Dinos and HCS announce military pact

MBH is currently on Cloneworld where he has signed a military pact between the Dinos (and by extension the DTA) and the Clone Star Empire. Although relations between the Dinos and Clones have been fairly good for some time especially in terms of joint-AFV development this is the first instance of an expected greater cooperation ever since Oojok's return as Emperor of the CSE (which is widely known, though not officially acknowledged of course, to have been orchestrated by MBH and SS-CINT).

Under the terms of the pact the Dinos and HCS will "cooperate across a number of spheres" with a deal of technology transfer including worm drives to the HCS (though the Dinos are not allowed to transfer TPM technology it is suspected this could happen too). Suffice to say the DDS will be watching this with interest. Some of the key points of the pact, which needs to be ratified by both sides, are:

• Sale of 12 W1A worm drives to HCS plus help in establishing production facilities.
• Sale of 14 Shark SKH minesweepers to Dinos which will form DTA minesweeping squadron.
• Mutual basing rights across both DTA and CSE for refuelling and repair.
• Direct communication link between Dino Army and HCS GHQ.
• Dinos to establish military base on CSE-W planet, HCS likewise likely to have a base on a planet in the Dino Republic.
• Joint exercises to be planned.

The two arms sales are likely to be a "swap" i.e. no money will exchange hands. Once the pact is ratified then it is expected the first fruits of the pact may start to appear before the end of the year.