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Maritime Armada

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Maritime Armada
Maritime Armada.png
Emblem of the Maritime Armada
Founded 1679 AN
Type Navy
Role High Seas Fleet
Headquarters Redquill, Most Serene Union
Part of Raspur Pact
Size

As of 1688 AN:

  • 4 battleships
  • 3 arsenal ships
  • 10 missile cruisers
Motto(s) Semper vicit mari
Former Deployments Operation Dyre-Storm 87

The Maritime Armada is the high seas main-battle fleet of the Raspur Pact. Created to be independent of the national navies of the Pact's member states and the Continental Theatre Commands, the Maritime Armada serves as a strategic fleet in being, answerable only to the Joint Military Council of the Pact and deployed at the behest of the Permanent Commission.

Creation

In the 11th month of 1679 AN delegations of staff officers drawn from the naval services of the Natopian Defense Force, the Imperial Constancian Armed Forces, the Drak-Modani Defense Force, and the Maritime Forces of the Black Legions, met at Port Tibernia on the island of Istvanistan to discuss the practicalities of a modern high seas fleet in the age of long-range missile warfare. Discussion turned particularly around the Battle of Carama Bay, an infamous episode in the War of Lost Brothers where the allied navies and Tianchao Haijun had run headlong into each other in the confined waters off shore from Antya River. Whilst successful in deflecting a major Jingdaoese u-boat sortie the surface formations of the allied fleets had suffered tremendously at the hands of shore-based coastal defence missile batteries - incurring losses that were unacceptable at a time when the so-called tonnage gap was already 3:2 in favour of the USSO. The short-term response during the war, of an increased reliance upon long-range aviation supplemented by missile corvettes and fast attack boats, had become the enduring doctrine which prioritised littoral defence and area denial at the expense of long-range force projection. This situation had only been exacerbated by the Kalirion Fracture and the scattering thereby of what remained of the Imperial Navy of Shireroth. By 1679 only Natopia and Constancia maintained credible blue-water navies capable of independent operations away from their home ports.

Naval Policy Directive of 1679

The operations of the Raspur Pact, including items of military expenditure outside the military budgets of the member-states - particularly the operational costs of the Continental Theatre Commands - were historically met by voluntary contributions drawn from the member-states, usually capped at a nominal 2% of GDP, with contributions from poorer member states being offset by goods and services in kind in lieu of direct fiscal transfers. This led to a situation where the burden of capital intensive projects, such as the mooted construction of an entirely new battle-fleet, would fall disproportionately in real terms upon the shoulders of net contributors such as Elwynn and Natopia. As such, when the proposals of the Tibernia Conference were received by the Joint Military Council and relayed to the Permanent Commission, it proved to be the high commissioners from Elwynn and Natopia who proved to be the most stringent in assessing the viability of the proposed shipbuilding programme and the most meticulous in scrutinising the costings provided by the naval planners.

Initial estimates came in at an eye-watering 98,261,573,019 required to finance the construction of the so-called twenty-twenty-thirty fleet (twenty battleships, twenty arsenal ships, and thirty missile cruisers). For this reason, as much as the concerns about existing naval construction capacity, the High Commissioners argued forcefully for a staggered shipbuilding programme as well as an overall reduction in the envisaged ship numbers. The result of this political pruning of military ambition eventually becoming known as Plan 1696:

Plan 1696
Hull Laid Down
(Year)
Battleship. Arsenal Ship. Missile Cruiser.
1680 1
1681 1 1
1682 1 1
1683 2
1684 2
1685 2 2
1686 2 2
1687 2 2
1688 2 2
1689 1 1 2
1690 1 1 2
1691 1 1 2
1692 1 1 2
1693 1 1 2
1694 1 1 2
1695 1 1 2
1696 2 1
Total 17 10 29

Fleet construction

Surveys of the existing dockyards associated with the Allied Production Matrix identified four shipyards with dry docks and slipways of sufficient size to handle the construction of the capital ships of the Maritime Armada. These were the International Natopian Yards, (Avenged City), Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock, the Rostock Repair and Refit Shipyards (Alrodey) and the and West Bay NDF Dockyards (Opaeghia). It will be noted that these were all Natopian owned shipyards situated on the continent of Tapfer. The only Benacian shipyard of a sufficient size and capacity was the Musica Dockyards and these had been closed to the Raspur Pact since their seizure by the Guttuli Protectorate.

Designs

Design submissions for the proposed battleship, arsenal ship, and missile cruiser types, drawing upon specifications issued by the Joint Military Council, were sought from various shipbuilding consortia associated with the Allied Production Matrix. In view of Natopia's possession of the requisite infrastructure, technological skill-sets, and experienced design bureaus, the competition had an inevitable Tapferite bias.

Battleship

Name Class Hull number Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned Home port Status
MAS Conqueror Conqueror-class battleship BB-01 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 02.II.1685 AN 24.V.1686 01.II.1688 Port Istvan In-service
MAS Courageous Conqueror-class battleship BB-02 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 24.XII.1685 AN 10.V.1687 TBC TBC At sea for trials
MAS Chimera Conqueror-class battleship BB-03 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 15.IV.1686 AN TBC TBC TBC 60% construction phase
MAS Colossus Conqueror-class battleship BB-04 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 11.XV.1686 AN TBC TBC TBC 45% construction phase

Arsenal ship

Name Class Hull number Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned Home port Status
MAS Imperator Imperator-class arsenal ship AS-01 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 24.II.1680 17.V.1683 03.III.1684 Port Istvan In-service
MAS Intrepid Imperator-class arsenal ship AS-02 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 12.IV.1681 11.VII.1684 15.VI.1685 Port Tibernia In-service
MAS Invincible Imperator-class arsenal ship AS-03 West Bay NDF Dockyards, Opaeghia 21.XII.1682 16.X.1685 08.V.1686 Berg Hafen In-service

Missile cruiser

In 1680 the ESB Armada of Alduria and Sanama State Maritime Industries were invited to join the Cruiser Construction Consortium as partners on the Dominator-class missile cruiser construction programme.

Name Class Hull number Builder Laid down Launched Commissioned Home port Status
MAS Dominator Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-01 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 02.II.1681 AN 04.VI.1683 11.X.1684 Port Istvan In-service
MAS Devastator Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-02 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 02.II.1682 AN 08.IX.1684 23.VIII.1685 Port Tibernia In-service
MAS Defender Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-03 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 02.II.1683 AN 14.V.1685 25.IV.1686 Port Istvan In-service
MAS Deterrence Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-04 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 02.IV.1683 AN 20.VI.1685 05.III.1686 Berg Hafen In-service
MAS Deliverance Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-05 ESB Armada (Alduria) 02.II.1684 AN 1685 1686 Port Istvan In-service
MAS Defiance Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-06 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 02.IV.1684 AN 1686 1687 Port Tibernia In-service
MAS Dragon Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-07 Sanama State Maritime Industries 02.II.1685 AN 1686 1687 Berg Hafen In-service
MAS Dreadnought Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-08 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 02.IV.1685 AN 1686 1687 Port Istvan In-service
MAS Despatch Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-09 Sanama State Maritime Industries 02.II.1686 AN 1687 1688 Port Tibernia In-service
MAS Diadem Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-10 Rostock Repair and Refit Shipyards, Alrodey (Natopia) 02.IV.1686 AN 1687 1688 Berg Hafen In-service
MAS Diligent Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-11 Rostock Repair and Refit Shipyards, Alrodey (Natopia) 04.V.1687 AN TBC TBC TBC 45% construction phase
MAS Demiurge Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-12 Lindström Naval Base Dry Dock (Natopia) 08.VI.1687 AN TBC TBC TBC 25% construction phase
MAS Daemon Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-13 ESB Armada (Alduria) 12.IV.1688 AN TBC TBC TBC 10% construction phase
MAS Dagger Dominator-class missile cruiser MC-14 Sanama State Maritime Industries 22.VI.1688 AN TBC TBC TBC 5% construction phase

Fortress Istvanistan

In 1680 the island of Istvanistan, the island containing the deep-water harbours of the Maritime Armada and a strategic linchpin of the Raspur Pact dominating the long island archipelago linking the continents of Benacia and Tapfer, was declared a strategic redoubt to be defended by a heavy coastal fortification network and air defence system.

Defended and garrisoned by the Istvanistani Perimeter Defence Force a force raised by the Most Serene Union in return from a substantial direct subsidy from the Pact, Fortress Istvanistan consisted of layered belts of coastal and inland defensive fortifications, protecting a network of radar stations, hardened missile bastions, flak towers, and dispersed airfields.

Organisation

Naval bases

Units