Stung by criticism by Dino-Land and Sirikwan New Arit have pledged to increase their defence budget from next year and will expand their fleet so they can play a bigger role in the DTA. Exact figures have not been given but a source said the budget would increase by 3% from next year, there would also be an extra 500 million zark one-off boost in 2113.
The Aritans turned to the Clones for their extra ships, they have bought the 4 Kalahati Tuuls the HCS recently withdrew and these will be added to the 7 KTs bought from the DDS. The bigger deal however is the order for 8 Shark-E frigates which will be delivered from 2114. The Aritans will also buy 3 Dino built Provider-EDAs.
However to help afford these ships the Aritans say they wish to sell their single Pentekonter-E and have asked Sirikwan and the DDS if they would be interested in buying it. The Aritans said the sale was partly to raise funds and also partly because it did not make sense to have a single example of a ship with the resulting extra maintenance problems.
The Dinos have said they will accelerate the deliveries of Dinomark XTs to the Aritans with 2 second hand examples to enter service by the end of this year.
