the upgrade will be given later in the year. If funding is available then the oldest F-10S will also be upgraded to this standard.

The F-10X is a much longer term programme and is intended to be the backbone of the Air Division from the early 2120s onwards. It will be a much more agile and advanced fighter with the aim of closing the gap with the HCSAF F-45C.

• A DDS Prowler deployment has arrived on Liberation to help the government in operations against a hard core of King Rathun supporters who have launched a vicious bombing campaign over the last few months (though as the King is dead its not certain what their aims are). Two Prowler units and some anti-terrorism experts from ISSF will be supported by the EW/Special Forces Support Ship A304E Fleming. It is thought the DDS will mainly act as advisers and provide reconnaissance and intelligence though may take part in operations if needed.
• The HCS say their development Nybble NLB superluminal unmanned vehicle has performed its first fully automated combat test. The Nybble successfully defended itself against a HCS warship (training rounds were used). The NLB version of Nybble may begin production this year. It will still primarily act as a scout though will have an offensive combat option, NLB will not be able to field the CSM-S attack missile though.

Operation February Flourish 2113

Ground Shock 2113 ended at the weekend with a series of special forces exercises involving DDS Prowlers and Remedian Army Special Forces. The DDS are flowing directly onto their next exercise of the year, February Flourish 2113, though this will be a much smaller one than Ground Shock.

February Flourish is an "EW / ECM / cyber warfare" exercise and the first phase this week takes place on Solaris with a simulated cyber attack by an unknown power on DDS computer systems. Next week the exercise moves into space and will include simulated EW / Elint shadowing of an "enemy" fleet as well as ECM protection of a simulated attack (which will be made by a Quasar 15A). The ships involved are :

A301E Marconi (flagship)
A303E Braun
S106 Baryon
H174 Evolution
M160 Solomon Sea
M164 Sea Of Fertility
A181 Zephyr

This will be the first operational deployment of a Zephyr 76A oiler, the exercise being used to help the crew gain experience of the type before "real" operations.

HCS consider drastic reorganisation... again

A couple of years ago a plan was mooted to hive off all but the first line HCS army and air units to planetary guards. The sheer complexity of the task and the resulting initial costs plus the Clone recession appeared to put paid to the plans which seemed to be quietly forgotten. However now a modified version of the plan has arisen and it apparently has the backing of Oojok!

Under the plan the HCS Army would be reduced to a core of around 800,000 men. The rest of the army would be devolved into planetary territorial units for home defence. Some of these would become part-time territorial units. For example the army units on Paragon would leave the HCS and become the Paragon National Army funded directly by the Paragon government. Army co-operation air units (COIN aircraft and helicopters) would also be devolved to local commands (though in a typical Clone smudge would remain in the HCSAF for administrative purposes).

The remaining HCS would become an elite and highly mobile force. Supporters of the plan say it could save around 10 billion zarks a year from the defence budget though there would be a start-up cost of around 20 billion. Supporters say that if the change is phased in over 3-4 years then the costs would be minimised. A detailed plan is to go to the HCS Council next month.