NationStates Jolt Archive

The Indian Soviet Commonwealth, operating as it does a socialist economy (and quite possibly the world's largest at that), produces all of its defence equipment domestically.

This thread means to document such hardware, from the small-arms and workshop-produced explosives of the gigantic Militia Auxiliary Corps to the fighter jets and warships of the Expert branches.

As the ISC exists both in the mainstream of Nationstates and the closed-community of A Modern World there shall be notes indicating cases in which specific items do not exist in AMW or in which they differ from one, 'reality' to the other.

Ships, Submarines, and WIGEVs

Utopia Class Battleship (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12490448&postcount=2)

Chainmail Class Cruiser (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12780267&postcount=14)

Ortiagon Class SSK (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506148&postcount=9)

Dwrgi Wing-In Ground-Effect Vehicles (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506133&postcount=7)

Red Dragon Wing-In Ground-Effect Vehicle (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506137&postcount=8)

Aircraft

Ja-36 Yellowbat Helicopter Gunship (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506159&postcount=10)

Preston Utility Transport and ASuW Patrol Aircraft (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14578229&postcount=24)

NT-4-C Hobgoblin Batch 2 Air Superiority Fighter (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506367&postcount=11)

NT-6-II Golkonda Multi-Role Light Fighter (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12498402&postcount=3)

NT-1-C Springer Fighter-Bomber (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506376&postcount=12)

IAG-40 Boglin Close-Air-Support Bomber (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14398157&postcount=19)

Small Arms and Infantry Equipment

Uniform Kit (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506085&postcount=4)

Hebawg Man-Portable Aerial Reconnaissance Drone (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12783241&postcount=17)

D-41 Dag Automatic Pistol (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506130&postcount=6)

D-33A/B Tokalert Automatic Pistol (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14538728&postcount=23)

RK-100 Assault Rifle (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12780327&postcount=15)

RK-101 Multi-Role Machinegun (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12780348&postcount=16)

Anti-Tank Weapons

Totem-3T Anti Tank Guided Missile System (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14538704&postcount=22)

Llewyn Anti Tank Rocket Unit (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14538692&postcount=20)

Armoured and Other Vehicles

MT-4 Hathi Main Battle Tank (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12506116&postcount=5)

Artillery

TG-7 Light Multi-Role Gun (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14538696&postcount=21)

Surface-to-Air Missiles and Anti-Aircraft Artillery

Sumpit Man-Portable Air Defence Missile System (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=14578354&postcount=25)

Background:

On independence in 1947, the Indian Principality had behind it several generations of British colonial heritage, control of islands more than a thousand kilometres from the mainland, and serious fears of communist threats in the region. Still, the Principality did not develop a strong navy, though some advanced projects were undertaken, including the purchase of one of the early Western Asian built trimaran warships -which became the frigate Ood- and the launch of the (greatly troubled) Alpha Test guided-missile nuclear submarine. Some suggest that the problems encountered in these over-ambitious schemes may have contributed to the aversion of the politically overbearing Prince Llewellyn to further naval expansion.

Towards the end of his rule, Prince Llewellyn, isolated on the island of Victoria Salvadoria (also known as Taprobane, Serendib, Ceylon, or Sri Lanka), began development of gun and armour ships intended to disrupt poorly escorted invasion transport fleets and provide gunfire support for his own counter-invasion plans against the Soviet-controlled mainland. Reunification saw the Prince deposed and his plans scrapped, but the technologies and facilities that survived enabled the First Commonwealth, under a militant-minded Sopworth Igo, to commission two gun and armour ships, which were later titled Gull Flag Class Armoured Gunboats.

These gunboats suffered badly from a lack of experience in numerous key technological and tactical fields, and remained upopular with crews who complained of poor seakeeping, suspect reliability, and buggy gun mountings. Still, the experience of building and using heavy guns -the Gull Flags carried two triple mounts with 11" (279mm) guns- and forging hundreds of tons of armour plate proved Soviet capacity.

Run: Twelve hulls, one commissioned in each billion head of population, including:
-CS Utopia
-CS Communism (motto La Sociale)
-CS Anarchism (motto In Victory, Liberty)
-CS Socialism
-CS Icaria
-CS Democracy
-CS Republic
-CS Equality
-CS Liberty
-CS Paradise
-CS Freedom
-CS Joyous
-CS

[b]Role: Ship-to-ship warfare with gun, missile, and helicopter armament; and, also:
-Survivable command hub through advanced communications and staff quartering in ample design space behind heavy armour weight
-Intimidating presence through sheer size and the ability to survive fire and provide visible proof of these qualities close to shore
-Reduction of coastal defences with cost-effective heavy and rapid gunfire and rocketry
-Augmentation of marine forces thanks to carriage of naval infantry and equipment in designed safety and comfort

Secondary roles include:
-Self defence by heavy armour; modern countermeasures; point-defence gun, rocket, and missile batteries
-Some theatre anti-ballistic-missile duty with a capability for a large and heavy air-burst volley, probably directed by Citadel-S aboard associated vessels
-Potential fleet defence through capable absoption of disproportionate enemy attention and delivery of surpressing fire
-Resupply and refuel of fleet assets through substantial stores and in-built transfer conduits

Ship

Dimensions:
-Length 887ft/270.35m waterline, 921ft/280.72m overall
-Beam 128ft 4in/39.1m
-Draught 33ft 10in/10.3m

Displacement:
-Standard 62,720t
-Full Load 71,490t

Complement:
-Wartime 1,350
-Flag 1,492

Detachment

Aircraft:
-3 to 4 helicopters, Super-Helix, Dhruv.
Notes
-Only three of the larger Helix helicopters are supposed to be carried, where as four Dhruv are easily accepted. Super-Helix are indicated in dedicated anti-submarine warfare taskforces of which Utopia is rarely likely to be a part, and Dhruv are the intended usual aircraft.
-Dhruv are typically used for search-and-rescue, anti-submarine patrol, and often as anti-ship-missile decoys. They also ferry persons and supplies between ships and between ship and shore.

Troops:
-Accommodation for 400 equipped Soviet Marines or 800 under wartime conditions.

Armament

Primary Battery:
-12x16in 52cal guns (4x3)
Notes
-The largest shipboard guns ever built in India.
-Utopia's guns can be loaded at any angle, meaning that they need not depress and elevate between each salvo. Firing interval is, officially, below 20 seconds.
-A range of 50km is reported for the 16in guns at optimum elevation and with a full charge, but this does not take into account base-bleed and even rocket-assissted shells, both of which are available.
-11in subcalibre rounds give an 80km range and carry similar weight to the warhead element of a Tomahawk cruise missile, while travelling much faster and being ideal for mounting of a penetrator warhead.
-The Soviet 16/52 guns are extremely powerful high-pressure weapons that can generally expect to endure relatively few firings before barrel-change is required: the COG judges that the Utopias will serve mostly within the Soviet sphere of influence, in the Indian Ocean, relatively close to major home ports, and so can more easily put-in than is the case for ships of the imperialist powers, which may face the prospect of a major overhaul in a remote backwater colony and so do not lean the same way in the power/wear balance.
-The main battery can, by fragmentation shells and data-link with Citadel/Red Sky complex ashore or aboard other warships, be directed in an anti-ballistic-missile role, though the potential engagement envelope is limited by elevation.

Secondary Battery:
-8x110mm 62cal DP guns (4x2)
-72x214mm rocket tubes (6x12)
-16xVanguard anti-ship cruise missile tubes (4x4)
Notes
-High-velocity rapid-fire dual-purpose guns are new-generation long-range weapons with various shell types including air-burst anti-aircraft/missile rounds and guided surface-attack munitions. Range is 35km with conventional shells and 100km with extended-range munitions, and rate-of-fire is over 20 rounds per minute for each gunbarrel, or more than 40 per mount.
-Rockets are evolved Pinaka with dual thrust, and are contained in six boxes, three per side. Range is extended to 120km and payload is 250kg. Maximum thrust accelerates 214mm rockets to Mach 4.7 and 40km altitude, then throttles-down for cruise to target. Rockets strike at Mach 1.8, causing massive damage and destroying potential 3.9sq.km area. Some reports suggest that continued guidance problems plague the evolved system.
-Vanguard are renamed Qian Wei in four ready-to-launch quadruple canisters with a reload in magazine. Agile high-subsonic seaskimmers, these have 145kg warheads and inertial/active-radar guidance. Range is from 5 to 130km.

Air Defence Battery:
-32xLoviatar-S surface-to-air missile silos (4x8)
-8x30mm close-in-weapon-system positions
Notes
-Loviatar-S is a vertical-launch-system dealing with multiple threats from wavetop to 12,500m and close-in to 25km. Guidance uses microprocessor intelligence and frequency agility technology to take full advantage of high-agility gas-dynamic missile control and Mach 4.5 velocity. The system protects against both aircraft and missiles, but it is intended that Utopias would benefit from fleet air defence assets for long-range protection.
-2 BG-Falcon-Scavenger Loviatar-S fire-control radar direct Loviatar. The system has a 65km range, and each of the two sets trace up to 12 targets and direct 4 simultaneous engagements with up to 8 missiles.
-CIWIS are BGGM-30, each position combining a radar-directed 5-barrel 30mm rotary cannon with 4 radar/optics-guided Sumpit high-velocity missiles.

Other Weapons:
-24x214mm Seahammer anti-submarine-warfare rocket tubes (4x6)
-Several machineguns
Notes
-Seahammer is an Indian Soviet system introduced in 2006 following 1st Commonwealth use of RBU-1000 and RBU-6000. It uses rockets derived from a sub-project carried-out by universities involved in Pinaka's development, and can be used against submarines, divers, and torpedoes. Seahammer can attack targets at a depth beyond that attainable by any known combat submarine. Several complete reloads are carried in the magazines, and reloading is automatic. A kill probability of better than 0.8 is reported against the most modern submarines and against homing torpedoes, while successful interception of a straight-running torpedo is close to assured: with digitised multi-target-handling capability, two systems per side, and a range of several kilometres, Seahammer means that an average of better than two-dozen enemy torpedoes are required before the odds favour a hit on a Utopia Class battleship. Soft countermeasures are intended to further enhance this statistic in Utopia's favour, so too the ship's considerable agility.
-Number and type of machineguns may vary, as these weapons are dismountable and may be associated with Soviet Marine detachments transported aboard Utopias. The new 6.5mm Rk-100-7 multi-role machinegun is far the most likely candidate, and would be mounted for use in last-line-of-defence operation against aerial or surface threats.

Countermeasures
-Infra-red spoofing decive
-Chaff launchers
-Radar Warning Receivers and Jamming system
-Towed torpedo decoy
-Disposable noisemakers
Notes
-Computers with manual over-ride co-ordinate multi-layer defences in each threat-arena, directing hard and soft kill response to every threat as appropriate. For example, so-called noisemakers are deployed as part of Seahammer system and do not interrupt direct intercept of incoming torpedoes.

Armour

Notes
-Steel used in the Utopia's armour scheme is forged of Chhattisgarhi iron, which is rated as some of the finest in the world, and with the benefit of more than two thousand years of high-quality Indian steelsmithing such as that which raised an immortal pillar in Delhi and produced what became famous as Damascus steel.

Belt:
-Up to 17in main belt
-1.5in to 8in internal belt
Notes
-Utopia's large beam is necessitated partly by the incline of the external belt.
-The internal belt has been called unnecessary, given the incline of the outer belt, and it represents a serious expense and provisioning for maintenance access entails further complication. However, the Utopias, as India's first battleships and much smaller than the super ships deployed by many nations, are intended to be some of the world's finest, and the expense is partly off-set by the smallness of the run, with roughly one Utopia existing for every billion citizens in the Commonwealth.

Deck:
-2in top deck
-7in main deck
-0.8in para-aramid lined splinter deck
Notes
-Top-deck is designed to stop some incoming shells, general-purpose bombs, and top-attack missiles, and to defeat some piercing bombs and at least arm the rest for detonation prior to the main deck or dislodge blasting caps.
-Main deck is designed to defeat heavy plunging shells and penetrating bombs that pass the top deck.
-Splinter deck contains damage to the main deck.

Main Turrets:
-25in face
-10in top
-11.5in rear
-10.5in sides

Conning Tower:
-9.25in roof
-18.5in sides
-3.75in floor
Notes
-Tower has two main layers. Roof armour represents what is on top, while the floor is that of the upper layer and acts as roof to the second, which generally is the more important in ship operations.

Barbettes:
-17in to 22.5in

Bulkheads:
-Most 12.5in to 17in
-Para-aramid-lined splinter protection common

Torpedo/Mine:
Notes
-The Utopia design incorporates a triple-bottom; the lower part of the side belts are involved in under-water protection; and three-layers of torpedo bulkheads are enhanced by the placement of tanks, some of which are kept void while others carry water or liquid fuel for fleet replenishment missions, all of which are designed to deform and contain shock and absorb leaks from eachother.
-Utopia also has a greatly reinforced keel, and propulsion and steering systems are protected as far as possible.

Propulsion

Powerplant:
-Ashpo T-4 IFEPS Integrated Full Electric Propulsion System
-200,000shp
Notes
-IFEPS enables other systems to be powered by the main drive, easing maintenance, but batteries and several diesel generators are held in reserve should the primary powerplant be compromised.
-Though few corners were cut elsewhere in the design, the use of IFEPS instead of nuclear power represents one saving, and is made with knowledge of the limited operational theatre in which Utopia is intended to serve.

Propellers:
-4
Notes
-Thanks to the IFEPS drive, Utopia's design was able to mount the ships' propellers in pods.
-These can be mounted more quickly than the conventional shaft drive and are easily accessed for maintenance, being removable without drydock facilities.
-The pod design reduces drag by several percent, compensating slightly for the ship's considerable beam in achieving acceptable speed and fuel-efficiency.
-This arrangement also means that the ship has two separate engine-rooms in different parts of the ship, positioned to enhance damage-control and make the best use of available space.
-In addition to pushing the ship, two of a Utopia's pod-mounted propellers can be directed around 360 degrees to steer the ship, which is especially useful in enclosed waters as well as during combat manoeuvre.
-The pods are quite heavily armoured, and signature reduction is evident thanks to electric and streamlining elements.
-Some concerns remain over combat-readiness of an otherwise proven system, mainly in relation to survivability of essential connections during intense vibration caused by explosions and weapon strikes on the ship.

Bunkerage:
-6,800t oil
Notes
-Since Utopia is designed to operate mostly within the Indian Ocean and its surrounding seas, a significant portion of the ship's bunkerage is intended to support the battleship's own escorts.

Performance

Speed:
-29kts maximum offical.
-16kts cruise.
Notes
-Actual maximum speed may be 30kts or more.

Range:
-6,500nm at 16kts with ship-dedicated fuel.
-9,000nm at 16kts with reserve and escort-assigned stores.
-2,150nm at 28kts with ship-dedicated fuel.
-3,000nm at 28kts with reserve and escort-assigned stores.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/utopiaclass.jpg

MAL NT-6-II Golkonda Multi-Role Light Fighter (Super Miggen)

Golkonda was conveived 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 fighter were developed in the Indian Soviet Commonwealth by MAL and JAF, and geared towards production in slightly dated 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 Svea Riga-built 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. Baseline Miggens configured in two-seat role with their afterburning capability removed are now used as Lead-In Flight Trainers for Soviet pilots.

Miggen was designed only to surpass the dated standards of minor allies' dated Fishbed interceptors in enough areas to make it a worthwhile alternative to radical overhaul of those machines: 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 airbases from which the deliberately cheap aircraft could well be operating; and its radar was required to be sufficient only to furnish socialist air forces 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.

Students and engineers at the March Alaric Aviation Plant (Mal) of Hyderabad, which worked on Miggen along with January Fort Brennus (Jaf) produced over time -reportedly in fun and professional curiosity- design work for a development of the original Miggen fighter.

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

Designated NT-6-II, the upgraded Miggen is 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 only recently 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, and that he or she may have fallen foul of the Communist Party's paranoid hierarchy).

Though a cut above Miggen, the new aircraft is not quite equally capable and modern as some low-cost fighters, but is supposed to be a capable realisation of sub-fifteen-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.

Baseline NT-6 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.

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; 225kg satellite-guided bombs
Surface-Attack Missiles- Parliament A, B, C laser and infra-red guided and passive-radar-homing missiles
Air-to-Air Missiles- DRAB 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; 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
NT6-II Golkonda with Bangladeshi Air Guard Auxiliary

Militia Uniform Kit

This is as issued to all fighters volunteering for the CMEC, the Commonwealth's regular army such as it is. Soldiers are not obliged to wear it, and some still choose to enter battle partly or entirely naked, impractical as it may seem. The following describes full uniform kit as it may be supplied in the most extreme cases, such as to units expecting to operate in potentially cold mountain environments in India or in less hospitable foreign climates.

-Based on layered clothing and providing NBC and ballistic protection and carriage of equipment
-Includes underwear, T-shirt, insulating layer of shirt and trousers, camouflage suit including pockets for insertion of elbow and knee pads and with other pockets positioned to allow access when wearing armour, snow suit, trench coat and winter trousers, winter and summer caps, boot socks, removable felt lining, half-boots, rubber boots and winter boots, leather gloves and knitted mittens, shrapnel vest, composite helmet, active-carbon midlayer and protective mask, rucksack and equipment bag, battle belt.

SEB MT-4 HATHI Main Battle Tank

Hathi (haw-tee, Hindi for elephant) is Soviet India's latest tank and the first to approach sixty tonnes combat weight, wearing as it does western-style composite armour of substantial thickness. Hathi does not disregard the electronic and other active protection measures pioneered in lesser form on prior Soviet tanks, however, and is the best protected armoured vehicle ever produced in India.

Primary Builder: September Fort Brennus Heavy Lorry Plant

Crew- 4 (commander, driver, gunner, loader)

Weights and Dimensions
Weight- 59,850kg combat
Length- 10.12m gun forwards, 7.4m hull
Width- 3.6m
Height- 2.34m

Power and Performance
Engine- 1,450hp diesel
Fuel- 1,610 litres
Top Speed- 72kph (45mph) road, 42kph (26mph) cross country
Road Range- 485km+ (300miles+); 600km+ (373miles+) with extra fuel tank
Trench- 3m
Vertical Obstacle- 1m
Fording- 1.4m

Weaponry
Main Armament- 125mm BGMKIV smoothbore gun with dual-axis stabilisation, firing HEAT-MP, APFSDS(-T), smoke, practice, BRES BGAM Totem-3 anti-tank guided missile; -9 +18 degrees elevation; fume extractor and thermal sleeve standard
Fire Control- laser range-finder, ballistic computer with manual override, thermal imaging night sight, stabilised panoramic sight for the tank commander, and a secondary telescopic sight; fire-on-the-move capable at night.
Secondary Armament- co-axial 11x72mm machinegun, 11x72mm anti-aircraft machinegun, 2x3 smoke-grenade dischargers
Ammunition- 36x125mm, 5xATGM, 1,200x11mm, 6xsmoke grenades fire-ready, 10xVAPS grenades fire-ready (aerosol and explosive included)
Notes on main gun- BGMKIV is a long-barrel, high-pressure weapon loaded manually with long-charge ammunition, and its performance is so far ahead of prior 125mm weapons that for a time it was designated 126mm simply to distinguish it from its lesser peers.

Armour and Defence
Armour- rolled homogenous steel, composite front and turret
Other defence systems- NBC suite, JOS-VAPS vehicle active protection system with laser-threat warning receivers and infrared jammer, LS-DW “Mirror” laser self-defence weapon, automatic fire and explosion detection and suppression system.

Notes on defence systems- MT-4 mounts a laser self-defence weapon, Mirror, which is similar to the one first deployed by MT-3. The turret rotates to face the threat once the vehicle’s LWR detects hostile activity enabling the LS-DW to seek out the source optics with a wide-regard low-power laser beam. With the target acquired the power of said laser-beam is rapidly and substantially increased and the scope narrowed, attacking sensitive optical equipment and/or human eyes at the source of the initial laser threat. This system is said to be effective up to at least five kilometres, and may be employed against helicopter as well as land-based threats.

VAPS, built by JOS, is an advanced integrated computerised grenade discharging system that deploys an aerosol screen if the crew does not immediately react to a LWR alert (though of course this system may be manually over-ridden before hand) and launches grenades against incoming projectiles detected by 360 degree radar. Its hard-kill aspect is effective against rocket-propelled grenades, advanced anti-tank guided missiles, and most impressively effects significant reduction of the penetration ability of kinetic energy projectiles. The soft-kill aspect with microprocessor technology links and co-ordinates JOS-VAPS and Mirror with regards to MT-4’s laser threat warning receivers (as the latter system is unable to operate while the aerosol screen deployed by the former is in use). The grenade-deployed aerosol screen takes just two or three seconds to form and lasts for around ten times that long, making it especially useful against ATGMs launched from extreme range and having long flight times. The soft-kill systems also include the tank’s electro-optical jammer, which emits continuous coded-pulsed infrared jamming against the threat of detected laser designators, range-finders, and semi-automatic command-to-line-of-sight ATGWs.

MT-4 can inject diesel fuel into the exhaust to create a smoke screen.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/Chivtv/NS1/arjun0252.jpg
The first of many! MT-4 main battle tanks roll-out for the public at Hyderabad Fort Brennus

D41 Dag Automatic Pistol

The modern Commonwealth has inherited a number of automatic pistols. The Lahti M/35 stands as probably the most popular with troops thanks to its reliability (a recoil-accelerator more normal in sub-machineguns helps the weapon's mechanism to shrug-off the ingress of dirt or impact of radical temperature pressures), but both the TT-33 -for its cheapness of manufacture- and the GP-35 Browning High-Power -for its favoured status in the old Principality- are far more common and familiar. These weapons exist in the 9x19mm and 7.62x25mm-bottlenecked calibres.

The new weapon takes much from those which came before.

The D41 [Pistol Model 4 Mark 1] is the first side-arm to be chambered for a new Indian round, namely the 9.3x21mm-BG-bottleneck. This round was called for after the 7.62x25mm was found to lack weight and punch and the 9x19mm to be, after a century of widespread use, finally losing effectiveness in a military context. The new cartridge is bottlenecked as the 7.62 round, and the bullet elongated as well, but unlike the 7.62 it carries slightly more mass than the typical 9mm service round. The 9.3x21mm is a heavy, high-velocity round clearly designed for military use, with punch at short range and accuracy at long range. The standard introduced for service trials is a fairly long steel-core bullet fired by a high-pressure load of specialised powders intended to reduce flash and has a muzzle velocity in the order of 425m/s.

The Dag itself operates on a short-recoil principle as did the TT-33, GP-35, and M/35 before it. Specifically it is a continuation of the Colt-Browning dropping-barrel design seen in the M1911 and CZ-75 as well as the Beddgelen-familiar High-Power and Tokarev weapons, and like many of these it uses a shaped cam rather than the earlier link system.

Outwardly, the D41's debt to the CZ-75 is evident to a keen eye, bringing the Soviet designers' influences up to at least four or five pistols with more becoming apparent when investigating the adaptations made to other 'parent' weapons. One example is in how the Dag retains its firing pin by use of a plate rather than cross-pin: a change made to the TT-33 design when copied by North Korea and in India for Auxiliary use and supposed to enhance survivability. The pistol's comfortable grip and the nature of the serrations at the rear of the slide indicate experience in previous foreign designs, including the CZ weapons as well as the Lahti, High-Power, and variations of the Tokarev such as Poland's, India's, Yugoslavia's, and Hungary's for Egypt. It is worth noting that the mention of comfort is probably given with the large hands of a typical Geletian shooter in mind.

D41's internal construction adapts many features drawn from amongst its influences. It is robust, reliable in the face of dirt and temperature extremes, and it is cheaply manufactured. No fine-tuned target pistol, but an ideal military set-up. The hammer and lockwork are built in removable modules in order to ease both initial assembly and later field-repair, and, in the TT-33 tradition, the magazine housing and guide lips are formed to cheapen production while lessening demands on in-service care.

That magazine is a double-stacked affair, making the weapon bulkier than the TT-33, but this is something familiar to many Sovietists who handled double-stacked High-Power variants and the naturally large Lahti pistols. It is also worth noting again that the majority of Indian soldiers are Geletians of considerably greater size than most other modern humans. Beside this, it is considered that a slimmer pistol in the manner of the Tokarev examples would be horribly uncomfortable when firing the new 9.3mm ammunition. The magazine holds twelve rounds, which is nothing world-beating but represents a viable combat improvement over the TT-33 and M/35 that suffered with single-column magazines.

Other features of the D41 are ambidexterous controls (safety, slide stop, magazine release) and top ribbed slide designed to reduce reflection. The sights are noticibly a little more modern than those of the Commonwealth's previous generation of pistols, all of which pre-dated the second world war.

The Dag has a 126mm (5in) barrel and is around 211mm (8.33in) in over-all length. It weighs 1,150g (2.5lb) unloaded and is certainly not light with a full magazine, but the trigger is easier than that of the Tokarev pistols and mass still inferior to that of the Lahti, so most Sovietists notice no undue tiredness with prolonged use of the weapon.

MaL/AshPo Dwrgi-T/P Ground Effect Vehicle

Role: Assault and medium-lift tactical transport, anti-submarine patrol and anti-ship warfare, civilian transport
Primary Builders: March Alaric Aviation Plant (Galle) and August Shipbuilding Porthmadog (Chennai)
Dimensions: length 65.2m/214ft span 32.6m/107ft
Weight: 154,438kg/152tons
Powerplant: Two 5,000kg T6D turbofans in fuselage and two Pheidippides turboprops on tail
Speed: 435kph/270mph maximum, 385kph/240mph cruise
Range: 4,000km/2,485miles/2,187nm
Cargo Capacity: Dwrgi-T 220 troops and 25tons/25,400kg (often a CICV), or 350 troops, or 50,000kg
Armament: Dwrgi-T dual 30mm BG cannon or 76mm QF cannon in turret on fuselage top. Dwrgi-P 2xCharioteer anti-shipping missiles, Type-3B-Mk2 305mm torpedoes
Notes: Dwrgi-T is an assault and transport vehicle with unloading ramp, Dwrgi-P is an armed version primarily for coastal defence.
Dwrgi (otter) vents exhaust under its wings in order to increase lift and assist take-off, and to reduce heat signature.

MaL/AshPo Red Dragon Ground Effect Vehicle

Role: Heavy lift long-range strategic transport
Primary Builders: March Alaric Aviation Plant and August Shipbuilding Porthmadog
Dimensions: length 165m/542ft span 67m/219.8ft
Weight: 5,020,000kg/4,940tons
Powerplant: Ten Traedycawr 55,000kg turbofans, four T6D 5,000kg turbofans located in fuselage, plus manoeuvring thrusters
Speed: 640kph/400mph maximum, 510kph/320mph cruise
Range: 21,000km/11,000miles/9,680nm
Cargo Capacity: 1,425,000kg/1,400tons or 1,120,000kg/1,100tons plus 2,000 troops, or over 3,000 troops
Armament: Various countermeasures. Provision for mounting/carriage of cannons, torpedoes, mines, rockets, cruise missiles, anti-ship missiles, SAMs
Notes: Providing rapid deployment of large scale forces anywhere on earth, the Red Dragons are meant to identify the ISCBG as a communist superpower, reminding the world that the revolution will be protected. The vehicle can deliver cargo at the expense of less than half the fuel per kilo of conventional aircraft, and although a very much larger degree of thrust is required by take-off than cruise, the ratio is still favourable next to conventional aircraft. The 'aircraft' will use standard maritime harbour facilities, by and large, and use thrusters to manoeuvre in port.

Ortiagon Class 'Stealth' Submarine

Since the late 1960s, Beth Gellert has been a military power significant enough to operate submarines. However, until recently the Hound Class Diesel-Electric patrol and attack submarine that represented that milestone almost forty years ago under the Principality was still the only none-nuclear submarine to have served the Beddgelen military and continues to protect the new Commonwealth's shores to this day.

During its lifetime the Hound received few upgrades until the rise of Commonwealth, which saw a significant overhaul enabling the twelve hundred tonne boats to launch 517mm Type-1B MkII heavy torpedoes and Vanguard anti-ship missiles.

At long last, however, the time has come to replace the Hounds in Soviet service with a more capable machine. After a lengthy development programme, Sentinel Submarine Project 5 has yielded a successor in the form of the Ortiagon Class patrol and attack submarine.

Role: Coastal patrol, minelaying, counter ship and submarine warfare
Complement: 32
Length: 70.35m
Displacement: 2,310tons submerged
Maximum Dive Depth: 375m
Propulsion: Two AShPo Air-Independent Propulsion systems and two diesel engines, single shaft
Maximum Speed: 21knots submerged, 12knots surfaced; two weeks 6knot cruise under AIP without snorkeling
Range: 9,500nm at 8knots
Armament: 4 tubes for 517mm Type-1B MkII anti-sub/ship torpedoes and Vanguard anti-ship missiles, 12 carried; 2 tubes for anti-ship 670mm Type-4A MkI capital torpedoes, 4 carried; mines, up to 30 carried instead of torpedoes and missiles; station for 4 SAMs, Sumpit and Terrier
Stealth Features: AIP systems mounted on elastic supports in soundproof modules; low-noise propeller; hull form and appendages designed to reduce hydrodynamic disturbance; mounting of equipment on elastic supports and on uncoupled blocks and suspended platforms increases both stealth and shock-protection; torpedoes can be self-launched, starting-up inside the tubes for quieter launch.
Notes: AShPo AIP System means that Ortiagon is able to spend two or three times longer operating silently at depth and less time near the surface recharging its batteries.
In all, the Ortiagon Class is around four knots faster underwater relative to the Hound, has improved stealth features in all regards, is able to remain operational below water for much longer and to spend less time near or on the surface, has a greater range, improved communications equipment, better fire-control, more efficient diesel engines, and the ability to fire new Type-4A MkI capital torpedoes likely inspired by the on-going insistance of small imperialists on commanding large battleships. The vessel also has multiple-target handling abilities.

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JaF Ja-36 Yellowbat Helicopter Gunship

Primary Builder: January Fort Brennus Aviation Plant
Crew: 2, seated forward and behind one another
Length: 17.5m including rotors
Weight: 8,120kg empty; 12,000kg maximum take-off
Powerplant: 2x2,350hp HT2-FB23 Turboshaft
Maximum Speed: Around 320kph, 200mph
Ceiling: 5,600m
Range: 500km, 310miles with normal fuel
Armament: Turreted cannon, four under-wing pylons, wingtip stations
-RMG-G7 17x126mm 3-barrel rotary cannon, selectable 400 to 3,000rpm rate of fire, 800rnds
-Triple 54kg, dual 225kg, or single 450kg free-fall bombs
-Single-barrel 30mm cannon pods
-32 tube 57mm rocket pods, HE
-12 tube 80mm rocket pods, HE, AP
-Single Parliament AGMs
-Quadruple or dual Totem-3T ATGMs
-Dual Sumpit AAMs (each wingtip)
Systems: Infrared signature suppressers on exhausts, radar-warning receivers, chaff and flare dispensers, ejection system for both crewmembers, HUD and helmet-mounted sights, laser range-finder, TV and thermal sights, air and ground scanning radar.
Notes: In the manner of Russian helicopters previously serving Beth Gellert’s armed forces, Yellowbat has two stacked counter-rotating main rotors and omits a tail rotor. This results in increased power and agility, an unlimited turning rate, and reduced profile and acoustic signature.

Apti NT4-C Batch 2 Air Superiority Fighter Hobgoblin

Primary Builder: April Titovo Aeronautics Plant

Crew: 1

Dimensions: length 21.3m/70ft, span 14m/45.9ft
Weight Empty: 18,435kg/40,642lb
Weight Maximum: 26,500kg/58,422lbs

Powerplant: Two Sprite-C thrust-vectoring super-cruise engines for 11,000kg/24,255lb each (22,000kg/48,510lb total) dry and 15,400kg/33,950lb each (30,800kg/67,900lb total) reheat
Maximum Speed: Mach 2.4, 2,550kph, 1,585mph, super-cruise around Mach 1.38, 910mph, 1,465kph
Ceiling: 18,900m, 62,000ft
Range: 2,690km, 1,670miles plus external tanks and in-flight refuelling

Armament: Internal 30mm BG cannon (180rnds), four external hardpoints for DRAB ASRAAM or Angelot Maudit AMRAAM or AAELRS, internal bay for four AAELRS or six Angelot Maudit plus two DRAB.
Radar: Nayangal is designed specifically for air superiority missions. It is an electronically scanned microprocessor intelligent system able to quickly acquire target information and move on so as to minimise the possibility of counter detection. Nayangal's maximum range is slightly reduced from the Flashdance-like system carried by NT4C's radically different forerunners, but is in fact more capable and less easily detected. Hobgoblin can track twenty-four targets and engage eight at once.

Notes: The super-cruise fighter is capable of elaborate aerobatics and resistant to high g-forces. The airframe is coated in radar absorbent material, and contains an active radar jammer. IR shielding is incorporated into the design, which, over all, makes for good stealth characteristics.
Batch 2 slightly reduced wingspan for aerodynamic, weight saving, and stealth purposes, and is rumoured to represent a forerunner for a maritime derivative. It also modified internal pylons to allow carriage of two extra missiles when using Angelot Maudit, though capacity when configured for the larger AAELRS is not altered.

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JaF NT1-C Fighter-Bomber Springer

Primary Builder: January Fort Brennus Aviation Plant

Crew: 2; pilot, weapons systems operator

Dimensions: length 15.7m/51.5ft span 12.8m/42ft

Powerplant: Two Barbarian afterburning turbofans
Maximum Speed: 1,590kph, 990mph, Mach 1.35 at altitude
Ceiling: 12,800m, 42,000ft
Range: 2,125km, 1,320miles plus in-flight re-fuelling

Armament: 30mm internal cannon (270rnds); 30mm cannon pods; 57mm, 80mm, 122mm, 240mm rocket pods; free-fall and laser-guided bombs (54kg, 225kg, 450kg, cluster); free-fall nuclear bomb; Parliament A/B/C AGMs; DRAB ASRAAM; Vanguard anti-shipping missile. Springer’s dual-purpose radar has a greater than 400km reach and can track multiple targets; number of engagements depends on type.

Notes: Designed many years ago in response to a joint Beth Gellert/ Christmas Day requirement the NT1FB was nicknamed The Flying Felt-tip by Christmassians unimpressed with its rugged profile. This is the seventh design and third production version of the old war-horse.

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Apti L’Angelot Maudit Advanced Beyond-Visual-Range Air-to-Air Missile

L'Angelot Maudit (LAM) has evolved since the First Commonwealth began domestic production of military aviation technologies to become the CAG's primary beyond-visual-range weapon.

The modern LAM is a highly expensive missile combining a range of modern features. Remarkably clean the weapon has no protruding control surfaces save for very small rear-mounted fins, agility being provided by gas-dynamic control.

The lack of large fins reduces the space required by aircraft carrying LAM, enabling some to bear more missiles than would otherwise be the case. In reducing the missile's profile and subsequent drag this arrangement also increases speed and range compared with conventional weapons, and as a side effect also reduces an already small radar cross section. With gas-dynamic control the missile is also more agile than it would otherwise be.

LAM is driven by a variable thrust motor that enables it to cruise at reduced power to further extend range before throttling-up in the terminal stage to attack a target, retaining full agility at extreme range where conventional missiles would be flying unpowered with reduced performance and typically only one chance to catch a target.

L'Angelot Maudit has lock-on-after-launch capability enabling it to be directed close to its quarry before illuminating the target with its own on-board radar, and this mid-course guidance may be provided via a two-way data-link by the launch platform or by a third-party, including Low-Probability-of-Intercept radar facilities.

Primary Builder: April Titovo Aeronautics Plant

Range: 160km, 100 miles
Speed: Mach 4.5
Warhead: blast fragmentation
Fuze: Impact and radar proximity
Guidance: Active radar, inertial mid-course with data linking

Platforms: Hobgoblin, Puffin, Cardinal, Kan-gel

Notes: ‘The accursed cherub’ must, presumably, have been named by a committee –like so many in Beth Gellert- ‘under the influence’.

Guided Missile Cruiser Chainmail Class

Complement: 342

Displacement: 12,920 tonnes full load
Dimensions: 178.7 x 18.1 x 9.25 metres

Powerplant: AShPo T-4 IFEPS Integrated Full Electric Propulsion System; 2 shafts; 100,000shp
Maximum Speed: 33 knots+
Range: 8,000nm at 16 knots

Armour: Up to 80mm composite main belt, reinforced bulkheads, torpedo belt, moderate deck armouring, further protection over critical areas

Armament:

Guns- 2xtwin-mount 110mm 62 calibre quick-fire dual-purpose guns; 2xBGGM-30 30mm CIWIS/Sumpit positions

Missiles- 8x6cell VLS multi-role silos, 96 missiles carried, CS-400-N Red Sky ABM/SAM, Charioteer LRAShM, Mangonel LACM; 2x8cell Loviatar-S VLS SAM, 32 missiles carried.

ASuW- 2x2 305mm Type 3B-MKII anti-submarine torpedo launchers; 2xSeahammer multi-barrel anti-submarine-warfare rocket systems

Sensors: Active/passive bow-mounted sonar and towed array, CS-400-N Red Sky Low-Probability-of-Intercept radar, surface search, BG-CIWIS

Countermeasures: Chaff dispensers, infra-red spoofing device, radar warning and jammer system, towed torpedo decoy

Aircraft: 1 helicopter, Dhruv or Super Helix

Notes:

-CS-400-N ABM/SAM missile system can engage sea-skimming missiles, short-range ballistic missiles, and aircraft to a range of 160km. It carries a smaller warhead than the original land-based CS-400 missile, and has gas-dynamic control for high agility. Guidance is Track-Via-Missile (combined command and semi-active radar homing), but the missile also has an active seeker head, making it very expensive, but also more accurate and harder to jam. CS-400-N can be launched against surface targets, using a diving attack and velocity beyond the means of many current defences to intercept, but the relatively small warhead makes this a very much secondary role for the missile. In maximum air-defence configuration, a Chainmail can control 48 CS-400-N missiles against 24 targets

-Red Sky-N's LPI radar and the use of TVM guidance make it likely that a hostile aircraft will remain unaware of approaching CS-400-N missiles fired against it. Red Sky LPI radar is designed to locate and track an enemy aircraft without alerting its radar warning receivers, while the missile's TVM guidance means that the missile does not have to illuminate the target. This system makes the missile more difficult to jam or spoof than command-guided weapons, and stealthier than active-radar guided examples. However, since it is still easier to jam than would be active-radar-guided missiles, CS-400-N carries its own active seeker head, which is only used in the event of TVM guidance being lost, in which case it is assumed that the threat was already detected by enemy forces.

-Chainmail is a very stealthy design, following on from lessons learned with the Bodkin and Gauntlet Class frigates, which are now serving in their third batch modification. LPI radar is used; heat shielding is considerable; T-4 IFEPS runs very smoothly; the ships angles are configured with stealth a priority; and, with all missiles sunk inside VLS silos and advances in antenna lay-outs, the ship's deck and superstructure remains remarkably clean.

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RK-100 Assault Rifle

Service

Presently being phased in to service, the RK-100 is something of a revolution, with twice the first-shot hit probability of its contemporaries, and flexibility, reliability, and accuracy of truly world-beating standard thanks to features explained below. It is still possible to see the Kalashnikov heritage in this weapon, which replaces the AKM-BG and somewhat AK-like INSAS in front-line service with the CMEC.

Construction

Designed by a university team lead by a Finnish ex-patriot, the RK-100 uses extensive machining, having a milled receiver rather than a cheaper stamped one. This implies a weight increase, and that, to a degree, has been countered by the use in parts of the rifle of new plastics perfected only recently after decades of experience in heavy fighting under extreme climactic conditions, and by the adoption of a relatively compact bullpup configuration. The solid, high quality construction and proven base mechanism of the rifle make for a supremely reliable and hard-wearing weapon. Fairly radical features do suggest the possibility for marginally reduced reliability, but this would only really be the case were the new rifle an improvisation cramming features into an old frame... in fact the Soviet Commonwealth is fortunate to face no great pressures to rush its weapons into service, feeling secure in a land protected by the epic Commonwealth Guard with its AK and INSAS rifles at the ready: precise dimensions were easily perfected during careful trials and prototype stages, with nothing in the new rifle's dimensions owed to older weapons.

Mechanism

Evolved in part from the AK-47-origin mechanism, the RK-100 uses new elements as well. It is a gas operated rotating bolt gun, but -since the decision to significantly re-tool Soviet first-rate production lines had already been reached- the design incorporates a counter-balancing synchroniser. This means that while the bolt is carrying backwards during operation a gas-driven piston drives a compensating mass in the opposite direction. This weight reaches its end point just as the bolt does, thus countering the impulse that otherwise contributes to a rifle's traveling off target during automatic fire. With marginally smaller parts -thanks in part to the calibre change- relative to the AKM and this new balanced mechanism functioning parts each travel slightly less distance, which results in a higher rate of fire.

Cartridge

The Commonwealth has finally with the RK-100 replaced the 7.62x39mm round-of-convenience, adopting a new 6.5x50mm cartridge with a bullet that sports an interior air pocket. The result is recoil a little above that of rival 5.56 or 5.45mm rifles -though still below that of some previous Indian rifles- but a longer bullet that has a flatter trajectory and which, with greater velocity, increases hit probability and generally improves performance at longer ranges. The bullet's energy -it being bigger than many modern rounds- remains high, and so stopping power is still good at closer ranges, superior, in fact, to modern small-calibre weapons. The air pocket itself of course requires that the bullet be made as long as it is, and its advantage is that it allows this trajectory-improving shape to be achieved without excessive weight gain taxing performance over longer ranges.

Background

The RK-100 is heavily influenced by other assault rifles from both home and abroad, as its creators in the Soviet Commonwealth will admit, and this is partly owing to the relative youth of the modern Soviet state, which has enjoyed only limited opportunities to really forge its own path after such a short and brutal life thus far.

Features include much of the AK's mechanism and some of the sturdier construction methods, the intermediate cartridge, and an airpocket within the bullet as seen more recently in the Russian 5.45x39mm round but demonstrated much earlier and less famously by the British using a modified .303". From the RK-95 this rifle takes its enlarged trigger guard, meant to enable the wearing of thick winter gloves while operating the weapon in mountain warfare.

Accessories

The bayonet bears some similarities to modern British weapons, especially when combined with the sheath. As with bayonets for the L85/SA80 rifles, RK-100's bayonet and sheath combine to provide an effective wire-cutting tool, and the sheath can be used to sharpen the blade and also incorporates a handy bottle-opener, very useful to the typical Geletian soldier! It differs from its British inspiration in being slightly longer (blade around 20cm/8") and of arguably better construction thanks to the nature of Indian socialist industry. It is also mounted with a mind to the heat-related problems that have been seen to afflict the L85's bayonet if left attached during firing.

Another feature apparently inspired by the British assault rifle is its optical sights, comparable to the oft-admired SUSAT and produced after some extensive experimentation under harsh Indian climactic conditions. A clear and simple x4 magnification sight, its use of tritium to provide a glowing pointer furnishes a limited night-fighting ability, but the whole piece can be quickly exchanged for a dedicated battery-powered UV night sight.

Capabilities

With these sights (plus basic iron sights), a bullpup arrangement enabling a reasonably long barrel, a balanced bolt and fairly high rate of fire, and an unusually flat trajectory provided by the new bullet, the Indian Soviets have a rifle that is as remarkable for its accuracy as for its before-mentioned reliability. It typically exhibits more than twice the accuracy of conventional competitors in general, and notably a radically improved first shot hit probability as well as significantly better accuracy during full-automatic fire. It is apparently for these reasons that the Soviet Commune resolved to abandon the Indian Small Arms System as its front-line solution.

Another feature is the ability to fire rifle grenades, which have a maximum range of more than 400m. There is also the option for a silencer attachment. Magazine capacity is 32 rounds, and modes of fire are semi and fully automatic, with fighters being trained to provide their own burst fire while less well trained Auxiliaries are furnished with burst-regulated INSAS weapons. Rate of fire is 800rpm.

The RK-100 is 815mm/32" long with a 500mm/19.75" barrel, and its empty weight is around 4kg/8.8lb.

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RK-101 Multi-Role Machinegun

This is essentially a heavy-barrel version of the RK-100 assault rifle, and many of its components and performance characteristics are interchangeable with the smaller weapon. It is fed usually from a small 48 round drum that fits into the magazine housing, but also accepts Rk-100 box-magazines.

The RK-101 is 972mm/38.25" long with a 660mm/26" barrel, and weighs almost 5kg/11lb empty.

With optical sights, especially the available night sights; the exceptionally long, heavy barrel; forward-mounted bipod; rear hand-grip; balanced automatic mechanism; and intermediate flat-trajectory cartridge, the RK-101 is a deadly accurate weapon likely to cut-down whole squads of enemies daring to attack into the Commonwealth.

The RK-100 and RK-101 are now claimed by rampant Soviet propaganda to be the world's most accurate assault-rifle and squad automatic weapon respectively, with Guardsmen encouraged to take encouragement from their reputedly superior armament and move still further from anything like fear.

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CUT Man-Portable Aerial Reconnaissance Drone Hebawg

The Commonwealth has been pursuing miniature UAV technology for some time, and it is a project by the Ceredigion University that has borne the sweetest fruit. Designed to be carried by infantry teams deployed in urban or other environments where real-time intelligence is needed on a tactical level, Hebawg carries tiny cameras that transmit information back to a laptop-type unit carried by one man in many Soviet infantry teams.

Carried in a tube resembling that of a small missile unit, the Hebawg is launched by a resettable spring in the base and deploys wings in the air.

The unit is driven by a small pusher propeller drawing power from a compact electric motor. The powerplant can be recharged by solar-fed reservoir units carried by specially adapted landcruiser or other vehicles, and a smaller, less efficient version of this is available for manual-carriage. The Hebawg is constructed of lightweight high-impact plastics and some few alloy parts, and most of the structure is simply a synthetic foam that weighs (and costs) almost nothing while holding components in place and offering basic protection against rough landings (but certainly not enemy fire).

The small machine makes basically no impression on most technological detection systems having absolutely tiny heat and radar signatures, and is near silent in operation.

Role: Short-range reconnaissance for deployed infantry units
Primary Builder: Ceredigion University Technical and sub-contracting Phalansteries
Crew: 0, controlled remotely by an operator using a standard-issue laptop-type computer console with dedicated software; capable of limited automation.
Dimensions: length 1.1m (3.6ft) span 1.5m (4.9ft)
Weight: 4kg (8.8lbs)
Powerplant: Electric motor driving pusher propeller
Maximum Speed: 64kph (40mph)
Ceiling: 3,000m (9,850ft)
Range: 10km (6.2miles)
Endurance: 50 minutes
Armament: None. The Hebawg mounts several tiny cameras for day and night reconnaissance from relatively low altitudes and short ranges.

May as well tag this with my other account, since I keep forgetting about it.

IAG-40 Boglin CAS fighter

Role: close air support
Configuration: low-wing twin-engine monoplane with moderately swept wing

Crew: 2

Dimensions: length 17.34m, span 16.9m, height 5.05m, wing area 62.5m2
Weights: empty 12,300kg, maximum take-off 18,500kg

Powerplant: 2x BG-2 turbojet, 54kN each
Speed: 965km/h (600mph)
Ceiling: 12,000m
Range: combat radius 450km

Armament: 2x GSh-23L cannon under nose, 1x GSh-23L cannon in remotely controlled tail turret; 7,250kg external stores and wing-bays

Notes: A relatively low-tech workhorse now primarily confined to reserve status but sometimes deployed against counter revolutionary elements within the Commonwealth. Heavily armoured, rugged and easily maintained, and with a reasonable rough-field performance, the Boglin is likely to be around for some time.

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JOS Llewyn Anti Tank Rocket Unit

The Commonwealth's light anti-tank weapon, this is a little more advanced than the typical unguided western LAW or Russian RPG type weapons it replaced in Indian Soviet service. Llewyn (Lynx) is a disposable tube-launched weapon that is capable of operation more or less like any other: aim, press trigger, rocket flies towards point of aiming, tube is discarded. But there is more to the 102mm rocket weapon than meets the eye.

Should the operator choose to track a moving target -such as a hostile armoured vehicle- with his sights for just a few seconds before firing, the rocket will follow a predicted course for the target based on that initial movement, reaching its 700m maximum range in less than three seconds, and delivering its powerful charge in a top-attack profile. In this way a fairly simple passive tracking system can drastically increase the chances of scoring a hit on a moving target without obliging the operator to provide guidance after launch or requiring any active target lock on the part of the missile itself. The fact that Llewyn can be used in direct line-of-sight mode implies -correctly- that the weapon's warhead is designed to be effective against vehicles' frontal or side armour as far as possible, leaving top-armour with little chance in guided mode. The sighting unit -which the weapon can operate without in unguided 'quick-launch' mode- may be detached and re-used when disposing of an empty launch tube, though it is not an overly expensive or rare item in itself.

The unit is also notable for its soft-launch configuration, enabling its use in confined space without concern for back blast.

TG-7 110mm Light Multi-Role Gun

Normally used as a towed howitzer with good mobility in the many hills and mountains of Beth Gellert, this weapon also has significant anti-tank utility and a third function as anti-aircraft gun. Following the First Commonwealth's heavy use of anti-aircraft artillery as a back-up to more advanced systems -since AAA can continue to function in a limited way without active tracking and targeting systems such as may be attacked and reduced by enemy SEAD operations- the modern Commonwealth maintains a high-altitude artillery capacity along with the low-level 37mm weapons.

The TG-7 is typically mounted on a lightweight carriage good for towing and deployable for fast-tracking direct fire as well as for indirect artillery fire, but also with unusually high elevation functions for anti-aircraft use. The carriage-mount and the gun's breach are modular in design, allowing a motor to be fitted for powered traverse to enhance anti-aircraft perfomance, though the weapon may be used for air defence without this provision.

Likewise, the ordinary mannual loading system -good for fourteen rounds per minute at burst, ten practical, and around six sustained- can be augmented by a dropped-in automatic system to allow a rate of fire several times higher for use in more static anti-aircraft deployment, where it usually operates along side short-range radar such as DRAB-20 and BG-Falcon-Scavenger.

Laser range finder for direct fire and computerised fire-control that measures and accounts for any tilt in the emplacement of the gun are usual with the TG-7, along with a touch-screen display that tells the operators when their gun is laid-on to the intended target, and -when motorised- may even adjust to such a position automatically. Firing sequences can be programmed to move from target to target, which is most impressive when emplaced with fully automatic loader, as a gun in defensive position might in theory engage under automisation and computerisation several dozen approaching targets inside a single minute with minimal input from crews... of course, this scenario is unlikely, but it indicates the extent of the system's potential.

HE-FRAG, HE-FRAG-T, HEAT, APFDS, smoke, and training rounds can be fired with a variety of fuzes in the case of explosive rounds.

BRES Totem-3T Anti Tank Guided Missile System

Primarily built by the Fort Brennus September Pwelli Ordnance Factory, this 125mm missile weapon is part of a long line of heavily used systems. The first Totem ATGM was a gun-launched beam-riding missile with a warhead of limited value against very modern armour packages, but it provided a stand-off engagement capability to early Commonwealth tanks.

The current Totem is tube-launched and may be found mounted on armoured vehicles, land cruisers, helicopter gunships, sometimes on patrol boats, and carried by more than one infantry soldier. The second Totem incorporated an enhanced warhead package designed to defeat reactive armour by use of a highly modern tandem HEAT charges, while the main improvements to this final version are in enhanced countermeasure-resistance. The latest version also offers a thermobaric effect warhead as an alternative to the dedicated anti-armour weapon.

Totem 3T uses either optical or thermal detection and tracking, and infra-red or semi-automatic command to line of sight laser guidance. Range is between 250 and 6,000 metres, and armour penetration is said to be rated in excess of 1,100mm.

D-33A/B Tokalert Automatic Pistol

The development of the D-41 pistol for Expert Corps service lead Soviet and university designers to consideration of the qualities of most if not all of the automatic pistols in current or recent use in the Commonwealth and the old Geletian Principality. While doing this it was suggested that the Auxiliary Militias might benefit from the standardisation of a cheaply produced pistol related to the TT-33 Tokarev that had seen some use in the Commonwealth and been well liked there. The L-35 Lahti in Commonwealth hands was an even more popular weapon, granted, but fairly expensive and existing in nowhere near sufficient quantity to arm the new Auxiliary units organising across the old Principality: a new second-line standard would be required.

Taking the Tokarev as a starting point, since it was thought possible to produce it more cheaply than the Dag, Lahti, or modern High-Power weapons that might have been alternative bases, the designers' first task was to adopt an alternate calibre, namely the 9x19mm round used by the Lahti and Hi-Power pistols and Suomi and Sterling sub-machinegun in the old Commonwealth. This also provided the added advantage of making the new slender framed weapon more comfortable to fire than was the case with the 7.62mm original, did not reduce magazine capacity, and was a proven concept thanks to earlier Tokarev copies made in Hungary and Yugoslavia.

Other changes are evident, most visibly in the improved shaping of the grip that fits comfortbly in large Geletian hands while also being narrow enough -owing to the single-stack magazine- to remain comfortable in smaller hands, which may be important to a militia weapon likely to end up in the hands of women and young people in the event of invasion or counter-revolution. Like the North Korean adaptation -Type 68- the D-33 retains its firing pin by a plate rather than the cross-pin of other variants and the slide stop pin is strengthened along with some other parts.

D-33A -which is presently in fairly low-rate production- is slightly better finished than most Tokarev relatives and features a safety catch absent from the TT-33. D-33B is a contingency design that dispenses with the catch and can be assumed likely to wear an inferior finish since it is intended as a high-rate wartime production weapon.

All in all, then, the D-33 is marginally more comfortable and sturdy than most Tokarev variants but is unlikely to be considered a terribly modern weapon, and is serviceable if unremarkable. An Auxiliary weapon through and through.

Savov NTMKI Light Utility Aircraft PRESTON

Primary Builder: Savique (Beth Gellert) November Aviation Plant

Crew: 2, pilot and co-pilot

Dimensions: length 21m (69ft) span 26.5m (87ft)

Powerplant: Two Savov Type-2 turboprop engines, 3,000kW each
Payload: 7,000kg or 50 passengers, 40 paratroopers, 20 stretchers
Maximum Speed: 585kph (364mph) clean
Ceiling: 8,000m
Range: 3,860km (2,400 miles) with maximum fuel, 2,092km (1,300 miles) with maximum payload

Preston ASW patrol

Crew: 4 to 7 usual

Armament: Mines, buoys, 54kg bombs, 225kg bombs, Parliament AGM, DSJ-1 ASM, rockets, depth charges, Type 3-B MKII torpedo, DRAB ASRAAM

Notes: Carries a small but fairly advanced electronics suite for detection and tracking of surface and sub-surface targets. This variant has said to be rather cramped, leading to rapid crew fatigue, but it is considered highly cost effective. This allows large nations such as Beddgelert to support greater numbers of trained crewmen compared to what might be possible were resources spent on larger aircraft- Prestons may fly short patrols but there will be many of them covering a given area.

Notes: A humble aircraft, the Preston has served Beddgelert for many years and has a surprisingly colourful history. Portmeirion attempted to induce a progressive socialist economy in tiny Savique by awarding contracts for the construction of Prestons to that nation on condition they be built at newly established state factories. Later, during the Battle of Salvador, Prestons carried torpedoes against Iansislian warships in the Bay of Bengal. Since then they have served as diplomatic and utility transports, inserted Gellert Sentinel special ops teams into hostile territory in Africa and Asia, and patrolled Beddgelen waters with the People’s Coast Guard.

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MAL BGMAS Sumpit (blow-gun) Man-Portable Surface-to-Air Missile System

Primary Builder: March Alaric Aviation Plant

Calibre: 125mm missile

Propulsion: Two-stage solid-fuel rocket with smokless sustainer
Range: 350m to 7,500m
Ceiling: 4,000m
Speed: Mach 4

Guidance: Optical

Warhead: Twin darts with individual guidance circuits and high-density explosive penetrating delay warheads

Mode of Attack: Terminal-phase kinetic separation and flight to target of twin darts with immunity to chaff and flares.

Notes: Immune to chaff and flares. Also capable of attacking surface targets. Sumpit is also produced in a twin-mounted pedestal system which can be deployed for battlefield-defence or mounted on 4x4 landcruiser vehicles. A closely related system is associated with Baarish-II self-propelled air-defence system and shipboard CIWIS gun/missile systems.

Fleet Aircraft Carrier Defiance Class

Displacement: 82,500 tonnes (full load)
Length: 307 metres (over all)
Beam: 73 metres (over all)
Draught: 11 metres

Complement: 900 ship’s crew, 1,724 air-group crew under normal conditions; short-term accommodation for 600 marines

Power: Ashpo T-4 IFEPS Integrated Full Electric Propulsion System; 4 screws; 200,000shp
Speed: 31 knots
Range: Over 10,000nm

Armament: 8x AK-630M1-2BGM twin-mounted gattling guns with 4x Sumpit high-velocity surface-to-air missiles each; 2x8cell Loviatar-S VLS SAM systems; 2x Seahammer ASROC; chaff dispensers; infra-red spoofing system
Armour: Protection over critical areas; flight deck moderately armoured; reinforced bulkheads
Radar: Citadel-S2 array search and tracking, Commonwealth-S1 command and control

Airwing: Up to 65 aircraft including [typically]:
-NT-4CN Hobgoblin air superiority fighters [24]
-NT-2 Puffin VTOL strike fighters [16]
-NT-1CN Springer attackers [12]
-Ka-32BG Super Helix ASW helicopters [4]
-HAL Dhruv light multi-role helicopters [4]
-Merlin HC3 transport helicopters [2]
-Preston-N transports
-Morrigan AEW-UAV [3]
-Morrigan A-UAV
-Morrigan R-UAV

Notes:
-Has two small islands -one for ship's functions and one for aircraft control- which increases flight deck space, allows better arrangement of space below decks, reduces air turbulence over the flight deck, and provides arguably better survivability.
-Shielding measures are in effect to reduce IR and noise signatures and other moderate stealth measures are included in the design.
-The Defiance Class is designed to be highly survivable in combat and to have a light repair and refit requirement schedule, and to be relatively low-cost. The low-wear IFEPS powerplant and lack of secondary generators go some way to aiding this, especially compared to the once proposed nuclear powerplant. The compact nature of this system along with the island arrangement and high automation make for a comfortable, functioning ship causing relatively low crew fatigue and general high operating efficiency.

Trimaran Fleet Aircraft Carrier Commonwealth Class

Complement: 900 ship's crew, up to 1,800 air-group crew, short-term accommodation for 600 Marines

Displacement: 73,500tons light; 90,000tons maximum
Length: 1,007ft, 307 metres (over all)
Beam: 183ft, 54m (at waterline including outer hulls)

Powerplant: Ashpo (August Shipbuilding Porthmadog) T-4 IFEPS Integrated Full Electric Propulsion System
Maximum Speed: 32knots
Range: 12,500nm

Armament: 2x 8-cell Loviatar-S VLS SAM, 6x AK-630M1-2BGM twin-mounted gattling guns with 4x Sumpit high-velocity surface-to-air missiles each
Radar: Citadel-S2 array search and tracking, Commonwealth-S1 command and control

Airwing:
Up to 60 aircraft including [typically]:
Ka-32BG Super Helix ASW helicopters [4]
Ja-36 Yellowbat attack helicopters [Militia-supplied on special missions]
Merlin HC3 transport helicopters [4]
NT-2 Puffin VTOL strike fighters [12]
NT-4CN Hobgoblin air superiority fighters [20]
NT-1CN Springer attackers [8]
Preston ASWAP [special missions only]
Preston-N transports [2]
Morrigan R-UAV [2]
Morrigan A-UAV [2]
Morrigan AEW-UAV [3]

Notes:
-Formerly known as the India Class.
-The Commonwealth Class is a conventional take-off and landing trimaran design with side armour and armoured bulkheads and an airwing up to sixty aircraft of all types.
-It has two small islands -one for ship's functions and one for aircraft control- which increases flight deck space, allows better arrangement of space below decks, reduces air turbulence over the flight deck, and provides arguably better survivability.
-Shielding measures are in effect to reduce IR and noise signatures and other moderate stealth measures are included in the design.
-Catapults are of electro-magnetic powered sort.
-Commonwealth is designed to be highly survivable in combat and to have a light repair and refit requirement schedule, and to be relatively low-cost. The low-wear IFEPS powerplant and lack of secondary generators go some way to aiding this, especially compared to the once proposed nuclear powerplant. The compact nature of this system along with the island arrangement and high automation make for a comfortable, functioning ship causing relatively low crew fatigue and general high operating efficiency.
-There have been reports of teething problems with the newly (some say hurridly) designed catapults.

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NTMKII Heavy Transport Aircraft Marathon

Crew: 4 to 6 plus up to 108 infantry or 76 paratroopers

Dimensions: length 38.7m, 127ft; span 50m, 164ft

Powerplant: Four Pheidippides turboprops
Payload: 52,000kg
Maximum Speed: 676kph, 420mph clean, 494kph, 307mph fully laden
Ceiling: 8,075m, 26,500ft
Range: 11,590km, 7,200 miles with maximum fuel, 3,700km, 2,300 miles with maximum payload

Notes: Reliable aircraft in service with several nations besides the Commonwealth. Versatile and designed to operate on relatively short runways and poor surfaces.

Marathon Tanker
Crew: Five - Pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, boom operator

Marathon Airborne Command and Surveillance
Crew: 4 (flightcrew) plus 8 to 12
Speed: 426kph, 265mph (optimum cruise)
Endurance: 8 hours (unrefuelled)
Notes: The ASR-M Spectre of Communism Radar has a near 480km, 300 mile range for low-flying targets and greater for higher-flying objects. It (the Radar) is of the latest generation available to Beth Gellert’s multi-trillion dollar defence forces and highly adept at filtering out interference and resisting jamming.

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CS-400 Red Sky Dual Range High Altitude Surface to Air Missile System

CS-400 represented a major step in the defences, industry, and political relations of the Soviet Commonwealth as the Indian revolution crept somewhat uncomfortably into the spotlight as one of the world's largest and potentially most powerful Communist states.

Red Sky was first deployed with a Soviet expedition to Africa as part of ultimately successful efforts by the then-new Second Commonwealth to discourage Roycelandian imperialism against the Malagasy Republic. Interestingly, since the deployment of the system across the sub-continent, there have been no recorded attempts to violate Soviet airspace.

Missile: CS-400's missile component was a vast improvement over the Principality-era Citadel, which lacked range at low altitude and exhibted limited agility when attacking manoeuvring targets. The new missile has a maximum range, against high-flying targets, of some 180km, and a ceiling above 30km, and boasts home-on-jam capability. CS-400 has some ABM ability against missiles fired from up to a 2,000km range. Success rate is around 75-85% in terms of single shot kills, depending on target type.

Radar: Red Sky early warning and target acquisition, two Citadel-L control; 300-400km detection range, multiple targets detectable, 6 targets simultaneous engagement (3 per Citadel) with up to 12 missiles guided

System: Soviet Battery is six mobile launchers each with three fire-ready missiles, one Red Sky command-processing vehicle, two Citadel radar vehicles, various optional power-supply, maintenance, and reload vehicles.

Loviatar-L/S Battlefield/Shipboard Defence Surface to Air Missile System

Range: 1km-25km
Altitude: Treetop/wavetop (depending on version) to 12,500m

Guidance: Command, optional terminal, and semi-active radar
Radar-
Search: Salvable to DRAB-20; 60km+ range, 36 targets traceable or Citadel L1.
Fire Control: BG-Falcon-Scavenger; 65km range, 12 targets traceable, 4 targets simultaneous engagement, 8 missiles guided

Platform: Mobile launcher based on CICV-2 chassis with four launch-ready missiles. Often deployed with four launch vehicles, one fire-control radar, various power-supply, reload, and maintenance vehicles, and served by search radar some distance away. DRAB-20 search radar may serve up to three batteries positioned not more than a few kilometres apart, probably defending a major facility. Citadel L1 may serve a number of batteries dispersed over a perhaps 200km radius.

Notes: Guidance is assisted by microprocessor intelligent module technology, and with frequency agility technology is able to efficiently cut-through jamming. Surprisingly, Loviatar owes some of its design to AFRISAM, the product of the 3rd-world United African Republic of Lusaka; fire control radar is directly related to the Lusakan Scavenger, though more advanced and compatible with other more advanced systems. Exchange of ideas occurred some time ago when Beddgelen aid to Igomo’s regime was at a peak.

Missile Data-
Propulsion: Single stage solid rocket motor
Weight: 290kg
Warhead: 27kg
Speed: Mach 4.5
Control: High-agility gas dynamic system