Keith Remadra, former chief advisor to the UNP Security Council on Clone affairs The HCS Exports Agency recently held a conference on Cloneworld between the Clone government, agency officials and representatives from major suppliers like CCA. The theme of the conference was how to arrest the slide in income from military export sales...
Revenues dipped 3% last year, this may not seem much to worry about but the revenues are forecast to dip another 7% this year. The HCS needs this money to fund new weapon development and help plug holes in its budget caused by the crumbling economy of the Clone Star Empire and budget cuts, especially as these cuts are getting more severe.
The problem for the HCS Exports Agency is that the easy pickings are fairly saturated now, they are having to go further afield to find new customers as existing customers have bought what they want for the moment. Competition from the DDS is also increasing with the DDS now offering a number of aircraft as well as spacecraft and will soon offer land weapons too. Although the specs of most export grade equipment are fairly similar the DDS is perceived as being more technologically advanced and thus a better bet...
How to turn this around then? Well one idea already in progress is to improve relations with the DTA and use them as a base for approaching new markets, another is to expand the range of products on sale especially in the budget market. The hundreds of withdrawn HCSAF aircraft for example will soon be on the market, the HCS are looking into refurbishment and update packages for the F-40 which it is hoped could sell well.
The key way to improve the image of HCS weapons will be to improve the technology. Key to this is TPMs, which are sexy even if the sale of them is highly restricted. Customers buy into the DDS system in the hope that one day the technology will cascade down to themselves (as will be likely one day with TPM-1 level weapons). The HCS need TPM-like weapons not just for themselves but for their brand. Unfortunately Clone attempts to develop similar weapons have so far failed to come to fruition. Even the transfer of TPM technology to the Dinos has not eased matters. As part of the transfer agreement all TPMs built by both sides are recorded in a database so can be tracked at all times (the public part of the database is rather vague but it can help stop missiles disappearing). The Bolitic did get hold of a missile but this was an unexploded round used in the war (and they couldn't reverse engineer it). These are not easy to come by. Even if the DTA form a joint company with the Clones then Dino-TPM tech could not be shared even if the Dinos wanted (and they wouldn't).
So the HCS must get TPMs the hard way, indeed turning around the whole exports sector is going to be hard work. But the HCS need to do it, the need for this revenue is getting more marked every day.
