Azazia
12-01-2005, 09:58
Ministry of Defence
Imperium, Commonwealth Republic of New Britain
Daniel Blair thumbed through the abstract with concern. As the Minister of Defence one of his main tasks was to supervise the continuing importance and dominance of the Commonwealth’s armed forces. However, the recent conflict in Lindim had witnessed the loss of several ships, including one of the nation’s most loved, the HMS Breningrad. In doing so, over a thousand sailors had died in the Battle off the Booni Coast. In addition to the Breningrad several other ships, primarily frigates, had been lost; and the most important discovery was that the [i]Breningrad’s reactor casing had been compromised and started to leak radiation into Lindimese waters. While he personally had no concern for long-term impacts to the Lindimese, the possibility of a Commonwealth ship leaking radiation in Commonwealth waters was now a concern. Of course, this had been thought of in the initial studies, but largely dismissed – it had never happened before in their history, but now the experience happened, possibly as a warning.
Consequently one of the points in the abstract was to redesign the next generation of warships to preclude such a disaster from striking the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, several designs were in the final stages before keel laying, and they were nuclear powered cruisers. The shipyard companies were certainly not going to like the idea. In addition the abstract detailed the redesign of the carrier group and the certain roles to be performed by ships.
Facing large battle groups with numerous heavy carriers and warships armed with anti-ship missiles, the traditional small battle groups of the Commonwealth were soon inundated with missiles. Ideally, Blair would love to build numerous carriers, but the financial restrictions of maintaining such a ridiculously large fleet would destroy the finances of the whole Commonwealth. The recommendations of the Royal Navy’s panel were to deploy cheap missile defense ships, and to scrap the idea of multi-role warships, that it may be cheaper to construct a few extra ships that are dedicated to certain roles. But this too would anger the naval construction companies, he would need to cancel the future multi-role destroyers, and the new batch of nuclear-powered destroyers. This would surely cost his re-election bid if the new political reforms were passed. But the Emperor himself would surely press him to do it anyway, so he couldn’t just ignore this report. Between a rock and a hard place.
Blair dug out a piece of paper and a pen from within his desk. And started scribbling some notes from the report. In short, he would need a new cruiser, heavily armed, and armored, and powered by non-nuclear fuels. He would also need new destroyer designs and frigate designs. Ultimately, he would need new carriers as well, but for now, the only carrier that saw action did very well in the battle, and so he could cut costs by putting off those new designs until the next batch was due – and that was several years away. He scratched his head, new, trimaran designs would be the best. More hits to sink the vessel. And heavy anti-missile defences. Either way, it was several more billion dollars to procurement. Luckily, the recent budget called for an increase in military spending, specifically for the Royal Navy.
It was going to be a long year…
Imperium, Commonwealth Republic of New Britain
Daniel Blair thumbed through the abstract with concern. As the Minister of Defence one of his main tasks was to supervise the continuing importance and dominance of the Commonwealth’s armed forces. However, the recent conflict in Lindim had witnessed the loss of several ships, including one of the nation’s most loved, the HMS Breningrad. In doing so, over a thousand sailors had died in the Battle off the Booni Coast. In addition to the Breningrad several other ships, primarily frigates, had been lost; and the most important discovery was that the [i]Breningrad’s reactor casing had been compromised and started to leak radiation into Lindimese waters. While he personally had no concern for long-term impacts to the Lindimese, the possibility of a Commonwealth ship leaking radiation in Commonwealth waters was now a concern. Of course, this had been thought of in the initial studies, but largely dismissed – it had never happened before in their history, but now the experience happened, possibly as a warning.
Consequently one of the points in the abstract was to redesign the next generation of warships to preclude such a disaster from striking the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, several designs were in the final stages before keel laying, and they were nuclear powered cruisers. The shipyard companies were certainly not going to like the idea. In addition the abstract detailed the redesign of the carrier group and the certain roles to be performed by ships.
Facing large battle groups with numerous heavy carriers and warships armed with anti-ship missiles, the traditional small battle groups of the Commonwealth were soon inundated with missiles. Ideally, Blair would love to build numerous carriers, but the financial restrictions of maintaining such a ridiculously large fleet would destroy the finances of the whole Commonwealth. The recommendations of the Royal Navy’s panel were to deploy cheap missile defense ships, and to scrap the idea of multi-role warships, that it may be cheaper to construct a few extra ships that are dedicated to certain roles. But this too would anger the naval construction companies, he would need to cancel the future multi-role destroyers, and the new batch of nuclear-powered destroyers. This would surely cost his re-election bid if the new political reforms were passed. But the Emperor himself would surely press him to do it anyway, so he couldn’t just ignore this report. Between a rock and a hard place.
Blair dug out a piece of paper and a pen from within his desk. And started scribbling some notes from the report. In short, he would need a new cruiser, heavily armed, and armored, and powered by non-nuclear fuels. He would also need new destroyer designs and frigate designs. Ultimately, he would need new carriers as well, but for now, the only carrier that saw action did very well in the battle, and so he could cut costs by putting off those new designs until the next batch was due – and that was several years away. He scratched his head, new, trimaran designs would be the best. More hits to sink the vessel. And heavy anti-missile defences. Either way, it was several more billion dollars to procurement. Luckily, the recent budget called for an increase in military spending, specifically for the Royal Navy.
It was going to be a long year…