The head of the Clone Defence Forces Admiral Anderson held a very candid media conference today at HCS GHQ on Ailier, most questions on the Clone Armed Forces Devolution programme announced yesterday. Anderson said that Oojok had made the order and now Clones had to obey. When asked if he agreed with the order he said that the changes were needed though they would be painful at first.
Anderson also revealed that weapon design and procurement will remain centralised. All existing equipment allocated to the National Armies and Air Forces being set up would be given freely however future updates and procurements would have to come out of their own locally raised budgets. National Armies would not be able to go it alone and develop their own weapons or (more likely) buy in from outside the empire except if there was a very specialised system needed that the empire did not have available.
Anderson also spoke about how the defence budget will be split up. National Armies and Air Forces would be funded through local taxation though a portion would also go to the centralised Clone Army and Clone Air Force as well as the Clone Navy and Clone Space Navy. Central budgets would only fund the central forces (after the reorganisation was complete) though a fund would be available to help planets - especially the poorer ones in the empire.
The question of Cloneworld was asked and Anderson said that there would be no Cloneworld Army. The capital planet would be protected solely by central forces and there would be enough of these anyway with the army reserve and most training taking place there.
Finally Anderson said the plan had already begun, using the template and plan already devised over the last couple of years. Consultations with troops had already begun and the first National Armies would likely be set-up early next year.
