War of words over Oscar... at DDS GHQ

Firefly and The Orchid have clashed over the Oscar situation it is understood with Firefly blaming The Orchid for the chaos the planet is in. Firefly is understood to have linked the problems of the planet to the deposing of the Oscar human leader some years ago when he tried to bring the DDS into his conflict with the Clones. The Orchid had been captured by the Oscar regime and when the leader was deposed no attempt was made to help the Oscarites adjust. Since then the human side has fallen into anarchy, civil war and now face conquest by the Clones.

The Orchid has countered by reminding Firefly that the Rectoids had been manipulating the Oscarites and were pretty loosely held together. She said that the Oscarites would probably have fallen apart anyway.

Meanwhile the DDS and HCS are preparing for a summit on Dino-Land to discuss the situation. On Oscar itself the Clone side has agreed to a 5 day ceasefire though its thought they are not in a position to push on for a while anyway because of their exhausted logistics train.

Isometric fleet to receive update

The Isometric frigate fleet is to receive an update over the next few months. As the major overhaul for ILU is due next year the Isometric 2108 Update A (ISO2108UA) will be fairly modest. The ships will receive updated passive sensors and secondary laser cannons. The ships will also be "wired" for (but not actually receive yet) the 5036-A combat management suite. The ships will be ready to receive the units which should just need plugging in when further shipments of the system are available later this year.

The ships' communications backbone will be improved to increase the available bandwidth on the main databus and the ships will be able to datalink to TPM-2s (though the Isometrics will have to wait for ILU to actually carry the new missile). Many other secondary systems will also receive minor tweaks and updates, mostly software related. Updates will begin in April and be finished by the end of that month with the exception of SS Carboniferous (though it will be able to receive some software updates).

Ferret-E carries out combat tests with TPM

A developmental Ferret-E UCAV has successfully carried out an intercept of a target drone using TPM-2 missiles carried on the UCAV. The Ferret was launched by R101 Missileer in a joint-DDS/Dino test of the Ferret near Solaris. In an interesting example of joint-operations the TPM-2 received guidance corrections from a Dinomark XT nearby. This compatibility of datalinks has not previously been announced but it appears TPM-2 is fully compatible with Dino datalinks and TPM-1 will receive the capability in a future update.

Current Dino missiles (M-67H) also are compatible with DDS datalinks. This capability has arisen after experience of the Utrek War where it was decided to be useful if the DDS and Dinos were fighting alongside that they could assist each other in this way.

Task Force Windy at Smolask

Task Force Windy is now at the outlying planet of Smolask. It is known that the planet is a Bolitic battle planet which the various Bolitic Houses use for their endless battles. Billions of slave corpses were detected on the planet. SS Carboniferous is now under repair. Windy is hoping the ship will be back to full operation within a couple of weeks and can then continue onto a slave market planet which Windscorpion thinks could be the source of the human slaves found at Lord Reigan's depot.

It is now feared that the New Cross have been enslaved by the Bolitic and used in the endless and horrifically bloody wars as slave soldiers, driven into fearless killing machines by drugs and mind control techniques.

Dinomark NG fleet to be upgraded further

With the Dinomark NG fleet now just completing it's NG/6a upgrade plans are already in place for a further upgrade to take notice of the experiences of the Utrek War. The NG/6b programme could begin later this year and will see a number of internal changes to better handle combat damage. Agility will be enhanced with better direct sideforce thrusters.

The Dinos will also resurrect 4 withdrawn NGs (withdrawn due to heavy battle damage or accidents over the years) and rebuild them to NG/6b standard.

Marconi Special Forces upgrade returns to service

E101 Marconi, the first of the EW ships to receive extensive modifications for it's new role as a special forces base, has returned to service. The ship has received an enlarged docking bay able to operate 2 SROPS + 1 Fulcrum or 2 Fulcrums. Accommodation for up to 50 troops has been added (with facilities in place to quickly expand that up to 250 if needed). A basic casualty receiving station has been added and the sickbay improved. All EW and Elint systems have been upgraded plus the communication system has been improved. 360 CIWS has been added and the ship has been given a TPM-2 ready missile launcher (though will fire TPM-1s for now anyway).

The ship will take part in a number of special tests and exercises before the next conversion begins to see if any further improvements can be made.