NationStates Jolt Archive

Duclerc Air Command, Ingershall, Yanitaria

Maréchal d'Air Henri Paltier set the shot glass, as the third "Chine blanche" of the night settled in. While most Yanitarians in general simply did not abuse alcohol in the way that perhaps their neighboring countries did, Paltier was the exception, a powerful man who had succumbed to alcoholism in his old age. However tonight he was escorted by two young colonels, with the intent of keeping his drinking to a minimum.

While Paltier was a sod, and while he did have quite a depressing streak, he was also an accomplished engineer, and did generally know what was best for the air force. And of course, this meeting would probably become one of the most important in the recent history of the Service Aéronautique.

So after the third drink, the two colonels, Monsieur Carpantier, and Monsieur Goudot, hoisted the wayward Maréchal to his feet, and removed him bodily from the officers club and towards the main building, where the meeting would take place. Their only stop was at the large, ornamental fountain in front of the building in order to splash cool water onto Paltier's face, before wiping it up with a small cloth. He was sober enough to walk the rest of the way, with a hardly noticeable amount of listing. The meeting room was on the top floor, over looking a garden that was largely meant to impress foreigners. Before sitting down, the colonels preformed a last minute quiz to ensure that the old drunk was physically able to conduct an international meeting of such importance.

Carpantier asked, "do you have any kids?"

"Now, would I be drinking if I didn't?"

Goudot rolled his eyes before asking the next question, "How do you feel about the Abigazi natives of Sétif?"

"Well, if I go home and see one in my bed, it'll certainly be a welcome break from my wife."

"How many fingers," asked Carpantier, holding up three.

"Two."

"No."

"Well you didn't let me finish. Now hold on while I break one off."

Goudot frowned, before lighting a cigarette. "This is enough, he's sober, and even if he isn't, our guests will be arriving soon, and we don't have time to fix him."

Indeed, it was already eight o' clock, and the guests, after having been taken on an extensive, and probably quite boring tour of the city and base, would probably be arriving any minute.

OOC: Sorry it took ages to get this up. As you can probably tell, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to start this with out resorting to a one line post. So I made this Air Marshal a drunk.

Överstelöjtnant Carl Ångström was not a particularly patient man. Decades in the cockpit of a JAS 37 Viggen had not bestowed any more of that trait upon him, listening to the laconic voices of air traffic controllers direct him here and there. Being relegated to a desk job in 2002 had only compounded his short temper; although he was educated as an aeronautical engineer, he far preferred to be in the cockpit of a jet aircraft. However, the Royal Hvergelmirian Air Force had needed a man with not only flight experience, but an engineering background for this particular meeting, and Ångström had fit the bill. He struggled to remain civil with the Yanitarian airman who had been granted the unfortunate duty of taking the Hvergelmirian contingent on a tour of their airbase.

“Yes, I would like another bottle of water. Tack själv. Thank you.”

He scowled. The sun was only beginning to set on the hot summer’s day, and the Överstelöjtnant was regretting wearing his dress uniform for the tour. The task of presenting himself with the highest degree of deportment, he judged, was not worth suffering under the sun which had not yet set. He glanced at his watch for the third time in as many minutes. It was nearing eight o’clock. Just about time for the meeting to begin, he surmised.

Ångström glanced over at his executive assistant, Alfred Rydberg. Rydberg was a younger man, with longer hair than would’ve been permitted in the Air Force, had he been a member. He represented Crown Aviation Engineering, the largest aerospace corporation in Hvergelmir. They designed airframes for both the civilian and military markets. Rydberg had been one of the several corporate representatives who had secured a domestic production license for SAAB’s JAS 39 Gripen, which currently served as the mainstay of the fighter component of the RHAF.

“How much longer do you think this tour will last?” asked Ångström in Swedish.

“Jag icke gör det veta,” replied Rydberg with a shrug. “I don’t know.” It was one of his favoured expressions, Ångström had noted. The man was not much of a conversationalist, aviation notwithstanding.

However, a moment later their generic SUV was pulling past a large, ornamental fountain towards what appeared to be the central building. A sign with English subtitles soon confirmed Ångström’s guess. Their SUV came to a stop; without waiting for their Yanitarian escort to open the door for him the Överstelöjtnant opened the door and stepped out into the finally cooling air.

OOC: I didn't know your country was swedish. If I had, I would have appointed one of the ethnic Yanitarii, who are basically NS versions of Norwegians. Just to clarify, there are two groups in Yanitaria, the Arkadians, who are the rich minority, but are heavily involved in government, and the Yanitarii majority. The Arkadians are french, obviously.

bump for NTC

Marascal na Spéir (Sky Marshal) Aodh Ó Ruairc (Hugh O'Rourke) entered into the room. His large black frame filled the threshold of the door as he crossed through it. To his rear were two pale red headed men, Dubhaltach and Proinsias Ó Cinnéide (Dudley and Francis Kennedy). The Ó Cinnéide brothers were the brains and manufacturers behind the latest flying wing project in the NTC. They were clearly not military men, but their pleasant yet professional disposition was immediately clear. When they sat at the table with the assembled parties, Marascal na Spéir Ó Ruairc spoke. "I know it is not my place to begin these proceedings, but I must say that I am pleased to have been included in this venture. And as the old NTC proverb goes, 'Two heads are better than one.' and with three heads assembled I foresee great things."

OOC: Interesting tidbits I Stumbled Upon PDE (http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123099095)
F-35 (http://www.4wings.com/des/image/F-35_cutaway.jpg)

"Indeed, with effort, we will be able to feed off of our strengths, and minimize our individual weaknesses in order to make some truly impressive steps forward," said the Air Marshal in a lightly accented English. "Now, before we start. Perhaps we should discuss our goals for our respective air forces. For this, I'll give the floor to mon Colonel Goudot.

The colonel, who had seated himself on an open window sill in order to smoke, nodded to his superior and stepped towards a file cabinet, which was always kept empty except for a group of manilla folders used to create the illusion of actual day to day use when pulling out important files. From it, he withdrew two yellow envelopes which had been prepared and put there that afternoon by his staff. He handed one to each of the foreign parties.

"Contained within each envelope are the general doctrines of the Yanitarian Air Corps, as well as the actual specifications of both the Ath-86 Nebula (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13626933&postcount=196) and the Da-34 Constellation (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13551470&postcount=189), our two newest bombers. Please take a minute to review them, however I can summarize the doctrines briefly now.

"The Yanitarian Government want's a cost effective, yet advanced air force that can compete with the major air powers of the world. In order to do this, we would like to use aircraft that are mechanically based on previous soviet designs, because of their extreme reliability and ease of maintenance, while accepting the clearly superior western electronics. That is not to say that we simply want improved MiG clones, as we've already upgraded most of our airplanes with more advanced electronics. However we do wish to retain the reliability of their designs.

"Tactically, we value maneuverability, reliability, and advanced electronics. We are not adverse to expensive stealth aircraft, however we feel that our air force should balance these with cheaper, yet still very capable aircraft, with mainstay fighters that are able to take on the air forces of 99% of the world's aircraft, at a fraction of the cost. Indeed, with proper tactics, an Su-37 is superior to even an F-22, and we recognize this.

"However, in order to see this agreement to the end, we are willing to be flexible in our requirements, to an extent."

Överstelöjtnant Ångström pursed his lips momentarily; pausing for a moment to decide on his next words. It struck him that perhaps this meeting of minds would not be as simple as he had anticipated. The Yanitarians used military doctrines which were quite unlike those used by the Royal Hvergelmirian Air Force. And the New True Cross? They were more or less an unknown factor.

“It appears to me,” Ångström began, “that each of our representative air forces operate on doctrines which are quite dissimilar. In Hvergelmir, we choose to rely on more conventional methods. Our air force operates primarily ‘western’ technology; we tend to favour stealth, manoeuvrability, and combat prowess, at least as far as our combat aircraft are concerned.”

He paused for a moment to review the Yanitarian dossier.

“For example,” he said, gesturing towards the various files and schematics, “the Royal Hvergelmirian Air Force does not operate strategic bombers. We chose to operate primarily in a peacekeeping role, and our military doctrine favours long range cruise missile strikes as opposed to strategic bombing.”

Ångström turned to look at Rydberg, the representative from Crown Aviation Engineering. “Although our air force may not operate on the same doctrines as either of yours, both the RHAF and Crown Aviation realize that there are considerable corporate advantages to be had here. Our ‘claim to fame’, so to speak, are our airframes, most of which being modern, western, designs. However, this brings me to ask, what exactly are our objectives here? What is it that we intend to design?”

The NTC Air Marshal gave a slight glance at the dossier and then handed it back to the capable Ó Cinnéide brothers. This was far aspect was far over his head. He was a pilot not an engineer. His one strength was his acceptance of the fact and the ability to delegate when he was not the man for the job. The brothers whispered excitedly. They shuffled through the dossier a number of times, each time getting more excited. Then they began to bicker in Gaelic. At first it was low murmurs so that only the Air Marshal could hear them. He rolled is eyes, and quickly turned to them. "If this keeps up I will send you out into the hall, and I will be out of my depth and we will lose the contract and you will be shit out of luck." The fighting stopped, momentarily. As soon as the Air Marshal turned back to the table the bickering started up again, but this time even more subdued as if the Air Marshal sitting three feet away might not hear them.

"The NTC operates their air force as a long range defensive group. While we recognize that strategic bombers became obsolete with the invention of the ICBM and other more advanced missile technology. I think what we might try to achieve is a fighter-bomber, and while I understand that the multi-role aircraft has become the norm in modern air combat, I think it would serve all of our purposes more completely. If we can give this aircraft the range it needs to carry a larger payload to the target and deliver its munitions accurately, while still allowing for a larger degree of maneuverability, size of the aircraft being most prevalent, then we can cross the aims of our air forces and come to a consensus. What I envisage is a modern B-17 like project, a bomber that can defend itself. However, as I mentioned before size will be the main factor because as the payload gets larger, so the surface area of the plane, and it becomes less maneuverable."

"Allow me to approach these topics on at a time," said Carpantier, speaking for the first time during the meeting. "Addressing our Hvergelmirian counterparts first, our doctrines are not as different as one might initially think. Western designs and Eastern designs are not mutually exclusive, and in fact may work very well together, if properly applied. What is most required is weapons commonality, and even as we speak, Yanitarian engineers are hard at work trying to develop the next generation of weapons.

"Regarding your example of your air force using long range missiles instead if strategic bombing. Eastern, russian doctrine also espouses this belief. Both the Tu-95 and Da-34 mainly fire cruise missiles. In essence, they are highly mobile missile sites. Interestingly enough, in this case your doctrine is the opposite of western doctrine. Westerners often favour bombers made specifically to drop free fall bombs, where as in planes like the Da-34 mainly fire their weapons from hundreds of kilometers away, and simply drop bombs as a secondary option, to be used where it is cost effective.

"As to our intentions, I would first like to answer the questions of our counterparts from the New True Cross. As you can understand, your last questions is rather more complicated."

Carpantier paused to recall all that was said, before continuing, "missile technology is indeed superior when used with nuclear weapons, or as precision guided weapons, however large missiles are prohibitively expensive, some costing more than five Da-34 bombers, and are only good for one use. Further, smaller missiles lack the range needed, in many cases. However, by using planes like the Da-34 constellation, one might have the best of both worlds. Further, unlike the B-17, which has to protect itself, a Da-34 Constellation may stay well out of range of the target, often avoiding high concentrations of SAMs.

"We are also interested in having a number of multirole aircraft, however we feel that the description of 'Jack of all trades, master of none' is one that should be avoided, especially since our nations have the ability to field dedicated aircraft. This is why we do not believe a long range fighter bomber is the best course of action. Aside from the fact that it will never match the range of the Da-34 or Tu-95, or even the B-52, it will also never match the payload of even a medium bomber like the Ath-86, or the maneuverability of most modern fighter aircraft. We believe that replacing all large bombers with large fighter bombers is akin to replacing all of our 160mm artillery pieces with large squad mortars.

"Now, regarding our intentions, I believe that instead of designing a group of planes, making our air forces uniform, I believe instead we should discuss what sorts of planes we want, and where we overlap, create programs to develop them. In areas were we diverge greatly, we may agree to put aside resources in order to help each other develop aircraft to fit our militaries. And of course, we should open up our respective aerospace companies to work with each other with out penalties or taxes associated with working with foreign nations. And finally I believe that all nations involved in the development of a plane should share domestic production rights, and the right to sell such designs to foreigners."

"Then you and I are in concordance." The Sky Marshal was angry at himself for misunderstanding the intentions of his Yanitarian counterparts. He was usually better at judging a situation. The Ó Cinnéide brothers were lost in there own world, they had withdrawn pens and pads from their satchels and were scribbling away. Without looking at the paper the Sky Marshal leaned back and whispered, "They don't want a flying wing." The brothers stopped in their tracks. They sheepishly put down their pads and pens and finally tuned back into the conversation.

OOC: Sorry guys, but I am going to be in Tunisia for two weeks, so I'll not be able to comment on anything until then. Feel free to suggest airplanes that we should work on, though.

ooc: Can I come to Tunisia instead?

OOC: Back. DO NOT GO TO TUNISIA, IT FUCKING SUCKS. I did have fun, but only because I adore my nieces and nephew, and my brother in law can speak pretty good english. I also learned quite a bit of french, or rather, I applied stuff that I forgot I knew, and in the process, english is actually second in my mind, although the internet is changing that, which I don't like. If you guys would like, let's get back to this.

"So if I have this correct you are simply looking for an update and overhaul on your current bomber platforms?"