Shipbucket

So I guessed it's time I no longer try to spam the beginners thread, but I still need a lot of opinions and guidance.

first off the country I have been creating the ships for.

general info:

• Capital Brandenberg
  Largest Kravinograd
  Official languages English, Russian, German
  Recognised regional languages Dutch, Scottish, Welsh,
  Ethnic groups Anglo-Saxon, Goths,
  Demonym Slovadian
  Government Stratocracy
  - General of the Armed Forces Dmitri Zokojec
  - General of the Army Gerben Falkenberg
  - Admiral of the Fleet Jürgen Veselov
  - Marshal of the Air Force Kees Adler
  Establishment
  - Discovery October 1839
  - Stratocracy 30th of October 1839 ...
  Area
  - Land mass: 2,161,600 sq km km²
  834,594 sq mi sq mi
  Population
  - 2010 estimate 72,000,000
  - 2010 census 71,799,600
  - Density 33/km²
  86/sq mi
  GDP (nominal) 2010 estimate
  - Total $2.667 trillion
  - Per capita $37,669
  Gini (2011) 41.8 (medium)
  HDI 0.936 (high)
  Currency Slovadian Mark (SM)
  Date formats dd/mm/yyyy (AD)
  Drives on the right
  Internet TLD .sd, .kri.sd, .gov.sd

So yes I know I am not being very "orginal" however I like this idea.

the areas I need your expertise on.

-Militairy might

I took 2% of my Population (71 Million)
which resulted into a active military personnel of 1.420,000
does this sound correct to you?

also I took the total GDP ($2.667 trillion)
took 2% of it and got $5.343 Billion
same question here

now if these numbers are correct, I would need a proper military.
what do you suggest looking at my location?



I'm personally thinking about a mainly blue water fleet, with possibly, a smaller brown water fleet as support, most likely a few small attack craft with a few corvettes

I like to have the most funding into the navy, same holds for personnel.

now I have no clue how to start, so guide me away.
thank you in advance

Link to my SMSwiki (not even close to 1% finished)
http://statesmanship.co.uk/wiki/Slovada

Ships Already done

Type, Class,

OPV, Prowler Class

Ships WIP or needing refinement, guidance needed

Type, Class

SSK, Tulga Class



CGN, Bau Class



CGN, Stratosville (Heavy WIP)

Are you saying 5 billion is your annual budget? Thats not enough to design/build/field even one of those cruiser hulls.

Also do some calculations on the scale of the forces you are proposing. Assuming you devoted your entire military budget to pay you would be able to pay every one of your 1,420,000 service members $3763.00 a year. Unless you are impressing these people out of seedy port side drinking holes I don't see you getting many volunteets.

Take a look at some real nations and do some relative comparisons. for instance:

- The US with a population of over 300M people has nearly the same number of people under arms as you at 1,458,000 active service members. That constitutes about .4% of the population.

- The UK has a smaller population than your country at 63 million in 2011 but has a military budget of $67B at 2.6% of GDP in the same year.

So I suggest you take a look at your starting numbers again because as it stands you have an extremely poor nation impressing a large portion of its military age population at basically below subsistance levels!

Then my calculations must be way of, I will take a look at it again.

So I took a close look at the UK, and the following numbers should be more realistic:
Budget
$78 Billion (More budget, because the country is a statocracy)
Active Personnel
264,740

I think you might have had a decimal error in your military budget comparisons. I thought it was fishy that with such a large GDP 2% yielded such a low military budget. When I do the math I get $53B, not 5.3B! Or maybe I counted too few zeros?

XPOST: Looks like you caught it, and the new numbers are much more workable, that puts your budget at 2.9% of GDP.

So what sort of threats does your country face? Allies and enemies? Proximity of each and naval vs land assets of each?

To be honest from the map we have a blue water fleet doesn't look like the option you would go with. You need to keep the sea LOCs between the two landmasses your country has open but given the proximity to each other all your air assets can be shore based and as there is no ocean going requirements you can rely on small and cheaper littoral and near litoral craft. I am not sure of the scale but land based ASMs would also be very useful to you.

If either of your major enemies are adjacent to you on those land masses your military might be tied up in land based defense unless you have allies as buffers.

My apoligies I think the scale I posted my country on doesn't reflect the real situation.
here is a link to show why a blue water fleet would be a good choice

Slovada is marked in bright red, on the left side of the map

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/6993/slovadamap.png

now, as of proximity to enemies, I currently do not have "enemies"
however I do plan on participating into Role-plays and or a kind of NATO pact.

Shipright has some good feedback here.

One of the downfalls of the AU/NS style nationbuilding is the tendency to focus entirely on the military instead of building the nation itself.

_________________
USN components, camouflage colors, & reference links (World War II only)

One thing, regarding the background, I can tell You already, is that having 2% of population under arms is - at least in real world - a recipe for economic collapse (unless You're country like Israel that gets several billion dollars each year, courtesy of US taxpayer).
Generally it's accepted that in peacetime the total strength of the armed forces shouldn't exceed about 1% of population (and 10% during war - but we're talking about major war, when national survival is at stake - like WW2). Otherwise it would create too great strain on the economy.
In the 1980s Soviet Union had about 1,7% of population under arms, and we know how it ended. Greece has about 1,6%. And North Korea has some 4,5%.
Sometimes You can get away with about 1,5% - like Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan - but You need to have really strong economy for that.
And the map You've supplied and location of Your country don't suggest You would really need that 1,5% (considering that it's the land force that's most manpower-intensive service).

Hmm, but still, if you look at the united kingdom which is by accident extremely close, population wise, GDP, and active pers serving.


UK
GDP
$2.316 trillion
Budget
$62.7 billion
Active Pers.
220,350

Slovada
GDP
$2.667 trillion
Budget
$78 Billion
Active Personnel
264,740

Differences
GDP
$351 Billion in favor of Slovada
Budget
$15.3 Billion Slovada spending more on Military
Active Personnel
44,390 More personnel for Slovada
-
Population
Around 9 Million more for Slovada

I presume I am not overspending at first glance