Tensions with the Bolitic Confederacy seem to rise daily but this article will not really talk about that, instead i want to discuss the last major war which was against the Utrek and Zones and how the dramatic changes that war caused to the DDS will define how it fights the next war.
Looking at the DDS now you can see marked changes in the fleet and weapons available to it. We have the Missileer carrier force, strategic bombers, an amphibious fleet and small UCVs. All of these weapons came out of experience from the Utrek War and filled gaps in the DDS portfolio which the Utrek War highlighted. The Panther too, although designed before that war, was too late to fight in it and much of it's final configuration depended on war experience.
The Missileers are probably the most notable additions to the fleet. They started off as a crash programme to develop a missile carrier which could pump out as many TPMs as possible. The Ferret UCV was also developed because of a pressing need for small expendable fighters and in the last couple of years the two "crash" programmes have merged to form the Missileer carrier force and it's Ferret wings. The next conflict will see if this major addition to the DDS portfolio formed from the last conflict will work.
There have been major geopolitical changes too. The Utrek War ended the Remedians as an independant military force and now they form part of the DDS. Since that war the DDS have tried to build a strong alliance system and we will see how well the Raegris, Aritans and other allies do in a future war. The Dinos changed their decades old policy of isolationism to become much more expansive with a permanent base on Loeuss for example. Loeuss could again be a front line in any war with the Bolitic.
Whether there will be a war with the Bolitic this year or not is as yet unknown. We hope of course there will not be but the signs are not that promising. If there is a war though the DDS which fights it will be dramatically different to the DDS which fought and won the Utrek War. The DDS which emerges (hopefully victorious) from any future war may be as different again.
