Force 1760
|
This article or section is a work in progress. The information below may be incomplete, outdated, or subject to change. |
| New Alexandrian Defense Modernization Program | |
| Budget: NAX€9.7 trillion (FY 1756 AN-1765 AN) | |
| Defense spending: approximately 2% of GDP | |
| Program Details | |
|---|---|
| Authorizing act | National Defense Authorization Act, 1755 |
| Authorized | 16.IX.1755 AN |
| Commencement | Fiscal year 1756 AN |
| Framework horizon | Through FY 1765 AN |
| Status | Active |
| Predecessor | Force 1752 initiative |
| Key Objectives | |
| Primary | Consolidation and rationalization |
| Secondary | Readiness sustainment |
| Tertiary | Force integration |
| Additional | Alliance realignment and defense-industrial transition |
| Major Funding Allocations | |
| Federal Navy | 38% (NAX€3.69 trillion) |
| Grand Army | 31% (NAX€3.01 trillion) |
| Federal Air Force | 22% (NAX€2.13 trillion) |
| Federal Space Force | 5% (NAX€485 billion) |
| Federal Guards | 4% (NAX€388 billion) |
| Defense policy of the government of Premier José Manuel Montero | |
Force 1760 is the defense modernization program of the Federation of Nouvelle Alexandrie for the decade following the Fourth Euran War and the Oportian occupation. It succeeds the Force 1752 initiative, which concluded in 1752 AN, and was authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act, 1755, passed by the Federal Assembly on 16.IX.1755 AN by 461 votes to 269, with 19 abstaining. The program began in fiscal year 1756 AN, funded that year at NAX€940 billion, and is authorized as a framework running through the mid-1760 ANs.
Where the Force 1752 initiative had been the largest peacetime military buildup in the Federation's history, Force 1760 is framed as a leaner commitment in a larger economy, holding defense spending at roughly 2 percent of gross domestic product. The program halts the drawdown that had reduced defense budgets since 1754 AN without returning spending to the NAX€1.07 trillion the predecessor reached in its final year. Premier José Manuel Montero presented it as a settled question of stewardship rather than ambition, while Vice-Premier and Secretary of Defense Fred Strong, who introduced the authorizing act, described it as keeping the force the predecessor had built from "rusting in the shed while the neighborhood gets worse."
The same act that authorized Force 1760 enacted the central recommendation of the Force 1752 review, consolidating four overlapping close-in air defense systems into a single System-2 Missile Complex, and carried enabling provisions for the absorption of the Oportian Self-Defense Forces and for alignment with a reconstituted Raspur Pact.
Background
The Force 1752 initiative, launched in 1740 AN under Premier Juan Pablo Jimenez, raised New Alexandrian defense spending to 4 percent of gross domestic product and invested some NAX€7.3 trillion across the Federal Forces of Nouvelle Alexandrie over thirteen years. By the close of the Fourth Euran War and the occupation of Oportia, much of that buildup had been delivered, and attention turned to what a successor program should look like.
In II.1750 AN, Vice-Premier Fred Strong commissioned a review of the initiative, concerned that several procurement programs had been carried forward on optimism about Alexandrium and artificial intelligence rather than demonstrated capability. The review, led by Marshal General Juan Carlos Quispe Mamani, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Council, delivered its final report on 23.VI.1751 AN. It identified NAX€8.7 billion in duplicated systems across the program, spanning overlapping air defense, artillery, and infantry fighting vehicle efforts, and recommended consolidation. Its central proposal was to merge four close-in air defense systems, the Ironshield Guardian Air Defense System, the Cerberus Dome, the Athena, and the Vulcan, each built by a separate contractor, into the command and control network of a modernized System-2 Missile Complex. The review projected that the merger alone would save NAX€3.2 billion.
Toward a successor
The prospect of a successor was public by 23.VI.1751 AN, when the Federal Humanist Party signaled interest in a modernization program tentatively discussed as "Force 1760" that would maintain elevated defense spending into the next decade. Opposition parties argued instead for returning defense spending toward pre-1742 AN levels of about 3 percent of gross domestic product and redirecting the savings to social programs. The Institute for Strategic Studies cautioned that any successor would have to reckon with declining Alexandrium availability, its "Peak Alexandrium" assessment projecting that domestic extraction would peak by 1768 AN.
Developments abroad strengthened the argument for sustained spending. Strong pointed to the Benacian campaign in Saksenlant, the Streïur uis Faïren, which had drawn in contractors and letters of marque since late 1754 AN, and to Shireroth's departure from the Raspur Pact in 1753 AN for the rival Apollonian-Benacian Community.
Authorization
The National Defense Authorization Act, 1755 was the vehicle that created Force 1760. Strong presented the bill to the Cortes Defense Oversight Committee on 9.IX.1755 AN and defended it before the chamber the following week. The Federal Assembly passed it on 16.IX.1755 AN by 461 votes to 269, with 19 members abstaining.
The vote cut across the governing alignment. The Democratic Socialist Party, led in opposition by Marcos Ferreira Gonçalves, voted against, reviving the late Leila Bensouda's argument from 1751 AN that continued spending rewarded waste and contractor influence. The Wakara People's Party under Yuiza Bohi'o also opposed it, holding that there was "always money for the next system and never quite enough for the next clinic in Boriquén." The Civic Governance Alliance voted against on the procurement-reform-first condition that Elena Svensson had set in 1751 AN, with group leader Tomás Iñiguez tying it to the defeat of the Clean Government and Political Reform Act. The Federal Consensus Party split, 70 in favor, 35 against, and 14 abstaining; Francisco Gabaza said the party would not stand between New Alexandrians and a capable defense, but would not "write a ten-year check four months after the last program's bills came due."
The Aldurian Independent Coalition, which held a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Federal Humanist government, divided 11 in favor to 1 abstention. Its coordinator, Émile Bouchard, treated the act as a budget question under that agreement rather than an endorsement of the ten-year framework, and secured in committee a defense-industry transition provision for Alduria. Modeled on the worker-retraining entitlement of the Aldurian Economic Diversification and Recovery Act, 1755, the provision covered Javelin Industries workers in Saint-Augustin and Susa whose positions the consolidation would end.
Provisions
The act served three purposes. It authorized Force 1760 as the Federation's defense framework for the coming decade and funded the program's first year. At the same time it enacted the consolidation recommended by the Force 1752 review, merging the four close-in air defense systems into a single System-2 Missile Complex under one command and control network and banking the projected NAX€3.2 billion. The act also carried two enabling provisions that it did not itself execute: the absorption of an acceding territory's forces, written for the Oportian Self-Defense Forces should Oportia's referendum carry, and the alignment of New Alexandrian force structure with a reconstituted Raspur Pact along the lines expected from the Fontainebleau process. Procurement reform and the eventual commitments of the reconstituted Pact were left to later legislation.
Objectives and funding
The predecessor program had been built around expanding and recapitalizing the force; Force 1760 is built around consolidating and sustaining what that program produced. The program sets five objectives:
- Consolidation and rationalization: eliminating the duplicated systems the Force 1752 review identified, beginning with the four-system air defense merger into the System-2 Missile Complex.
- Readiness sustainment: holding the force structure delivered under Force 1752 at a high state of readiness instead of expanding it further.
- Force integration: absorbing acceding territorial forces into the Federal Forces under a common doctrine, beginning with the Oportian Self-Defense Forces.
- Alliance realignment: aligning New Alexandrian force structure with the reconstituted Raspur Pact expected from the Fontainebleau process.
- Defense-industrial transition: managing the workforce and industrial effects of consolidation, including the Aldurian retraining provision, against the constraint of declining Alexandrium availability.
Force 1760 was funded at NAX€940 billion in fiscal year 1756 AN, its first year, and a second year of funding was authorized in early II.1757 AN. The program is planned to hold roughly level in real terms across the framework, keeping defense spending near 2 percent of gross domestic product as the economy grows; this marks a departure from the steady climb of its predecessor's budgets. Indicative annual funding is shown below.
| Fiscal Year | Budget (NAX€ billions) |
|---|---|
| 1756 AN | 940 |
| 1757 AN | 955 |
| 1758 AN | 960 |
| 1759 AN | 965 |
| 1760 AN | 970 |
| 1761 AN | 975 |
| 1762 AN | 980 |
| 1763 AN | 990 |
| 1764 AN | 1,000 |
| 1765 AN | 1,010 |
Allocations across the branches follow the distribution established under the predecessor program, led by the Federal Navy and the Grand Army of the Federation.
Implementation
Air defense consolidation
The consolidation that the act enacted folded the Ironshield Guardian, Cerberus Dome, Athena, and Vulcan systems into the command and control network of a modernized System-2 Missile Complex, intended to provide an integrated area-denial capability across the operational footprint of a brigade. System-2 was already a deployed system in New Alexandrian service, so the measure modernized and unified existing equipment instead of fielding a new system.
Industrial readiness and mobilization
The Industrial Readiness and Mobilization Plan (IRMP), adopted by the Department of Defense in 1758 AN, provides Force 1760's industrial component. It applies the program's sustainment and transition objectives to critical supply chains, strategic reserves, repair capacity, and the qualified alternatives required to replace consumed materiel during a prolonged emergency.
The plan is administered by the National Ordnance and Procurement Board and uses 30-, 90-, and 180-day readiness standards for selected production. It connects military demand defined by the General Staff to UMC conversion capacity, the National Qullqa System, NADCAP qualification, RADB finance, and assured merchant sealift. Expenditure remains within the annual authorization and Force 1760 fiscal framework.
Absorption of the Oportian Self-Defense Forces
On 9.XIII.1755 AN, at Vanie, Strong and General Émile Fournier signed the framework folding the Oportian Self-Defense Forces into the Federal Forces, executing the first enabling provision after Oportia's referendum. About 45,000 active personnel and 120,000 reservists began transferring, against a federal establishment of some 3.5 million under arms. The 28,000-strong ground force was reconstituted as a number of divisions within the Grand Army of the Federation, while maritime, air, cyber, and space components folded into their corresponding federal branches and the Central Rapid Response Group was preserved within the Federal Guards Service. Re-vetting and re-attestation to the Crown ran through 1756 AN.
Officials initially proposed that some headquarters and liaison posts would not survive the transition to the federal structure, with a leaner posture being set by Force 1760 that would be met mostly through attrition rather than separation. This would however be reversed during 1757 AN as the Vice-Premier moved to assert New Alexandrian control over the 512th Army of the Trans-Euran Command, ousting Zeedic officers from senior positions in the command structure in the process. By this means, billets for displaced senior officers in the Oportian Self-Defence Force were readily found.
Localised protests were reported in the Oportian region during mid-1758 amidst reports that Vice-Premier Strong had signed off on the re-enlistment of Fouche-era veterans and former officers of the Oportian Security Forces to facilitate the rapid expansion of the 512th Army.
Air assault conversions
Under the program, the Rapid Response Units of the Grand Army were scheduled to reroll as air assault formations in line with the Escorted Vertical Envelopment doctrine, which partnered transport helicopters with autonomous escort drones; the Legionary Expeditionary Units of the Alexandrian Legion had completed the conversion under Force 1752.
Progress
The program proceeded on plan through its first two fiscal years. The fiscal year 1757 AN authorization passed in early II.1757 AN, ahead of the larger political and economic disputes that occupied the later part of the year.
Air domain
Mindful of the gathering economic headwinds, Vice-Premier Fred Strong placed Javelin Industries on notice that the performance gap between the F-19 Greystrike and F-22 Meridian did not appear sufficient to warrant the ninety-six airframe production run currently on the order books. He accordingly ordered comparative combat trials to be undertaken at the Federal Forces' main proving grounds in Alduria.
Industry representatives and Federal Air Force officers made representations to the Vice-Premier that the Meridian ought not tombe compared to a pure air supremacy fighter like the F-19 as it was intended for multirole strike missions. Strong countered by noting that the F-9 Ashavan III was a mature platform, already in service, with infrastructure sufficient to support maintenance and iterative production runs.
Land domain
The consolidation of the four close-in air defense systems into the System-2 Missile Complex proceeded through 1756 AN and 1757 AN, with the first consolidated brigade sets fielded in 1757 AN. The network was employed in the field for the first time during Exercise Sovereign Anvil in III.1758 AN, in a live-fire serial across a brigade frontage in Oportia.
The same exercise served as the first readiness certification of the program. The Oportian divisions were assessed by the Joint Warfare Analysis Center against the force standard delivered under the Force 1752 initiative; their battle groups certified in two waves, the last completing a follow-on training cycle in VII.1758 AN.
Maritime domain
Maritime spending under the program is directed at sustainment rather than expansion. Hulls delivered under the Force 1752 buildup entered a rolling refit cycle at the NAND Dockyards at Beaufort, Punta Santiago, and Jirishanca, and the maritime component of the former Oportian Self-Defense Forces completed its absorption into the Euran Fleet as the Oportian Squadron. New carrier construction is deferred under the program; a successor class to the Susa-class aircraft carrier remains under study by the Chief of the Admiralty. The program also funds unmanned surface vessels, procured as consumable munitions, that furnish the material basis of the Federal Navy's Distributed Sea Denial doctrine.
Separately, the program funds a line of autonomous logistics vessels, the Maritime Autonomous Systems Division's Porter-class, as a cost-efficient replenishment multiplier that extends the reach of the crewed auxiliary train from within the existing hull budget rather than expanding the fleet. These uncrewed vessels complement the crewed replenishment auxiliaries, adding sustainment reach without the cost of additional manned hulls.
Reception
Reaction to Force 1760 followed the lines of the authorization vote. The Democratic Socialist Party and the Wakara People's Party pressed the case for a peace dividend, arguing that the post-war drawdown made deeper reductions affordable and that the savings belonged in social spending. The Civic Governance Alliance maintained that no successor program should precede procurement reform. Within the governing alignment, the Federal Consensus Party's split reflected unease at committing to a decade-long framework so soon after the predecessor's costs had come due. Defense contractors, among them Javelin Industries and the Pontecorvo Firm, pressed against the consolidation's effect on their order books, and the Aldurian transition provision emerged from that pressure. The Institute for Strategic Studies' warning about declining Alexandrium availability remained a recurring concern over the program's planning horizon.
