Project Adlantis

[Iverica]

Preludes here.

OOC here.

This story is assumed that most of the following plans are not public knowledge. At most, news coverage and press releases may have covered only the establishment and intention of these facilities.

I don't feel like writing prose right now. It's not going to be a fun read but pretty jargon-y. I just want to be clear about the details and some thoughts given to how something like this is actually made possible. It's boring, but that's what you get with even broad detail like this.

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PROJECT ADLANTIS

APRIL, 2021

On April 30th, 2021, no. 25 and 22 Auxiliary Groups of the Iverican Armada deployed—underway for Diego Gracias island in Marenesia and Lighthouse Island in Corinium respectively. Both groups were composed of cable laying ships, supply ships, oilers, dredgers, vehicle container ships, and expeditionary mobile base vessels. Along with them and onboard them came the largest concentrations of Iverican infrastructure ever seen in the Adlantic. The goal was simple: bring Iverican Security to Iverican Adlantic interests.

Approximately 12,000 auxiliary personnel from Exersito, Armada, and the Fuersas L'Aire were deployed for the two-pronged project. An estimated 20,000 metric tons of cargo were being moved from Ferrefaaierhafen to Diego Gracias and from ABP Explorator to Lighthouse Island. Enough diesel to power a fleet, enough food to feed a city, enough prefabs to make small cities were being shipped by one of Eurth's largest naval sealift flotillas—and this was just the first trip.

The building project, with the twin objectives of establishing facilities in the North Adlantic and the South Adlantic, would entail the construction of 3 facilities. 2 Major service and support seaports with attached airfields, housing, and dry-docks and one minor service facility to be reclaimed from a shallow reef off the coast of Yeetland.

Projection of the future Diego Gracias Island Base

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Finance

Initial Capital Investment is projected to cost a mean of $7 billion standard units per facility. Of that amount, $1.8 billion units are to be allocated to the cost of constructing military shipping facilities (approx. $53,000/metre of berth and including the cost of other facilities) and airfields, $1.5 billion for labour costs, $2.3 billion for facilities and infrastructure related capital expenses, $900 million for fleet operating expenses, and approximately $500 million for other accrued expenses.

Funds were sourced from the Republican Armed Service's annual construction budget, though the RAS passed a requisition order to the Executive Ministry to secure a loan from the Federated Commonwealth Bank under the FedCom Defence Reserve Act. The loan was taken to cover lump-sum payment of some assets exceeding the available capital of the RAS (defence budget being released in staggered quarterly amounts) and valued at $636 million at a collateral coverage ratio of 1.112. The RAS pledged assets from its recently decommission Vasqqan Border defence line (See Item C. 1.) and its accounts receivable from the Republican government as collateral.

Given that military expediature seemed to be holding at its RAS 2020 modernisation levels despite the intention to have it fall by 2021, the Executive Ministry had also been considering beginning a white paper to keep the RAS budget stable for another year or two. Whether this would mean a 0.5% income tax increase on the upper 60% of income earners still remains to be seen.

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Labour & Capital

North: Infrastructure on lighthouse island will be constructed by a contracted company from South Corinium ( @Seylos ). Most hardware (communication equipment, electro-optical systems, defensive systems, signals equipment, etc.) will be shipped from a holding facility in ABP Explorator. Much of the equipment and Iverican manpower is already holding at ABP Explorator. Contracted parties from South Corinium will provide the majority of labour in non-sensitive areas of the facility and will almost exclusively supply raw material. Iverican defence industry contractors have been hired as consultants and senior management. Land reclamation projects for the establishment of the reef facility will also be completed by contracted Corinian companies, though the expeditionary mobile base and its annexes will be fitted by the Armada Iverica.

South: Infrastructure on Diego Gracias Island will be constructed by a contracted company from Tangimoana ( @Gallambria ). Most hardware will be shipped from a holding facility in Ferrefaaierhafen, Variota. Caissons were built in Tangimoana to facilitate faster completion of the port facilities, needed to expedite further construction.

All facilities will be built with an isolated fueling depot, munitions depot, and housing block in addition to any storage, seaport, or airport infrastructure. Additional consideration was also given for annexes to house WARD installations (such as OTH masts, hardened bunkers for the storage of TELs, hardened silos, command and control bunkers, etc.), submarine service facilities, and other measures necessary for defence (such as junctions for acoustic surveillance cables, shore fortifications, and protective structures.

The project would be under the direct supervision of Almirante Iustino Otello, architect of the “oriental chain” of Armada sea stations in the North Oriental Ocean. ALM Otello has over 15 years of experience in leading maritime infrastructure projects in the Armada Auxiliary Command. His most recently completed project being the Ultramares Joint Forces Station on Ultramares Island.

 

Projection of the future "Reef Base" off the east coast of Yeetland

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Logistics

The outlines had been simple, clear, and built around a rotating supply chain of coordinated aerial and maritime freight that the Republican Armed Service had spent years developing. The RAS supply chain had been one of the most heavily invested internal projects that the Ministry of Defence had taken up in the past decades. Mistakes from the Argic Wars had led to the adoption of point-to-point transport schemes, where major depots and storage facilities were within direct access of a major military airbase, seaport, or both. Unlike the hub and spoke system that predated it, point-to-point logistics reduced bottlenecks considerably.

The interbranch operation brought in auxiliary arms from three branches of service, pressing in recent acquisitions like the Eurth's largest heavy-lift aircraft, the @Prymontian Tungstrale into service and expeditionary mobile bases recently retrofitted from the Islandero Program. Coordination between origin points, delivery personnel, and endpoint on-site command staff was kept updated live by Noosphera data link, Link 18 communications. En route, the supply chain relied on stop-over facilities like @Prymont's Horizon Island base, Gallambria's RGN Tangimoana, and the Joint Trident base in Ferrefaaierhafen, Variota. In the Argic Passage, ABP Resolucion and Explorator also served as depots for temporary storage and holding points for freight vehicles.

It was projected that three major phases of supply would be needed to get all the hardware on-site. Given the RAS' preparation, all phases could be completed within 3 months.

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Politics

Channels had been opened with the Corinians. The South Corinian government was only too happy to lease the island. The Corinians would be awarded exclusive contracts for construction as well as jobs and supply contracts once the project was completed. Likewise, no protest was heard from the North Corininians, who were also probed for a response on the matter.

In the south, the Gallambrian government had been in closed doors discussions with the RAS and had agreed to support the Terra Nullius establishment. Diego Gracias, was also to be made part of the TRIDENT network of joint bases.

Domestically, protest appeared at government spending but fizzled out. The Deitorr Administration had been immensely fortunate that the turn of events had put the Flashpoint at Corinium and growing awareness of the Anglian threat at the forefront of public attention. Few would feel it amiss if their government took more proactive defence measures when they felt the world turn an increasingly more dangerous leaf.

 

Lighthouse Island, Corinium, as seen from the PANOPTICON-1 satellite

[Iverica]

Preludes here.

OOC here.

 

It is assumed that most of the following plans are not public knowledge. At most news coverage and press releases may have covered only the establishment and intention of these facilities. Military satellites may have probably also gotten IMINT on the construction work. Not really something you can do much with TBH. Basically: we built things.

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PROJECT ADLANTIS

December, 2021

 

Initial construction had been swift, taking up approximately 3 months to complete. Concrete caissons, excavated shore rock, and prefabricated structures were used extensively. Construction of shore facilities had taken significantly longer with primary facilities being completed after 8 months. Additional support structures are still under construction and will likely be completed by February of 2022. Logistics at this point has completed 3 major supply missions, lifting prefab, personnel, and sensitive equipment.

 

Concrete Caissons

 

Dredging and foundation work was completed first, with flat-bottomed dredger boats and mechanised labour forces being used respectively. Dredgers had been shipped, riding atop float-on/float-off ships from the previously mentioned Auxiliary Groups. Land-based excavation and heavy equipment had been slung-loaded and rotor-lifted in, picked up from the cleared decks of multi-role T-AK/M cargo ships by heavy utility rotors from Expeditionary Mobile Base ships. 

Expeditionary Mobile Base

 

The closest thing to natural harbour features in each island had been chosen. The first structures to come up were long breakwater arms to embrace the future port area. Barges hauled and dump piles of whatever large rocks were available in the area. If none were at hand, broken-up scrap concrete was purchased from nearby population centres (Tangimoana, South Corinium) and cobbled into breakwaters 5 metres thick and 2 metres above sea level (at average high-tide). A hydraulic setting mixture was applied between rocks for better cohesion. The breakwaters provided a safer working environment and a better staging zone for small barges and support craft. Next, the interior of the breakwaters was dredged and the adjacent shore was reinforced with subgrade and levelled. Excavation work was also conducted for bunkers and other subterranean structures.

 

A breakwater

In Diego Gracias and Lighthouse island, the harbour space inside the breakwaters featured 4 wide jetties. Outside the breakwaters, caissons and rockfill were used to create 4 more auxiliary jetties for short-term or emergency berthing and docking. Interior docking facilities featured a single 90-metre wide berth for very large ships. However, most others were an average of 60 metres in width. Dock space was also available for numerous smaller vessels in quays parallel to the shoreline. Up to 9 Andalé Class corvettes could be moored on bollards if necessary. The smaller atoll auxiliary base northwest of lighthouse island known as Yeeterson Atoll was host to a smaller equivalent. With space for only 1 wide berth and another jetty inside the atoll's lagoon. The lagoon was dredged, the access channel widened, and most of the thinner sectors were reinforced. Along one of the longer sectors, a single airstrip was prepared.

Though each facility featured pits and silos that had been dug to accommodate high-capacity tanks for marine fuels like heavy fuel oil and other distillates, a separate offshore facility was built consisting of spaced clusters of fuel silos. Each small cluster was made of concrete caissons and featured a sump that could collect significant amounts of spillage. These structures were connected to the shore by piers and were largely unmanned. Passing ships could safely refuel at deeper water without coming into the breakwaters. Piping to-and-from shore could also be used for fuel transfer between onshore and offshore facilities, a system of unmanned pumps and safety valves were in place to contain fire hazards. Located onshore was also a waste treatment facility that could receive or release fuel waste, human waste, or other biological or chemical waste.

 

Smaller version of this

On each island, a container yard was placed between the docking facilities and what would be a building complex. The complex would contain a prefab office building constructed out of two vertically stacked steel structures. These were married to a concrete tower serving as a radar installation, a lighthouse, and a harbour control tower. Next to the office and tower was space for living quarters and amenities. A separate complex was constructed further island, hosting command and control, signals, and mission support facilities.

SMART-L Radar

Each facility also had a number of additional features around the primary cluster of harbour and living facilities. On the edges were isolated and camouflaged sites where transporter erector launchers (TELs) could be placed for air and surface defence. At the highest elevation of Lighthouse Island (a hillock), the ground was prepared for over-the-horizon radar masts. An artificial hill was constructed on Yeeterson Atoll for the same reason. On Diego Gracias, concerns were raised about interference with Gallambrian JOTHRN radars. Instead, a SMART-L and SMART-EWS would be mounted.

Radome used for ELINT & ESM

The second highest elevation was prepared for electronic intelligence (ELINT) and support measure domes. At the base of the ELINT hill, workers tunnelled an entrance leading to what would become a hardened bunker where the TELs, their radar vehicles, their movers, and an auxiliary command site would be located. Additional ammunition storage facilities were placed away from the entire facility, half-entrenched and surrounded by earthen palisades acting as blast protection. Several sites were also prepared for the construction of CBRN rated bunkers.

 

A bunker entrance

 

On the larger islands of Diego Gracias and Lighthouse Island, the ground was also laid for a hospital, an airfield, and for repair & recovery facilities. Airstrips were placed parallel to the prevailing winds of the areas so as to avoid crosswinds. Adjacent fields were also levelled for use as heliport and hanger facilities. Though steel prefab hangers would be used the most, plans for hardened aircraft hangars and volatile storage were also priorities. Repair & recovery facilities were placed so lighter aircraft and ship modules could be repaired, maintained, or salvaged. Future Hospitals are to be staffed by members of the Exersito medical corps and are planned to feature a larger number of trauma wards and operating theatres. Free space on the islands would be surrounded by earthen mounds to act as bivouacs and could be used to host tents for a possible over-population scenario. Future plans included a speculative civilian quarter which would include some commercial amenities. Like fried chicken and saunas.

 

What the airbase at Yeeterson Island might look like.

 

 

[Iverica]

Preludes here.

OOC here.

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PROJECT ADLANTIS

June, 2022

 

By February of 2022, most of the work for critical infrastructure had been finished. In the 3 months that followed, auxiliary infrastructure like recreational facilities and improved personnel berths were added. Population by the bases' military personnel had also been initiated, with flights landing around the clock. Small training exercises were likewise carried out around the island. February had also seen the completion of the SOSUS cable system around and between the bases. 

 

Population

In the 3 months following initial completion, the personnel and equipment that had been waiting almost a year at ABP Explorator were finally transferred to their posts. The 14th Fighter Group, 21st Strike Group, and 35th Air Auxiliary Group were ferried steadily into the islands the men and women would call home for the rest of their tours.

For the Armada, the establishment of the bases would fall under the purview of the Expeditionary Fleet Command's newly formed 5th Fleet, the North Adlantic Fleet. Along with this, a restructuring of the 5th Fleet was ordered by the Almirantasgo. Supporting elements like no. 150 LOGRON and no. 283 ANSRON loaned by COMNOR (Northern Command) and COMRES (Reserve Command) respectively were finally rotated home for their crews' shore liberty and O&M (Overhaul and Maintenance). Additionally, no. 280 Surface Warfare Squadron, loaned from COMRES would be reassigned to EXCOM, 5th Fleet and expanded into a Mobile Strike Group under the new designation, no. 28 MOSGRU. This would see 3 new Trident Class Frigates, 2 new Attack Submarines and 1 new Guided-Missile Submarine added to the Group. This expansion of the 280 Squadron's command arrived both out of strategic considerations to strengthen Adlantic presence and as recognition of the squadron's actions during Operation Interjection in Corinium, wherein elements of the squadron came to Seylosian aid despite being vastly outnumbered. To provide logistical support for the 5th Fleet, the Armada brought hulls from the no. 33 Auxiliary Group out of mothballs. No. 33 consisted of old fleet ocean tugs, cargo ships, roll-on roll-offs, oilers, tenders, and transfer ships.

Lighthouse Island could house and sustain up to 18,000 personnel at its current configuration. Yeeterson Base could manage 8,000 and Diego Gracias could manage 15,000. Though separate complexes were added for civilians and non-combatants (family members of personnel), these areas were left largely uninhabited. Considering the Adlantic's risk factors, it was thought that family housing should remain closed until the geopolitical situation decreases in hostility. As an exception, a few creature comfort amenities were allowed to operate on the bases; a sports recreational facility with heated pools, climbing walls, and racquet courts; a small cluster of restaurants and bars featuring household names like the Altarian-Huang YeNongFu's and Stillian Fried Chicken franchise Pollos Hermanas among others; a media hall with two cinema theatres and an indoor amphitheatre were also present; lastly, a Tacolic Church had also been built on the island, staffed by a rotation of priests and military chaplains.

 

Training Exercises

RAS public relations announced that it would be conducting exercises within the vicinity of the bases from June to August 2022. These were to be joint exercises between the Fuersas L'Aire and the Armada with Air Force and Naval Aviators conducting interception, reconnaissance, and combat air patrol in all weather conditions. The joint exercises would also refresh Fuersas L'Aire experience with operating alongside naval assets.

Defensive drills were also held extensively, practising conventional defence and WMD-related scenarios. Air Raid drills, CBRN protection drills, power outage drills, and counter-amphibious assault drills were supervised by no. 280's detachment of Tercios.

 

Infrastructure Improvements

Low-profile offshore auxiliary facilities were posted at the edge of the island's littoral zones, these would serve as backup telecommunications and satellite communications relays, connected via hardline, satellite, and cellular to adjacent Iverican networks. A few of these offshore facilities were also emergency housing and caches.

Cables were laid at an average radius of 160kms from the island centre, providing acoustic surveillance and magnetic anomaly detection. 

 

Civilian Outreach

Apart from an incident where lewd printed material were mislabelled and distributed at local highschools, joint outreach programmes were largely successful at introducing RAS personnel to neighbours in South Corinium, Wharareoa, and Yeetland. Medical personnel made rounds conducting free check-ups near coastal communities. Personnel would also make regular visits to schools and public events. They brought copies of Iberic films to local theatres, sports equipment to stadia, and printed media to schools and local libraries. Street Theatre, being popular in Iberic countries was also introduced with classic comedies like the "Vertibird Man" and "Hospital Ship Admiral" becoming popular, oft-requested performances.

 

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OOC: Not sure there's anything more needed for this. I think this is done actually.