NationStates Jolt Archive

[OOC: This factbook relates to Beth Gellert within the RP group A Modern World, and not to that which exists in the mainstream of NS (factbook for that may be found linked in my signature).]

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Background:

Europe

The Geletian Celts originate in Europe more than two thousand years ago. An independent community of a few thousand individuals they controlled little territory and small few fortified villages, but were noted as unusually tall and fierce even amongst their lofty kin. They were described by classical witnesses as rowdy, drug-addled, fierce, but sharp and creators of an ordered society in which village captains were often elected and always represented their people's interests in commune with the high chief several times yearly (many Beddgelens consider this practice the groundwork below the current senate system of the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth).

The Geletians joined the great invasions of the Balkans as hardly a foot-note, their entire community uprooting and moving but still dwarfed in size and significance by the armies of Cerethrius, Brennus and Acichorius, and Blogius as they attacked the Macedonians and others. They were keen volunteers to the cause of Brennus when he moved on Greece itself, and provided several hundred infantry and almost as many in cavalry and grooms.

It is now believed that the Geletian warriors were amongst those Brennus picked as his tallest and his strongest swimmers to cross the Spercheius, and though their contribution here was significant, the later defeats in narrow ground caused the Geletians to loose faith with Brennus. They split from his armies and followed the example of Leonnorius and Lutarius in migrating to Thrace.

Asia

Not much later the Geletians went with the Trocmi, Tolistobogii and Tectosages into Asia Minor. It is true that at this point, and when they settled to the creation of what would become known as Galatia, the Beddgelen ancestors were probably not known as Geletian but by some other name that referenced so few people amongst tens of thousands that it has been long forgotten.

The Geletian name was adopted possibly in the first or second century BCE as this minority broke from Galatia. It is not clear exactly when the split happened, but if not before then it was certainly by the time that Caesar's contemporary Deiotarus was recognised by Rome as King of Galatia in defiance of ancient traditions and structures.

The Geletians moved on, apparently migrating through Armenia around the time that it was suffering conquest by Rome, and reputedly offering mercenary service to both sides at various times, always as it suited their continued progress away from the classical world to which the Geletians have always for whatever reason been violently opposed.

By the time that they reached the Parthian Empire, the Geletians found it too falling into war with Rome, and they were happy to lend their experience against the Romans, essentially trying to impart a better understanding of the combined arms of the day to cavalry-obsessed Parthians. Still, the small tribe did not linger in Parthia, apparently being unable to trust the expansionist empire, and moved with its offences into the Indus and then racing ahead into India by some time perhaps as early as the first century AD, a truly epic rate of migration that had taken the Geletians from the middle of Europe to the edges of modern India in much less than half a millenia.

India

When they hit India the Geletians were perhaps the most experienced war fighters on earth, having battled half a dozen major enemies along almost every step of the last five thousand kilometres and fifteen generations. Skilled metal workers they had picked up the fashioning of early steel before they were far inside India; had witnessed, carried-out, and resisted countless fortress sieges from northern Macedonia to eastern Parthia; were natural horsemen who adapted new cavalry tactics from Parthia's cataphracts and mounted archers and had become fond of the bow; and of course were physically dominant over all opposition in India.

The Geletians stayed a long time in northern India, though rarely long in one place. It seems that the Gupta Dynasty and the golden age of Hindu administration over-shadowed the slight numbers of the previously immune Geletians, who moved south and came into conflict with Tamil kingdoms where they had more success and carved-out new influence for themselves.

The Colonial Era

When Europeans again arrived in force, it came as something of a surprise to find powerful white tribes and kingdoms active on the subcontinent. Reports from the time speak of a large degree of co-operation, with Celtic warlords lending muscle to European governments and companies, apparently little understanding the global implications. Ultimately though, this served mainly to familiarise the local Celts with the invaders and to give them access to European weapons.

The Celtic populations all but ran parts of India on behalf of the East India Company, at least in terms of security and other hands-on aspects of governance and unbalanced economics. This served to further understanding of western industry and business, and to foster a well-understood disdain for capitalism and imperialism. Influential Celtic families began to deliver sons into British education and even to flirt with high society, which gave yet more capabilities to the apparently erased civilisation that had never actually been beaten on the field of battle.

It became evident that the Celts were but resting and biding their time, learning, growing, and resenting as if Arminius amongst the Romans. The Europeans are generally felt to have misunderstood the relationship between Geletians and other Indians, and to have underestimated the bond that had taken centuries to forge between them. Celtic uprisings were amongst the bloodiest surrounding the final years before independence for the subcontinent.

Principality

Britain did manage to maintain significant influence for some way into the second half of the twentieth century as British and local Celtic nobility, intertwined over generations of occupation, gave rise to a constitutional monarchy with close ties to the British crown. Under Prince Llewellyn, Beth Gellert was close to Britain for long periods, courted in bringing much industry to India. Llewellyn engaged in rampant expansionism, sometimes to gain natural resources, often to thwart Maoist and USSR-backed movements or Roycelandian plans (though relations here were competative but not unfriendly), but usually to win cheap labour with which to attract investment. The Hindustanis were often capable enemies and managed eventually to halt the Principality after suffering substantial territorial loss, but Geletian communities in minor states also lead strong resistance to the unpopular Prince.

Revolution and Division

It was many more years before the First Igovian Revolution brought-down the rule of then Prince Llewellyn of Beth Gellert, sending royalists and other capitalist elements to find refuge on Sri Lanka, which they renamed Victoria and Salvador and continued to run in alliance with Thatcherite Britain especially.

Following the radical coup of 1982 a great many Britons emigrated to Beddgelert, as it was officially renamed (pronunciation remaining the same), the majority of them Welsh socialists and hard-core union members tired of the bottom rung of capitalism in their nation.

Having spoken most forcefully and quite literally pushed himself to the front of the crowd that broke into the Prince's parliament at the start of the revolution, Sopworth Igo, already of note as the son of a widely respected bard-cum-political commentator (Graeme Igo), was able to surround himself with a militia and soon tributary spin-off militias across the nation. He became Premier almost without anyone realising, and rode the tide of revolutionary enthusiasm for several years, distracting political and economic reformists with a series of continuation wars on Hindustan and other states that, he convinced his hot-headed comrades, must also be liberated. The ever-present form of Llewellyn on Victoria & Salvador served also to justify a heavy militia presence under Sopworth's command.

This was not sustainable, and more liberal ideas lead to the removal of the Igovians and the establishment of a pure democracy with some basis in Geletian communal tradition. Under this system there was much reconciliation with the people of Victoria and Salvador, leading to eventual reunification in 1989, ending seven years of cold war and sending the royals into exile.

From 1989 to 2006 southern India drifted under the so-called Second Commonwealth, attempting to maintain unity through some of the old structures less their dictator. It is only now that a new era of change is being realised, with greater communal autonomy stimulating internal trade and enabling the masses to return to their traditional ways of life, under what is known as the Third Commonwealth, where in Jharkhand and West Bengal have joined with Victoria Salvadoria and the founding states to create the Indian Soviet Commonwealth.


Geography:

Location: Southern and east-coastal Indian subcontinent including Sri Lanka.

Area: 1,254,126sq.km.

Border Countries: Assam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indian National Union, Nepal, North Hindustan (North Sienna), Pondicherry, Roycelandian Goa, Sikkim

Climate: Varies, largely tropical monsoon

Natural resources: Coal, copper ore, iron ore, titanium ore, uranium, manganese, mica, kainite, bauxite, thorium, chromite, graphite, natural gas, oil, gold, silver, diamonds, asbestos, sillimanite, limestone, china clay, fire clay, arable land, and more

Natural hazards: Droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes

People:

Population: 528,934,511

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 81; male:78; female:83

Nationality: Beth Gellen/Beddgelen; Soviet-Indian, Commonwealther, South Indian, and other terms often used

Ethnic groups: Celtic 45% (over 90% Geletian, some Welsh and other); Indo-Aryan 31%; Dravidian 19.5%; Anglo-Saxon 1.5%; Mongoloid, East African, various South East Asian and other 1%. Racial mixing increasingly apparent in post-revolutionary generations.

Religions: None officially; religion is considered regressive and counter-revolutionary, and is well taught about in history classes. Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Druidic beliefs persist on some level in minorities, along with slight Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, and Parsi leanings. During the 1982-89 Sopworth Commonwealth a philosophy of Man's species-being became popular, but has recently become subject to increasing critical debate and widely viewed as imperfect.

Languages: English, Geletian, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Urdu, Telugu, Kannada, Welsh, and others have wide bases as a primary language.
Note: Most Beddgelens are at least bilingual, and usually grow-up speaking two or more languages.

Literacy: definition: age 12 and over can read and write; 100%

Government:

Country name: long form: The Indian Soviet Commonwealth of Beddgelert; short form: Beddgelert (Anglicised: Beth Gellert), Indian Soviet Commonwealth; abbreviation: BG, ISC, ISCBG

Government type: Confederation of communal democracies

Capital: The village of Portmeirion upon an island in an artificial lake in Raipur contains the Commonwealth Final Soviet, and as such may loosely be refered to as the Soviet captial; in recent years the Supreme War Soviet has established itself at Kolkata, which is consequently considered a second capital

Head Of State: None.

Suffrage: Any Commonwealth citizen may attend and speak at his or her Local Soviet. The only limitation for this is placed upon certain residents at Commonwealth Re-education Facilities judged incapable or guilty of counter-revolutionary crimes.

While those of any age may attend and speak at Local Senates or even be nominated to represent on an issue at Regional, State, and Final Senates, 16 years is the minimum age for voting in Commonwealth-wide referenda. An exception has been made for capable emancipated minors subject to Popular Court ruling.

Judicial branch: Commonwealth National Popular Court (judges elected by the people and usually chosen from the Commonwealth Professional Civil Service); Popular Local Courts (judges elected by Local Soviets).

Political parties and leaders: None.

Note: Local Soviets based in communes are attended by any or all citizens. Regional, State, and Final Soviets exist to address matters beyond the concern of but one local community, and are attended by delegates elected by concerned communities to represent on an issue-by-issue basis, and by Soviet and Union Consuls elected by military units and university/city industrial unions.

Communities are able to opt out of national programmes and international efforts, and are essentially independent, associated within the Commonwealth due to their often choosing to work together on grand projects and for common defence, and to enable communication between people and travel between places.

Economy:

Population Below Poverty-Line: 12% est.
Note: Virtually all citizens deemed below the poverty line are resident in the most recently incorporated northern states, chiefly Bihar, and major programmes are under-way with the aim of increasing equality and developing the north

Unemployment Rate: Nil

Electricity Production By Source: Nuclear: 40%, Fossil Fuel- 31%, Hydro- 20%, Solar/Other- 5%, Wind-4%

Economic Aid Donor: Aid frequently takes the form of military advice and political liason with revolutionary movements. The West African Friendship and Development Soviet is a prime example. In 2008 the Commonwealth's foreign aid budget is in excess of US$58billion

Industries: Mining, mineral refining, metal products, construction, petroleum, food processing, textiles, chemicals, shipbuilding, aircraft, transportation equipment, machinery, information technology: the Commonwealth sees no reason to avoid self sufficiency and engages in all industries essential to the life of a society.

Major Export Commodities:

Major Import Commodities:

Primary Import/Export Partners: Neo-Anarchos, Indian National Union, Bangladesh, Former United African Republics, Libya, Vietnam, Laos, Democratic Kampuchea, Namibia, Yugoslavia, Nepal, Madagascar, Spyr, Sujava, Republic of Gabon, African Commonwealth, Republic of China.

Communications:

Telephones- main lines in use: over 22 million (most of these are in communes, of which there are around quarter of a million)

Telephones- mobile cellular: 125 million (most held in communal pools and electronically signed-out as required; actually not excessively popular)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 251 FM 504 shortwave 18

Television broadcast stations: 301

Computer network users: All Commonwealth citizens have access to Indonet-enabled communal terminals 24 hours a day

Military:

Branches: Commonwealth Militia, Commonwealth Air Guard, Commonwealth Oceanic Guard, each including Expert Corps and Auxiliary Corps

Illicit drugs: The People’s Commonwealth is noted for its relative lack of drug laws. However, the nature of the economy makes foreign trade in drugs next to useless, and the structure of society makes it difficult to carry-out undetected: the Commonwealth is probably a minor exporter and transshipment point of many narcotics.

Disputes, International: The Commonwealth is often brought into international disrepute thanks to its rather hard-line leftist politics. This stance has seen it accused of unofficial military involvement in several attempted socialist and communist coups around the world.

There are also long-standing tensions between the Commonwealth and Andaman and Nicobar, which continues to harbour members of the deposed Beddgelen nobility.

States:

Parmis
AKA Lakshadweep/Laccadives
Area: 32sq.km
Population: 65,545
State capital: Kavaratti
Agricultural products: Coconuts, fish
Primary languages: Malayalam, English, Mahl

Sri Lanka-
Area: 64,740 sq.km
Population: 21,128,773
State capital: Sri Jayawardenapura-Kotte (Kotte)
Highest elevations: Pidurutalagala (2,524m), Adam's Peak (2,243m)
Agricultural products: Rice, tea, rubber, coconuts
Natural resources: Timber, precious and semi-precious stones (sapphires, rubies, cats' eyes, topaz, garnets, moonstones), graphite, ilmenite (used in paint and fortification of metals), thorium, apatite, dolomite, limestone, clay, hydropower, some iron ore
Energy production: Hydropower dominant, nuclear power and wood-burning also important
Major languages: Sinhala, Tamil, Geletian, English, Welsh

Tamil Nadu-
Area: 130,058sq.km
Population: 64,881,871
State capital: Chennai (Madras, Porthmadog)
Geography note: Western Ghats run the length of the west
Agricultural products: Rice (2nd largest producer in India), cotton, sugarcane, coconut, tea, coffee, bananas, mangoes, jowar, ragi, bajra, maize, pulses, nuts, sesame, sun flowers (Tamil Nadu is one of the top agricultural states in India)
Primary languages: Tamil, English, Welsh, Geletian
Specific products: Known for musical instruments such as the veena, tamburu, violin, kanjara, and mridangam; silk sarees known throughout India. The area is now increasingly involved in Igovian cinema.

Kerala-
Area: 38,863sq.km
Population: 32,976,282
State capital: Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum)
Highest elevation: Anamundi (3,000m: highest point in India south of the Himalayas)
Agricultural products: Coconuts (over 2/3 of Indian output), spices, rubber, tea, coffee, cashew, cardamom, rice, tapioca
Primary languages: Malayalam, English, Welsh, Kannada, Tamil, Geletian
Notes: Said to be the best educated and one of the most secular states in India

Karnataka-
Area: 191,791sq.km
Population: 56,788,225
State capital: Bengaluru (Bangalore)
Agricultural products: Coffee, oil-seeds, ragi
Natural resources: Gold (source of 90% of India's gold production), manganese, iron ore, copper, chromite, china clay, limestone, magnesite, granite
Primary languages: Hindi, English, Kannada, Geletian, Tulu, Kodava Takk, Konkani, Urdu, Welsh
Note: Jog Falls is the second highest waterfall in the world

Andhra Pradesh
Area: 275,068sq.km
Population: 80,499,421
Agricultural products: Rice, cotton, sugarcane, tobacco, mangoes, bananas, softwood, bamboo
Natural resources: Copper ore, manganese, mica, coal, limestone, hydropower potential
State capital: Hyderabad
Primary languages: Telugu, Urdu, English, Tamil, Geletian, Kanarese, Welsh

Chhattisgarh
Area: 135,237sq.km
Population: 22,529,537
State capital: Raipur (within which lies Portmeirion, capital of the Commonwealth)
Agricultural products: Rice
Natural resources: Most mineral-rich state in India; almost all tin ore in India, most coal, a fifth of iron ore including some of the best quality in the world, bauxite, limestone, dolomite, corundum, rock phosphate, manganese ore, asbestos, mica, diamonds, timber
Primary languages: Hindi, Chhattisgarhi, English, Geletian, Welsh

Orissa
Area: 155,707sq.km
Population: 39,285,142
State capital: Bhubaneswar
Agricultural products: Rice, pulses, oil-seeds, jute, mesta, sugarcane, coconut, fish, turmeric
Natural resources: Iron ore, coal, chromite, bauxite, mica, manganese, zinc, gems, tin, granite, china clay, timber, hydropower potential
Primary languages: Oriya, English, Welsh, Geletian
Note: Subject to severe tropical cyclones. Is noted for its many ancient temples. Traditionally stricken by poverty, Orissa was a key contributor to revolutionary struggles. Safari tourism is one of the region's rare specialties.

Jharkhand
Area: 79,714sq.km
Population: 29,863,038
State capital: Ranchi (former summer capital of British in Bihar)
Agricultural products: Paddy, wheat, maize, pulses
Natural resources: Another extremely mineral-rich state (rank amongst Indian states); copper ore (1st), mica (1st), iron ore (1st), kainite (1st), asbestos (1st), uranium (1st), chromite (2nd), coal (3rd), bauxite (3rd), thorium (3rd), gold (6th), graphite (8th), manganese, limestone, china clay, sillimanite, silver, fire clay
Primary languages: Hindi, English, Geletian

West Bengal
Area: 88,752sq.km
Population: 86,787,185
State capital: Kolkata (Calcutta)
Agricultural products: Rice, jute, tea, oil-seed, sugar, pulses, tobacco, fish
Natural resources: Coal, dolomite, limestone, china clay, fertile land
Primary languages: Bengali, English, Geletian

Bihar
Area: 94,164sq.km
Population: 94,129,492
State capital: Patna
Agricultural products: Sugar
Natural resources:
Primary languages: Hindi, Urdu, Maithili, Angika, Bhojpuri, Bajjika, Bangla, Magadhi

Major Cities of Soviet India

Kolkata (Calcutta)
State: West Bengal
Population: 4.6 million city, 13.5 million metro
Notes: Capital of West Bengal and seat of the Supreme War Soviet. Home to Tollywood, the heart of Bangla cinema. Home of the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize and the first Asian scientist to do so, and to freedom-fighter SC Bose, Mother Teresa, and cricket legend Sourav Ganguly.

Raipur
State: Chhattisgarh
Population: 1.1 million city, 4 million metro
Notes: Capital of Chhattisgarh and seat of the Final Soviet, situated upon Portmeirion Island on the Burha Talab lake.

Chennai (Madras)
State: Tamil Nadu
Population: 4.4 million city, 7.5 million metro
Notes: Capital of Tamil Nadu and scene of Llewellyn's final defeat on the mainland in 1982. Home of Kollywood, the centre of Tamil cinema.

Hyderabad
State: Andhara Pradesh
Population: 6.75 million city, 10 million metro
Notes: Capital of Andhara Pradesh.

State:
Population:
Notes:

The Commonwealth Guard

‘The whole race... is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle... and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and courage’
-Strabo

STRUCTURE- DEMOCRACY IN DEFENCE

The Commonwealth Guard is a vast popular organisation including the Commonwealth Militia; Commonwealth Air Guard; and the Commonwealth Oceanic Guard, itself including the Commonwealth Marine Division.

The Soviet Commune is comprised of elected Guardsmen and women voted for by their comrades in arms and subject to referenda-enabled recall at any time. These act as the Guard's headquarters' staff and direct such matters as military procurement and strategy. The term Soviet Commune is loosely applied to the whole military, as all servicemen and women are members of Soviets and expect to have their will represented by their elected members within the Commune-proper. The Soviet Commune has liason officers connected to the Popular Soviets, and sends elected delegates to the Commonwealth Final Soviet in order that military funding and operations be directly tied to the will of the masses.

COMPOSITION- ROOTS

With reunification came the disbanding of the Army. At this time, all able comrades were enrolled in the Commonwealth Guard, making this amongst the biggest defence forces in human history: there are more Guardsmen and women in Soviet India than there are people in Russia.

The Oceanic Guard and even more importantly the Air Guard of course require intensive and specialised training that makes them less universal than the Militia, since any one of sound mind and body can be easily taught to fire a rifle or throw a petrol bomb, while the operation of a fighter jet requires professional dedication. With this in mind, the AG and OG enroll part-time servicemen and women in great numbers, and these comrades continue to work reduced hours at their home Phalansteries, retaining direct involvement in civilian life and continuing to contribute to the economy while supporting the full-time military core and providing a large pool of semi-trained military recruits that can be brought quickly up to professional standard in the event of a crisis. The Soviet Commune incorporates also the less expert part-time fliers and such, who out-weigh militant special interest groups in the full-time formations, and as such can vote-down unrepresentative hawks in the Soviet Commune.

Throughout the Commonwealth Guard it is and has been standard practice for Sovietists to elect their officers. All Experts receive extensive general and some specialist training in the universities, and their records are made available within the Soviet Commune so that their comrades can take it into consideration when nominating tactical leadership. Once elected to the officer corps, Guards usually receive modified on-going training geared towards their new role specifically, while previous training will have prepared them to some basic degree.

Each of the three main Guard branches has a core of professionals as mentioned above, and these are called Expert Corps, while the mass bodies are Auxiliaries.

COMMONWEALTH MILITIA (CM)

The Militia is gigantic. No less than the people of the Commonwealth, resolute in its defence.

The CM was established in the mainland Commonwealth, and extended to Sri Lanka at reunification after the disbanding of the army. It is supposed to destroy the divide between soldiery and society and make sure that the military can never be used against the population.

Being as tens of millions of comrades are enrolled in the Militia, it is not surprising to learn that this is primarily a straight-leg force meant for defence on local and regional fronts and throughout the Commonwealth rather than as an army with strategic mobility.

Tactical flexibility is maintained. Each state bases significant mechanised forces, with modern cores crewed by Commonwealth Militia Experts.

A massive quantity of Militia equipment is only semi-active, used for part-time training and kept in serviceable condition often by local communities. While 40% of the population is officially enrolled, only a minority take active part in offered training exercises organised on communal lines.

COMMONWEALTH MILITIA EXPERT CORPS (CMEC)

This is the more conventional core of the wider Militia, being essentially a full-time army. It retains all the democratic structure described in other sections, and indeed shares much of it with the auxiliaries, meaning that professional soldiers can directly interact with the population, can advise on military affairs, but can not out-vote and force the hand of the people at large.

The Militia Expert Corps is maintained at around one million recruits. CMEC soldiers receive good year-round training, and are well supplied with modern equipment including good seasonal/environmental uniforms, body armour, and so on. Large-scale exercises are carried out every year, and some elements involve other branches of the Commonwealth Guard.

The CMEC would be the main body deployed offensively in an armed conflict except in a situation abroad in which the Marine Division were deemed sufficient.

COMMONWEALTH MILITIA AUXILIARY (CMA)

The Militia Auxiliary officially enroles all citizens of able mind and body who are not members of the CMEC, CAG, or COG, though in fact the CMA's service expectations are much relaxed for those involved in primary military production. This generally means that something like forty percent of the Commonwealth's population has official access to military-grade equipment and training facilities. Personal weapons are usually looked-after in peacetime by elected quartermasters and men-at-arms living in each community, and Phalanstery garages are likely to contain some light military transport that in many cases is used for civilian purposes. Heavier vehicles and equipment more often are concentrated in university cities around which communes are dispersed, and these hubs contain regional Soviets and some of the advanced training facilities available.

Within the CMAC there are so-called First Auxiliaries numbering an estimated 1.6 million and Second Auxiliaries in the order of a mind-boggling 196.25 million. First Auxiliaries are those who who have received a sort of democratic commission and are most active in Auxiliary business on a regular basis. In war these could most quickly become temporary Experts, boosting the de facto army to a strength above two and a half million in a matter of days. Second Auxiliaries are those who are allowed access to armouries and training facilities, and are officially considered combatants in the event of an invasion or counter-revolution, but are not so engaged as the First Auxiliaries in the Militia during peacetime.

CMA troops are supposed to have ex-service arms and old uniforms including those taken from the disbanded national armies. In practice, keeping such a massive force fully supplied is not fully realistic when it is usually close to inactive in a large part, so some uniforms are less than, well, uniform, and a major component of its weaponry -such as factory-standard Molotov Cocktails and low-tech explosives and mortars- is manufactured by widespread cottage industry. This is not the most efficient form of production, but it is on such a large scale that this matters little, and an enemy hoping to disable it faces an unimaginable task.

Typically, First Auxiliaries would be armed with INSAS rifles and would man MT-1 battletanks and the like, while Second Auxiliaries have arms that vary from region to region, with Sri Lankans likely to be weilding 7.62x51mm FN-FAL-derived SLRs, Oriya fighting with 7.62x39mm AKMs, and Bengalis 7.62x51mm Ishapore Enfield rifles.

COMMONWEALTH AIR GUARD (CAG)

The CAG is a very large organisation that includes pilots and support crews, operators of air-defence equipment on the ground, and soldiers dedicated to the defence of Air Guard facilities. The Commonwealth Guard over-all aims to field almost one aircraft for every twenty-five thousand head of the Commonwealth's population, providing a total of twenty thousand military aircraft on completion of current programmes. Most of the total is accounted for by the ranks of the Air Guard Auxiliaries and consists partly of older aircraft meant only to support the Expert Corps and sustain high standards of training and coverage, while the remainder is made up of the front-line CAGEC aircraft and those flown by the Oceanic Guard and the Militia. The figures include combat and none combat, fixed and rotary wing, manned and unmanned aircraft.

COMMONWEALTH AIR GUARD EXPERT CORPS (CAGEC)

The CAGEC is a highly modern force with good technological support and integration, and high flying hours kept under the belts of its aircrews.

With 3,750 of the most modern airframes available to the Commonwealth and some 150,000 personnel, the CAGEC is formidable even without the support of the larger Auxiliary force.

COMMONWEALTH AIR GUARD AUXILIARY (CAGE)

The CAGE provides infantry to defend CAG facilities, air defence gun and missile crews in and around such facilities, ground crews on rotational duty supplementing CAGEC crews, part-time administrative staff, and trains aircrews part time in dedicated trainer aircraft for wartime deployment in dedicated low-cost aircraft and withdrawn previous-generation machines formerly used by the 1st and 2nd Commonwealths and the Principality. It has 500,000 personnel equivalent to the Militia's First Auxiliaries, and 12,500 airframes.

COMMONWEALTH OCEANIC GUARD (COG)

The COG operates naval combat, deployment, and support vessels along with shore-based anti ship and submarine warfare and search-and-rescue aircraft, and anti-ship gun and missile batteries, and supplies some of its own naval infantry for base defence.

The Beddgelens have never been a great maritime power, but some inherited British tradition and a view of the Indian Ocean as an Indian domain gave the first taste of what would become a fairly large and modern -though relatively inexperienced- naval force.

COMMONWEALTH OCEANIC GUARD EXPERT CORPS (COGEC)

The COG is probably the service in which Expert and Auxiliaries are closest, or at least certainly the relationship is closer than in the CAG. Oceanic Guards Auxiliaries are needed to fill-out many relatively minor duties in what is normally considered the Expert Corps, and do so on rotational basis, gaining much experience as a result. Without these Auxiliaries, the ratio of tonnes to personnel would be fairly high for a modern navy.

Strength is around one hundred thousand, making Auxiliary augmentation a must in high intensity warfare, especially as the Fourth Commonwealth enters into a new ship-building phase.

COMMONWEALTH OCEANIC GUARD AUXILIARY (COGA)

Many of the duties undertaken by the COGA are described in the COGEC section, but it is left to add that Auxiliaries would also serve in wartime on front-line vessels in order to boost crews to achieve extra redundancy and reduce fatigue where there is design space enough to accommodate these extra hands. Strength is 400,000.

STRENGTH AND EQUIPMENT OVERVIEW

Expert Corps / Trained Auxiliary Forces
Militia 1,000,000 / 1,600,000 (2,600,000)
Air Guard 150,000 / 500,000 (650,000)
Oceanic Guard 100,000 / 400,000 (500,000)
Total 1,250,000 / 2,500,000 (3,750,000)

CMEC Equipment

Individual Weapons
-BGMK3 Blast Fragmentation Hand-Grenade
-D41 DAG 9.3x21mm Automatic Pistol
-BRES Weasel 9.3x21mm Sub-Machine Gun
-Rk-100 6.5x50mm Aussault Rifle
-6.5x50mm Stoat Sniper's Rifle
-OPA Yellow-38 11x72mm Heavy Sniper's Rifle
-Rk-101 6.5x50mm Multi-Role Machinegun

Crew-Served/Other Weapons
-XMG-G1 17x126mm Dual-Feed Heavy Machine-Gun
-7,200 BRES Imp 84mm Mortar
-[Tens of thousands] JOS Fossa Anti-Tank Rocket Unit
-12,000+ BRES Totem-3T SACLOS-Guided Anti-Tank Missile

Artillery
-600 SPG-4 152mm Self-Propelled Gun
-2,400 SPG-3 105mm Self-Propelled Gun
-4,500 TG-4 152mm Towed Gun
-7,500 TG-6 105mm IFG Towed Gun
-800 Pinaka 214mm Multiple-Launch Rocket Artillery Vehicle
-400 TR-2 122mm Towed Multiple-Launche Rocket Artillery piece

Wheeled Vehicles
-[Tens of thousands] OPA Land Cruiser 4x4 Light Utility Vehicle (including Totem-3T, Twin-Sumpit, Laser-Imp, and Repair and Recover versions)
-1,200 OPA Heavy Land Cruiser (larger engine, extra armour, G1 17mm gun, extra systems and weather/water protection measures)
-[Tens of thousands] SEB Acha 6x6 Soft-Skin Utility Truck (including Command, Repair and Recover, and Tanker versions)
-250 SEB Road-Going Tank Transporter

Tanks
-1,100 MT-4 Hathi MBTs
-2,400 MT-3 Peripatus MBTs
-12,000 MT-2 Cobra MBTs
-3,000 MT-1 Gainda MBTs

Armoured Vehicles
-6,500 CICV-4 Poolee ICVs
-20,000 CAPC-1 Tendwa APCs (including armoured repair and recovery vehicle, armoured vehicle-launched bridge, field ambulance, and armoured mobile command post versions)

Air Defence
-10,000 Sumpit Man-Portable High-Celocity Surface-to-Air-Missile Systems
-9,000 Terrier Man-Portable Surface-to-Air-Missile Systems
-800 Baarish-II Self-Propelled Gun/Missile Low-Level Air Defence Systems
-840 BG-37 Towed AAA
-600 Loviatar-L SAM Launchers in 150 Batteries

Aircraft
-400 Ja-36 Yellowbat Helicopter Gunships
-1,200 PAh.10 Dhruv Light Helicopters (including liason, scout, command, communications, transport, air ambulance, rescue, light anti-tank, and light fire-support versions)
-200 Merlin HC.3 Heavy-Lift Helicopters
-24 MaL Morrigan Long-Range UAVs
-(125) Medium UAV Under Development

CMA Equipment

Long Bladed Weapons
-Geletian Agricultural Sword
-Wootz Sabre
-Kirpan

Improvisational Weapons
-Geletian Composite Longbow
-Geletian Slingshot
-Molotov Cocktail Standard Type 1/2/3

Individual Weapons
-D-33A/B Tokalert 9x19mm Automatic Pistol
-Sterling L2A5 9x19mm Sub-Machine-Gun
-AKM(S)BG 7.62x39mm Assault Rifles
-Ishapore INSAS-2(S) 6.5mm Assault Rifles
-Ishapore SMLE .303" Dedicated Marskman Rifles
-Vickers-Berthier Mark 3BG* .303" Light Machine-Gun
-Ishapore INSAS-1(S) 6.5mm Assault Rifles
-Ishapore INSAS-3 6.5mm Common Sniper's Rifle
-Ishapore INSAS-4(S) 6.5mm Multi-Role Machine-Gun

Crew-Served Weapons
-Vickers Mark 1 .303" General-Purpose Machine-Gun
-RPG-7BG Anti-Tank Infantry Weapon

Artillery
-400 TG-5 100mm Towed Gun

Wheeled Vehicles
-Tens of thousands Landrovers, Tractors, Other Industrial and Agricultural Vehicles, Public Transport Vehicles

Armoured Vehicles
-16,000 CICV-3 Wombat infantry combat vehicle (including ARV, AVLB, command, and ambulance versions)
-8,000 CICV-2 infantry combat vehicle
Note- CMA CICV vehicles are often undergoing conversion to enable their use in heavy agriculture and infrastructure work and thus encourage their upkeep.

Air Defence
-12 Rapier SAM
-450 BG-30 AAA

CAGEC Equipment

Offensive Fighters
3,500 including:
-NT-2B Puffin
-NT-1C Springer

Defensive Fighters
2,500 including:
-NT-7 Kan-Gel
-NT-4C Hobgoblin
-NT-6-II Golkonda

Airborne Early Warning and Command Platforms
-18 Marathon AEW

Reconnaissance and Dedicated Electronic Counter-Measures Aircraft
220 including:
-NT-7R Kan-gel
-NT-4R Hobgoblin
-MaL Morrigan Long-Range UAV
-3 NT-7X Kan-gel
-6 NT-4X Hobgoblin
-14 NT-6X Miggen (some as target-tugs)

Air Transports and Air Refuelling Tankers
-200 Preston Light Utility/Diplomatic Transports
-247 Marathon Medium-Heavy Transports/Air Refuelling Tankers
-3 An-225 Breuddwyd Heavy Transports/Reusable-Spacecraft Carrier
-350 Convertable Civil Transport Aircraft

Helicopters
-180 PAh.10 Dhruv Light Helicopter
-70 Merlin HC.3 Heavy-Lift Helicopter

Trainers
1,240 including:
-PAh.10 Dhruv
-Preston
-HPT-32 Deepak
-NT-6T Miggen
-NT-5T Cardinal
-NT-7T Kan-gel
-NT-4T Hobgoblin

Air Defence
-3 CS-500 Arawn 4-Launcher ABM Batteries (essentially pre-production)
-120 CS-400 Red Sky 6-Launcher SAM Batteries

Air Defence
-Around 2,000 100mm AAA Pieces

COG Equipment

Submarines
-4 Liopleurodon ferox Class SSBN (2 in service, 1 launched and building, 1 laid-down)
-24 Anunkai Class SSGN (14 in service, 3 laid-down, 7 planned)
-32 Ortiagon Class SSK (several still in construction/fitting)

Aircraft Carriers
-1 India Class CVN
-3 Defiance Class Fleet Carrier (2 laid-down, 1 planned)
-6 Nibiru Class CVL/LPH (4 in service, 1 laid-down, 1 planned)

Amphibious
-4 Hyena LPD (2 in service, 1 laid-down, 1 planned)

Gun & Armour Ships
-2 Utopia Class Battleship (1 launched and building, 1 laid-down)
-1 Gull Flag Class Fire-Support Ship (over-due to be decommissioned)

Cruisers
-12 Chainmail Class Multi-Role Cruiser (1 in service, 1 launched and building, 2 laid-down, 8 planned)

Frigates
-40 General Warfare Bodkin Class (25 in service, 3 laid-down, 12 planned)
-60 Fleet Defence Gauntlet Class (40 in service, 5 laid-down, 15 planned)

Corvettes
-60 Gujarat Class Multi-Role Corvettes (50 in service, 10 planned or laid-down)

Mine Countermeasures/Patrol
-36 Rapier Class (29 in service, 1 laid-down, 6 planned)

Support/Auxiliary
-24 Oilers Brompton Class (16 in service, 2 laid-down, 6 planned)
-15 Ammunition Ship Benefactor Class (12 in service, 1 laid-down, 2 planned)
-10 Combat Stores Ship Verix (6 in service, 1 laid-down, 3 planned)
-5 Heavy Support Ship Palaemon (2 in service, 1 laid-down, 2 planned)
-6 Submarine Tenders Restoration Class (4 in service, 1 laid-down, 1 planned)
-2 Hospital Ships Ysbyty Class
-74 assorted Training, Salvage, Rescue, Icebreaker, Oceanographic, other Scientific

Aircraft
-108 Puffin VTOL Strike Fighter (more possible)
-52 NT-1CN Springer Ship and Shore-Based Maritime Strike Aircraft
-114 Ka-32BG Super Helix ASW Helicopter
-85 PAh.10 Dhruv Light Helicopter
-24 Preston ASWAP Aircraft (planned for replacement)
-28 Preston Transport Aircraft
-12 MaL Morrigan AEW-UAV

Oh my!

That's almost (possibly over) 550 Dhruvs! HAL has so far built all of 56 (+several of the HMDF's naval variants pending delivery) military Dhruvs, including Strathdonia's order (although its not inconcievable that several hundred civilian Dhruvs have been built and sold, especially in light of HAL's program of Alouette III exchange going towards a significant Dhruv discount, knocking quite a bit off an already cheap helicopter). The Gujarats too...here is Hindustan with what it calls the world's biggest shipbuilding industry and the HMDF operates 6 of what you have 47 of. Apparently Igovian factories and shipyards have less in the way of international projects to worry about.

Of course, there is also Hindustan making what is essentially a multirole frigate out of what I take it you consider a littoral warfare vessel, perhaps explaining why the HMDF's Bengals carry the 290-km BrahMos while (correct me if I'm wrong) your Gujarats only have those 130km Quan-wei (s.p.) missiles.

I suppose it just goes to show you how much less concerned Hindustan is with military matters...either that or how much the MoD underestimates the damage that the Iranians could do. And that's without mentioning Spain's few hundred backyard-built F-22-alikes. But of course that's with but a fraction of BG's economic might.

I suppose that back in 1947 the 'well, if you really don't want to be conscripted, I guess you can go home' HDF was rather in over its head.

I'm also a bit surprised that you use the MiG-27 as a fighter. The thing was, after all, built for a laser designator in the nose, and was sluggish in a turn. But it makes sense to do something with all Sopworth's old junk, and if Hindustan was in the same position it wouldn't be a far cry to imagine quite a few more Mirage IIIs and MiG-21s airborne in the Subcontinent.

OOC: Yeah, during the late stages of the Sopworth Commonwealth, his airforce had NT1FB(A/B) Springer attackers; MiG-27 attackers; MiG-15/17/19 increasingly forced into limited attack roles because they didn't stand up well against HDF fighters in air-to-air combat; and the intended multi-role NT-2 (later Puffin) project was not progressing quickly, as it was far too radical at the time. The only aircraft acting as an interceptor against Canberras and Buccaneers and Jaguars or whatever else was the MiG-21, and most of those were prone to crashing out of the sky due to being over twenty years old and grossly over-used. The Russians probably weren't as much help as desired, thanks to the HDF making Afghanistan even more costly than it would have been, so the Premier in all his wisdom ordered an interim solution. Attempts to make the Springer a true multi-role aircraft had failed earlier under the Principality, and over-hauling the Fishbeds looked initially like the bigger task, so the Air Force went for a slight reversal of the Flogger's progress. It was actually the first aircraft to deploy the neatly named AAELRS extreme long-range missile (which later evolved for use by CS-400 Red Sky ABM/SAM), which was huge and requiring of a big, strong aircraft... that probably never did much damage to the Hindustanis, though, because the Beddgelen Bahadurs never had the ability to look out to its full range, and in the '80s the sky wasn't full of Marathons carrying their own radar.

Of course they (the MiG-27s) have continued to evolve a little during the 90s, but their primary role is still against bombers, not fighters (secondarily ground attack, third duty being last-ditch air-superiority for which they're not well suited). They're supposed to be fully replaced by several aircraft, notably NT-7 Kan-gel, but switching production is proving a drain on resources.

As to the helicopters well, they don't all have to be in service just yet. The Mi-8s mentioned as being-withdrawn can be assumed to be a little more abundant than presently listed, and the Dhruv's a little less, just now.

The corvettes smiliarly don't have to be all ready, yet, but you're right about their role for us. The Soviet fleet is sort schizo in that nobody can agree long-term on whether we're protecting the revolution in India no matter what, or going out to slap reactionaries in the face. The Gujarats are to remain at home and provide a serious defence at sea even if the frigates have been sent-off en masse to cripple the Roycelandian Pacific Fleet or something like that :) They're also to be used to protect shipping in the Indian Ocean, but aren't considered offensive weapons like the frigates may be. As to the ASMs, yes, they mount Qian Wei developed with Hotan's CPRD. We have the somewhat stealthy 260km-range Mach 2+ class Charioteer, but it weighs well over two tonnes, has multiple stages, is full of advanced systems to enable it to fly far, fast, and with a variable altitude and direction and to resist countermeasures so that all of that isn't a waste, and so in short it is hardly less investment than a small fighter plane (plus it has a large dead zone below its minimum range)... the idea of putting them on every available platform and as such having to use them whenever there's a scrap is not one that could really be carried-out in reality, and would put us in trouble if something managed to sneak-up or dash through in a heavy engagement.

And it wouldn't be terribly off the mark to say that the HMDF's Bengals are a good deal more expensive than the People's Fighting Coastguard's Gujarats.

They aren't really considered offensive either, given that the HDF is not really capable of going off and winning a war very far from Hindustan against a capable opponent, but since the HMDF has a lot fewer hulls to work with it is considered sensible that those few hulls be as capable as possible.

By the way, would you be interested in a joint project of some sort? Perhaps one aimed at producing a maritime patrol aircraft better than Prestons, Gannets, and Shackletons and along the lines of the Tu-142?

One of the Soviet Commune's highest priorities (along with a new assault rifle/LMG, which may just turn out to be a version of the INSAS, but I want to wait to see how the idea of a pan-progressive cartridge pans out, possibly at Zanzibar) is for a new maritime patrol aircraft. The Preston was always meant to be an interim measure and is horribly cramped, and it had been hoped that a Nimrod would be acquired from the UK and used as a base from which to devise a native equivalent, but that fell through when Bull failed to win a third term.

Plans to use the Marathon have never gone far because it actually may be bigger than is strictly necessary and because most in the Commune want to take the opportunity to switch to a jet-propelled aircraft, ideally with buried engines, since it has been said that submarines are better able to detect the approach of propellor-driven aircraft than they are the Nimrod.

So the Commonwealth is looking more Indian-Nimrod than Indian-Bear-F.
Hopefully the combination of BG's limited experience in building slightly primitive native systems and Hindustans operation of older British systems might lead to evolution of a viable modern suite...

Well, if you were willing to dish out the majority of the cash, Hindustan might be able to help out, perhaps doing most of the building, but the Tu-142 was proposed as a template because several examples exist in Hindustan, although none in flyable condition, whereas the Nimrod is an entirely British aircraft and an excellent one at that, the technology involved with which the Chaffins government does not seem terribly inclined to share.

But an ASW aircraft younger than the 50-year-old Shackletons and equally elderly Gannets would be excellent to have around. It doesn't really take much insight to realize that the HMDF's maritime patrol wing is very badly in need of a very serious upgrade. HAL produces a number of engines (most of them copies of Rolls-Royce models) that could be suitable (including the Spey itself).

With Indian Unification and all, it would make sense to use more common types.

The Commonwealth Final Senate, The Village, Portmeirion, Raipur

Soviet Consul Brigadier-Elect comrade Inbavalli o Nilgiris ferch Con o Nabarangapur a Peralagu o Vellore, as her name and title presently read, was today tasked with addressing the Final Senate's Consultative Assembly of approved volunteer State Consuls and Commonwealth Professional Civil Service Consuls. The issue attracting all of these titles together on the island of Portmeirion, in Raipur, was that of the Soviet Commune's recent debate and vote, or more accurately it was the result of these things.

"...notification of these ambitions, being as it is expected that the people shall discuss their implications and, perhaps, choose to call a referenda challenging the Soviet Commune on the policy of Affordable Super-Power." The Soviet Consul finished, after calling ASP the only means by which the Commonwealth could sustain useful intercontinental deployment in the long-term without, "distasteful measures such as an extension of the typical working-day past four or five hours."

Igovian People's Ambassadors and Officers of the Commune around the world followed Inbavalli's address in the Commonwealth by a number of approaches.

-In eastern Africa there was a tender to the Igomo Social Progress Party of a proposal for expansion of the Zanzibar naval and air-force base shared between the United African Republic and a Soviet lease.

-To the north, Tripoli continued to be engaged following the imperialist campaigns that had forced the Commonwealth to re-open contact with the Jamahiriya.

-In South-East Asia Hanoi received requests for military access privileges to the Laotian border and for allowance of the establishment of facility for the local operation of unmanned aerial vehicles able to range over the Philippines and equally to watch across the Chinese border and over the disputed Spratleys.

-In the far east, the Spyrians experienced similar approaches as the Soviet Commune sought to base MAL Morrigan UAVs and possible future unmanned machines on the Lyongian peninsula now that Dra-pol was essentially a lost cause to Soviet advances. It was said that resulting information as indicating a possible immediate or distant threat to Lyongian security would be shared in compensation. There was also talk of developing facilities in Sujava so that Igovian WIGs might be serviced there and as such that high-speed connections be cut across the Bay of Bengal to facilitate basic trade and rapid defence reaction.

-The same, too, in South America, with the organisations of Neo-Anarchan society likewise approached about long-term UAV stationing for reconnaissance as far afield as Quinntonia.

No big matter was made of it in initial approaches, but of course associated literature in parts indicates the existence of precision-strike capable Morrigan variants as well as the more often referenced reconnaissance drones.

I don't suppose the Embraer ERJ-145/P-99 would siut either of you?

If not then perhaps an older wide body airliner as A300/A310, DC-10, early 757/767s or even tristars might be an option for a jet based design, i'm sure there are plenty second hand versions available.

If you go for an A310 version then Strathdonia might buy one , particualrly if you also ripp off the A310 MRTT project at the same time :)

As much as I for one would very much like to Strath, I don't think its going to happen, seeing as the very fate of Airbus hangs in the balance and I doubt that many Hindustani air carriers have the cash or facilities available to buy Airbus, Boeing, or other big airliner manufacturer products.

But you're more than welcome to have the HMDF's Shackletons once they've been retired.

*Tries to make them look like a partially worthwhile acquisition*

Well I did say second hand stuff, although I'm not sure that AMW civil aviation is anything like the state of the RL industry, I would imagine that there are still plenty of late 70s/early 80s aircraft sitting in the deserts of america...

Actually i think i'm now more leaning to buying a bunch of MD-87s of late 80s vintage at prices of between $1.1-3.5million each (cheaper than tanks...) and then factoring in another $5-10mil per aircraft for HAL/local industry to provide reengine, mind life upgrade and mission equipment isntallation services.

It could be worth a shot, then. We'll have to see what Quinntonia thinks about it, but its BG's project after all, and I'm not sure Quinntonia would be excessively keen on selling what would eventually be used as military hardware to a nation that spent quite a few years financing and arming its mortal enemy Dra-pol.

But between Strathdonia and Hindustan, that's another story entirely, but it would be best to take it off BG's thread if that's the case.

Consider it moved. OOC forum post soon.


BG: if you want i'll edit my post.

Well perhaps you might be interested in joining a three-way joint project, similar to what we had for the Gazelle.

Mmmm...Sorry to be a bother, but can you include more information on the Sopworth period? Wasn't he friendly to the USSR?

Well perhaps you might be interested in joining a three-way joint project, similar to what we had for the Gazelle.
Would that eb the Gazelle i retired in favour of the Dhruv ;)

We'll see. i put apost up with soem ramblings on the OOC forum, so feel free to shred it.

Sometime after recieving Commonweath approaches relating to the ASP, the Strainist Party issues a response that, while initially positive, soon reveals a thick blanket of conditions. Basing facilities in the area of Sujava are seen as acceptable... several SRA bases including the naval centre at Taminbar are deemed suitable for cooperative use, and the deployment of UAVs on Sujavan territory is viewed as invaluable, provided intelligence gathered is shared with SRA commanders in the PRSJ. Given the proximity of final Bonstockian remnants in Singapore, Franco-Roycelandian bases in the South Pacific, Roik encroachent in the Phillipines, an Elian protectorate on Borneo, and the ever-present threat of the Indonesian Islamic Republic, however, it is stated that surely, should Commonwealth equipment and staff be welcomed in comeradeship by the people of Sujava, the Commonwealth could commit at least these same stationed forces to the defence of Sujava in the event of an invasion?

On the Lyongian side of things, the response manages to agree without actually agreeing at all. The presence of reconnaisance UAVs in East Asia is of vital import to the entire Progressive world... the sharing of intelligence gathered by such instruments is a natural course of action between socialist comrades. In fact, reconnaisance from Lyong would be rendered incredibly efficient by existance of the Starfire OTH radar system, which could direct such surveillance to sites identified as active or of interest.

Of course, within such agreeable language the reality of Strainist intent can be found... the Commonwealth can sell some UAVs to the Revolutionary Army, and the SRA will in turn share any data relevant to the Commonwealth.

Right, if these ruddy forums will let me, I'm bumping this before it falls into oblivion.

I've started to update bits, especially on the structure of the military, but it'll take a while.

I was adding more on the Sopworth era, but the history was already getting too long and messy. I might break it down, or just try to answer specific questions.

Yes, from 1982 to the end of the USSR, Sopworth's Commonwealth was closely associated with Moscow. It bought almost exclusively Russian arms, and later, with Moscow increasingly desperate, transfered much technology and machine tools to India, agreeing essentially production licences so that the USSR didn't have to dedicate efforts to producing arms for others when it probably needed them itself.

It is one of the main foundations of the modern Igovian economy that BG got late-Soviet technology by the truckload on the mainland, while Sri Lanka turned itself into a hi-tech centre producing electronics and what have you in the global market.

Sopworth probably did a lot of other specific things to help the USSR in its dying days, but the specifics are less vital to me/my nation, and could be agreed between us if we ever feel the need. Beddgelen troops may well have helped the Russians in Afghanistan, oh, and Sopworth's attacks on Hindustan almost certainly were partly motivated by a desire to help Moscow by distracting the meddling Hindustanis (;)), or certainly it was presented that way to Moscow, though he really had his own reasons (related to securing power at home).

Third Commonwealth Begins Defence Restructuring

Concerned deeply by the outbreak of armed conflict on the Indian sub-continent; by repeated acts of French piracy against Indian and progressive commerce and by French and other Holy League terrorism, assassination, and torture; by imperialism conducted by the Holy League, NATO, and United Elias, and jointly so in grand authoritarian conspiracy; by civil war in the Andamans; by military advances in United Elias and in China; and by the inaction in all pre-revolutionary peoples in reference to imperialism, torture, assassination, terrorism, and piracy, the people of southern India and the east coast have resolved in the Third Commonwealth to rebuild their defences.

Regular forces are decreased in size as thousands return to work, and greater efforts are placed into providing for armament of the Militia Auxiliary as more comrades pursue interest in revolutionary defence.

Replacement of T-55 and Vijayanta tanks in militia stocks with Gainda and Cobra, completely removing the former two as battle tanks and converting many hulls to other duties, also removing and replacing CICV-3 series armoured vehicles with machines long-planned and never issued, fully removing remaining MiG combat aircraft, completing the phased withdrawal of Hound Class submarines, finally settling on the issue of replacement for obsolete AKM rifles in expert corps issue, and many other measures are all to be fully undertaken within the year. Most of these works, in truth, have been begun, but none completed in the unduly relaxed and romantic climate of the Second Commonwealth.

Perhaps the surprise of INU entry into offensive war -against regression stubbornly ignored by a Second Commonwealth unwilling to shatter its utopian relaxation and the unspoiled myth of its own security- has been the trigger of Igovian rearmament.

Mumbai is of course very happy to see the Igovians re-arming, and promises to do its best in replacing a lot of the outdated equipment in INA, IAF, and IN service. Granted, the Union MoD doesn't have the same degree of funding as the Igovian military, but with French and Russian involvement worldwide, Africa in particular, on the rise, a more capable military is deemed rather important.

There is also growing entheusiasm for the INSAS, since the INA must face the fact that, although its L1A1s have a range advantage over almost anything else, they are still semi-automatic and aren't quite as reliable as would be absolutley preferred. While the MoD is reluctant to set down a timetable for L1A1 replacement, and most Unioners would like to see the Rajasthan situation resolved before a new ammunition type is adopted, few expect the INSAS to be delayed much more than a year longer.

As a result of the Igovian entheusiasm for militia forces, the Union Irregular Corps has also grown in importance, and while it remains a relatively small all-volunteer force concerned mainly with supporting the Parliamentary Constabulary, plans have been made to furnish it with a modest armored component, beyond the old Cromwells and Charioteers.

Several communes, regions, and even states within the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth -those that have taken most interest in the INU's battles and its own less radical defence reforms- have reportedly been making approaches to communities, local authorities, and defence and government agencies with documents detailing equipment being withdrawn from use in their locale.

By and large this equipment is decommissioned because it is non-standard and not because it is completely broken-down or entirely obsolete, making it at once a useful and overly complicated pile of offers. Notably, the Igovians have several thousands of T-55 tanks, some in very basic form and some upgraded in a mishmash of fashions, from the simple addition of steel plates up to re-tooled engines and 105mm guns (of course these more radical upgrades are those done at state level, such as by the arrangement of Karnataka State Senate, which also fitted laser range finders and [rather basic] fire control computers to some of its tanks).

Many of these are to be put on display in museums, used for public or cinematic reproductions, converted to ARV, anti-mine, APC, and other roles, blown-up in gunnery practice, or used in the short term for driver training, but most are simply due to be broken-up. Some communes that have a T-55 -or even a Vijayanta- sat in the garage are willing to give it up for its value as scrap and the cost of transporting it. Meanwhile some regional bodies want to deliver tanks, old trucks, baseline Land Rovers, Hi-Power pistols, 14.5mm KPV machineguns, former V&S Scorpion tanks, 130mm howitzers and Catapult [Vijayanta] SPGs with their munitions (since the 130mm is non-standard in the defence reform), and even upgraded multi-role Flogger aircraft, and a great deal more for use in the war effort and/or the rearmament of the Union Irregular Corps.

At national level, there is little agreement about whether the INU would really want such items, and many are looking more towards the over-throw of Neo-Suloism and the armament of revolutionary groups in the sub-continent and the Philippines. However, Soviet observers sent towards the Rajasthan front intend to offer a shipment of Ishapore INSAS weapons for use in the conflict, hopeful that bugs may be discovered in action and worked-out before too many have been issued in the Commonwealth. The Ishapore INSAS family is different to earlier un-built designs in several ways [which I may now go and describe in the AMW defence thread], but maintains some signs of relation to SLR and AK weapons.

Maritime Effort Underway, Scale Unexpectedly Grand

Rebuilding the Soviet defence forces in the Third Commonwealth has seen the Militia Expert Corps disbanding many of its units and shrinking to a size only two to three times greater than that of, for example, the British army at the turn of the century, despite the Commonwealth's almost seven fold greater population base and five times greater territorial extent. The Air Guard Expert Corps too has shrunk with the final grounding of 1st Commonwealth-era machines supplied by the then-ailing USSR and a taxing shift to total indigenous autonomy.

The Commonwealth Oceanic Guard, meanwhile, has always been regarded the most junior service, as was the navy under the preceeding Principality. Perhaps it is in part because Llewellyn leaned so heavily on the [British] Royal Navy that Beth Gellert has no great naval tradition since independence. It is, then, a surprise for many foreign observers to learn that the COG Expert Corps is to enroll sufficient personnel and deploy sufficient tonnage to position it amongst the world's largest navies, and to account for most of said tonnage with relatively modern designs.

Debate over whether the Commonwealth -having more citizens, more enemies, and less territory- shouldn't try to match or better the submarine-launched ballistic missile capacity of the likes of Quinntonia, or whether it ought to completely abandon nuclear weaponry. In the end, it has been decided that the Soviets shall establish the Commonwealth with a deterrent on a scale similar to that deployed by the UK, and formerly by France, to make sure at least that one SSBN shall always be on patrol, while falling short of foreign capacities for global obliteration.

Carrier strength is planned to be raised so that the COG can confront a Quinntonian carrier battle group rather than shying away as in the past, while calls again for parity with the entire globe-spanning US Navy appear to have been insufficiently forceful. Clearly, the Third Commonwealth intends to be proof against military blackmail by a single foreign power, but makes no direct military pretention to global superpower itself.

Meanwhile, other major combat strength, both surface and submarine, has a clear bias towards home waters, and more widely to the home ocean. Most submarines are AIP rather than nuclear powered, and, being Ortiagon Class, several times smaller than the alternative nuclear powered Anunkais. Over one hundred thousand tonnes of surface strength is accounted for, in plans, by Gujarat Class multirole corvettes, which are designed to operate within the Indian Ocean, especially in the Bay of Bengal and coastal waters, with a secondary role in patroling sealanes between southern and eastern Asia, eastern Africa, and western South America.

The problem of how few comrades have command experience in naval affairs is one likely to hamper the growth of the COG into a really world-beating force, but defence of the Indian Ocean and protection of trade routes to Sujava, Vietnam (and Laos), Lyong, and Neo-Anarchos -paths plagued by French piracy and skulked by Roycelandian and potentially Chinese and Quinntonian warships- leave the Third Commonwealth with little choice but to press-on... and damn the torpedoes.

Oddly enough, one area where the INU has more experience than most is in naval matters. This is largely thanks to Mumbai's extremely liberal use of its navy during the Indo-Bedgellen War, and also that service's actions in the Sakishima Islands in the Malacca War. While many of the older commanders still scoff at aiding their old enemy the Igovians, no small number of ex-captains, and indeed some lower admirals, are asked by Parliament to volunteer as advisors to the growing Igovian Navy.

The arrival of the INSAS rifles and related ammunition is well-publicized, and more precaution is taken than usual to make sure that none of the weapons find their way into the hands of arms dealers. And although it is expected that at least a week will pass before the rifles can be circulated amongst combat units, most in the INA have high hopes. New weapons for the Irregular Corps, though, are not so likely to be accepted. If the SMLE has one thing going for it, it is simple reliability, and most Irregulars would rather have the accuracy of the SMLE over the automatic capability of the AKM-BG. Ammunition is also an issue, since the Union Irregular Corps uses .303 British standard, and 7.62x39mm is totally alien to INU military formations.

The 14.5mm KPVs recieve quite a bit more interest, if only because they are so large and powerful, and no doubt some Irregular units acquire examples for use in the AA and heavy fire support role.

Hindustani advisors are widely welcomed by the expanding Commonwealth Oceanic Guard as the very ordinary legacy of the Soviet People's Navy is left behind, and former officers from the INU's arguably more travelled fleet are welcomed aboard training ships and invited to speak at universities and infront of COG Soviets. Where Sovietists feel uncomfortable about their branch being perceived as inferior to the INU equivalent that in other fields might be perceived as a little brother, the visiting officers will probably experience it not so much through hostility as countless re-tellings of stories about the sinking of a Roycelandian dreadnought in the Coral Sea, which remains something of a highlight for the maritime defenders of the Commonwealth.

Indian cosmonauts back in intensive training as major rocket components spotted in Victoria Salvadoria

It is about time, one might say, that Quinntonian domination of space be presented with serious competition, that being their way, after all. After several years of stopping and starting, the Indian Soviet Commonwealth is finally back on track towards presenting such.

Since securing Russia's Buran shuttles, An-225 transport aircraft, and related data and technologies, along with a handful of scientists and former USSR/Russia space-programme workers, apparently including more fled since the Tsarist takeover, the Commonwealth's own space-age prospects have vastly improved. It now seems that an intensive campaign of space-flights and trial satellite orbits is set to begin within days, from bases on the island known variously as Victoria Salvadoria, Sri Lanka, and [for the Roycelandians in the audience] Ceylon, in the lead-up to the creation of a Soviet GPS network. This developing programme is being talked-up in many friendly states and potential clients as a sign of revolutionary progress and security, to prove that the Commonwealth's is a viable society on which to base reform.

In news of further major construction work, it is said that materials being gathered at this time are for the building of the COG's second nuclear-powered fleet aircraft carrier, which is rumoured to be a radical configuration, and a naval building project that may see further Hindustani help enlisted as Sovietists investigate the capacities of shipyards at home and in the INU.

With Igovian-surplus weaponry flooding into the INU in numbers not seen since the initial armaments rush of the 1950s, many Unioners feel more obligated than usual to participate in relatively ambitious defense projects, the delivery of over five hundred SPHs at negligible cost being a prime example.

Union naval experts visit the Commonwealth armed with bundles full of MoD studies and projections, tenative warplans and weapon data tables for Igovian consumption. They are all impressed by the size and modernity of the Igovian navy, and take in the Coral Sea stories eagerly before sharing their own tales.

And although the IN will likely buy British when it comes time to replace its Type 12Ms, for diplomatic reasons more than anything else, Unioners express interest in acquiring the 11" turrets off the soon-to-be decomissioned Gull Flag bombardment ships, possibly for another brace of monitors but most likely for installation onto coastal fortifications.

INU shipyards are also quite receptive to Igovian approaches regarding the construction of another fleet carrier. They are as of yet unsure as to just what they might be able to do, but facilities capable of building such a large vessel exist at Daman and Goth Ibrahim Haidari.

It is increasingly clear, to those as close to the Commonwealth as is the INU, that the Soviets are preparing for conflict. The Third Commonwealth smells of ambition, with the space programme finally restarted and a vast rocket system established at the Cosmonautical facilitiy on Victoria Salvadoria, co-operation with South East Asian reformists is at an all time high, crowds are gathering almost daily in the Roycelandian border to protest the continued occupation of Goa, major military co-operatives turning out modern systems at an increased rate by voluntary extension of usually lax working hours, and Guards men and women taking their enrolement in the Militia Auxiliary much more seriously. At last, whole squadrons of armed and operational Hobgoblin fighters, with properly trained pilots, are flying on exercise and patrol over the Commonwealth, and massive MT-4 battle tanks are moving along side MT-3s in combined arms exercises, while new light armoured vehicles under-go serious trials at the start of production.

But this was nothing much next to the final major plan for the Commonwealth Oceanic Guard, as Jaffna's biggest shipworks began to lay-down the force's second fleet carrier. This was the first of two in the Commonwealth Class. And, in line with the earlier described nature of the Third Commonwealth at this time, and its increasing confidence in France's intention to start a war with... pretty much with Asia, it was requested that one of Hindustan's major shipyards, with Union and Soviet workers and technologies, be engaged to begin construction of the second Commonwealth Class while the first was still being built: alone, the Commonwealth did not really have facilities existing to build two of the thousand-foot vessels concurrently, and it was felt that the ships were needed sooner rather than later.

Ashpo (August Shipbuilding Porthmadog) was to be engaged to build the T-4 IFEPS Integrated Full Electric Propulsion System for each ship, which had been decided upon in the stead of earlier-proposed nuclear powering, possibly in admission of the scale of expenditure undertaken by the Third Commonwealth's defence reorganisation. Many other systems for the ship proposed for construction in the INU would also be built in the Commonwealth, but the hull -or rather hulls- would, if possible, be built at Daman or another yard in the Union... the Commonwealth's were trimaran-configured, following the flagship frigate Ood that had lead the Principality's small fleet in the last years of its life, before destruction at the hands of Igovian forces.

The Commonwealth Class design was revealed bit by bit to INU news sources in hopes of convincing authorities and peoples of the exciting nature of the armoured trimaran, which had two islands, IFEPS drive, proposed EM-powered catapults, capacity for navalised Springer and Hobgoblin aircraft, considerable stealth features, several layers of self-protection weaponry, 90,000 ton deep load displacement, thousand foot length, 32 knot sprint, and accommodation for 600 Soviet Marines, amongst other features. In the absence of battleships and with only a quarter of the total number of Quinntonia's carriers, the Soviets were presenting their two future carriers as something special, the new unsinkables.

It presented the prospect of, perhaps some years down the line, making the less radical India available to the INU, perhaps when their smaller British carriers had worn out at last (though no big issue was made of this off hand suggestion by one Sovietist).

Meanwhile, the possibility of selling the Commonwealth's 11" guns was rated good, though there was currently a postponement in withdrawal of one of the two big Soviet gunboats. The first, though, was already being stripped of its systems, and the COG now offered to float the vessel to the INU, if there existed facilities prepared to remove its two triple-mount 11" (actually 279mm) turrets.

Commonwealth to increase co-operation with Bangladeshi development

The People's Republic of Bangladesh has become more interesting to Portmeirion since Commonwealth with West Bengal, and reforms in that new Soviet state have caught the attention of those in Bangladesh who still desire progress. Relations have advanced slowly in part thanks to greater religious observance in the People's Republic, which typically is a good mechanism by which to decrease Soviet interest in a people, but many in the Third Commonwealth are insistant that superstition across the border -and with it the problem of related terrorism infecting West Bengal- will only decline with social progress.

Still hampered by deep corruption in the Bangladeshi bureaucracy, the Commonwealth and the People's Republic are finally moving towards co-operation, possibly motivated by a fear in Dhaka that the Soviets may go under them to organise the growing ranks of the Bangladeshi unemployed and so-called under-employed on a community level that would ultimately see the state's power eroded as happened in West Bengal before its accession to the Commonwealth.

Indian universities, such as the new technology institute in Kolkata, are accepting students from the People's Republic with a view to training workers to co-operate with Commonwealthers in linking elements of Bangladeshi and West Bengali infrastructure and beginning to properly exploit Bangladesh's natural resources, especially its promising natural gas reserves. The number of Bangladeshi children and families moving to the Commonwealth on new viasa arrangements agreed by Portmeirion and Dhaka is also set to increase as poor Bangladeshis come for periods of a few months up to several years to join Indian communes and learn many new skills: this is seen as especially important in ensuring that poor Bangladeshis get another chance for a basic education at a young age and at least have the means to try for university places with a reasonable level of understanding of the complicated works engaged there.

It is hoped that nuclear and other power sources in India can ultimately be used to enhance the extent and reliability of the Republic's infamously feeble power-grid and help the development of local hydro-electrical and other facilities: some Bangladeshi student will, reportedly, work with Indian research reactors at several nuclear power facilities in the Commonwealth.

In related news, the Soviet Commune has begun negotiation with Dhaka with a view to supplying the Bangladesh Air Force with replacements for its decrepit Chinese aircraft and the Russian MiG-29s that it intends to retire after being unable to afford the full scale of its desired force of these machines. Deepak training aircraft, Preston utility aircraft, Dhruv helicopters, and a new NT6 (Miggen) multi-role fighter are amongst the machines that may yet find their way into Bangladeshi service.

Space-launch announced for next week

The Commonwealth is abuzz with excitement over the impending first manned space-flight in its history as Buran is set to carry people for the first time. The first mission is set to come a few months prior to the erection of the Commonwealth's indigenous GPS network due to take place during the courst of this year.

Unioners take the Igovian gunboat offer, and Mumbai's relatively small shipyard complex is made ready to accept the ship. Facilities do indeed exist to handle the turrets, and one will probably be fitted to the unfinished INS Sulawesi, currently in use as a depot ship at Daman, with the others going to coastal fortifications around Karachi.

The MoD is at first stunned at the Igovian aircraft carrier design. It is, by many, deemed a bottomless money-pit, far too futuristic and far too large to be of practical use, and only a minority thinks that it will be finished within the forseeable future. However, it is still a majority that is willing to give the ship a chance and Union funding for the carrier project is approved.

Miggen programme moves-on as Soviets attempt to arm world against rise of regression

Substantial interest was generated in recent years by the Indo-Korean Joint Fighter -NT-6 to the Commonwealth or S-12 to the Choson People's Republic- as a low-cost solution for Soviet-aligned and left-leaning states struggling to replace elderly MiGs and other fighters originally supplied by the since-defunt USSR. Most of the technologies for the Joint Fighter were developed in the Indian Soviet Commonwealth by MAL and JAF, and geared towards production in slightly dated Drapoel factories set-up to produce MiG-21 derivatives and similar aircraft: along side this, the retooling of JAF's Galle factories to produce components for the fighter lead to the nickname Miggen, since those plants had formerly been dedicated to final assembly and full maintenance of the Principality's two squadrons of Viggen jets.

The Miggen (which was never an official title, but is the most widely-applied name since various users and makers assign non-standard designations to the machine) has seen limited use by the Commonwealth Air Guard in training operations as a target tug and in an aggressor role, and as a platform for trial of various systems; was being phased into service with the Drapoel People's Army Air Force before the Neo-Suloist coup to replace Fishbed and Flagon interceptors; served North Yaman, where examples later came into Spyrian possession; and was aquired in very large numbers by Libya, where it defends facilities close to the border with occupied Algeria.

When Spyr took control of Drapoel-built Yamani Miggens it became impossible to deny the fighter's shortcomings. Miggen was designed only to surpass the dated standards of Dra-pol's Fishbed interceptors in enough areas to make it a worthwhile alternative to radical overhaul of those machines and the PAAF's Flagons: it has extremely basic ground-attack capacities and an avionics suite more fitting of the 1980s. Miggen's ground-attack role was only in harassing runs against enemy ground forces as they approached small and remote PAAF airbases from which the deliberately cheap aircraft would operate; and its radar was required to be sufficient only to furnish the PAAF with the most basic level of Beyond-Visual-Range engagement capacity and the beginnings of multi-target-handling ability, and not to go so far as to approach parity with the technological power of top-draw airforces.

The massive change in Soviet-Drapoel relations and, indeed, the collapse of Kurosite administration in Korea negate much of design's original value, and the rise of Yugoslavia's military aviation industry -and specifically the completion of the Novi Avion project- means that non-aligned and pro-Soviet societies now have a viable alternative choice with superior capability to Miggen. Portmeirion refused to see this situation as negative, considering the growth of Belgrade's defence industry to be a positive thing, but the Soviet Commune has long doubted Yugoslav capacity to meet the considerable needs of potentially friendly states, especially in an age of increased association between NATO and an ever more hostile Holy League, and also has pointed to a gulf in the price between the fairly cheap Novi Avion and the very cheap Miggen.

Students and engineers at the March Alaric Aviation Plant (Mal) of Hyderabad, which worked on Miggen along with January Fort Brennus (Jaf) and Dra-pol's Factory 5-2-3 Pyongyang and Factory 5-1-2 Kanggye, produced over time -reportedly in fun and professional curiosity- design work for a development of the original Joint Fighter.

Now the Soviet Commune has elected to begin, at Hyderabad, trial production of the aircraft resulting from this work.

Designated NT-6-II, the upgraded Miggen will be named Golkonda, after the famous ruined fortress that overlooks the Mal factory. The primary change from Miggen to Golkonda is in the evolution to a true multi-role configuration with the ability to deploy guided surface-attack munitions. The need to incorporate a new radar system was taken as an oportunity to also improve air-to-air combat potential through avionics enhancement, and this improvement is mainly seen in the detection range of NT-6-II's suite over that of the original at the expense of any major target-handling increases in air-to-air mode: Golkonda is designed to cheaply arm economically humble nations against attack by more powerful imperialist states, and it is thought that enabling a cheap fighter to threaten enemy aircraft at range is a more significant deterrant than would be preparing for an enduring or effective aerial fight up close. Some detail changes are also evident in airframe features and in the cockpit (where visibility has been improved) after service experience with the original NT-6. As with Miggen, one of the plane's more impressive features is its compact but high-power engine, a field of aeronautics in which the Commonwealth has excelled since the long-overdue success of the Barbarian turbofan that powers Springer-C (it is thought that one unnamed genius and silent hero of the revolution enabled the First Commonwealth's sudden breakthroughs in advanced jet propulsion during the 1980s).

Though a cut above Miggen, the new aircraft is not quite equally capable and modern as the low-cost likes of Yugoslavia's Novi Avion, but is supposed to be a capable realisation of sub-ten-million-dollar fighter ambition. Weaknesses are likely to be identified as the small aircraft's fairly short range and its relatively light weapons load, but it is intended first and foremost as a point-defence interceptor and as an attacker in defence of home soil, so the range issue may be forgivable. Modest weapons load-out may be partly compensated by the possible modification of one pair of hardpoints to carry two small missiles a piece on dual rails.

Mal intends to offer an upgrade package to refit existing NT-6 to something approaching Golkonda standard, though the result would be different in minor details to new-build NT-6-II. Libya is already pressing an interest in this, having in the order of one hundred and sixty baseline Miggen on its hands. Being cleared by the Senate, Mal is to approach Spyr with the upgrade programme.

It is suggested that closer to baseline NT-6 will continue in production configured as conversion trainers for prospective Golkonda pilots. The little aircraft's unusual swing-wing ability is, though it may seem to represent extra complexity, supposed to aid in making take-off and landing safer for new pilots and those in poorer nations that struggle-by with minimal flight-hours and experience.

Some reports now suggest that perhaps sixteen new-build Golkonda fighters were recently exported to the United African Republic and formerly claimed as examples of the less-capable Miggen. Negotiations with Dhaka indicate that twenty-four NT-6-II may sold to the Bangladesh Air Force. Vietnam looks set to be one of the biggest Golkonda-operators, with production getting underway in Hyderabad to supply the Socialist Republic with one-hundred and fifty of the light fighters. Thirty further examples are earmarked for delivery to Laos. The fate of Dra-pol's one-hundred and twenty baseline S-12 (NT-6) fighters is unknown at this time, but the prospect of upgrades being carried out on that fleet depends largely on the success or failure of a Hotanite counter-coup.

Including Miggen and Golkonda, active, destroyed, and on-order, the NT-6 family is well over five-hundred airframes strong and growing, and this without accounting for trainer and specialised variants.

MAL NT-6-II Golkonda (Super Miggen) Multi-Role Light Fighter
Crew: One (NT-6 two-seat conversion trainer associated)
Dimensions: length 13.2m/36.2ft; span 8.4m/23ft wings swept, 11.3m/31ft wings extended
Weight: 5,943kg/13,102lb empty, 9,924kg/21,878lb maximum takeoff
Powerplant: One T6E afterburning turbojet for 4,263kg/9,398lb dry and 7,644kg/16,852lb wet, second afterburn for 10,082kg/22,227lb creates extreme engine wear and is to be used only for emergency sprinting at (and possibly beyond) maximum design speed
Maximum Speed: Mach 2.25 at altitude, Mach 1.4 at sea level
Ceiling: 17,000m/55,775ft
Range: 840km/522miles plus droptank for additional 80km/50miles
Armament:
Guns- 1x30mm BG lightweight aviation cannon or 1xGSh-23 twin 23mm cannon
External Stations- Five hardpoints for 1,850kg/4,080lb of external stores
Bombs- 32kg, 54kg, 225kg, 250kg, 450kg, 500kg and cluster free-fall bombs; 225kg, 250kg laser-guided bombs including Yugoslav LVB-250; 225kg satellite-guided bomb under development
Surface-Attack Missiles- Parliament A, B, C laser and infra-red guided and passive-radar-homing missiles; Grom-B TV guided and passive-radar-homing missiles
Air-to-Air Missiles- DRAR-1, DRAB, U-Darter, A-Darter, Komarac-A infra red-guided missiles; R-24/AA-7 Apex semi-active radar or passive infra-red guided missiles; R-40/AA-6 Acrid command, inertial, and active-radar or infra-red guided missiles; Loviatar-A semi-active radar-guided missile (which may include provision for active-radar modification in terminal stage)
Other Stores- 8x57mm, 6x80mm, 4x122mm rocket pods, single 240mm rockets; napalm tanks; DXJ2 ECM pod
Radar: Naubat Pahad (Drum Hill) multi-mode radar is named for a small hill in Hyderabad, upon which drums were once beaten before announcements were made and upon which now sits a high-tech observatory. Like the smaller and less powerful air-to-air set carried by NT-6, Naubat Pahad can track eight targets and guide missiles against two at a time, but its range against fighter-sized targets is increased to some 75km/40nm, and the distance may approach or possibly even surpass 100km/54nm against bomber-size targets. Against surface targets the radar's range is said to be towards 45km/25nm.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/miggen.jpg
MAL NT-6-II Golkonda for Bangladesh Air Force

The Strainist Revolutionary Army expresses extreme intrest in the possibility of upgrading its existing S-12 models, as well as making further aquisitions of NT-6-II models to supplement air defence over the People's Republic of Sujava. The SRA decision to restrict its modern fighter purchases to Sukhoi's Su-27 and domestic derivatives, while furnishing the with substantial range and capability, has kept aircraft numbers much lower than would be preferred in the former Bonstockian territories than now make up the PRSJ. With revolutionary activity pushing into the Solomons and Papua, and hostile elements encroaching nearby in the Philippines and ISAN, the ability to buy four or more NT-6 units for the price of one Su-35 has become very attractive to Strainist defence planners.

Mal's Union is able to inform the Strainists quite quickly that authorisation has been forthcoming for both upgrade of existing Miggens and for sale to Sujava of new models. Delegates from the Mal Union, the Soviet Commune, and the Commonwealth Professional Civil Service are soon dispatched to confirm contract details, and perhaps arrange for transport of S-12s to Hyderabad for overhaul.

The Indian factory has to admit uncertainty over details of eventual Drapoel production, especially of machines for export, but since it is not believed that the CPRD had need or ability to make major changes after the end of Indian co-operation, this is unlikely to be a serious problem.

In the short term, a minority of Libya's NT-6 are already being shipped for upgrade, as there is no doubt over the detail of production methods in these Indian-built aircraft, but this quick service is carried out with the understanding that, there after, production of new Strainist machines becomes a priority: Portmeirion feels that, inspite of Libya's relative proximity to Europe, the Asian parties are in more immediate peril (and, besides, Tripoli is believed to be concurrently pursuing aquisition of a number of new Yugoslav jets).

In addition to some problems with its models due to producion in the CPRD, Strainist technicians sheepishly admit to having caused a few problems of their own, as they attempted to integrate Yamani craft into their squadrons... most notably, efforts to squeeze in new electronics so that the craft could utilize data gathered from Lyong's ground-based OTH radar system, which has left a few of the craft entirely without internal radar. The ejection systems are also sub-par, if operational at all (OOC: not sure if this is partly due to them coming out of Dra-pol, but I know that some Yamani pilots tried to disable their ejection seats with blowtorches and mallets, due to traditionalist idiocy about cherry blossoms. I'm sure that'll see a few raised eyebrows when the machines get shipped to MAL).

------

As news of progress in the Igovian space programme reaches Spyr, proposals begin to emerge suggesting that some cooperation might be in order. A pan-Progressive GPS system would be both useful to all and more easily manageable for the resources of several combined states, while other joint projects might provide similar benefits... the Spyrans have some experience with satellites, though not always in a conventional manner, their handful of communications and intelligence orbiters having been put in place by CPRD artillery rather than normal rocketry.

Igovo-Trivandrum, Kerala- Indian Soviets announce next phase of revolutionary regeneration

Never under direct British control, seat -over a century ago- of India's first ever democratic council, Gandhi called it India's Evergreen City, Llewellyn established India's space programme near by and named it for Hindustani-born Vikram Sarabhai. The Principality had been launching rockets here since the 1960s, and developed for the city a new high-tech reputation, but, on the ground, motorcycles and autorickshaws provided most mass transportation in the Prince's day.

Sopworth established bus services, but over-all his 1980s Commonwealth reduced public mobility in the name of security and, "communocentric commitment to local regeneration".

The Second Commonwealth further enhanced public mass transit, and made no effort to replace the personal vehicles banned by Sopworth, though the odd Hindustani Ambassador was seen visiting, attracting the attention of locals with gadgets testing emissions, and spreadsheets questioning safety. But the 1990s had also seen the greatest over-all change in the city's modern history. It was established as a university city in the Soviet Commonwealth sense. The wasteful homes of the elite were torn down along with the hovels of the poor, and people moved away to build Pantisocratic Phalansteries across a much wider area. Heavy industry -mostly involved in the space programme and electronics spin-offs-, universities -also science-heavy in prospectus-, major sporting stadia, military stockpiles, media centres, warehouses, trade bazaars, and both regional and state senate facilities now stood where once were houses and shops.

Now there was something else. Along streets used by pedestrians, trailer-hauling tractors, buses, militia vehicles, and livestock, strange new erections rose. Little bays hooked-up to the local power grid and topped by solar panels.

Soon, foreigners in Igovo-Trivandrum (also known as Thiruvananthapuram) would see oddly shaped cars gliding into and out of these bays. See them, but not hear. The vehicles had a pod-like aspect to their frame, possibly shorter than a Mini, but tall enough to seat a Geletian man, and wide enough for his friends. They rolled almost silently on electric motors, and one stacked up behind another in their bays. Interested on lookers would see a young Geletian man drive up in one of the cars, park it in the bay, and then, an hour later, when it was at the front of the stack after others had driven away and its batteries were recharged, an elderly Tamil lady would drive away the very same car while the Geletian was still working away in the university library. At the end of the day, the student would take another car back to his phalanstery outside the city.

The city was at the centre of an operational trial for a method of transport that may spread once kinks were worked-out.

Alaric-Galle, Victoria-Salvadoria- People's Cosmonautical Co-operative launches lunar mission!

With much of its scientific backing coming from Igovo-Trivandrum, the Commonwealth's space programme launched its biggest effort to date.

The spacecraft Tempest was filmed heading for space with five Indian Cosmonauts aboard, including three Geletians -one a woman- and two Indo-Aryans.

Tempest is the largest and most advanced spacecraft -stations aside- ever to be manned in space. Brought incomplete from Kazakhstan and finished by Soviet and ex-patriot Russian technicians and engineers, she is Buran's sister, a machine capable of carrying 20% more weight than Quinntonia's Shuttle and having a superior lift-to-drag ratio.

The Commonwealth's spacecraft was put out of the earth's atmosphere by an almost obscenely large rocket called Soviet Energy, which, according to the Commonwealth Professional Civil Service, is an Indian Soviet realisation of design work begun by scientists from the USSR who defected either at the fall of the USSR or, in most cases, during the Tsarist restoration if they were not amongst those who left openly during the invasion of Kazakhstan and Indian acquisition of so much of the USSR's old space programme. Soviet Energy, the CPCS claims, has a payload capacity tens of tonnes greater than that of Saturn V, and, what is more, unlike the only near-comparable system in the world, Saturn V, the massive Soviet carrier, fuel tank and engines all, is said to have been recovered for re-use!

Pictures of the launch, along with documentaries about the programme, are being broadcast worldwide by Soviet satellites previously orbited by other PCC missions, and, tonight, five Soviet Indians are hurtling towards the earth's moon, which they intend to orbit, and to which they will deliver a small probe before returning to earth in preparation for a lunar landing mission to follow.

Unless a major accident prevents it, the red flag will be the second banner planted on Luna's surface, as no other nation has the background and lunar experience to over-take in the next couple of weeks. This mission finally calms PCC nerves over the possibility of Roycelandia being first to launch a new lunar campaign.

Long live the world revolution.. but no longer alone!

Soviet Commonwealth review, defence restructuring continues

A proud report from Portmeirion, delivered by the 2006 Soviet University Congress

The Indian Soviet Commonwealth, in its third manifestation, since the absorbtion of long-time Marxist state West Bengal and Bihari-breakaway Jharkhand, gained -in one of these- the manpower and -in the other- mineral resources sufficient to make a socialist powerhouse to wash away the working man's disappointment at Bolshevism's disasterous hijack of the USSR. Recognised by many nations as the political successor to the original Soviet state, the Commonwealth's influence is felt in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and in neighbouring Laos and the major revolutionary movements in Cambodia and, to a lesser degree, the Philippines. Strength is drawn from reconcilliation with the Indian National Union, priviliged trade links with Neo Anarchos, and promising new dealings with the Southern Confederacy along with good relations between the Soviets and the Strainist and African Nationalist blocs since common enemies forced these factions to gloss-over minor ideological cracks. Limited trade with Yugoslavia gives the Commonwealth really its first modern connection to continental Europe, which is perhaps significant in symbolic if not so much practical terms.

Now-substantial natural resources of the Commonwealth's own are added to fossil fuels and minerals coming from several continents as a large and growing Soviet industrial sector processes the raw-material of superpower, making profitable industries of defence, space, commercial aircraft, transport, alternative energy, communications, and tourism.

Recent years, having seen Soviet forces fighting Roycelandia and France and experiencing tensions with numerous other powers over the Commonwealth's support of revolutionary movements abroad, along with border tensions opposite Bihar and North Hindustan and friction in Africa, meaning that militarisation has been gradually increasing since shortly before the start of serious Holy League imperialism.

A population more than 50% higher than that of the Soviet Union at its peak before the loss of the Estenlands -comparable to all of the home nations of Roycelandia and the Holy League combined-, and recently acquired mineral wealth and healthy trade ties and political satellites leaves the traditionally militant Geletians and their Indo-Aryan comrades in a strong state of armament at the time of this mid-year Commonwealth and Defence Review.

Manpower is increasing with a recovery of revolutionary spirit in the rise of a new generation that hardly remembers the violence and suspicion of Sopworth's '80s, and the Indian Soviet Commonwealth -unlike other large nations such as China, Japan, Russia, and those of Western Europe- has, crucially, a young population supporting relatively few economically inactive elderly people, not to mention benefits such as socialised healthcare and low obesity which make the population vibrant and vital, and give the military a recruitment pool of disproportionate size and quality. Roycelandians are fat, Europeans are old, Chinese are little emperors growing-up, and Geletians are athletes, workers, walking temples!

Like the USSR before it, the ISC has started its defence restructuring from a position of naval inferiority relative to many potential rivals. Acquisition of a single fleet carrier took years, and ultimately left the Commonwealth with a heavy bill for foreign construction, local modification, transit, and repair of a nuclear powered carrier smaller than most of Quinntonia's twenty fleet carriers. Negotiation to build one of two radical new carriers in the INU was a success, but it has now been announced that the trimaran stealth carrier (TSC) project has been abandoned, Soviet Consuls declaring that working assessments had concluded that costs resulting from massive technical challenges and related production delays mean that more conventional carriers, "incorporating some of the advanced features of the TSC into a conventional monohull vessel" can likely be designed and built in less time than the TSCs could be built even with design proposals being supposedly complete.

Keen to make certain that the Indian National Union remains a close ally of the Soviet Commonwealth in spite of the Union's other ties, such as to the Walmingtonian Empire, the Soviet Commune still hopes to make some use of Hindustan's famous shipyards in building whatever carriers do eventually result from on-going work. The process of training shipwrights, expanding facilities, and gathering materials continues during final design work.

The successful start of a lunar programme and the trial of new mass transit technologies in the south of the Commonwealth are indicative not only of great progress, but of a lead role being taken by a revolutionary society that it here to stay. Importantly, it indicates strength enough to justify the military build-up of recent times and allay fears of war destroying revolutionary progress and spirit at home.



A defence review uncovers new statistics (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=9385171&postcount=2)

Soviet Military Deployments and Military/Political Missions Globally

Indian Subcontinent

Soviet State of Bihar

The Bihari People's Liberation Army is currently being disarmed and a Bihari section of the Commonwealth Guard raised in its place. 150,000 Guard personnel are expected to remain on active duty in Bihar to help with development projects and to fight Ranvir Sena and Patelist remnants.

Karnataka Soviet State

On the border between Karnataka and Roycelandian Goa some 100,000 CGMEC troops back-up irregular forces sealing the frontier and preparing to repulse invasion or enforce annexation of the controversial enclave.

People's Republic of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been courted for many years as a Soviet ally, initially against Llewellyn and, to a lesser degree, the INU. The collapse of the USSR saw an attempt by the ISC to take-over in a more influential relationship with Dhaka, and Bangladesh began to acquire Indian-Soviet defence equipments and made some efforts to further economic socialisation.
Today this relationship continues, the BAF having recently received NT-6II Golkonda fighters, but the Commonwealth is constantly frustrated by endemic corruption in Bangladesh which, given the scale of challenges presented by a poor economic start point, large population, and major natural hazards, makes it difficult to push through any really significant egalitarian reform or notable social progress.
Efforts to progress and integration continue through social campaigning often unpopular with corrupt officials, national-level co-operation on major infrastructure, and much more difficult Soviet-sponsored anti-corruption drives.
A few hundred Soviet military liasons are typically to be found in the PRB.

People's Republic of Nepal

Having deployed CAG assets into combat with pre-unification China over the defence of the Nepali revolution, Soviet involvement is now surprisingly low. Trade is conducted at state and community level between the Soviets and the Nepalese Maoists, which Commonwealthers apparently feel is sufficient to enable the survival of a leftist order in the country, and some aid continues to arrive at an ever weakening trickle.
Many Commonwealthers individually or at community level continue to campaign and organise for the future of the Nepali revolution, however, and thousands of citizens are independently engaged in economic co-operation, aid, and far-left propaganda in Nepal.
Only a few dozen Soviet military advisors and attaches remain in the country.

South East Asia

Socialist Republic of Vietnam

An ally since the early 1980s, Vietnam began increasingly to benefit from Indian-Soviet support as the USSR first looked in on itself and later collapsed during the time in which the Commonwealth was coming into its own and becoming capable of offering such support.
Trade is significant between Hanoi and Portmeirion.
The recent imperialist crises in the region caused an upsurge of military aid, which went a long way to modernising PAVN equipment and also saw the beginning of new training standards and tactical doctrine under Indian-Soviet influence.
Five thousand Soviet personnel are stationed across the SRV, some helping to staff advanced air defence systems and train the PAVN in the application of new technologies, while others maintain a number of Soviet military bases that see limited year-round activity but function as staging areas during times of crisis.

Lao People's Democratic Republic

A Soviet presence here is felt to a large degree through a Vietnamese proxy that itself accepts Commonwealth influence all the more readily as a result of Portmeirion's allowance of SRV oversight in much Laotian business.
Perhaps several hundred Soviet observers, advisors, and other agents are posted in Laos to support the progress of revolutionary industrialisation and socialisation, as well as security.

Democratic Kampuchea

Since the break-up of Marimaia, the Indian Soviet Commonwealth has supported a leftist insurgency in Cambodia in opposition to the nationalist government and a rampantly unpopular monarchist movement. Today, the Khmer Rouge is in effective control of most of northern Cambodia, leading Portmeirion to officially recognise the Angkar-lead state of Kampuchea in place of the nation of Cambodia.
The Khmer Rouge, boosted by the imperialist crisis and the resulting Soviet aid plus, in turn, the victories that this enabled, is estimated to have a strength approaching 40,000 fighters.
There have been sporadic claims of anti-Thai racism in the movement at large, apparently based on a resented Marimaian legacy for the ills of which are the Thais generally blamed.
Over one thousand Commonwealth Guard personnel are observing or actively assisting the Khmer Rouge.

Republic of the Philippines

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Filipino communist movement broke its decades-long tradition of self-reliance and asked for international support. This came from the Indian Soviet Commonwealth, and has continued to come for almost two decades since.
The Philippines Liberation Soviet (PLS) is a Soviet organisation dedicated to the Filipino revolution, directed by the famous Alexi Rhys-Petrov, Soviet Lieutenant in the Philippines Liberation Struggle. It runs additional supplies and arms to the New People's Army (NPA) (which has long proven capable of acquiring part of its needs without help and in the face of government and foreign efforts to crack-down) and channels funds to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its legitimate face, the National Democratic Front.
The NPA's strength has recovered significantly in recent months and years, climbing back above 20,000 full-time fighters supported by unknown numbers of irregulars and the help of hundreds of thousands of citizens and many more passive sympathisers. It is also better armed than it has ever been in the past.
NPA strength is greatest in the southeast coast (Bicol), Quezon, and the central plains of Luzon, and southern and eastern Mindanao. Operation is also heavy through the Visayas, and cells operate in Manila and other metropolitan centres.
The NPA is opposed to foreign occupation and influence in the Philippines, and remains more independent from Soviet control than is the case in some revolutionary movements with which the Commonwealth is involved. It is popular for opposing Roycelandian and other influence as well as for confronting crime and government corruption. So called Sparrow units assassinate crime bosses, bent police officers, and crooked politicians with equal bravado.
Soviet support is largely owing to a desire to see that the Philippines be free of imperialism and the capitalist yoke, so the struggle here is sometimes a lower priority than in places where the Indian revolution also stands to directly benefit. In recent months the Soviets have phased-out many of their programmes supporting the Filipino revolution as the Strainists take-over in the role of provider.
Over one hundred Guard personnel remain.

Africa

Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

Here, defending the Libyan revolution and Soviet petrochemical interests, the Commonwealth Guard maintains forty-five-thousand personnel and helps to maintain Libya's over-sized military facilities and weapons stockpiles.

United African Republics

Here the Soviets maintain a large naval base on Zanzibar Island.
Some military and fairly significant other trade is conducted between the two societies, but it pales next to the Commonwealth's commercial relationships with the INU or even Neo-Anarchos.
Many Soviet analysts fear a break-down of the UAR into perhaps three parts (Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe), likely after the demise of Derek Igomo, and the Commonwealth has lately begun to step-up trade, aid, and propaganda because of this, hoping to maintain positive relations and favourable administrations after such an event, which might easily lead to civil war and ruin, the feasts of the imperialist and the capitalist.
Plans are rumoured to exist for the Soviet take-over of Zanzibar in such an event.
Three thousand Guard personnel are stationed in the UAR, but the Indian population of Zanzibar fluctuates daily.

South West African Soviet Commonwealth (Namibian Soviet State)

After offering limited support to SWAPO during the independence struggle, at which time the Commonwealth's attentions were largely elsewhere, Soviet forces arrived in strength only recently. Deployed as part of a multi-national fleet to fight the Holy League in West Africa, Soviet assets landed at Wavis Bay and Luderitz, establishing the latter as a waypoint between India and West Africa.
Huge Soviet aid and manpower is now being directed towards discouraging privatisation of Namibia's resources and to responsible development of the nation.
It is thought that Soviet liason teams are seeking to organise the arrest and trial of counter revolutionaries who have attempted to sell the southwest African people down the river. The National Defence Force (NDF), reforming as the SWA Commonwealth Guard, is already being investigated in an effort to identify elements in legacy of the SWATF for scrutiny.
The operation is attempting generally to restore to SWAPO an ideological champion and guide, to save Namibia before it falls totally into the capitalist mire.
Twenty thousand Indian Guard personnel are based in Namibia, and the population fluctuates constantly as forces make for West Africa.

West Africa

Since the European invasion of the region an estimated one hundred thousand Guard volunteers are attempting to reach West Africa by various means and paths, many now travelling through the African Commonwealth. The Soviets intend to back partizan resistance and take part in it so as to cripple French plans and exhaust the Holy League's coffers and armies.

Latin America

Neo-Anarchos

The Anarchan revolution is, in the constitution of the Fourth Commonwealth, to be protected by Soviet might with all the resources that would defend the Soviet revolution. Trade with the communes of Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana is comparable to that with the Indian National Union in importance to the Commonwealth's economy.
It is thought that up to twenty thousand Commonwealth Guard personnel are currently in Neo-Anarchos, though there is no official deployment of forces or basing agreement involved at this time.

Europe

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

In defence of Yugoslavia -or, more correctly, in fighting the Holy League- the ISC has six fighter squadrons at JNA bases and five thousand personnel in country.

Conclusion

With around 450,000 personnel deployed, the Commonwealth Guard has 2.5 million unaccounted-for forces including almost 1.7 million of the Militia Expert Corps (the rest are of course Oceanic and Air Guard personnel at home and at sea). This body of men and women appears to be mobilising.

(OCC: I'm pretty sure that's correct, on Nepal. Kanendru did disappear, but I think he made a big enough mark while he was around to warrant our recognition of his model. Nepal, if I remember correctly, isn't necessarily ruled by the Maoists, but rather by a type of republican assembly the likes of which now runs Nepal in reality. The monarchy was only overthrown fairly recently, after all. But it isn't a terribly major point.)

Red Flag on Luna!
Soviets land on moon! Iskra!

Despite -perhaps because of- drought last year and preparation for international war, the Indian Soviet Commonwealth has been running a low-key Luna landing project that today bears fruit and comes to global attention.

And the first person on the moon since the end of Quinntonia's Apollo project is also the first woman on the moon.

Sylvia Gulati, a twenty-seven year old non-practicing Hindu living in Chhatisgarh, landed two hours after midnight, commonwealth time, on the 1st of January 2007, proclaiming, "Jai Hind!" (victory to India) as she stepped from a landing craft of the Commonwealth Space Ship Buran.

It has since been revealed by the Peple's Cosmonautical Co-operative that last year's well-publicised Luna orbit was in fact part of a search for an ideal landing spot that eventually selected a site near the south pole.

Gulati is part of a team sent to construct stage one of a... permanent Soviet station on the moon!

Comrade Sylvia and her mission partners -Tamil Nadu's Gerenovix and West Bengal's Lenin Chowdry- will be the first people ever to stay on he moon, remaining for three days and working to construct limited dwellings and scientific facilities. It is not known yet whether members of this team will join a second landing later in the year, when pioneers are set to arrive for the first chapter in the history of the Luna Soviet Commonwealth.

Red flags have been planted around a perimeter of two square kilometres, and, amidst tight security, Buran vehicles #2 and 3 are now clearly being prepared for launch in Sri Lanka.

Long Live the Revolution!

The Quinntonian Space Command greeted the news of the successful landing with some laughter. The first woman to land on the moon, in 1976, Dora Menendez, was amused to learn that the Soviets had beaten her to it, over thirty years later! The commander of the first limited station and research center on the moon, Col. Jon Berg, commander of the 1988 mission, didn’t have a very good sense of humour when he remarked, “One would think with their education system that they would learn some history. But good for them, it is about time that the joint Quinntonian Roycelandian efforts in space get some kind of challenge.

But, as always, in space, especially due to the anti-militarization treaties, we are all just human beings, and if the Soviets need any help with their “success” then we are ready to give it to them from either of the Quinntonian/Roycelandian Space Stations. The Soviets were also informed of the unmanned cache of materials that the Quinntonians left at one of their many stations on the moon, all unmanned for now, in case they should run into any trouble. And the Director if NASA was quoted as saying, “Welcome to the Second level of Heaven, the way to the Third is in the Bibles that we left there.”

OOC-Unlike the RL USA, we never lost our ability to launch to the moon, and have been making successful missions there, at least once per year, with major Roycelandian cooperation, as well as later help and cooperation from other NATO members.

WWJD
Amen.

The Roycelandian Government sends a congratulatory Telegram to the Soviets, hoping they enjoy the view of the Earth from the Moon, as well as the view of the Roycelandian and Quinntonian Lunar Bases which have been there since the 1980s.

Indeed, it is joked in Port Royal that the Soviet education system must be truly appalling or politically biased if the Soviets honestly thought they were getting to the Moon for the first time in 30-odd years. Even the French had been there (admittedly using Roycelandian Starseeker rockets) before the Soviets, and there was a joint Roycelandian-French Space Station as well.

Like their Quinntonian counterparts, the Roycelandians stressed the importance of putting aside Earthly squabbles in Space, and even invited the Soviets to join the Roycelandians on one of the Space Stations for a celebration of their ascendancy to the Lunar Club!

OOC: That's great, but it only works if you've done something about it IC, really, eh? Pat on the back, there.

Portmeirion, Raipur

A golden statue of a worker with the world hoisted upon his broad shoulders. A reflecting pond mirroring the Green Tower. Balloons amusing some few children. The impossibility of seeing horizontal for more than a hundred metres in any direction for all the eclectic clutter, the trees, and the undulating earth under-written with the vaults of India's Final Soviet.

Some youngsters, one dressed in Guard uniform, another a saree, the last in chequered trousers and nothing else, wrapped all in opiate haze, play Anglo-Indian pop tunes. We don't care about no government warnings, 'bout their promotion of a simple life, and the dams they're building...

Through gates looking out upon the lake recently crossed passes the Hindustani ambassador and necessary associates, walking along a winding path to direct democracy to be welcomed into the high capital of Soviet India, no doubt given cause to flinch for the blood-red decor, the bust of Subhash Chandra Bose, the lines of revolution rhetoric daubed upon this surface and that, and the besworded hips of so many amongst the hundreds attending.

"All power to the Soviets!"

An Indo-Geletian woman shouts from the speaking platform on the senate floor.

"Long live the Revolution! Beddgelert am Byth!"

The assembled Commonwealthers reply in chorus, looking to the Hindustani party and finishing in applause, "Jai Hind!" a thousand voices in the acoustically-considerate hall.

Three carnyx sound from the chambers above, the flags of recognised nations and movements -Soviet, Anarchist, Union, Bangladeshi, Namibian, Lao, Libyan, Khmer, Strainist, Chinese,.. Armandian?- unfold around the room, and the session comes to order on a note much less enthused than the slogan-rich introduction may have suggested.

"Comrades! Inspite of our strength and our progress..." Starts Bethan Singh, "the global situation worsens. A few months ago we were ready to crush feudal tyranny!

"Then struck drought. Union and Chinese aid saved our stomachs, but the economic situation has halted construction of would-be CS Anarchism and made it impossibly to replace Cobra and Gainda tanks with Hathi and Peripatus models, or to pursue Springer's stealthy successor.

"The British and Australasians have lost their bottle. The Italians, Tulgarians, and Russians have entered the fighting. Abassamara menaces Eritrea. The Quinntonians have thrown their lot in with the League-sympathetic Roycelandians in Suez, isolating Libya and Yugoslavia. Neo-Anarchos has fallen silent, supplying oil but not warriors to the struggle and the course to victory. The United African Republics have weakened. The Depkazi Caliphate holds talks with feudal Kazakhstan.

"A few short months have given to the oppressor an advantage where lately his position was hopeless. We find ourselves the underdogs, as those fighting for liberty are wont to do.

"We should recognise this... but we should not shrink from the task, for we stand firm upon the shoulders of giants, invulnerable dead of 1789, 1871, 1917, of Paris and of Kronstadt, of Wat Tyler, Sylvia Pankhurst, S.C.Bose, of Brennus, Vercingetorix, Arminius.

"Now, for treachery and blight, our triumph shall not come so easily as it should, but we know that any blood we shedshall fall to stain the earth red!

"Let our crowds be fed on nerve gas and our ash, for the people united is a wonderful thing!"

The Soviets signal to the Unioners their readiness for radical action. We must continue, so the wisdom goes, to co-operate and pool our resources, but with your means more limited the Soviets must stick to the slowest ship in the convoy... does Mumbai have a priority target that could be best struck in unision? For we are prepared to do it, no matter how tough.

As Graeme says, if we take them down one at a time and never drop our mutual guard, we still can bring victory to India.

Portmeirion

Before discussing policy the Union ambassador is sure to thank the Soviets for their support of the Indian National Union, especially with regards to the acquisition of modern military equipment. Without Igovian assistance the INA would still be very much in the 1970s, and likely unable to effectively combat the Feudalist enemy.

The conduct of the war against the Holy League remains a difficult matter, one that many Unioners have given-up on solving in the immediate future.

"We doubtless possess a clear superiority in terms of naval forces in the Indian Ocean, and can expect to fight any enemy there on favorable terms. But the Holy League has next to no assets on the Indian Ocean or its African coastline. Save for Austrian Mauritius, the only colonies there are Roycelandian, and I do not believe that it would be in our interests to provoke Roycelandia's NATO allies to war. Not, at least, in light of our commitments elsewhere. The League is fighting this war very much on its own terms now, no doubt having recognized the near-disaster that was their involvement in the Philippines.

"Given the present state of affairs concerning the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, it is absolutely imperative that we secure for ourselves both allies and bases closer to West Africa, namely the African Commonwealth. Libya might be resupplied more quickly from there, and our naval task force off West Africa will not be obliged to operate so far away from a friendly port. From Tanzania our troops can be moved into position overland, ideally by rail, and logistical convoys might need only cross the Indian Ocean to deliver their supplies. Kinshasa may attempt to capitalize on its important strategic position, and we must not let this surprise us. Certainly we would rather have them on our side than opposed to our efforts.

"An Amphibious landing in Togo or Benin might be our best option for large-scale entry into the West African war. Provided Nigeria's airbases are crippled and its fleet destroyed, we might be able to inflict defeats upon the Frenchmen heavy enough to force them to evacuate the region. The only way that we will be able to accomplish victory is through a unified effort, and Unioners are fully ready to cooperate in every capacity with their Igovian friends and comrades. We must implore the Igovians to seek a diplomatic solution to the Suez issue, as the avoidance of another front in this war is vital, but if no solution is reached than we Unioners stand ready to defend India from any aggressor. This I can say with certainty."

OOC: That's great, but it only works if you've done something about it IC, really, eh? Pat on the back, there.

Erm, that was IC...

(OOC: Yeah, but was any of it ever RPd before? I could just say, now, well, Serbia put a man on the moon in 1960, a woman on mars in 1970, and has had a standing population on the moon since 1980, or something, despite having never mentioned it before. Which would be silly, and it would make me look silly to mock US-Royce efforts as inferior when you didn't even know I was going to pull that our of my... hat.)

[OOC: As I recall, a Franco-Roycelandian space program described in a post some time past had, as a goal, a moon landing. At that point, no mention was made of Roycelandian presence on the moon, though it would seem to have been quite relevant if they've already been on the moon for two decades. A female astronaut in the original US space programme? That I can see as happening without mention. Bases on the moon, contradictions with existing RP aside, are an entirely different matter. At the very least, its territory that would need to have been claimed on joining AMW, and I dont recall anyone doing so.

In other news, the first hermaphrodite octogenarian astronaut waves at everyone from her moon-hut, placed by Spyran rockets in 1951 during the oft-forgotten Lyongese 'moon cult' period].

OOC: That's great, but it only works if you've done something about it IC, really, eh? Pat on the back, there.

We have both of us. Years ago for me, and I seem to remember both France and Royce doing theirs maybe a year ago, but I could be wrong, maybe Royce could clear that up. Mine was before we even went to the new Jolt format.

As for the bases, they wouldn't be part of the claim, as I don't have any settlements there. I have unmanned bases that facilitate the many landings that we do to various parts of the moon. There was once a thread where we all decided that we would not do things like build bases or make claims on the moon, nor would we militarise space. I never IC named names or anything, but I mentioned our space programs a few times, including the idea that we were doing constant missions to the moon and never lost that capability.

WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Silliness aside, the reality is that Roycelandia and the USQ have been to the moon many times, and more recently than the Soviets (we do, after all, have a Space Centre in Kenya).

I think, however, we should agree that there is to be no "claiming" of anything on the Moon- ie, several AMW nations can get there, and it's got a great golf course and Moon Buggy track, and that's about the end of it.

(OOC: Obviously not more recently than the Soviets, as they're up there at this minute, and you can't get much more recent than that.)

(OOC: Obviously not more recently than the Soviets, as they're up there at this minute, and you can't get much more recent than that.)

I’ll give you that! LOL!

WWJD
Amen.

Alaric-Galle, Sri Lankan Soviet State

An audio-visual link from the great city's famous Second University enables viewers in the Indian National Union, United African Republics, Strainist countries, People's Republics, Socialist Republics, Anarchist communes, People's Democratic Republics, the Socialist Federal Republic, and the Armandian Combine to see a gathering of significance.

Debate rages. Fears long held are let loose. Then movement begins in the meeting.

"Comrades, we are upon a time of crisis." Portuguese refugee comrade Vitor De Sousa.

"Indeed! Apart from blockade, war, and drought, the economy stagnates." Aofie ap Abomorix, who continues, "Growth has been fantastic for almost quarter of a century, but we have run out of poverty to eradicate, and this is where left economies have traditionally lost their initially impressive way. Ours is different to the USSR's, CPRDs, and such, it is democratic, and we have not turned stagnation into recession as would have a capitalist economy, but the people no longer perceive the immediate, inspiring, pressing, and practically resolvable problems that we inherited from the inequitous capitalist era."

A French exile, now, Marie Ducluzeau, representing Pondicherry. "This has been upon us since I escaped to the Second Commonwealth. It was put-off only by the controversial decision to accept the Bengali Communist Party's accession bid after they moved against expected Union membership. In fact, modernising West Bengal has represented a strange economic reprieve for the last several years, hiding and delaying the slow-down elsewhere. "

"The comrade is correct." A familiar voice, familiar face, at last, for foreign observers. Sopworth Igo spoke. "People are content at home. The Second Commonwealth feared counter-revolution because of a widely observed atmosphere of complacency. Enthusiasm from and for West Bengal, political reform, and the conflicts initiated by the Holy League and NATO have put paid to that with the rise of the Third Commonwealth, and for that we thank Bengal, the masses, and our ridiculous enemies.

"Now we do not fear counter-revolution and with Liu gone and the Bengali economy 34.25% stronger according to the lowest estimate -from a respectable source- that I have read, we feel strong enough to repulse invasion."

Adiatorix broke in. "We have stability. Nobody is poor. The revolution has been secured at the third attempt. The Guard is large, trained, and armed. Transport links are working, and we have put in place measures to make our economy the most balanced in terms of strength and environmentalism."

Chivo's voice cut in over the broadcast to explain that while, for example, the average Hindustani may pollute even less than a Commonwealther and the average Briton may be worth even more to his nation's economy, Sovietists estimated that they had achieved the best possible balance given modern means and needs.

"So the defining issue is security, which is to say stability and sustainability, and which is in fact becoming stagnation once again. The same problem as killed the Second Commonwealth is rising again, for all that we really achieved before were intermediate and temporary solutions, effective as they were at the time."

Graeme Igo, Grandfather of the Revolution, rose to speak, adding much weight to the proceedings by his respected words.

"Every Senate-day more than forty million citizens attend our quarter-million Senates to cast more than forty-million votes. Thousands of Civil Servants are required and the masses accept their security and economic comfort. We do not chase the eradication of poverty now that it is gone, and so we do not push for growth. Our science is good enough for our needs so its progress slows.

"We are not working towards infinite and perfect results because we are happy now. If this continues we shall never have limitless power, never really colonise Luna, never put comrades on Mars, never escape the inevitible collapse, far, far in the future, of this space-born rock into oblivion. Maybe even find ourselves behind the oppressors in these some-day vital things.

"These issues seem remote, they do not press us now, but knowing that some day they will is enough to tell us that the system we have now will, eventually, be proven wrong... and if that is so then it is wrong now.

"Comrades, a new plan is required to destroy complacency. The Feudalists would whip their subjects into action, the capitalists would manufacture a war or terror plot. We shall add a new layer to our great democracy!

"I put to the Senates a petition to a referendum. If I succeed we shall vote on whether or not to hold elections -by the Local Senates- to new Soviets. These will represent the Phalansteries, Guards, and industries without the need to await forty million votes every few days, without the need for so many Civil Servants. These Soviets will be comprised of only the most respected comrades, the most wise and enthused, and the most loyal to the revolution. The Senates shall remain to provide over-sight, retaining the power to organise petitions and the resulting referenda and to recall disappointing Soviet delegates and elect new ones. We shall prevail! The Revolution shall advance!"

All assembled: "All Power to the Soviets! Jai Hind!"

Commonwealth Referendum #47 was called... and passed.

So... the creation of a representative democracy is the next phase in political enlightenment? I kind of thought you already had a stripped down form of this with the various Soviets already, but this really seals it, doesn't it? The people have been turned into an electorate, instead of the direct democracy that always seperated you from everyone else.

Or am I missing something?

WWJD
Amen.

That's what I read as well, Quinn. I guess the Soviets have just become a leftist democratic superpower.

Speaking in Yorkshire, England, a Soviet ex-pat, citizen by marriage to a local 3rd generation Briton of Gujarati extraction, explains to a crowd consisting largely of members of the nation's small Socialist and tiny Communist Parties and several local Labour Unions the general nature of what some are calling the Fourth Commonwealth.

"...The Indian Soviet Commonwealth remains one of the few places on earth where the electorate can call referenda on any issue at any time, and unlike, say, Switzerland (OOC: which may or may not even have the system at all under its current government), major national institutions -the Senates- are established and practiced in enabling and administering these referenda.

"The Soviet membership, elected from and by the masses on a local basis, is subject to immediate recall through these Senates.

"There are no parties, no periods in which politicians can enact counter-democratic and unpopular legislation with impunity for X years, no campaign contributions, and, clearly, the Soviet Commonwealth remains apart from the west's party-oriented faux democracies.

"Practicality has prevailed and the Commonwealth fed itself up on new political vigour and enthusiasm.

"The revolutionary Indians have now finally grasped what they aimed for in the revolution of 1982, this is all that has happened.

"Representative democracy exists in Soviet India on a much more intimate scale than anywhere in the capitalist world, and, more importantly, is over-ridden by the power of direct democracy.

"The Soviet model, one can expect, will now be pushed even more aggressively and effectively than before. The autocrats must fear now more than ever the enemy within. Long live the Revolution!"

Naturally, ignoring as will most foreign governments the reason and neccesity for a shift towards political expediency, the Strainist Party views changes in the Soviet Commonwealth as an affirmation of their own ideological supremacy... it is only proper that the not-quite-there ideology of the Indians should correct itself by moving towards the natural truth, as represented by the Strainist way.

Fourth Commonwealth Declared! An Era Reviewed...

With new elections to the Soviets proceeding rapidly, retiring Civil Servants consider the brief years of the Third Commonwealth.

We have, they say, achieved great things in West Bengal and fractured Bihar. We have delivered developmental aid and shared political wisdom with Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Eastern Gabon, Namibia, Libya, Madagascar, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, and Southern Guyana. We have carried volunteer fighters to the defence of West Africa and of Yugoslavia -and by extension Hungary and the Czech Republic- when they have faced Holy League imperialism. We have re-opened relations with China and begun rapprochement with the African Commonwealth, Angola, and lately Armand and perhaps Dra-pol. We have stood to apologise for the crimes of the Principality, carried-out not only at home but against our neighbours, and for allowing Llewellyn's grievances with the Indian National Union to influence policy in the First Commonwealth, and we have paid significant reparations to Mumbai. We have faced-up to capitalist neo-colonialism at the same time as feudal oppression and we have not bowed. We have put comrades on the moon where they have become the first in history to stay for several days and we have laid the foundations of a lasting settlement. We have suffered hardship and we have continued our march, always towards victory!

Now the Final Soviet makes another historic announcement. The Commonwealth Guard is to demobilise its strategic nuclear forces and dismantle the majority of its strategic-grade warheads. INU and Combine agencies have been invited to observe the disposal process in the interests of the Indian environment and mutal community of the sub-continent.

Many had called in the past for an up-sizing of the nuclear force, citing issues such as the environmentally disasterous Roycelandian super-bomb to which the Soviets have never constructed a like answer, the massive size of Russian nuclear forces, and the fact that the United States maintains a ballistic-missile submarine fleet several hundred percent larger than the Commonwealth's, which has been comparable with the forces of the much smaller British Empire.

But now the COG's four Liopleurodon ferox Class SSBNs are to be refitted as high-capacity SSGNs and/or Strainist-style submarine transport vessels. The Commonwealth's Agni I and II ICBMs are to be disarmed and investigations will determine whether any of their components may be of use to the People's Cosmonautical Co-operative.

Nuclear research shall continue, as shall nuclear power generation, and the Guard will maintain its small stocks of tactical nuclear weapons: land and sea mines, torpedoes, depth-charges, artillery shells, and surface-to-air missiles, until such time as capitalist and feudalist powers dismantle their own arsenals.

Related announcements, given less lofty profile, have indicated the destruction of chemical weapons stocks long kept in storage -they were primarily a tool of the Principality-, and a refocus of biological and genetics research in the defence sector to work even more seriously towards cures and preventatives, though non-lethal (chemical and genetically-modified biological) weapons research shall continue, "in light of the successful defence by the Second Commonwealth of the Malagasy Republic against Roycelandian aggression" which ammounts in itself to the first official admission of Soviet involvement in the mysterious sleeping sickness that cut a swathe through the Colonial Guard's white-majority ranks during their short-lived intervention in Madagascar.

Some opposition exists to the non-lethal weapons project as an anarchist minority in the Commonwealth claims to smell a move towards centralisation and mass-line control with the new era of Sovietism and the increased focus on weapons that could be used to subdue rather than destroy. These concerns have been widely dismissed in Soviet votes and through a lack of interest in Senate petitions.

Unioners watch developments in the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth closely, and largely support the creation of the Fourth Commonwealth. It is not, after all, the business of Unioners to tell the Soviets what government, or lack thereof, is best for them, and so long as the ISC refrains from oppression most Unioners don't have any reason to dislike the place. But certainly the Soviets' bold and well thought-out political development contrasts significantly with the INU's muddled and confused political ideology, as has always been the case.

Nuclear disarmament is met with widespread approval in the INU, which has never tried to develop a WMD arsenal of its own. A minority opinion holds that the dismantlement of the ISC's strategic forces is a very bad thing, giving the Holy League and their associates the ability to destroy India without India being able to do anything about it. Deterrence, they reason, is especially important in this era of absolute monarchs and mad despots, who show no aversion to the wholesale slaughter of noncombatants. And if the ISC keeps its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, doesn't it run the risk of starting a nuclear war still? At least, these Unioners say, the Igovians might want to keep their nuclear weaponry until the conclusion of this latest war, at which point the importance of such things will doubtless diminish worldwide. There are mutterings about the INU acquiring Soviet nuclear warheads and missile technology, and about the Union commencing its own bomb program, perhaps in cooperation with the African Commonwealth. What Igovians think of this is anyone's guess, although most Unioners continue to view WMDs of any kind with extreme distaste.

With reactions to the formation of the Fourth Commonwealth come usual requests for military aid, this time for AKM-BGs to equip militia formations. Certainly the INU produces more than its fair share of Stens, but, although cheap, they are not of much use outside urban areas.

Soviet arsenals -from phalansteric workshops to giant industrial estates- can certainly supply AKM-BG in good quantity, but Ishapore Small Arms Factory still has jibs for production of Ishapore-Enfield rifles and can turn-out INSAS-2 rifles for tens of percent less than the standard INSAS-1, the difference being INSAS-2's use of stampings and pressings instead of machining as in Soviet INSAS-1s. Depending on Mumbai's needs these options are all available, with INSAS-2 being marginally the more expensive to Raipur.

The first stage of the Soviet nuclear disarmament has been filmed taking place at Porthmadog, Madras, where the Liopleurodon ferox -lead vessel in its class of four- can be seen coming in to dock after several weeks spent lingering off the coast of Roycelandian East Africa with Nairobi and Khartoum locked into her targetting computer.

Unioners quickly alter their request for finished AKM-BGs to one for INSAS machine tools, upon their realization that the introduction of a new rifle and ammunition type, one that is not and never has been in production in the Indian National Union, is not the best idea.

Experts from the INU are on hand to attend the dismantlement of Soviet nuclear weapons, while at the same time a few Unioners talk to their Soviet neighbors about the possibility of Mumbai acquiring the ISC's surplus warheads.

A big military-industrial shift in the Commonwealth is brought on by the latest Hindustani defence moves. A large pressure group within the Soviets has long opposed INSAS as the Guard's standard weapon, saying that the replacement of AKM-BG should have been taken as an oportunity for more radical improvement. Certainly INSAS is as good as just about anything else in use around the world today, and its intermediate ammunition probably superior to anything used by enemies of the revolution in either the feudal or capitalist blocs, but the design is far from radical and did face a strong challenge from a phalansteric design bureau lead by a Finnish ex-pat who deserted that nation's army to join the revolution after being radicalised by a couple of Sri Lankan backpackers.

The more radical challenger to INSAS was put-down due to greater technical challenges inherent in the bullpup design, but projections and pre-production models indicated likely superior performance: the weapon, it was said, would have been unquestionably the most accurate assault rifle in service today, and one of the most reliable.

Now it seems that the slim majority supporting INSAS has been convinced by the growing minority who want to pursue the alternative design. INSAS production jibs at Ishapore are to be offered to the INU and replaced by equipments for the new rifle family.

INSAS currently in Soviet service will continue until enough new rifles are available to repalce them, and INSAS-2 will continue with the Auxiliary Corps while second-hand INSAS-1 are offered to the INA to fill-in any gaps in their production run in the short term. AKM-BG will be gradually replaced by INSAS-2, eleminating 7.62x39mm ammunition from Soviet use and delivering thousands of AKs to revolutionary movements from Kampuchea to the Seven Sisters.

Mumbai's input is awaited in the interim, but an excited comrade Paatelainen has already made for Ishapore to inspect the facilities. He may be about to face a vote on a healthy increase to his profit share!

The Peoples Republic of Bihar is dead! Long live the Soviet State of Bihar!

After years in the cold, Bihar is once again a true member of the Indian community, its people empowered by the Indian Soviet and a great victory declared for the state in which Gandhi began his Satyagraha campaign.

Fireworks and rhetoric fill the sky over Patna as the result of the Soviet-backed referendum is announced. A landslide victory for the accessionist cause strips President Gopalkrishna Patel of his authority and creates in Patna the Bihari State Soviet.

The much reduced Commonwealth Professional Civil Service declares that the Commonwealth's population is now, "at or on the verge of breaking half a billion", and Biharis once again can visit friends and relatives in Jharkhand, which joined the Commonwealth less than seven years previous. "The Indian Soviet Commonwealth" says comrade Graeme Igo, "is proudly the world's fastest growing nation and Sovietism the fastest growing order of government. Just as West Bengal has been for seven years the world's fastest growing economy so in the next seven years shall Bihar develop!"

In Bihar the biggest work in the short term is the creation of Local Soviets and election to these bodies of delegates from every walk of life. Comrades nominate themselves and one another and the most popular pledge, with Final Soviet approval, is six billion US dollars worth of investment in irrigation and water management... equivalent to perhaps a third of Bihar's yearly gross domestic product under Patel.

Rail links will be established with the rest of the Commonwealth in another expensive move, and all of the nation's main lines shall have to be ripped-up bit by bit and replaced with the superior Soviet gauge.

Even as the work of democracy spreads across Bihar the violence continues, and as it does Soviet forces may be seen enrolling thousands of soldiers and citizens initially in the Guard Auxiliary and taking the details of those who hope to join the Expert Corps at its next reorganisation.

Belligerents are told to expect increased prosperity and the delivery of things that Patel had often promised, as well as an end to his restrictions and repressions.

Raipur, meanwhile, is in contact with Mumbai and Constance, trying to agree what should be done with the fallen Patel and his cronies, believed currently to be in the custody of Armandian forces. Can he be tried for anything? In what country and by what body? Should he be exiled, gaoled, executed, or released? The Soviets request that the Combine not act rashly and risk causing further unrest in Bihar.

Bihar's accession to the Igovian Soviet Commonwealth is strongly favored and supported by most Unioners. Gopalkrishna Patel's government was ineffective and corrupt in the extreme, and all the propaganda in the world can't change that fact, and the occupation of Bihar by forces from North Sienna, whose motives Mumbai continues to call into question, would have been a highly unwelcome development. Not altogether much money can be spared for the infrastructural development of Bihar, at least not on top of what was already pledged. Parliament has its hands full with wartime rearmament, and that by itself could do with some incentive to go at a quicker pace. Advisers, though, are offered, along with tractors and construction equipment, which might be of use in constructing modern irrigation works. On the subject of Gopalkrishna Patel, it is suggested in Mumbai that he be brought to trial on charges of corruption. But at the same time Parliament does not much care, since Bihar's General Secretary is now very much out of the picture. So long as the Combiners don't try to install him in Patna or Muzaffarabad again, Constance can do what it wants with Patel.

Ranvir Sena, never pleased with anything that occurs in the Indian National Union, makes its dissatisfaction known with a round of attacks in the northeastern corner of Madhya Pradesh. With their comrades now fighting the Soviets in Bihar, Union members of Ranvir Sena are determined to make life as hard as possible for any Unioners inclined to support the ISC.

When it comes to assault rifles, Unioners are very much behind the times. Parliamentary arsenals only recently managed to turn out enough SLRs to replace the Enfield-clone 2A1 rifle in INA service, and the INSAS is still very much a high-end item. Why the Soviets would want to go to the trouble of introducing a bullpup design now that they've got an excellent, albeit conventional, service rifle is beyond most Unioners. But Soviet offers of INSAS production equipment are not about to be turned down, and odds are the Soviets know what they are doing. Hindustanis in the ISC indicate that the INA will likely want to acquire some of the final product, for use in the parachute and marine regiments.

Page three (post 35, I think) now contains nearly-up-to-date deployments of Soviet ground and some air forces. And a note that the remaining 1.7 million Guardsmen and women are mobilising...

OOC-You already have 5,000 men and a dozen fighter squadrons in Yugoslavia? The fighting is not weeks old. I noticed that the post was edited today.

WWJD
Amen.

OOC: Yes, we flew in interceptors and air superiority fighters direct from Libya as soon as Lav gave the go-ahead. Most of the personnel are Air Guard associated with supporting the fighters and liasing with the JNA. Only a few hundred Soviet ground troops are in the Balkans, flown in aboard Marathon transports and taken from amongst the tens of thousands of troops in Libya, and they mostly are defending key facilities.

Armand

Having left the Final Senate meeting mid-argument, Adiatorix the Geletian arrives in Constance. It is unlikely that he would have dressed up in this manner to impress Unioners!

Adiatorix, already a bit of a titan amongst his lofty and spirited kin, physically as well as politically, is wearing especially thick sandals that boost him a couple of centimetres, and a steel helmet topped with a polished brass likeness of a wild boar, crafted in typically distinctive and almost abstract Geletian style. His long hair is thick with lime to lighten it and make it, well, stick-out like crazy where it spikes in all directions from under his protective dome. He has on hand-woven and dyed chequered trousers containing an unusually great quantity of purple, and a heavy cape hangs from his shoulders, fixed with an ornate gold broach set with a large gemstone. On his hip a long sabre, of dramatic wootz steel, with which he once killed a couple of Thugee-revivalists. And of course a flask. He has taken a few swigs of the spicey, opiate-infused grog, meaning that he is announced by a breath like wind before a firestorm. And he has apparently put something into his eyes to make them shine, the pupils tiny and colour fierce. The Geletian is covered in body-art painted by an Indian master working with some Celtic influence upon his traditional craft. Adiatorix wears a chainmail vest -the Celts invented this famous armour, and some like to remind the world of their more than two thousand years of military innovation and tradition- of the newest and highest-quality metals from the northern Commonwealth. The Comrade certainly wants to give the Armandians confidence in their decision to reconcile with the Soviets and perhaps to pursue a more co-operative vision in world revolution.

Greeting Combiners with both revolutionary and pan-Indian slogans and gestures. And, shortly enough, the suggestion that, "We should, now, become active in our pursuit of revolutionary triumph abroad."

Before long Adiatorix would be informing the Combiners of Soviet India's completed first-line mobilisation. Almost three million regular personnel were now either deployed or ready to go. It had taken longer than expected, credit to the recent environmental hiccup and related changes in legislation and proceedure.

"Threats to revolutionary progress and global stability are many... but they are puny next to the combined might of the Indian Commonwealth, Union, and Combine, let alone the Strainists, Anarchists, Yugoslavs, Arab and African socialists, all the formative revolutions of Europe and Asia, and relative civility of the post-Liu Chinese. And we of the Soviet Commonwealth say that it is time to put an end to these ridiculous threats.

"GSIC suspects another impending League attempt against the Libyan revolution, and is working to reinforce the great Arab socialist state against this futile attempt to throw-off our resistance to West African imperialism. Moreover, the Commonwealth Guard's Expert Corps intends to counter in far more impressive style. We have resolved to land forces in Eritrea and advance on Batambui in great force, knocking Abassamara out of the war in a matter of days, destroying Franco-Russian investment in the autocracy there, deposing General Aiyana, and exposing yet more League crimes to the global masses... we expect to liberate prisoners and slaves who may be known and loved by men currently conscripted into League service, and we expect to inspire tens of thousands of armed Muslims and Baltic citizens to turn on their royalist officers.

"Even if they do not, we shall strike with such force as to render opposition utterly pointless and ineffective.

"We ask our new comrades in Armand and the Indian National Union to join as equal partners in marching arm in arm to the capitals of corruption and the liberation of all Africa. The Soviets have prepared to deploy half a million comrades in arms against General Aiyana. If the Combine can muster even a quarter of that and the Union ten percent, Aiyana's position will be beyond hope.

"More of our comrades are bound for West Africa via the African Commonwealth and for Libya. I am here to attempt sensitive negotiation between the Soviets and the Combine on exactly how to manage the African revolution after the defeat of feudalism there.

"Eritrea, it seems, can be reasonably left to the watch of Mumbai. Libya, Namibia, and other parts of the sub-Sahara have established ties to the Soviet model. What of Abassamara and Somalia? What of West Africa?..."

Adiatorix went on, eventually mentioning Central Asia and other places around the world.

Motivated in part by the Soviet example, Unioners have also undertaken to call up UDF reservists.

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=471053&page=3

Kolkata convenes first meeting of the League of Communists, Grandfather dominates

Inviting revolutionaries from around the world, Graeme Igo has apparently begun his last great project. Unity in the world revolution is ever more important, he claims.

Alarmed by the progress of the Union's economy, long regarded almost paternally as the profits of a paper-round to be subsidised with pocketmoney and the odd gift, the new Fourth Commonwealth, under the burdon of war and now finally feeling undermined by competition, takes an intense interest in its own economy and that of the world.

Dollar estimates of the Soviet economy remain difficult to make, but various agencies continue in the attempt, enabling Graeme Igo to declare that, last year, the Commonwealth finally produced to a value of five trillion dollars or greater. At less than half the size of the US economy and probably not more than a third of China's, this is cause for some concern, even if it is a total that likely surpasses the combined efforts of France, Spain, Tulgary, and Italy.

Especially troubling for many is the declaration that the fastest period of economic growth on record came during the 1980s... Sopworth Igo's retrospectively-called First Commonwealth. It appears that the Igovian Five Year Plan, enacted shortly after the retreat from the mainland of Principality forces, achieved yearly growth rates that, in some years, touched twenty percent, and never fell far below ten percent.

While Igo the elder maintains that such command economics would have lasted at such a pace through only one or two more plans in South India, he -apparently pushed by the combined weight of his controversial son and his ally Adiatorix- is now proposing the implementation of a Five Year Plan in Bihar and another in West Bengal, which has shown impressive growth that is still far short of the 1980s boom.

If approved in the Final Senate, the Five Year Plans will temporarily reduce democracy in North India for the sake of an economic leap, which Graeme predicts will succeed from the low base of Bengali and Bihari economic activity.

"Once industrialisation is an institution in these states, the completion of the Five Year Plans will signal the final and ever-lasting establishment of Soviet Democracy in northern India. The infrastructure built in five hard years of central control -by an executive body to be established by electoral means for a five year term- will at the plans' conclusion be taken-over in a democratic, profit-sharing fashion by the people of Bihar and West Bengal."

Almost ironically, the views of the Old Guard -also known as the Party Guard- that over-saw Sopworth's industrialisation of South India is now far stronger in the north, thanks largely to the Marxist-Leninist origin of communist thought in West Bengal and Patelist Bihar. This makes it all the more likely that Graeme's proposal will be swiftly approved.

Old Guard supporters widely dispute the legitimacy of Soviet economics, accusing them of some of the same undulations and over-production crises of conventional global capitalism.

Graeme Igo admits imperfections in the Soviet economy, and answers many with his Five Year Plan proposal, but calls it, "the best that we have" and identifies greater protection for workers when crises do strike, and higher workplace moral and job satisfaction compared with the capitalist world, while saying also that the feudalists, despite their efforts, have found no way as yet to prevent the fermentation against their ruling interests of a new revolutionary bourgeois.

Of the French attempt to enforce feudal socialism Graeme says, "Das mahnt an das Mittelalter so schon, An Edelknechte und Knappen, Die in dem Herzen ein Wappen." his tone scornful as an Indian Celt can make his German sound.

"The French system may be expected to collapse in the manner of 1830 if no other first, where upon it shall be our task to support proletarian struggles against the probable new bourgeois republic."

Later, as debate and lecture moved to politics and almost to philisophy in light of a hardening mass-authoritarian Soviet stance as the war progresses, Graeme says, summing up the current struggle, "Thomas Paine wrote that, 'To possess ourselves of a clear idea of what government is, or ought to be, we must trace it to its origin. In doing this we shall easily discover that governments must have risen either out of the people or, over the people.' This reveals the difference between communist legitimacy and the fundamental error of all opposing forms."

Final Soviet Passes Historic Economic Legislation, Foreign Trade to Expand
Raipur

Word on the Soviet Intranet is that the decision was reached in closed session several weeks earlier, but the global declaration came today over the world-wide web. Soviet India is to begin conducting a new level of commercial relation with the world.

Until today, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Commonwealths have delt in raw materials and items of cultural curiosity, maintaining the view that it is proper only for societies to swap the resources that one has and the other does not, allowing for said curiosity in the interests of cultural exchange, understanding, and diversity. Military equipment and other finished goods were sometimes exported as aid or in particular exchange deals, but import of foreign manufactures was almost unheard of, Soviet India always building for its own needs.

Now the Soviets have agreed to allow Phalansteric communities and workers' Soviets to buy foreign manufactures, be they machine tools, air conditioning units, surface-to-air missiles, or buses.

A growing list of importable goods exists on the Soviet Intranet, and Soviets or citizens wishing to acquire goods not on said list may petition for an investigation and referendum on their inclusion.

It appears that the several week delay was partly undertaken so as to allow agreement to be reached on the matter of legitimate partners in this sort of trade.

In round one of on-going Soviet sessions dedicate to creating and maintaining this list of approved partners several states find themselves permitted to export goods to the fast-growing five trillion dollar Soviet economy. Unsurprisingly the first approved bodies are the South West African Soviet Commonwealth, the Neo-Anarchan communes, and the Indian National Union.

Spyr and Yugoslavia look likely to follow, and discussions are on-going over Nepal, Bangladesh, Syria, Vietnam, Laos, Democratic Kampuchea, Dra-pol, Libya, the SADR, Sujava, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, the African Commonwealth, Angola, Costa Paz, Armand, DR Afghanistan, and China.

Many of those nations are likely to be approved on a conditional basis, which comrade Sopworth Igo describes as being designed to foster socialist practice in the developing economies of nations like the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the once-keen Western Sahara. To be allowed into Soviet ports manufactures will require official approval as the produce of socialist labour, denying access to goods produced under the undemocratic or unequal oversight of managers, shareholders, and all sorts of capitalists and feudalists.

Foreign governments and worker-managed concerns will be able to advertise on the Soviet Intranet once their products and practices are approved by Soviet review, probably paying a nominal fee to cover the administration of what Sopworth calls the, "Socialist Cyber Market", while of course it is also true that Commonwealth citizens have access to the rather less regulated world wide web and to some foreign television and printed media.

" Indian advertising will inform and will not bribe or pressure, it will not intrude, and it will not be displayed to generate profit in itself. There will be no likeness of David Beckham projected on to the Green Tower, and no Golden Arches in Kolkata."
-Graeme Igo.

...But you might yet see an Ambassador with a taxi light illuminating a Chennai nightscape.

Raipur wishes to send investigative teams to nations such as the Armandian Combine, about whose economic practices relatively little is known. Hopes for increased trade with China remain based upon unstable ground, but Soviet India intends to pursue its radical reforms with full enthusiasm under the Fourth Commonwealth.

Jai Hind!

Unioners, for the most part, register their support for the new Soviet trade policy, and praise it as a step towards further unity amongst the world's leftist nations. When implemented it does not appear, after all, apt to introduce a state of affairs altogether different from that which exists in the Indian National Union, where necessity dictates that much must be imported. Hindustanis for one are hopeful that a little extra revenue might be earned through the export of certain goods to the ISC, although much is already exchanged and the capacity for expansion looks to be small.

In particular the employees of Hindustan Motors look forward to Soviet interest in the Ambassador, the company's staple vehicle. The venerable Ambassador, to be sure, doesn't offer a whole lot in the way of luxury. Windows are manually-operated, air conditioning is provided by a small fan powered off the car's battery, and entertainment facilities consist of one tape player/radio. That said, the vehicle does have famed reliability going for it, and a pretty clean motor that is readily converted to run on alcohol. Surprisingly roomy, the Ambassador might also be better-suited to big Geletian bodies than other vehicles. There is also the Hindustan Contessa, a somewhat larger car, though still fairly small by international standards, which hasn't experienced nearly the same level of success as the Ambassador. And then there are Bajaj-built scooters and auto-rickshaws, Ghani motorcycles, and license-built Toyota Land Cruisers on offer as well.

Advertising in the ISC will probably be avoided by Unioners eager not to offend their extremely helpful and extremely powerful neighbors, and, in the event that it is attempted, will probably not amount to anything more than, "Get a Bajaj Chetak! It is really great!" For Union manufacturers who've never sold much abroad without it being part of a diplomatic effort, advertising hasn't been a high priority, and marketing departments consist of one or two employees particularly adept at drawing cartoons.

Hindustanis continue to watch the events across their eastern border intently and enthusiastically.

In light of changing Soviet economic practice and the 4th Commonwealth's pledge to catch up with or overtake Hindustan in terms of environmentalist repute and practice, Jamshedpur Motor Factory -once part of Tata Motors- has proposed a co-operation with Hindustan Motors on building and distributing a small car powered by compressed air and vegetable oil -or just compressed air- for Indian and foreign markets.

The JMF Soviet claims that the car would cost far less than US$10,000 even with all mod con options and healthy socialist wages and benefits in its production, and would pass foreign crash tests despite being made largely of foam and fibreglass.

Early on in trade, meanwhile, it appears that a market has created itself... young Commonwealthers are clubbing together to buy Hindustani autorickshaws for new-generation chariot races around their phalansteries. There have been two confirmed hospitalisations in the first day of imports, slightly increasing the popularity of what may or may not prove to be a fad.

Armand's economic policy could be described as domestically socialist and internationally capitalist---it lacked any sort of internal currency or markets, seeing as how all citizens simply consumed whatever the Combine deemed necessary for their needs. However, it was willing to include certain Geletian products within the standard Armand regimen, if the Geletians proved to be willing to purchase some Combine products. Beyond the obvious oil issue---which has already been settled anyhow---Armand's main exports would be in the form of eco-friendly technology. Clean, efficient, wind, nuclear, and solar technologies permeate the Combine's landscape, alongside prototype hydrogen powered airplanes and the massproduced, ethanol based Myamoto car. The Myamotos would have to be enlarged for Bedgellen frames, but the stylish and fuel efficient black cars could prove to be a boon for both nations if the Bedgellens were inclined to purchase them.

Soviet India has not long since resolved to pursue relations with Armand, officially opening its border with North Sienna for the first time in history and drawing-down military forces stationed there, but trade remains difficult to establish in a meaningful way.

Many Commonwealthers do not trust the Combine, and, it must be said, some racism persists with regard to the old enemy, even if largely in the newly-associated and poorer northern states. Certainly the influential voice of Graeme Igo's earlier works does little to help, much to his embarrassment as he tries to make an ally of convenience out of Constance.

Some of Igo's writings from the heady days of Indian revolution, when half the world was red, from Central America to China, and India to Estonia, are less than optimistic about the long-term prospects of the admittedly little-understood Armandian model, and, suggested the Grandfather of India's Soviet Revolution, it would prove potentially sustainable probably only for so long as petrochemical reserves remained abundant and in demand.

Though Igo now tries -without clearly contradicting himself- to put distance between the current situation and those past musings he has many disciples who were sold years ago on works he can't take back.

More specifically, now, Soviet India would like to buy Armandian petrochemicals, but... the Commonwealth is pushing hard on renewable and clean energy. Some coal plants remain open thanks to a few stubborn Soviets in the power and mining industries, and the Guard isn't considering a switch to wind-up tanks, but, largely, the trend is not towards increasing petrochemical consumption. India produces a portion of its own oil needs, imports more than necessary from Libya in order to discourage Tripoli from rapprochement with the west, and has an extremely important relationship with the Latin American anarchists in which dirt-cheap crude comes to India in great quantity for refinement and re-export.

Hell, there's a serious chance -especially with Constance's pipeline to China held-up by the Caliphate- that Soviet India exports more oil than does the Combine.

Bearing that in mind, some Soviet refineries do at least ask after Combine crude prices. The domestic market for petroleum-derived fuels is packed to bursting, but Soviets are not presently adverse to the idea of exporting such things to other nations if it can be done at a profit, which the Anarchan deal enables even the least efficient co-operatives to achieve... perhaps another source of crude won't hurt local competition.

The Myamoto would, again, face massive established competition, and, again, would be entering a very small Soviet marketplace given the scale and quality of Commonwealth public transport. At the moment, though, there are no clear laws technically banning the ownership of private automobiles, and certainly not of collectively-held vehicles, so, once again, the Armandians are free to try. Notably, of course, a couple of hundred million Commonwealthers are not gigantic ethnic Geletians, and, in the north, non-Geletians tend to dominate whole communes. Developing West Bengal might create a market for a couple of thousand Armandian cars.

Finally, the Soviet State of Karnataka has asked whether the Combine or some body within it might be interested in co-operating on the development of a solar power station using Heliostat Concentrator Photovoltaic technology. There is a proposal in the State Soviet for a plant to be established in the northern Bayaluseemae region on the Deccan Plateau. It would use leading-edge technologies including advanced materials and focusing, cooling, and tracking systems to generate up to 200MW, making it the largest of its type known to exist so far. Significant state funds are to be allocated in this project as Soviets rush to take advantage of such amidst an increasingly heated debate over income tax.

War Communism Returns. Victory to India!

Soviet India, though having made few official declarations to the effect international, may be in a de facto state of war with the empires of France, Russia, Italy, Spain, Tulgary, and Abassamara, and in no mood to co-operate with the NATO powers and their hangers-on, but Raipur has passed few decrees substantially changing the nation's character from one of belligerent skirmishing to that of a people committed to global struggle.

The Commonwealth Guard has not called for fresh recruits, and the Expert Corps continue to operate with manpower substantially below the proportion of one percent of Soviet India's population. Free Soviets continue to produce export commodities as a priority, and the masses continue to chase consumer luxuries. Arguments over income tax, wage caps, and the conflict between mining Soviets and student environmentalists dominate debating floors.

Even as this goes on, Balkan socialists fight tooth and nail in the foothills of Austria and Italy, absorbing the beatings delivered by an untroubled Tsar. Africans die in their thousands as weak governments fail to repulse imperialist forces. France modifies her wickedness and realigns herself in hopes of convincing the immoral Anglophone governments to tolerate an imperialism from which they too may benefit.

Until today the Indian Soviets have fought as if this war were a continuation of the sparring match in the Coral Sea or the stand-off over Madagascar. Finally a major deployment is under way, but it is at peacetime strength and tasked with the defence of Libya.

The Final Soviet took until now to agree upon a painful resolution.

A Five-Year-reminiscent plan prepared by comrade Sopworth Igo has finally been put to vote in Portmeirion. And, with the reliable promises of his moderating father hanging in the air of the great democratic chamber, it has passed.

Soviet India accepts that a war on the scale of the mid-century independence struggle is in course, and pledges her full might to pursuit of its proper conclusion. Liberation for West Africa and the establishment of socialism and democracy. Teaching the global forces of reaction and conservatism to bow before the needs of progress.

War Declared on the Holy League

...and its puppet regimes. Making it official, the Soviets call for volunteers in a wartime expansion of the Militia, Air Guard, and Oceanic Guard.

Supreme War Soviet Established

Comrade Adiatorix, re-elected a General in the Militia Expert Corps and appointed by the Commonwealth Guard's highest Soviet Field Marshal over-seeing the fight. Field-Marshal Comrade-General Adiatorix of the Geletians is the first member appointed by the Final Soviet to the Supreme War Soviet, and will establish headquarters in Libya.

Comrade Sopworth Igo appointed by the Final Soviet to over-see war production as per the methods outlined in his recently-approved plan. The Commissar for War Production is mandated to reshape the Soviet economy for the duration.

Comrade Graeme Igo appointed by the Final Soviet to monitor the domestic situation and directed to ensure that industrial changes implemented for the sake of the war are always those with the greatest potential in a victorious post-war economy. The Wartime Development Secretary has to see that India comes out of the conflict better-developed than she entered it, and that the pre-war economic slow-down is obliterated by the energies of a population mobilised for struggle.

Comrade Leninya Bopara appointed by the Final Soviet to weed-out and repulse or subdue conservatism and reaction within the Commonwealth. The Commissar for Wartime Sentinel Duties holds an office with an in-built self-destruct, timed to go-off at the end of Sopworth's Five Year War Plan, dissolving the office regardless of the war's potential continuance.

Recruitment Offices Established, Flooded!

Set-up at Regional Soviets across the nation, recruitment offices enable Militia Auxiliaries and non-enrolled citizens to sign-up for crash Expert Corps training and potential deployment to fight reaction and empire. Not insignificant numbers of foreigners in the country have also volunteered, including many students sent to study in Soviet India and inspired by the revolutionary cause.

Nepalis, Bangladeshis, Vietnamese, Tanzanians, Laotians, Namibians, Madagascans, and some from non-left-leaning nations have been accepted, many joining Commonwealth units while others are allowed to form into regiments based around their own particular nationalities, language barriers often being cited as ample justification. The Nigerian Brigade is not uncommon in gnashing at the bit and being dangerously close to revolt as its members are begged to continue training and not just leap aboard the next transport to Africa. One of the largest foreign formations is the Free French Army, its too-proud-to-join-a-non-French-speaking-outfit members known popularly as Maquis and drawn from the ranks of escaped Frenchmen and women, Republican ex-pats and their families, and hundreds of border-jumpers from Puducherry. The so-called Suicide Prince, or particularly his French-tongued dying yell, receives much credit for the enthusiasm of Soviet India's little Gallic community.

These few thousand foreigners are as nothing next to the Soviet-jamming Indo-Geletian throng. Every day a number of men and women equivalent to three times the entire British Army volunteer for the struggle. At that rate the more than two-million strong Militia Expert Corps will have doubled in size in no more than a single week, even if half of it exists on training grounds rather than battlefields.

Ninety years ago, when Britain herself made a similar plea for volunteers, a comparable response rate left the army there desperately short of guns and uniforms. Not so in India, where uniform is a rather different affair and the Militia Auxiliary Corps holds tens of millions of military-grade firearms and tens of thousands of strong-rooms packed with billions of rounds of ammunition.

Auxiliary Corps members amongst the large minority that chose during peacetime to take serious advantage of training facilities find themselves quite quickly commissioned as officers and tasked with leading mass training exercises across the sub-continent.

War Production Begins

Sopworth dictates once again, and Graeme looks on, putting stops on suspect work orders until he is satisfied of either the post-war value of a project or the inarguable necessity of its wartime operation. A few such delays are quite sufficient to discourage the younger Igo in any recklessness, and his father soon finds a reduction in his own workload as projects come through with a little more foresight.

The hulk that should by now have been named CS Anarchism is once again swarmed by an army of labour, work restarting towards the commission of India's second battleship.

Tanks, planes, ships, guns, shells, and trucks will soon flow from tractor plants, workshop floors, commercial ports, what once was Tata Motors, and, of course, the already significant plants run by Ashpo, Apti, Jaf, Mal, and other defence production Soviets.

A project to survey the Palk Strait for new tidal energy developments is put on hold, again for the duration and coal-fired plants on either side of the channel saved for as long. Workers at such plants see much change, none the less, as some go off to fight and others choose to stay on and increase their shifts, still more workers come from the phalansteries having given up their part-time lives of leisure in light of recent Soviet votes.

Sopworth revels in a second bout of command economics and India prepares to attain victory within the uncertain window of years through which the plan can provide reliable growth before the socialist market must once again step in.

Adiatorix prepares to sweep the Mediterranean of threats and begin the shipment to Africa of what he boldly promises will be history's largest army. The Field Marshal expects twenty million volunteers in the next few months if he underestimates the population's distaste for the state of the world, and still has been heard to suggest that a draft of two to four times that would, "sort south and central Asia out, pretty nicely, too." Whether or not the Guard actually intends to attempt the support or deployment of anything like the force figures spoken of by Adiatorix is as yet not widely known or considered.

OOC: Sweet! And the might of the Soviets rolls towards the HL.

Commissar for War Production Siezes Investment Soviet

Little opposition met Sentinels this week as they arrived to alter security and prepare the ground for modification to the physical and functional structure of the Investment Soviet, as per the orders of Sopworth Igo, Commissar for War Production with the Supreme War Soviet.

Sopworth's move is significant, as foreigners will see perhaps more clearly than the Soviet masses, charging as they are into the fog of war.

The Investment Soviet has long been one of the less directly democratic institutions of Soviet India, and one that has resisted repeated attempts -lead by Igo's father, Graeme- to further communise it, but its function remains crucial. Without it, Soviet India would be either another anarchist collective or else a giant black-market around a speck of central-planning.

The IS sets prices in the Soviet economy, replacing Soviet-Kremlin style targets and commands with incentives to producers and consumers alike.

With the authority under his office, Sopworth will likely be able to re-shape the Indian economy to fight a war according to his vision. He will be able to make ships more or less attractive, replace luxury items with marching boots, deny the Guard the means to fight a particular campaign while providing the proper resources to fight another of his choosing.

This places the Commissar in clear supremacy over Field-Marshal Comrade-General Adiatorix of the Geletians, and sets up another possible clash with his father, the Wartime Development Secretary, who may yet attempt to move against the siezure. This raises questions about the loyalties of The Commissar for Wartime Sentinel Duties, as Leninya Bopara, though having received what initially seemed the most marginal mandate in the Supreme War Soviet, could be compelled to rule counter-revolutionary intent against either of the Igos.

Graeme Igo addresses the League of Communists (Igovian)

Before delegates from across Soviet India and from Africa, South East Asia, and Latin America the Grandfather of the Igovian Revolution vocalises unusually severe sentiments in respect of the revolution's course and its defence.

"Comrades" he says, of course, "I have to talk about our distraction, and how serious it has become. Three years ago we looked back on a year in which defence preparation in our economy accounted for 121 billion US dollars equivalent, and yet the past twelve months, the office of the Commissariat of War Production tells us that we have seen one trillion dollars in expenditures. As a consequence we have seen the derailment of development plans in West Bengal and a failure to discredit Patelist terrorists in Bihar, who just recently demonstrated their ability to curry public support for violent action against Sovietist militia defence organisations.

"Even the remote and increasingly reactionary Caliph talks of the realities of a third world war. Comrades, we see the British and Roycelandians leading the way for the capitalists in forming their unholy alliance with the kings of Europe for the purpose of exorcising the specter of global communism, and yet we bluster with indignation! What? Are we surprised? Are we disappointed that the capitalists are not our allies? We are their natural born enemies, their executioners! Have we forgotten that we are for the workers?

"The Feudalists were and are a distraction, one that we meant to crush quickly. From the beginning our enemy has been the bourgeois capitalist establishment that dominates most of the globe and the course of world affairs. We fight the Feudalists only because defeating them in Africa plants there the red flag and frees the continent from any fear of capitalism in future and enables it to by-pass that wicked stage in a people's development towards communist modernity!

"In Latin America, we hear, the anarchist communes are losing cohesion. In Madagascar we have exactly what excuse for not extinguishing naked and vulnerable capitalist embers? In Kampuchea the nationalists are still dominant at Phnom Penn. In the Congo, where Kinshasa's corrupt government was finally showing some indication of a noble will to resist reaction, we see a resurgence of weakness. In the newly opening Combine there is disorder and loss. Even our stalwart allies in the United African Republics are threatened by the particular nationalisms that lie nascent within their union.

"What are we doing, comrades? What are we doing with a trillion dollars effort? The landed gentry, the born-rich aristocracy, these 'useless' landowners will always draw the ire of the capitalists, and yet we busy ourselves fighting them and ignoring the enemy of the modern wage labourer whom we ought to court as our ally.

"Is this not the Final Conflict? Will we not decide so?"

Days later, Portmeirion, The Supreme War Soviet

Field-Marshal Comrade-General Adiatorix of the Geletians gives his own speech, and it is received by GSIC and the Commonwealth Guard as the go signal in Plan Bola.

The mighty warrior Celt raves about Roycelandian warships and bombers, NATO facilitators to the escape of French war criminals, British satellites feeding League intelligence agencies under the protection of Quinntonian might, and relates these offences to Igovian situations.

As he does, Soviet forces in Zanzibar and Madagascar redeploy shoulder to shoulder with Antananarivo's National Gendarmerie to arrest capitalists in their hundreds, both Malagasy citizens and foreign investors.

Ashore within the UAR, Soviet Marines join Mugabe's ZDF troops and ZANU-PF militias in similar action, and Indian Morrigan drones drop satellite and laser guided bombs on opponents identified by Miyanda, Olongwe, and Tanko in Zambia and Tanzania. Roycelandian agents in the Namibian desert are also attacked by the same means, where they can be identified.

Not far away, in Angola, Gelert Sentinels carry-out a number of high-profile assassinations and kidnappings against nationalists opposed to AfCom influence and foreign capitalists seeking to take a piece of the nation's petrochemical potential. And, in the Republic of Gabon, Soviet-lead multi-national forces sieze paltry remaining western assets.

In the Indian Ocean Soviet Marines out of the Lakshadweep carry-out bare-faced invasions of the Maldives, Comoros, and Mauritius, tolerating no opposition and declaring here the end of coup and counter-coup, there the liberation of the oppressed Creole, and so forth.

In Cambodia, since the withdrawal of major Soviet forces to fight the League and the reduction in funding to the special Soviet assigned to aid Khmer Rouge forces, the government troops had managed to halt the communist advance on Phnom Penn. Now, with Pathet Lao units amongst them, the Khmer Rouge begin fresh offensives that draw-out government forces just hours before the launch of a multi-divisional cross-border incursion by the People's Army of Vietnam aimed at the heart of Republican power.

In Libya, tens of thousands of Soviet personnel help to trap and destroy remaining anti-Qaddafi organisations. In Senegal, Indian Soviet Marines increase their propaganda efforts.

And, in Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana the large Indian presence only continues to grow as volunteers and expert liaison officers establish fortified bases at strategic infrastructural sites and propagandists tout Igovian strength, progress, and security in opposition to anarchist stagnation and counter-revolutionary fragmentation.

Supreme War Soviet Relocates to Calcutta

Lacking a proper residence and expecting to persist through several years of the final conflict, the Supreme War Soviet has resolved to establish a base in Calcutta, West Bengali Soviet State.

Wartime Development Secretary comrade Graeme Igo says that the move is partly designed to let newly-integrated Bengalis know that the Commonwealth at large is serious about them and the recovery of their great city, home now to almost fifteen million people making it, since the reduction of Seoul, the world's 12th largest urban area. He also claims that the move, establishing Calcutta as almost a second capital, is fitting in light of both the more than two thousand year habitation of the site and especially of its revolutionary history, from independence struggle to Igovian Sovietism via Naxalite insurrection.

The foundations for construction of a gigantic Palace of the Soviets seems to suggest that Calcutta may even become the Commonwealth's capital in future, and some have claimed that the shift is indicative of an Igovian ambition to integrate relatively near-by Bangladesh and even North Sienna back into the Indian fold.

Bomber programme rumour surfaces

Possibly originating via a leak at a state aeronautics research factory near Chennai, talk in circles interested in Soviet defence technology has turned to a mysterious NT-9 project, thought to be a second attempt at developing a strategic bomber for India. Likely drawing on the aborted NT-3 Spearman project that combined V-bomber and Russian-Soviet experience, the programme is said to be quite advanced, secret until this point.

While some suggest that the rumour is mere propaganda designed to cause enemies to misdirect their own resources, others have long advocated the deployment of independent bomber forces for the sake of Soviet force projection around Asia and Africa, and as a means of strike against the European powers.

Details are speculative at best, and there is dispute as to whether NT-9 -reputedly called Boggart- is likely to be a heavy bomber such as Lancaster, Bear, and B-52, a stealthy equivalent to B-2 and France's less than triumphant effort, or a fast bomber such as some of the USSR's later projects.

CS Communism fires first angry shots for Indian battleship

Arriving in the Gulf of Thailand to join the frigate Cable Street, which for some months has been on-station providing gun, missile, and helicopter support to low-tech Khmer Rouge attempts to disable the Nationalists small maritime force, the Commonwealth Ship Communism, first -and perhaps last- of India's battleships, fired her first shots in anger this week.

11" subcalibre rounds impacting with the force of Tomahawk cruise missiles put paid to scant remaining coastal defences from a stand off distance of almost eighty kilometres before the battleship closed to crush or disperse government forces in Kaoh Kong with 16" rifle fire from her dozen-strong primary battery. Communism has now proceeded south to assist a Khmer Rouge push into Kampot, where the left-wing rebels are hoping to link up with advance elements of the People's Army of Vietnam to complete the wide encirclement of Phnom Penh.

Early reports indicate the routing of Nationalist forces near coastal areas, but the true impact of the battleship's intervention is not yet confirmed, fears remaining that strong government forces may be escaping with the intention of regrouping around Phnom Penh, which is already being pressed from the north by Khmer Rouge infantry reputedly aided by the Pathet Lao.

Analysts expect the Soviet battleship to make use of its far-reaching Evolved Pinaka 214mm rocket artillery to support a new rebel push on the capital, and it is said that her presence provides at the least an invulnerable fall-back area for friendly forces should the government resistance prove stiffer than expected.

PCC Prepares second Luna mission, offers seat to Hindustani Cosmonaut!

The world's second-largest space agency, responsible for the first space war and now confident of its technical supremacy, having already put non-white and female faces on the moon, now plans to return to our chief natural satellite.

The second Indian Luna Mission, however, is yet not entirely planned. The People's Cosmonautical Co-operative, then, invites Mumbai's participation and particular input on what ought to be achieved by the second ILM, and offers to take a Hindustani to the moon.

The mission is planned for as early as late May, to mark the 26th anniversary of the Battle of Porthmadog, when Llewellyn's Royal Guard was routed in Tamil Nadu by combined Naxalite-Igovian militias, and the Princely government was evacuated from Madras (now Chennai) to Sri Lanka.

Owing to the short notice, PCC officers suggest that top INU candidates all travel to the Soviet Commonwealth to begin intensive preparations, with the top performer at a sort of Soviet spacecamp being selected closer to the launch day and rewarded with a historic trip to the moon.

CAG in first Soviet laser-induced missile intercept

In a top-secret test over the Tamil (formerly Palk) Strait, a specially-equipped Marathon transport aircraft has, claims Gadar!, carried-out a triumphal shoot-down of a short-range ballistic missile using a high-powered laser mounted on the aircraft.

Details are few and far between, but the Commonwealth Guard is claiming to have attained the ability to shoot-down ballistic missiles from a distance of several hundred kilometres using airborne laser systems.

An invitation to the moon is not something that Unioners are about to turn down, especially given the state of their own space program that might, if left to its own devices, manage to land a Hindustani on the moon within the century. Out of the initial list of astronaut candidates, the National Astronomy Bureau is on its own able to pick out five particularly promising individuals -two geologists, a medical doctor, an astronomer and a test pilot- and these, pending Soviet approval, will be sent to the ISC for training.

Hindustanis also speak highly of the Soviets' successful airborne laser test, which is deemed an important step in the right direction given the tendency of India's enemies to make use of ballistic missiles as terror weapons against civilian population centers.

Gadar!: Soviet India returns to Test cricket

India began playing test cricket in 1932, but the post-independence break-up of the sub-continent created a number of weaker sides. The Principality competed sporadically but often protested recognition of Union India and other independent states by the ICC. The First Commonwealth regarded cricket as a bourgeois pursuit and allowed the team to decline even as Victoria and Salvador persisted at test level with some success, but 1989 reunification briefly ended Sri Lankan participation in the international game.

Later Commonwealths have frequently abandoned matches due to political disputes with other test playing nations such as Australia, the Wendsleybury Islands, England, pre-Lusakan Zimbabwe, and even South Africa.

This week Raipur declared that the Commonwealth would play even against, "ideological enemies of the Soviet Revolution", and named two squads -one test, the other one-day- for a series in the FUARL, while the gauntlet was thrown-down to capitalist nations for their sides to take-on the Soviet masses in the supposed sport of gentlemen.

The Soviet One Day International team has been announced as follows, with the test side expected to be confirmed in coming days. Notably, Sanath Jayasuriya has announced his retirement from test cricket, so is expected to be replaced in the one day side by V.V.S. Laxman.

1: Sanath Teran Jayasuriya (opener, part-time spin bowler)
2: Robin Venu Uthappa (second opener)
3: Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (part-time bowler)
4: Denagamage Proboth Mahela de Silva Jayawardene (vice-captain)
5: Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara (occasional wicketkeeper)
6: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper, captain)
7: Congenige Randhi Dilhara Fernando (fast-medium bowler)
8: Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas (fast bowler)
9: Shanthakumaran Sreesanth (fast-medium bowler)
10: Separamadu Lasith Malinga (fast bowler)
11: Muttiah Muralidaran (spin bowler)

12th Man: Murali Kartik (bowler)

*Sanath Jayasuriya the only player in the world to score over 12,000 runs and capture over 300 wickets in ODIs.

*In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Sourav Ganguly is fourth in the world. He is known to his teammates as Dada, which is Bengali for elder brother, and has been called The Prince of Calcutta, though not by Soviet commentators!

*Mahela Jayawardene has a Test average above fifty, and is statistically one of the best fieldsmen in world cricket.

*Once rated the best wicketkeeper-batsman in world cricket, Kumar Sangakkara is now in the line-up for his batting alone, and at the close of 2007 was rated the best-performing test batsman in the world.

*M.S. Dhoni has briefly been rated number one batsman in the world, and his inventive stroke-play makes him one of the most popular and appealing players in world cricket.

*Dilhara Fernando has an unusual bowling style, and once took 6 wickets for just 27 runs against England in a match that the Soviets won by a massive 107 runs without calling-up many of their first-string players.

*Charminda Vaas is regarded as the best pace bowler ever to hail from Sri Lanka, and in 2007 also scored his maiden testmatch century, against Bangladesh.

*Sreesanth is one of the Soviet team's genuine characters, often fined for his over-excited behaviour in celebrating and appealing. His career-best figures of 6/55 came against England.

*Lasith "Slinger" Malinga is the first ever player to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in international cricket, a feat achieved against South Africa.

*Muttiah "Murali" Muralidaran is statistically the greatest bowler in the history of international test cricket, and the second highest taker of wickets in the one-day game.'

With this line-up, the Soviets hope to put Communist sport back on the map and pursue the world number one ranking, which will mean getting the better of such teams as Hindustan, South Africa, and Australia.

Gadar! Kollywood releases Drapoel war film

Reported to have a three million US$ budget, Paektusan's Daughters is said to be based upon a music and dance performance dating from the early Kurosite years, adapted by Soviet scripwriter Harminderjeet X Singh. The script was allegedly approved by the Central Directorature, and a multi-national cast unites to recount untold stories of the Korean War.

Though filmed chiefly in India and Nepal, the film is set in Korea and the United States. Its tale of occupation and oppression is told through the personal experiences of a 'fictional but realistic' family, principally two sisters, one a moderate social-democrat living near Seoul, the other a student in Quinntonia at the time of the war's outbreak. Sun and Jae-hwa, it may not surprise one to learn, witness different aspects of the Washington-Seoul alliance's reactionary cruelty such as is rarely taught in the west. Needless to say, neither sister comes to a good end.

Sun observes a massacre of southern citizens carried out by the ROKA -Unified People's Army forces responsible for liberating Seoul recently discovered numerous grave sites in which were found thousands of bodies, women and children included, riddled with western ammunition of the early 1950s period- before herself being shot on the orders of a southern officer after a jilted admirer amongst the enlisted men reports having seen her treating a dying Communist sympathiser who himself had been shot without trial and left in a ditch.

Her sister, meanwhile, is bullied out of her course in the US and briefly detained before being deported owing to her relation to an accused Red. Imprisoned by the military government of the south and unable to handle either the shame of her situation or the death of her sister, Jae-hwa takes her own life, having never even been able to understand the political allegations directed against her.

The film's closing credits are set over archive footage of Korea's demolition by US and allied bombers, which merges in the final moments with scenes from the victorious Reunification Struggle and the raising of socialist banners over shattered Seoul landmarks featured at various points in the film proper, closing with images of ROKA Officers and government officials fleeing through the streets.

The film is originally in Tamil with Drapoel-Korean subtitles, but is also being released with English, Hindi, and French subtitles for international consumption.

Harminderjeet says that he would not be surprised if the film were banned in many nations, but either way he will either convey his point directly through the film or indirectly through its suppression.

Gadar! Census reveals half-billion mark passed

The first full Soviet census to include the new Soviet State of Bihar has finally been released this week, and it gives a population figure of 528,934,511.

While this still leaves the Commonwealth some way behind China, even in the event of a new split, it appears that the Soviet state may be growing at a faster rate than previously believed.

Gadar! Carriers sail together!

A momentous day in India's maritime history is marked by the entry into service of only the second fleet aircraft carrier ever to sail under the Red Flag... only moments before the induction of the third!

The beautifully named Commonwealth Ship Commonwealth was joined on the Indian Ocean by her first sister, CS Union.

With CS India, built partly in Dra-pol, the only large carrier operational for Soviet India, the first two Defiance Class ships massively alter the strategic outlook not just in the Indian Ocean but across the high seas. With two more Defiance Class laid down, the Soviet Commune's Ten Carrier Plan has been revealed. CS India is, reportedly, not a long-term part of that plan.

With two Joint Corvettes delivered by Hindustan to the COG and the continued success of the Chainmail cruiser programme a success thus far, the Fourth Commonwealth is clearly intent on turning Soviet India from a seagoing nation hardly able to secure its own waters in the 1980s to a pan-Oceanic power able to challenge the US Navy in any theatre.

While the Commune clearly feels that it has the ability to do it all, some dissenting voices have suggested that the new Soviet fleet will ultimately have slightly less punch through its Defiance carriers than has the US in its bigger supercarriers, while still sinking such resources into ten mid-sized carriers that Beijing's submarine-gap lead may remain impossible to bridge.

Parliament is, as ought to be expected, supportive of its neighbor and close associate in its shot at making India into an undisputed first-rate power through the construction of a carrier navy, the likes of which will, no doubt, send feudal fleets hurrying for the safety of home waters. Certainly the INU could never have attempted such an ambitious project, and Parliamentarians are confident that, thanks to Soviet efforts, naval supremacy in the Indian ocean will be established.

Unioners do not, however, present much in the way of a united opinion on the subject, and there are many who do not view the Soviet carrier-building program in such a positive light. There are strong fears that the Commonwealth means to provoke a war with Quinntonia and the western powers, and that the SWS in Calcutta is simply arming itself in anticipation of a decisive clash between communist and capitalist power blocs, something very few Unioners in any way desire. It is also widely suspected that the announcement of the Fourth Commonwealth's ten-carrier plan will provoke a disproportionate response from Quinntonia, which has historically been very interested in maintaining a clear superiority over likely opponents in all areas, the likes of which might leave late-comer India even further behind.