Mock terrorist attack staged at DDS City

A mock terrorist attack has been made on DDS City on Proxima 7, as part of the May Mission internal security exercise. ISSF personnel and some external contractors posed as a terrorist group akin to the Proximan Renewal Brigade who were seen preparing for an assault on DDS City. ISSF troops were sent in to intercept the "terrorists".

At the same time an ISSF cyber-warfare unit attacked DDS systems and tried to cause confusion by hijacking DDS TV news broadcasts. ISSF Commander Torus said that the DDS has reacted well to the mock-attack though there were issues identified and these would be examined by a post-exercise team next month.

• Sirikwan have ordered 60 SS-NS-3 submarine launched cruise missiles from the Clones. The land attack missiles will arm 2 new submarines being built for the Sirikwanese Navy.

May Mission 2013

May Mission is the latest DDS exercise and will last the whole month of May. It is unlike all other DDS exercises in that, apart from the secretive ISSF team running the exercise, and a few key and high-up DDS staff no one knows when events in the exercise will take place or even if an incident is an exercise event or a real incident! (Safeguards have been put in to stop things going out of control... hopefully!)

The aim of May Mission is to train the DDS in internal security, internal strife containment and resolution and countering propaganda. The latter was the focus of today's incident. False adverts appeared on the DDS intranet appearing to offer free food at a remote part of DDS City. A few staff did make it to the area, to be told by ISSF that if there had been a bomb planted they would likely all be dead.

DDS to simulate "civil war" for exercise

The next exercise in the DDS schedule is the first running of May Mission. This will be an internal security exercise which Firefly wants the DDS to take very seriously. The DDS will simulate a "civil war" not unlike the insurrection which bought down the New DDS Project.

The head of the ISSF (Internal Security Special Forces) Torus says that the DDS must learn how to contain internal strife without widespread destruction. It is thought ISSF will run a series of simulated attacks on the DDS, both physical and cyber, as well as misdirection using hacking and media. To add to the realism of the exercise no start date will be published. Incidents will happen at some time during the month of May.

• Sea Urchin has agreed a 90 million zark investment in improved ICT at 5 large DDS bases including DDS City and the new DDS GHQ. Improvements include a larger and faster main tactical database and much more distributed computing.
• The main HCS export customer Artensis 60 has gone Dino with its latest order. 40 K-18D7 COIN aircraft have been ordered to supplement the mountain of HCS equipment on order. Artensis say they will remain the Clone's best customer but that they wanted a jet powered COIN aircraft which the Clones presently do not offer.
• The DDS 2nd Fire Support Brigade (part of 1CDept) has been declared operational. This is the first of three artillery brigades the Land Division of DDS Terrestrial Forces will field. Head  of the army Zeppelin said a resuffle of the Land Division will happen soon.

Winter Candle 2112 / Exercise schedule for 2113

The final exercise of the year began yesterday, like last year Winter Candle involves special forces. This year the Dino SS-D have joined the DDS Prowlers for a series of simulated incidents including hostage recovery, covert surveillance and anti-terrorism operations. One exercise that has been missed this year is Ground Shock which has taken place in November in previous years but the DDS say this will now occur next month and will start the 2113 programme.

As for Winter Candle the ships taking part are :

A301E Marconi (flag)
H122 Illustrious
H169 Sanger Alpha
M125 Forward
A155 Pentane

A full schedule for 2113 has been published and will be as follows :

• January - Ground Shock 2113 (ground attack / amphibious)
• February - February Flourish 2113 (EW / ECM / cyber warfare)
• March - March Hare 2113 (combat)
• April - Atomic Fist 2113 (nuclear attack)
• May - May Mission 2113 (new internal defence exercise, full details TBA)
• June - June Fade 2113 (minesweeping)
• July - July Wave 2113 (amphibious)
• August - August Flourish 2113 (combat)
• September - September Sunrise 2113 (strategic attack / interdiction)
• October - Civilian Partnership 2113 (humanitarian / disaster relief)
• November - Northern Project 2113 (joint exercise with Raegris)
• December - Winter Candle 2113 (special forces)