Terran Sea ILU finally begins

A couple of months late (it was planned to begin in January) but the Terran Sea ILU, which in terms of scope and cost is the biggest and most expensive upgrade programmes in the history of the DDS, has finally begun. M152 Mediterranean Sea has been chosen to begin the programme, the 8 Barents Sea 43B Medium Combat Ships will be the first to be completed followed by the Arafura Sea and SOT variants of the Type 43. The updated ships will form a single unified Terran Sea 43G class.

The upgrade (which is more a full rebuild especially with the older ships) includes worm drive, a new uprated engine, Z6 cannon (Z7 will follow later), EA-X, IWC 3.0 and hull modifications to allow for a larger TPM and equipment load. There will also be other improvements and updates depending on the ship. SS Mediterranean Sea is due be completed in the early Summer. All ships will be renumbered in the M170-190 range.

Director of Operations Knobhead said the Terran Sea 43Gs would bring much enhanced new capabilities to Patrol Command and the DDS fleet in general. One item of interest is that the ships will be the first to have a full portfolio of offensive info-weapons as standard.

• The DDS have reduced their alert status to GREEN after the fears of attack in the wake of the Melaris incident have receded.
• The UNP Space Heritage Fund has awarded a 14 million zark contract with DDS Engineering to restore the preserved Pulsar 12A cruiser SS South America to a state where it can travel at sub-light under its own power (and be towed at faster than light). The work involved will just be phase 1 and will mostly prepare the hull for future work. The legacy power unit was removed prior to it entering the UNP Space Museum so a small portable reactor unit will be installed to power the ship's engine and systems. The aim is for the ship to be available in 2114.