Should HIM Armed Forces be given the required funds for the completion of HIMS Catherine the Great?
Following the success of Operation Overlord, the joint fleets deemed it necessary to build an aircraft carrier capable of operating 4 to 5 Sea Hunter helicopters. This aerial capability in 'Blue Water' zones would both support combat operations and deliver minifigarian aid to civilians in or near combat areas e.g. a city with a destroyed infrastructure. This would ensure a substantially reduced loss of civilian minifigs and gain the defeated population's support during post-conflict national reorganisation.
The Pros and Cons
Pros- The carrier would give the advantage of aerial support in blue water zones
- The carrier would allow for the delivery of minifigarian aid post-conflict
- The carrier would take the total Sea Hunter helicopter squadron to 8 from 3
Cons
- The carrier would be expensive to maintain, requiring extra personnel to the cost of K40,000
- The carrier would be less well defended and unable to be deployed alone, it would need the escort of at least one TYPE 46 for protection
- The carrier, although still stealth in design, would carry a much larger RADAR detection than a TYPE 46 due to its enormous deck area, this would make it vulnerable to detection since its deployment would have to be close (50km) from a conflict zone
- For a large part of the carrier's life it would lay idle, an extra TYPE 46 would be in constant active duty
- The personnel already exist to crew a fourth TYPE 46
- A fourth TYPE 46 could be leased to Foreign Nations for operations that did not contravene current Non Aggression Pacts thus generating income
- A fourth TYPE 46 would raise the Fleet Air Arm of Sea Hunter Helicopters to 4 from 3 thus still fulfilling the joint fleet's need for the capability of delivering minifigarian aid
- A fourth TYPE 46 would allow HIM Armed Forces to be operational in up to four war zones at any one time as each TYPE 46 operates at the same level as seven TYPE 43s, in effect HIM Armed Forces would have power of 28 Destroyers
- A Fourth TYPE 46 would have an operational range of 1000km as opposed to 100km from the previous TYPE 43 and a 50km for the carrier
- The carrier would not possess the Sea to Sea/Sea to Land Missile System or the DELILAH RADAR Defense that each TYPE 46 carries thus making a large and expensive aerial landing platform, a task achieved with a fourth TYPE 46
- With the money saved the fourth TYPE 46 could carry more weaponry and be the Imperial Navy's Flagship still retaining the name 'Catherine the Great'
