Could the Space Elevator Become a Reality? Turn to page 27
Australia's Stealth Fleet
5 years ago The Republic of Greater Australia and New Zealand decided it needed to update its navy. The old navy consisted mostly of Cold War and 21st century era ships that had been maintained and upgraded through the years. Because of the prototypes success in the conflict against Oceania, these ships have been put into full production and have already replaced most of Australia's navy, with more being produced every day to sell to other nations and to defend Australia's territories. Having replaced around 2/3rds of their old navy, we have decided to take a look at Australia's new navy and see how it shapes up compared to the tried and true ships of the past.
Australia's military doctrine has recently been, Get there fast, Strike Hard, and leave. The new Navy follows this doctrine to a T.
First is Australia's destroyer. The ANZAC Class Missile Frigate.
The ANZAC Missile Frigate serves 2 main roles in the Australian Navy. The ANZAC can use its long range cruise missiles to damage and destroy high priority targets from miles away, acting sort of like the "Artillery" of the ANZAC navy. In addition the ANZAC is used in an anti-submarine role and scout role, through the use of a small scout helicopter that can be stationed on either the ANZAC or the Griggs Aircraft Carrier.
The next ship is dubbed the Canberra Class Cruiser.
This multi-role cruiser is armed with 4 advanced Rail guns, able to hit targets much farther away and with a lot more punch than a conventional battleship gun. In addition to the rail guns the Canberra Cruiser is armed with 2 SAM banks to help defend against enemy aircraft, and also carriers a fair amount of long range cruise missiles to be used in a similar role to those on the ANZAC frigates.
Finally the pride of the Australian Fleet, the Griggs Class Aircraft Carrier.
A revolution in naval warfare not seen since the original Aircraft Carriers, the Griggs is able to remain small and fast because of the use of Australia's growing drone fleet. The First Drone, The Sittella Strike Drone, was created with help from Indonesian engineers years ago. Still one of the highest functioning drones, the Sittella is just one of the drones in use on Griggs Class Carriers. Caring Sittella strike drones, CAC Sabre II Fighter Drones, and CAC Kangaroo II fighter-bombers. The Griggs carries a heavy payload of drone craft, but these aren't its only armament. Armed with four separate FLAK cannons and multiple VOTL/Helicopter landing pads the Griggs is a force of its own to be reckoned with. When supported by Canberra and the ANZAC however, it can give almost any other navy a run for its money.
All of these ships however share a few major traits. They are designed to be small, fast, and for the ANZAC and the Canberra, some form of radar stealth, are designed to be difficult to hit because of these factors. Secondly they all use a miniature version of the Thorium Reactors that Australia had developed, this gives them an almost unlimited range and an almost unlimited fuel supply.
All ships are organized into Carrier groups, consisting of one or two Griggs class Carriers, up to five Canberra Cruisers, and up to seven ANZAC Frigates.
An actual working Space Elevator?
This is a good year to be Australia. During the past five years the Australian government of Australia-New Zealand has been building up their space program. There have been a couple rocket launches and scientific expeditions, taken somewhat from the former Indonesian Space Program. The The Australian Space Research Institute has been testing the waters of a "Space Elevator" ASRI scientists and engineers have been spending the past five years hard at work planing, theorizing, and testing materials. From what they were able to disclose, The planing and theorizing stage has been mostly completed, and a site for the elevator has been chosen. Unfortunately they were unable to disclose the location of the site due to fears of sabotage. However with most of the planing and theoretical part of the Elevator mostly completed construction will begin this year.
If the ASRI can pull this off it will be a massive boon to space travel and exploration, and one of mankind's greatest achievements.
OOC: Sorry about not having this done sooner.
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