Kalistani Major History

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RSMoK begins Naval Drills
Rising international Tensions prompts preparedness Exercises
Dulnerstaad Naval Warfare Center, Ananto
August 5, 4895


Militia begins practicing Interdiction and Boarding operations with Regular Navy

The Revolutionary Socialist Militia of Kalistan's Naval Fleet began a week long series of exercises off the coast of Ananto today. The purpose of the exercises was to practice preparedness and tactics in response to rising tensions in other Parts of the world.

"We never know when imperialists in our neighborhood decide that they need to intervene in someone else's business," said Militia Marine Corporal D'Ante Smith. "As anyone who knows our Republic's history can verify, it has happened many times before and most certainly will once again." The Militia itself asserted that no particular or specific threat prompted these exercises.

"No, in fact, we've just noticed a rising degree of tension," said Militia Marine Lieutenant Florence Kurosawa, "especially with some countries in the world opening death camps and so forth, and the response to those things that certain liberal internationalists have leveled. In our experience, by and large the most persistent and pernicious threat to Kalistan has been from these supposed liberal internationalist nations, who act far more like fascists in their insistence that they should be entitled to tell other nations how to conduct their affairs, than even our own home grown fascists which occasionally spring up in Kalistan. Our way or the highway, they say, and there is no alternative, so whenever we see large blocs or significant actors among the liberal internationalist camp get their dander up about something that has nothing to do with Kalistan, that often signifies an adjacent and entirely unrelated period of tension for the Republic."

The Lieutenant said the drills for this week are commensurate with the Militia Naval Force's traditional roles. "We have always served as auxiliaries to the Regular Force," said Lt. Kurosawa. "Our traditional mission has been to interdict shipping in the Strait and in the seas adjacent to the Republic, and if need be, to seize contraband shipping in Kalistan's National Waters. We often employ several tactics to accomplish this, but since the Militia's reactivation in the 70s, we have been adopting a more forward leaning posture to add to our traditional tactical doctrine, including the use of surface launched submarines to deter the largest and most serious threats, to help offset the advantage in firepower that most of our adversaries bring to bear here in the Strait."

The exercises, which will involve different scenarios that the militia may find themselves in during a conflict situation, will include simulated torpedo runs, interdiction, stop and search operations, and seizure operations. Both the Kalistani Regular Navy as well as four commercial vessels of various sizes will participate to give the militia Marines some opportunity to practice against different kinds of targets. "Part of our role in a conflict situation," said Lt. Kurosawa, "is interdiction and seizure. But since our guys know how to drive LAFAs and the torpedo patrol craft, they don't often see what it takes to operate a full sized naval vessel or a super container ship. Driving one of those ships is much different, you can imagine from piloting a patrol craft. So part of the aim here is to familiarize our Marines with the sorts of things that is required to bring a captured prize back into port, both at sea and in port itself where there are a whole slew of necessary steps if your aim is to safely dock a massive commercial ship."

Additionally, crews will also get some training for survival at sea. "Something most people don't know," said Kurosawa, "With a bucket, a small cup and some plastic wrapping, you can make a water desalination system that can desalinate a cup of drinking water from sea water each hour during the day. It's almost no work and it can be the difference between life and death at sea. And we have these little survival kits that our Marines will be trained to survive without food and fresh water at sea for 24 hours. We're gonna show them that it is not only possible to survive if you are adrift in the Straits for an extended period of time, but it is also possible to do pretty well, and to keep strength and focus up on either repairing the craft or making it to safety."

The Drills are expected to last a week, and depending on the performance of the Marines in these exercises, may extend into next week as well.