Kalistan

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Navy Review Determines significant need for Cutbacks
Bentasur survives chopping block
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
August 12, 5666


Chancellor delivers Executive Summary to National Assembly

The review of the Kalistani Regular Navy has been completed and delivered to the National Assembly. The Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Jennifer Alvarez-Miller delivered the report to the National Assembly this week, focusing executive Summary and the conclusions of the review. "Much of this information, especially about capacity and specifications remains classified and National Assembly Deputies will be briefed and will have the opportunity to inspect the full report in a closed setting starting next week," said the Chancellor. "But the results of the review show a number of areas where cutbacks are necessary due to duplication, lack of adequate readiness, and lack of mission."

The findings of the Select Commission on Naval Review, empaneled two years ago by Her Imperial Majesty's Government, went through the entire Regular Navy from top to bottom, with an eye to looking for and highlighting what Kalistan does well, what it does poorly and what it can improve upon. "The Commission's goal was to see if what we have is what we need, and if what we have is usable," said the Chancellor. "And what they found was significant cost overages, redundancies fleet wide which can be trimmed, lack of adequate supply in many portions of our fleets, and in some cases, just unservicable equipment."

The Chancellor began her summary of the findings with what Kalistan does. "Kalistan takes care of our men and women under arms," said the Chancellor. "Compensation for the Regular Forces is among the best in the world. Our men and women under arms have some of the best services, including full medical, dental, housing, food, clothing, BEQ and BOQ facilities, married and family support. We offer all our active duty servicemebers mental health care, 60 days of leave annually, excellent retention bonuses and advancement opportunities, and pensions. An 18 year old right out of High School can easily make a career in the Armed Forces, and job satisfaction is among the highest of all sectors. We do a very good job at taking care of our men and women." She also noted the ample opportunities for training proficiency in the Regular Navy, and for professionalization at service and grade schools, off duty entertainment, physical fitness standards, and discipline. "We are very proud of those who serve and take care of them well."

She went through a number of other more technical aspects of the Navy that the Regulars do well. "Our fleets excel at their primary missions which is defend the Ananto Ocean and the Empire from all threats, foreign and domestic. We have some of the best submarine detection and mitigation systems in place of any nation in the world, allowing us to easily handle threats that present themselves at our gates. We track and can manage every single ship transiting the Strait, a long term tactical goal of countless generations of planners in Kalistan. We can mitigate most threats with a combination of weapons system that will cripple or sink our adversaries long before they reach range to threaten our major coastal cities. Kalistan is a fortress, and the walls of that fortress remain our Regular Navy."

But, she added, "There are things we do very poorly at, and these are things the Regular Navy has sacrificed to maintain the high levels of combat readiness here at home." The litany of shortcomings of the Kalistani Regular Navy was fairly extensive. The Chancellor mentioned that Kalistan's major weakness is in projection outside of the Anantonese Ocean. "At one point, our empire was a two ocean Navy. Now we are limited in our capacity to project even within our own ocean." She cited the failure to prevent the Egelian Navy from seizing a Naval Base for itself as a spoil of the Rildanor Civil War that it chose to insert itself into as an example. "There was a day when foreign states could not so easily project themselves completely through three Kalistani Battle Fleets with no care whatsoever to how Kalistan might view the action or react, as Egelion did with impunity. That day is sadly over, and is not coming back in the foreseeable future."

As it is, Kalistani Naval Power is much diminished from what it was at its zenith during the Artanian Sea Campaign. "The loss of the 4th Fleet in that series of engagements was not only a blow to our Naval projection capabilities, but also to the tolerance for risk in our military establishment," said the Chancellor. "The complete disaster in that naval campaign, while a tactical victory, showed the downside of risky projection: there was absolutely zero strategic gain to the loss of that fleet and no follow up either from Kalistan, who no longer could, or her so-called 'allies', who turned their backs on Kalistan at precisely the decisive moment, to solidify any of the tactical gains we lost our fleet to achieve. As a result, it was just a loss of lives, property, and capacity. Kalistan pulled back into more familiar territory after that devastating loss, and we have not recovered our swagger or confidence since then."

The result of that naval disaster, which is still marked with a moment of silence in early August every year within most Service Organizations, has led to a much larger navy than is needed to meet Kalistan's strategic imperatives. "We sail two fleets, each one which is the size of many nations' entire navies, within the Northern Anantonese Ocean itself, between Kalistan and Keris. This is seen as a colossal waste of resources and time. We are not at war with Keris, and either of those fleets can match whatever any other nation can realistically deploy against us, especially navies who have to sail their units far from home to get here. Therefore, we just have too many ships under Kalistani Colors in the Northern Anantonese Ocean, and as expected the review suggests that both mission and fleet size needs to be paired back to match more correctly with Strategic Doctrine in the Northern Anantonese."

To accomplish this, The Chancellor stated that the report recommends that the 1st and the 4th Fleets be combined, and shrunk to about the size of the current 4th Fleet. "We can also begin to decommission the antique Sativa Class Submarines," said the Chancellor. "These ships are inefficient, the design is very old, and they tend to cost more per annum to operate than the newer, better armed, better equipped Victor and Indica-C class subs." She also noted that the old Daniel Guzman Class Multipurpose Frigates will likely face decommissioning in favor of more Luxon and Luxon II ships which were both jointly designed by Kalistan and Hutori. "The Daniel Guzmans performed poorly in the Artanian Sea Campaign, and were among the first to be sunk while scoring almost no hits at all. They are slow, they have poor handling at sea, and as we transition to focus on surface to surface naval artillery, the Daniel Guzmans will require too much money to retrofit." Other ships which are deemed redundant or exceed the Organizational Structure will be mothballed, likely at Port Swedes, which will be redesignated to its primary function as a Naval Logistics Center, moving the reorganized 1st Fleet back to its home at Bozo River.

The Chancellor also announced that the Navy will undergo a force reduction of about 20%. "We will work with Sailors who wish to take buyouts and early retirements. But it is possible that we will have to go to cashiering if we do not have enough volunteers to leave." She said the Defense Ministry will be developing a plan to identify good candidates for either buy out or early retirement beginning in October. Force Reduction should begin within a year.

Importantly, the Chancellor noted that the report declared Bentasur to be an extremely expensive base to maintain but that it is recommended that Kalistan maintain its presence in Gaduridos. "The reviewers noted that food and supplies in Bentasur tend to be twice as expensive as they are at Port Swedes on average. This means that the budget for the Third Fleet, who operated out of Bentasur, is one of the biggest costs to the entire military budget. However, the reviewers concluded that if Kalistan abandons Bentasur, Gaduridos, which does not itself possess a navy outside of a coastal patrol fleet, will not be able to make much use of it, and so they will likely look for ways to transfer it to some other power. There are plenty of people itching to insert themselves into the Central Anantonese Ocean, not least of whom is Egelion, who seems to be on an expansionist mission. Other likely candidates would come from nations with whom Kalistan certainly wants to actively limit their influence in this part of the world. So there is of a more geopolitical cost to handing the base back to Gaduridos, just so they can allow basing from one of Kalistan's regional rivals in Gaduridos, or worse yet, our adversaries, than it is to simply bear the cost of keeping it." The Chancellor noted that this conclusion was shared by Her Imperial Majesty, and was likely influenced by the Crown.

"We will need to find better logistics support for Bentasur in the coming months and years," said the Chancellor. "The 3rd Fleet's activities are crucial for controlling the southern approaches to the Anantonese Empire, and so Bentasur remains a vital part of Imperial Defense. But, we still have to keep our Fleet supplied and that is what is preventing expansion elsewhere. What these new Logistical supply points will look like is uncertain: We don't have any friends south of Gaduridos. The logical choice would be to get into a regular agreement for supply from Mordusia, but given Mordusia's attitude toward Kalistan and their subservience to Fort William, who is known to absolutely detest Kalistan, purchasing war stores from Mordusia is almost certainly off the table. So it will need to continue to be brought in from Kalistan, while we obtain what we can in Gaduridos."

The Chancellor is optimistic. "Force Reduction in the north will more than offset cost increases in the South. But this should be a signal to our neighbors: You all are going to have to pick up more of the slack for regional security. You can count on cooperation from Kalistan to keep our region safe from foreign encroachment, but you can no longer rely upon Kalistan to fling its ships to far seas to keep the far enemy away. That is a burden you will need to carry yourselves. Kalistan can maintain the core Region between Indrala and Keris safe, but we are now standing behind the gates, not in front of it any longer. That is your jobs now." The Chancellor admitted that it has been for a while: This is simply an acknowledgement of the facts on the ground by an Empire who no longer can protect those who themselves do not care much about the opinion of the Empire when they do whatever they are doing.

"In short," said the Chancellor in conclusion, "as we pull back into a more reasonable sized Fleet and Strategic mission, you shouldn't just automatically assume that your '6' will always be covered by the Kalistani Regular Navy any longer, especially is we are busy covering our own '12'. We can't maintain that role for foreign nations any longer, because free riding is pushing Kalistan toward the poor house."

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