When the HCS Navy was reborn it was to ensure the security of Cloneworld shipping especially against the large pirate menace. However recent procurement decisions and strategy documents released into the public domain indicate the Navy's longer term focus is defending Cloneworld against the DDS.
This all comes, according to influential observers, from the DDS attack on Utrek forces on Loeuss in the Summer using the new Z5g cannon. The very next day the HCS held an emergency meeting and formed a secret working group to investigate this new DDS weapon and the threat it posed to the HCS. This group has spent the last few months gathering as much information as possible on the Z5g, it's effects and DDS tactics for attacking ground targets from space. A lot of information is in the public domain though its thought espionage has also played it's part. Last week the group gave a presentation to the HCS Chief of Staff.
The details of that meeting are top secret of course but it is thought they warned the HCS that if they lost space superiority then the DDS would be free to destroy the HCS from orbit to prepare for an invasion. 10 Z5g equipped ships, it was warned, could devastate the HCS' ability to defend against an invasion in little over a week.
It is thought the HCS have ordered an immediate review of HCS ground facilities, especially around GHQ. The HCS want to improve the dispersal and protection of key assets like combat aircraft and missile defences, and the Navy is set to benefit greatly from this.
It is thought that naval based aircraft and missiles would be much more survivable against space attack as the current generation of DDS Z5g ships cannot track moving targets very well. Thus carrier borne aircraft and SSMs would give the HCS some survival assets to defend against an invasion and so expect much greater investment in them in future. However it is reckoned that the DDS will improve the Z5g and be able to attack warships within 4-5 years though they might be able to survive for some time using countermeasures and stealth systems.
In the longer turn it is thought the HCS will adopt some form of submarine based missile defence, probably cruise missile first then ballistic missiles later on. The HCS have begun looking at how to ensure contact with deep submerged SSGNs and SSBNs is kept for targeting purposes and perhaps will maintain a fleet of ER-72s from dispersed airfields for this purpose.
