Shipbucket

Nice work, though I'd say that for a country located near Madagascar that's a BIG air force, even assuming active participation in overseas conflicts.

That would probably be a much more sensible choice. I really do not foresee any need for Stealth in Africa for some time (unless of course you were in the same time line as my AU and then I'd be worried).

CVF with cats and traps wouldn't have to depend on the UK either for sharing costs. Just make it so as France gets the Richelieu or w/e they want to call it...

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AU Projects: | Banbha et al. | New England: The Divided States
Blood and Fire

I will try to justify the size of my airforce and indeed army in my history, my country will maintain continual deployments in various troubled African countries. As well as long term employments alongside the UK and US in Afghanistan. 1 or maybe 2 squadrons are normally on deployments to the US or UK to train alongside the USAF and RAF. My country also shares a bombing range in Australia with the UK and RAAF and has units deployed regularly.

Deployments to Africa has historically been an Army game. Lot's of infantry and light armour, C-130ish or other rough/short field capable transports to shift them around and only fairly basic fixed wing cover.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

Haven't began to work on my army yet but I don't think I'll be fielding a MBT, it will consist of APC's and Combat Fighting. Vehicles ie LVTP-7, M113 and Warrior or Bradley Types, something along the lines of the UK's Scimitar CVR(T) , possibly Mastiff and Jackal type vehicles, Snatch Land Rovers, towed artillery pieces probably 105 mm. Tracked Rapier for defence maybe Patriot or a vehicle mounted Aster system.

Things that can be rapidly deployed by air or sea. Air cover was the realm of the Harrier on such African deployments. Therefor when I retire my harriers I need something as deployable hence my reasoning behind the F35B, otherwise I'm gonna need airfield capability or be within range of carrier aircraft of Typhoons or F18's

If I did field and MBT it maybe a Leopard, Leclerc or Merkava at the most an export version of the. Chieftain operated since the late 1970's. I don't think the requirement for something as advanced or expensive as Challenger or Abrams is warrantee or MLRS.

For Africa even Jaguar is much, as for most tasks can be handled well enough by something like Alpha Jet, Hawk or MB-339.
In the 1980s South African Air Force had a total of 3 supersonic fighter squadrons, 2 light bomber squadrons and some 6 squadrons of attack Impala II (MB-326K). Plus of course proper mix of transports, liaison aircraft (3 or 4 squadrons) and helicopters.
And let's face it - supersonic jets in Afghanistan (or any other COIN operations) are also an overkill, considering total absence of heavy air defence - if anything something like A-10 (or A-1 in earlier times) is better aircraft to use (regardless of what fighter jocks from USAF command think of it - as they wanted to kill A-10 from the beginning for not being fast and fancy enough).

Also, for Africa wheeled combat vehicles would be more useful than tracked (South African army used to have around 5000 armored vehicles of all kinds, but only about 250 of them tracked).

My point is you're going to need a very large army and significant air transport assets, but since nobody can realistically reach your homeland there's little reason to have a high end fighter force in the numbers you're going for, especially since they're going to be bomb trucks for their entire lives.

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“Close” only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades, and tactical nuclear weapons.
That which does not kill me has made a grave tactical error

Worklist

Source Materiel is always welcome.

I didn't think my High End fighter force was that large. Broken Down My Tornado Units would number 3 Squadrons of 17 Aircraft with 9 aircraft assigned to an OCU for working up pilots qualified from the Hawks. Again with the Typhoon Squadrons 3 Squadrons of 17 FGR4 with 9 FGR4 and 12 T-4 assigned to an OCU for new pilots. 6 Fast Attack squadrons for International Deployments and 2 OCU squadrons for Training exercises in the UK, US and Australia. The Typhoons would be the Primary Air defence units but as i've opted for the FGR 4 they are multi role and would be mainly used for Ground attack. the Hawks having secondary roles as lead in fighters guided by ground based radar, AWACS or Typhoons. easily able to cope with all if any threat from neighbouring African Nations. leaving my Tornado and Typhoon squadrons available for New Cromer's International commitments as part of NATO/UN and giving the available punch if a more capable adversary is needed to be taken on ie the 1991 Gulf war in which in my AU New Cromer provided at the time Tornado, Buccaneer and Jaguar units towards the Coalition Air-force. in my AU New Cromer would have also Worked alongside the UK and France in Libya and was also involved in Egypt's uprising helping overthrow that regeime fast assets were needed to combat Libyan Aircraft and evade ground based anti aircraft weapons and in Egypt to combat Egyptian Air-force and Anti aircraft weapons.

As for Commitments to Africa at present the main air asset used over Africa would be the Harrier force with on the rare occasion probably Tornado or Typhoons only brought in if and when required. New Cromer has invested heavily in Drone programmes and has the Watch-keeper and Reaper Drone to also provide aerial cover and in the case of Reaper additional air power. ISTAR capability to keep ground forces up to date is provided by RC135's and Sentinel aircraft providing intel on ground movements and target information to New Cromer and allied units this information would also be provided by Watch-keeper and Reaper. Air transport has been massively boosted with the arrival of the C-17 and soon to enter service A400M, but has maintained a large fleet of C 130's over the last 3 decades to get troops and equipment in and has a reasonable Rotory wing force to provide transport and support as well, bearing in mind as most conflicts in Africa would probably involve other countries too and New Cromers Forces are likely to be backed up by South African, French or British forces as well as other African countries.

I may consider moving New Cromer North by a couple of hundred mile so it is north of Madagascar, this would put New Cromer in a better position, closer to Yemen and Somalia, the main shipping route between the Indian Ocean and the Med. I was thinking of a location between Somalia, the Seychelles and the Maldives. This would more warrant New Cromer's involvement in international conflicts, strengthen her ties as a key ally to the UK east of Suez and also strengthen New Cromer's case for Nuclear weapons being closer to India, Pakistan and China and during the Cold War Southern States of the USSR. It also puts New Cromer closer to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan strengthening reasons for involvement and as trade with Europe would depend on the Suez Canal it strengthens New Cromer's position for becoming involved in the other throw of Egypt's government.

After weighing up the pro and cons and trying to work out the best location to have a stable economy based on Oil, Trade and Tourism. and justifying a large military and Nuclear Weapons New Cromer has Weighed anchor and moved .

Hopefully I've sorted RP1's Concerns with Defiant and the Type 42.

So the Complete History of New Cromers Destroyer Fleet.

First up Delivered in 1963 5 ships were delivered to the same design as the UK's batch 1 vessels equipped at first with the Sea Slug GWS. 1 Mk 1 but this was rapidly replaced by GWS. 2 Mk 2 in 1966 and was supplanted with the GWS. 2N in 1967 using a US made W44 Warhead.

In 1975 the ships were given a refit to give them a proper Anti Ship capability instead of relying on the very limited anti ship capability of the GWS. 2 Sea Slug. The B turret was removed and the deck plated and 4 Exocet Missile launchers fitted this gave the ship a similar appearance to the UK's Batch 2 Ships, they retained the Se Slug GWS.2 and the Nuclear Armament.


The County Class were replaced in 1987 by 4 Type 42 Destroyers. to a modified Batch 3 design that became Batch 4. although at first the Navy lost the capability to go Ship to Ship again Sea Darts Anti Ship capability was limited a new missile compatible with the lancher was introbuced in 1990.

the ships had minor refits in 2002 and had there torpedo launchers removed and a pair of RIB's added in place to increase effectiveness when being used for Anti Piracy roles.


And finally the Newest ship to grace New Cromers Navy. 1 built wit 3 more under Construction. a Trimaran Guided missile destroyer based on the systems of the UK's Type 45 but with more space for future growth, Anti Air and Land attack capability with provision for Harpoon missile Launchers and the Future addition od CAM. I hope I@ve sorted out RP1's concern about my Sponson thickness.

work on top view but a lot of details to add as I need to draw some parts from scratch.
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