31.7.12

New GHQ to cost 350 million

The Shiner has told the media that building the new GHQ on an island on Proxima 5 will cost around 350 million zarks. Part of the cost will be offset by a 75 million zark land sale on Solaris as the Land Division part of Territorial Force (the old New DDS Army) will move its HQ to DDS City next year allowing their current location on Solaris to be sold. The Proxima 5 government will not contribute The Shiner said, as they are not rich like their P7 neighbours, though they will upgrade Camacote Spaceport and the adjoining airport next year adding a dedicated DDS terminal.

The Shiner also revealed some more details on what will be built on Helnikan Island. The major sites on the island will be linked by an underground railway, this also implies that an underground bunker will be built under GHQ though The Shiner did not comment on this. The small Rotos Isle which is close by Helnikan will be joined by a line of the railway as well as a bridge. Rotos will host an ISSF base, thought to be where the Marine Prowler Unit will be based.

One of the priorities will be the construction of an airbase, this will house a squadron of TPM-A equipped F-10S as well as being able to receive passenger planes from Camacote. The Shiner revealed that the DDS were currently in negotiations with the Clones for 25 A-85NTK COIN aircraft, this is the "marinized" version of the NT which has modifications to its sensors, filters and emergency equipment to suit operations over water. The DDS will use these to patrol the waters around Helnikan. Extra passenger jets will also be bought though this will wait until next year.

A geological survey of Helnikan will begin next week and construction is hoped to start of the airbase and GHQ in September. The Shiner said that the aim was for command functions to transfer to the new GHQ by the end of the year and for the new GHQ to be fully operational by the end of 2113.
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