Kalistan

[Doc]

Kalistan travels to Lodamun on Regional Business
"Time to drop by and say howdy," says FM Harney
Addisjah, Duchy of Vrassa
November 4, 5687


High Speed rail car makes its way toward the border with Lodamun on Princess Regent's First International Trip

A delayed visit to Lodamun finally took place today as the train carrying Her Highness, the Princess Regent Nicolette Ananto-Collins, along with Chancellor of the Empire Lady Ericka Donahue, Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister Sir Thomas Harney, and Her Imperial Majesty's Defense Minister Lt. Col Morris Grant made its way into Lodamun and then on to Kensington to meet with Lodamese counterparts. "We thought it was about time to drop by and say Howdy to our very close regional partners in Lodamun," said FM Harney of the trip. "As this is Her Highness' first international visit as Princess Regent, the Chancellor and I have agreed to come along and help her with the fine details of high level visits of this kind to important allies."

The Foreign Minister said that besides the normal diplomatic handshaking and photo opportunities, the real meat of the discussions will be with the Lodamese Defense Force and Industry. The Kalistanis will meet with Director of the Strategic Defense Agency, Admiral Oscar Mioduszewski to talk about cooperation on Continental Missile Defense. "Kalistan is interested in the successes the Lodamese have had with the development of both the land and sea based anti-missile systems known as the enhanced THAAD and Typhoon," said Sir Harney. "The Typhoon especially, because it is a mobile battery that can be deployed rapidly following alert of an incoming threat. We think that we can put this system to great use, given the potential for integration with the KalSat Satellite network that keeps eyes on several major areas of the globe at all times. We are already able to detect the heat signature of launches with a fairly high degree of accuracy using our geosynchronous satellites, and machine learning algorithms, and tying that in with a missile defense system such as these will be a real enhancement to Kalistani security, especially given the threats which loom on our horizon."

The Foreign Minister also spoke about seeking to tie in Kalistan's OTH radar systems in Ananto and Marlingantos with the Lodamese HUTOR program. "This tie in would follow along similar lines with the cooperation between Kalistan, Lodamun and Dolgava to maintain undersea surveillance and tracking systems that aim to make it so that nothing moves in and around the Northern Anantonese Ocean without Kaliburg knowing about it." The current sonar and hydrophone nets stretch from the Strait of Karzon north of Lodamun into the southern reaches of the Dranian Sea north of Lourenne. "The Northern Anantonese Ocean is probably one of the most closely observed stretches of water on the planet," said Minister Harney. "This won't change that, it will just allow more people to help watch it."

Finally, the last major topic of discussion during the visit is an invitation for Lodamun to join combined naval and ground exercises with Kalistan next summer. "We are currently rolling out our new strategic doctrine known as 'Fortress Kalistan'," said the Foreign Minister. "These exercises will be the first major test of the initial strategic and tactical facets of the defense part of that doctrine." The Foreign Minister said the exercises will take place in and around Bozo River CATC at Bozo River and will involve reactivated partisans of the Institutional Militia, as well as elements of the First Regular Navy and Army Group North. "We think Lodamun is one of the globe's pre-eminent naval expeditionary forces, and if anyone is going to punch holes in our tactics, it will be them. But these are opportunities for us to learn in a simulated war like setting--We learn from failure more so than success. And Lodamun is in a great place to help us, as they tend to utilize the mix of tactics that we are likely to see on the battlefields of the future."

The FM was realistic about Kalistan's chances in the war games that aim to simulate an invasion of the Island of Ananto: "Yeah, we'll probably lose this time. It's been about 40 years since the Regular Navy has seen actual combat, and then it was a disaster. Army Group North has been engaged more recently, but we had the easy part of that war. These war games will be beneficial because they will give our folks some experience against a respected partner: our longstanding friendship has allowed us to integrate a number of C&C structures, for example, left over from the Imperial days, which give us the opportunity to get more telling results from the exercises than we would if we were trying to find a signal in the static. I think it will be excellent for both Kalistan and Lodamun."

The Foreign Minister said the visit to Lodamun is expected to last for two weeks, and the Princess Regent is expected to be joined by her husband, Viscount Andrew Rohrbach for most of the stay. Her Imperial Majesty, Empress in Waiting Carolina-Katherine Michelle Ananto-Connor was not along for the visit, but remained in Kaliburg to continue school, and is in the care of her Grandmother, Her Highness Princess of the Empire Mary Ananto-DeLaurentis while the Princess Regent and Viscount are in Lodamun. Sir Harney said he is very optimistic for success in the visit.

@TheRepublic