SEASIDE PALACE, CANISSIA
It was mid-afternoon, and King Arik had assembled some of his top military leaders for a semi-formal conference on near-term strategic planning.
"I got the word of approval from the rest of the MESS via quick teleconference," he said, "The idea of 'observer' status for the MESS is formally approved. This coincides with a number of realities we have to take into account now."
"I suppose first and foremost is the sudden, and very rapid, expansion of CATO," said General William Axman, head of the Robot Warrior Research Project.
"Exactly," the King said, "Now, we're on good terms with CATO and I don't necessarily see them as an enemy, but at the same time this strategic land grab is worrying. We can't always guarantee that we'll have the same good relations with future leaders."
"Besides," said General Hunnar Gutierrez, still tired from his long plane ride up from Katangwaland, "Once they realize they have expanded to a position of overwhelming strength, there'll always be the temptation to use it."
"Bingo," King Arik said. "So here's what we're looking at. The planned expansion of our carrier forces by one additional
Triton-class Carrier is canceled-- which is no big deal, because we were building support and logistics ships anyway and not so much as a single rivet had been purchased yet."
"Majesty, if I may be so bold, how does canceling a Carrier help our strategic position?" asked General Louis leLombard.
"The Admirtalty and I have talked with the Ministries of Finance, Defense, and the Appropriations subcommittee," the King said, "We're going to start expanding the dockyards at Pearl Point, expand the facilities at Emerald Point, and upgrade the civilian yards at Diamond Point."
"Diamond Point?" General Axman asked, "That's a small yard... It makes, maybe, light freighters?"
"Yes, it'll take over a lot of the civilian shipbuilding that Emerald Point has been doing," King Arik said. "We're going to expand the Navy and the Army simultaneously. I've already talked with the Admiralty; we are continuing with the original spending bill as it was, just putting the Carrier money on reserve until we can expand the ports to build larger ships."
"Like what, sir?" General Viers asked. "Bigger Carriers?"
"I'm talking with the Foreign Office to get a
Ford-class ship built for us in Tian Xia or Wilkonia," the King revealed. "Wilkonia has more experience building those ships, but we're also angling for a base in Tian Jiao, so we'll see what comes up heads or tails."
"No complaints, sir, but how'd you convince them of that?" General leLombard asked, smiling.
"The Vinyards situation," King Arik said, "We really didn't have proper air cover for the One Week War, but because most of the heavy lifting was done by the Old Dominion it wasn't so glaringly obvious. But as the sole real task force off the Vinish coast, the lack of both air cover and air strike capability is unavoidable. It's embarrassing that we lack sufficient capacity for both; that plus the CATO expansion lit a fire under the Parliament."
"That and switching to environmantally-friendly SHEL lasers," General Axman said, "Got the Greenies on board."
"We're also going to put SHELs on Cruiser-class ships and larger," the King said, "And use them for point-defense. We're going to try to go to lasers as much as possible and wherever practical. Hopefully we can save space and weight on ships by using energy instead of bullets."
"Excellent," General leLombard said.
"Now, as for the Foreign Legion... the
Légion étrangère, in the classic dialect from the Picon province... We're going to expand the Army by a full Corps, adding a lot of capability to our overseas posts. As we fill these posts, we can scale back our regular forces and eventually eliminate them. Having the 'Foreign' Legion deployed overseas is more politically acceptable, even if we still have almost 30% of recruits so far coming from Canissia. Take a look, gentlemen, at the addition being referred to as 'V-Corps":
V CORPS: Légion étrangère: --BEING FORMED (as of MAR09 RL)
COMBAT GROUP I/KATANGWALAND
Major-General Hunnar Gutierrez, Commanding
17th Infantry Motor-Rifle Division:
2 Infantry Motorized Brigades
1 Medium/Cavalry Brigade
1 Attack Helicopter Brigade
18th Infantry Airborne Division:
1 Airborne Infantry Brigade "I-Ghost Brigade"
1 Airborne Infantry Brigade "II-Ghost Brigade"
2 Heliborne Assault Brigades (AS-555 Fennec-2s used as G- or K- Cars; EC-725 Cougars)
2 Tactical Transport Groups: 4 Sqdns. (2 C-130s; 2 C-212)
1 Aviation Tactical Strike: 4 Sqdns. (2 F-15E; 1 YA-10B; 1 FB-111)
COMBAT GROUP II (planned; not yet recruiting) /FREQUESNEAN CONTINENT
(Proposed/TBD)
Major-General Louis leLombard -selected.
19th Infantry Motor-Rifle Division:
2 Infantry Motorized Brigades
1 Medium/Cavalry Brigade
1 Attack Helicopter Brigade
20th Infantry Airborne Division:
1 Airborne Infantry Brigade "I-Nightfighters"
1 Airborne Infantry Brigade "II-Nightfighters"
2 Heliborne Assault Brigades (AS-555 Fennec-2s used as G- or K- Cars; EC-725 Cougars)
2 Tactical Transport Groups: 4 Sqdns. (2 C-130s; 2 C-212)
1 Aviation Tactical Strike: 4 Sqdns. (2 F-15E; 1 YA-10B; 1 FB-111)
--"The motor-rifle brigades, cavalry, armor, etc, will all be the same Canissian kit the rest of the Army uses, keeping costs down. The FB-111 bonbers are being phased out of Royal Air Force service and replaced with B-1Rs for expanded, longer-range strike missions. The F-15s are from our old Reserve units that got replace dby those Shroomanian F-16Ls we got a few years ago. The only new-made, cross-compatable aircraft shared by both the
Légion étrangère and the regular forces will be the YA-10B.
"Any questions?"
There were none. The Army was looking forward to its expansion.
"Very good," the King said, "We're going to send a Motor-Rifle Divisdion to help Old Dominion out with some trouble spots in Shepistan. Let's use this as an opportunity for some real-workd training of some of our Reserve Engineer units as well. Let's implement, gentlemen!"
Results:
Observer status for MESS agreed to.
Strategic plans for Army & Navy discussed.
"
- PeZook
