NationStates Jolt Archive

My nation's population is 2.55 billion and defense budget is about $19 trillion. My nation is mostly a very large series of island chains and also includes Kenya (I RP in Earth II).

Anyway, I need a very large navy but I want to know specific numbers of how much equipment (ships, planes, tanks, IFVs, cruise missiles, etc) I should have. The more specific and detailed, the better.

It's all based on preference. My focus lies in my Naval Air Arm so I concentrate on carriers for offensive needs and use everything else is just to protect those carriers.

What is the mission of your military? Are you an aggressive nation or a passive one? Do you like speed and blitzkrieg tactics or would you rather follow a methodical plan and be a large lumbering beast?

There is no set number.

I want a fast, dynamic navy and air force for aggressive defense coupled with an army designed for wearing down a foe through attrition in brutal island warfare. Is there a good recommendation for a force structure of that type?

The amount of your men should not go past 5% of your nations total population.
For the amount of stuff you have, use your Defense budget and buy things.
If your focusing on defense, which its seems, the majorty of your air force should be fighters and fighter-bombers, in order to achieve air superiority. Then you should shift them to Close Air Support. For your Infantry I would have a miminal number of tanks, since it's island warfare. Your Infantry should have good pre-planned defensive postions with fall-back points. Your troops should we well-armed and well-trained, with high amounts of Artillery support.

My nation's armed forces is comprised of 9 branches of service, and one sub-branch. I focus mainly on ground and naval forces working in tandem. My naval forces use over 20 different classes of naval vessels, as well as several different aircraft. If you want more information, or want to see how my armed forces works, visit my NSWiki page.


ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/Asgarnieu#Armed_Forces

Well, nobody can really give you exact numbers on equipment. Most people simply think of tanks, IFVs, APCs, weapons, planes, ships, etc., when talking about equipment. Nearly everybody decides to disregard equipment such as generators, logistical systems, trucks, etc.

As previously said, it's all really based on preference. NationStates is a game of thinking (or at least trying to) through tactics and logistics, creating your own force, testing it, and showing it off in combat.

For a naval-air power nation you will need to go along the lines of American vessels as its navy is geared for naval superiority. To the contrary the Russians/Soviet model is based on first strike devestation tactics and moving its army in. It has no real carriers but air cruisers which do not have near the capablity to command the air as the US. The Russian air cruisers are built for support of their submarine fleet.

Thats how I would form my naval arm of the military.

As for air forces the US is built to maintain supermacy and make strategic strikes into enemy territory. The Russian air force is built to destory the frontlines at high cost of casulties, and than allow the army to move in and make the strategic strikes.

As for army basically if you take both navy and air force from the same nation you might want to take its army. The Russian military was heavy on army funding, and less on expeditionary missions like the US. The US is a global power projection while Soviets focused on continental power projection. Rapid troop deployment to other continents was not a strong suit. Soviets were regional land dominance and crushing power. While US is a fast strategic moble army.

I would suggest looking at the Japanese WWII model, and take technology from both US and Russian militaries for an island nation.

Given my limited knowledge of politics on EII, you'd need a force which you can send quickly to anywhere in the world. Your best bet for naval organisation would be to structure the navy around carrier battlegroups - with nuclear carriers for unlimited range, advanced air wings to counter sophisticated systems and also smaller ships for support or defense. My military operates around 40 aircraft carriers, but also numerous shore squadrons. At the end of the day, the military is more a matter of quality than quantity. F/A-18A are probably not going to stand much of a chance against the likes of the F-29 Vulture or F-22A, so buying fewer better types is important.

As Cotland pointed out to me, be sure to go one way or the other with equipping your airforce, go all American or Russian. Try not to use a mix of Russian/ US types, as logistically, this could cause problems or lead to extra expenditure you could do without.

How many ships and aircraft should be enough to protect my EII holdings that look like this? http://www.theforsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Earth2/Maps/pacificocean.jpg

and this?


http://www.theforsakenoutlaw.com/Graphics/Nation-States/Earth2/Maps/africa.jpg

I'd say:


Your nation should be able to field 20,000+ combat aircraft depending on budget. Base 3/4 in Kenya, and the rest in the pacific.
For ships, again depending upon your defense objectives, around 40 medium aircraft carriers (Like Lay's vampire class) would be a safe number. Base the majority in the Pacific to make up for the lack of airforce support.