Professor Wayne King-Meiouf of the University of ProximaThe recent news that the Clones are urgently looking into recapitising their data network is no surprise to me as the HCS, since the end of the Clone Wars, has been pumping money into visible "sexy" weapon system projects and neglecting the vital yet boring infrastructure that holds everything together.
When the Clone economy recovered from its crippling shock after the war billions of zarks were spent on a new navy, a huge fleet of space ships, advanced new warplanes and weapon systems like the CSM. Spending on infrastructure was actually cut. This is the total opposite of the Clone defence budget during the Clone Wars. The Clones spent heavily on their infrastructure, often to the expense of new weapon systems.
This gave the HCS an infrastructure that was the envy of all, their Virtual Universe for example where the Clone Empire is represented virtually with every single weapon system down to the lowliness truck and missile continuously sending location and status information back to HCS GHQ so a real time map of the HCS is available at any one time. That infrastructure is now beginning to crumble, though the past heavy investment has at least meant the HCS have some time before it all collapses and sources indicate there is a genuine fear that it will...
Forget shiny warships and missiles, the most important component of a modern fighting force is information. That information is always multiplying as new systems come online with improved capabilities and hence enhanced data needs. The DDS reckons it needs to totally regenerate its data network every 10-15 years (and a vast project to do just that is currently ongoing). The HCS however have not kept their network up to date and its starting to show.
Regeneration is estimated to cost north of 30 billion zarks (and most likely over 40) because of the years of neglect, even the Clone Star Empire with its huge resources cannot afford that. So i am hearing the Clones are considering something a little different... and a lot cheaper.
The HCS are planning two new core networks based around the two capitals (Cloneworld and Austini 55) with the major planets in the empire connected by a new ultra-high bandwidth network. The existing network will remain in place with only necessary maintenance but upgrades via software such as improved data multiplexing and compression. A source told me the HCS think they can squeeze 15% more capacity out of the legacy network with these updates though i think these might be a bit ambitious. An improvement of 10% plus the new core backbone taking traffic away however will probably be enough to keep the HCS network viable until the 2140s. An estimated cost of this plan is said to be around 12-15 billion zarks.
A lot cheaper but still very expensive, some planned weapon systems are likely to face the chop or be downsized/delayed to allow for this money (which will be needed over a 6-8 year period if the Clones start next year - and they need to). This is not a bad thing though, the HCS will have a more balanced budget between toys and the vital glue which makes the toys work. It will be a bit painful in the short-medium term but in the long term will be a great benefit to the Clones.
