Sea Urchin and Oojok meet

President Sea Urchin and Emperor Oojok have met after all. Their meeting took place on a Clone warship at the border of Clone Star Empire and UNP space yesterday. The meeting was said to be cordial though as yet nothing has been said to reduce tensions due to the deployment of CSM on the edge of CSE space near the Free Eritran States.

However one Clone Defence Forces insider says that the mobile CSM regiments may be relocated to Austini 55, the capital of CSE-East. This would put the CSM out of range of the majority of Eritran planets. Redeploying them back to Miliaris would be a simple operation of course but this compromise might be enough.

NS developing CSM counter

VP Technology Knobhead has said that NS has been working on a counter to the Clone Space Missile for a number of years. Knobhead said that work on NS' own LRM had helped with developing counters. He didn't say exactly what these counters were but some sources are suggesting a layered approach with sensor spoofing, target decoys and neutrino grids to detect incoming warheads.

The Clones have rubbished talk of countering CSM. "NS are pulling the wool over their eye." Admiral Anderson said, "Plus we have many CSMs, only one needs to get through."

Oojok says a new cold war has begun

Relations between New Sparta and the Clone Star Empire have further deteriorated following a skirmish between NS and CDF warships near Paragon. Two CDF ships detected three NS warships and exchanged fire. No damage was reported.

Oojok has withdrawn his agreement to meet with Sea Urchin on Yeng. Instead he says a new cold war has begun between the two galactic superpowers. There are now reports that three more Astral Attack (Mobile) Regiments are now to be formed and CSM production has been stepped up.

NS developing mobile LRM launcher, may deploy to Molab

Last year NS' long awaited interstellar attack missile, LRM-20, finally entered service. After the Clones deployed a mobile launched version of their CSM to Miliaris causing Molab to threaten to attack NS have announced they are also developing a mobile launched version of LRM-20.

LRM-20M could enter service next year VP Technology Knobhead said in a media briefing. He said that NS was looking at a number of potential homes for NS' mobile launchers and Molab could be a prime candidate. With a twenty light year range LRM-20M would be able to reach most points in the Clone Star Empire - East.

When Are You Getting Up (2616)

Windy is tortured by Commissioner Bik.

Mouse Trap (2615)

Windy is caught in a trap.

Molab and Clone ships skirmish

A Molab Pentekonter and a Clone Kalahati Tuul S have skirmished on the border of Clone Star Empire space near Miliaris, where CSM is being deployed. The two ships exchanged fire with minor damage being caused to the Clone ship, no injuries were reported. Three more CSE ships approached forcing the Molab ship to withdraw. Sea Urchin has raised the NS alert status to AMBER.

Despite the skirmish it is still hoped there will be a summit between the Clones and NS/Molab. Molab has agreed though Oojok is said to be still undecided.

Sea Urchin seeks to defuse CSE-Molab tensions

The sabre rattling by Molab against the Clone Star Empire and it's placing of mobile CSM within range of the Free Eritran States has continued with Molab saying it's entire fleet (and it does have a decent fleet) will be ready to take action within a week. However the rest of the FES have failed to join Molab saying they do not think rash action is a good idea.

President Sea Urchin has been in contact with both Oojok and the Molab government and is seeking to hold a summit in neutral space. Yeng in the DTA will host if all parties agree to meet.

NS look to services to plug exports funding gap

A few years ago NS set a target of raising ten billion zarks a year through export sales and other external funding streams. Unfortunately NS has never come close to that target and this year will likely only raise half the target. A problem is that sales of warships and other military equipment are becoming harder to come by as the market becomes saturated.

NS did foresee this and hoped that upgrades for their large customer base would plug the gap however this has not happened. An analyst has said that NS assumed small nations would upgrade their fleets the same frequency as NS but that is not what happens in practice.

The latest idea is engineering services. NS will help their customers maintain their fleets. Two customers have already said they are interested and NS hope this can raise nearly half a billion zarks a year.

Molab threatens pre-emptive strikes against Miliaris CSM

Molab, the leading planet in the Free Eritran States, has put it's powerful fleet on full alert. Molab said it cannot standby while missiles - potentially with nuclear warheads - are targeting Molabite cities and other sites across the Free Eritran States.

New Sparta is alarmed at the prospect of Molab heading a FES attack on Miliaris as this likely could lead to a full response from the Clones. New Sparta would be forced to enter on the side of the Eritrans.

However an adviser at NS GHQ said off the record that at the moment the prospect of an Eritran attack was remote despite the bluster. President Sea Urchin has returned early from my holiday and is assessing options.

Terin denies CSM deployment is escalation

Terin, Oojok's son and heir and the head of Clone Star Empire (East), has denied that the deployment of up to sixty land-mobile CSM to Miliaris - which can strike targets in the Free Eritran States - is an escalation of tension between the Clones and Eritrans (and hence New Sparta).

Terin said the CSM were purely for defense against any hostile acts of aggression on this flank of the empire. Terin would not confirm or deny if the CSMs had already been targeted against Eritran bases and cities.

Clones to deploy two mobile CSM regiments to Miliaris

The Clone Army has formed two new units known as "Astral Attack (Mobile) Regiments". Although there has been no official word as to what these units are for New Sparta say they are equipped with the new land-mobile version of the Clone Space Missile. Each regiment has thirty launchers plus support units and guards.

The two regiments have been deployed to Miliaris in the Clone Star Empire (East). Miliaris is a rather unremarkable world apart from the fact it is the closest CSE planet to the Free Eritran States. NS say these CSM can reach most points in the Free Eritran States. NS, the UNP and FES have lodged complaints against the Clones.

The Clone Army is said to have five more Astral Attack (Mobile) Regiments forming on Cloneword.

Operation Atomic Fist 2119

NS will begin the latest edition of it's yearly strategic attack exercise next week. This is one of the big four exercises and will last over a week. The fleet involved will be the biggest NS has assembled since the Argon-Starbot War. It will culminate with a mock attack with the firing of live nuclear warheads. This is the only time NS deploys real warheads (apart from an actual war of course).

The exercises will take place in space around Liberation. Mock attacks, reconnaissance and EW drills will be held before the final live fire exercise. An asteroid two light years from Liberation will be the target of the attack. The ships involved are:

21-103 Musketeer (flag)
16-101 Warrior (attack flag)
16-104 Wasp
16-111 Wild Swan
35-305 Keel
37-105 Barnard's Star
36-102 Midas
51-107 Crescent
42-102 Mira
41-205 Forward
41-106 Eocene
93-101 Alpha Centauri
161-101 Indigo
81-101 Marconi
73-124 Alcohol
71-103 Starliner

NS to build Shark replacement, the F-20

The head of the NS armed forces Zeppelin has launched the NS Future Fighter (NSFF) programme which will (hopefully) produce the replacement for the F-10S Shark 2100 towards the middle of the next decade. The aircraft will be known as the F-20 and will rival the Clone K45 in terms of agility and systems integration it is claimed.

Deliveries have just begun of the delayed F-10SNG which is the final development of the F-10 platform. The SNG features 3D thrust vectoring, an improved tactical suite and a new ECM system. The SNG will replace the remaining F-10ASEs which date from the Clone Wars.

Operation Sharp Focus 2119

Running late due an unavailability of ships in late June the annual mine sweeping exercise has just begun. A week of mine sweeping and laying drills (with two Raegris Quasar) has begun near Remedia Prime, the Remedians have also sent one of their ships to join the fleet.

The ships involved are:

36-106 Madwort (flag)
41-107 Oligocene (minesweeper director)
44-105 Pindar
44-111 Cleon
44-116 Leonidas
73-114 Skymaster

Plus:

R11 Lord Argrox III (Remedian Corkscrew)
Menadils (Raegris Quasar)
Jul'Rem (Raegris Quasar)

Fleet News (01/07/19)

57-110 Papaya is the latest Protector 57A light patrol ship to join the patrol pool. Two Sentinel 55A patrol ships have been withdrawn, 55-105 Eure and 55-111 Loiret.

51-113 Careless is the latest Corkscrew 51A destroyer to join the fleet.