NS privately said to be concerned at Dino changes

While publicly New Sparta has made no comment on the news that the Dinos are to return to a monarchy privately there is concern at GHQ at the changes this might mean to Dino foreign policy. An unnamed source said NS Commander Knobhead fears the return to a single figurehead will mean the "steady state" of the Dinos government where nothing much seems to happen or get decided may change and the Dinos could pursue a more proactive foreign policy.

An analyst said, "The Dino Senate basically cancelled itself out and its been very difficult for any decisions to be made of importance. This is course is why Ronald and MBH want to return to having an Emperor to break the log jam. Now the question is why they want to break the log jam, do they think the Dinos should be more assertive and aggressive with respect to the neighbours of the DTA?"

The change will take place at the start of next year and Ronald will once again be Emperor. That does not worry the NS too much though the prospect of MBH following Ronald one day is another matter.

Dino Empire to be reformed

Ronald and MBH's joint bill to restore the monarchy has been passed in the Dino Senate as expected with the majority of senators belonging to Ronald and MBH's respective parties. Jimmy, the current (and now final) Consul, was able to insert some changes to the bill. The change will not take place until the end of the year and so Jimmy will be able to see out the rest of his term.

Another change is the position of Head of Senate, this will be taken by Jimmy initially but will from 2118 be an elected position (from the rest of the Senate). The Head of Senate will have influence over bills and the casting vote in the event of a tie.

However the power of the Senate will be overall diminished as the Dinos will have an Emperor once more. Ronald will be the first Emperor of the restoration, the third time he has held the Dino crown. He said that at some stage in the future he will stand down and the next Emperor elected by the Senate following a recommendation from Ronald (MBH will most likely be that man).

Revisiting the A-projects

A few years ago DDS Research (as it then was) spoke about some of the "A-projects" which are warship concepts that later on may feed into actual designs. Usually they are internal only to NS Research (and secret) but a small number of interesting projects were made public to spur debate. Now almost exactly 5 years on NS Research has published a "progress report" on these 3 A-projects.

Albany was a concept for a new "multi-battlespace" warship that could operate in atmospheres as well as in space. NS have not proceeded much further with Albany though some ideas may be incorporated in future updates to the Type 035 family. Interestingly the new Dino warship the Dinomark AM has many of the features of Albany though Director of Technology Dr Forbidden said that the multi-battlespace features of Dino ships were an inspiration of Albany in the first place.

Adder was an ambitious project being a modular replacement for the Provider and Extender transport fleets. As with Albany Adder has not yet proceeded to an actual ship design though the Emerald 116A unmanned transport is said to take some ideas from Adder.

Finally August was a small warfighter with superluminal capabilities. Dr Forbidden said that the Alpha 121A NFS is based on many features of August though its development was parallel to the A-project. More aspects of August may appear in the forthcoming unmanned Lavender 105A patrol ship.

New Sparta hold full LRM test

New Sparta has held a full test of its interstellar nuclear missile the LRM-20. The missile was launched from a silo on Sanga Alpha and a couple of days later hit a target asteroid 7 light years away and detonated a small nuclear warhead. The missile had been tracked throughout by a NS warship though had operated fully autonomously. The target point on the asteroid was missed by a few km but this was within operational parameters (and the nuclear warhead meant it was still a "hit"!)

LRM-20 will now be made operational by the end of the year though a final decision on deployment has yet to be made. NS are looking into road mobile launchers for the Bright Spark ballistic missile stage.

Dinos order Olympus-E to form Dinomark JE

Five Olympus-E support carriers have been ordered by the Dinos from New Sparta. They will be delivered in a fairly unfitted state as the Dinos will want their own communications, computers, weapon systems fitted and to localise the design as much as they can. Previously known as "Future Support Carrier" the type will officially be known as the Dinomark JE.

The first delivery is planned to be next year. Five are on order though further examples may be licence built by the Dinos. They will primarily operate Ferret UCVs which the Dinos co-developed with New Sparta and Starbot though have not fielded it in numbers as of yet.

Jimmy calls for Dino parliamentary democracy

Senator Jimmy has responded to plans by Ronald and MBH to restore the monarchy by saying the Dinos should continue their transition to democracy instead of making a retreat to the past. Jimmy will propose a counter-bill for a full parliamentary democracy with an elected parliament replacing the Senate and other government levels.

Jimmy is unlikely to be successful though as Ronald and MBH have the numbers in the Senate for their bill. Ronald has said that the Senate will remain and may be increased in size as a compromise.