Yesterda's War 8 - Untimely Warriors, page 17
“We will need to get working on that right away. Perhaps we will even be able to market the array to other customers after we prove its viability around our platforms.” Judith replied.
“There is another issue that we need to deal with concerning these new offshore platforms. We have to determine how we are going to power them.
The rocket and takeoff platform off of the coast north of Kalumburu is currently powered from the shore through a submarine cable, with diesel generators on the platform serving as a backup power source. We can afford to rely upon these power sources alone because a temporary power outage can be dealt with fairly easily. We would simply choose to launch or land a rocket from a land-based facility if necessary.
However, we can’t afford to rely upon only a couple of power sources. While a submarine cable can provide power from the shore during normal times. We need to have onboard power generation sources that will not only be able to power all of the systems but also do so without interfering with the CURES phased array radar system.
There have been far too many incidents over the years where submerged power and communications cables have been damaged by ships dragging their anchors over them. Now, most of the time, these incidents have been pure accidents. But we know that a few times the ships belonged to adversary nations that intentionally damaged the cables. We have to be prepared for the possibility of this happening to the power and data cables that we will have running along the ocean floor from the shore to our platforms.” Sarah explained as she sat there on a comfortable couch in Judith’s office and drank a cup of coffee that she had poured for herself from a nearby carafe.
“What exactly do you have in mind?”
“I have been looking at several possibilities but unfortunately all of them have some shortcomings. Solar panels could provide some power, but they are limited by weather conditions plus are completely useless at night. They also would require far more panels than the platform has sufficient area for to provide an adequate amount of power even under the best of conditions.
The offshore wind is constant enough to run a wind turbine. However, the rotation of the turbine blades would cause interference to the CURES radar system. Our engineers say that they could perhaps place a relatively small vertical wind turbine array in the nearby waters or on top of the superstructure outside of the field of view of the radar array panels. But they would still interfere unless they were kept quite small. Again, the power production would be limited as a result.
We could use diesel generators just like on the Kalumburu launch and recovery platform. But they will still require regular fueling. There are all kinds of circumstances, both natural and man-made, that could preclude the delivery of fuel to the platform.
Finally, we could employ nuclear power. However, a full-scale nuclear reactor would be very expensive to place on the platform. We could employ the same ‘nuclear battery’ technology that is being used by the Bandfish-N submarines and some of our space vehicles. But the power being generated would be somewhat limited still.”
“The solution should be fairly apparent to you. Use a combination of all of these power sources. It would be part of our cover story concerning the purpose of the platforms. We were already planning on saying that these platform’s primary purpose was in support of our space operations and that any armed elements were purely defensive in nature.
So now, we also tell the world that these platforms are also testbeds for Cavill Energy as well. As far as the world is concerned, we are using these platforms to test more renewable energy production sources.
Sarah nods her head after listening to Judith’s proposals.
“We can do this. It may not be very bloody pretty though.”
“Sarah, we can do ugly if we have to. But I have a feeling that we are going to need all of the help that we can get defending our facilities. This is the center of everything that our father created. If something were to happen to it and us, I just don’t know if our objectives would survive such a calamity.
We are still not completely self-sufficient at either our Lunar or Martian outposts. While the Americans are starting to push more resources into their own space program, they are still nowhere close to creating their own self-sufficient offworld facilities. NASA has already reduced support to their facilities on Mars. We have been forced to provide American personnel on Mars with additional resources as a result.
Notably, the American space program has been more focused on its scientific program than on manned exploration. They now have three large orbital observatories plus additional observatory facilities on the Moon. They include a very large orbiting optical telescope as well as separate orbital infrared and X-ray observatories. We have certainly contributed resources to assist these American scientific programs ourselves. But we have to focus more on ensuring that mankind is truly a multiplanetary species for its own continued survival.
So we have to ensure that we protect ourselves here against any threat that could occur.
Chapter Eighteen:
Presidential Palace
Jakarta, Indonesia
June 24, 1998
President Safwan Munaf had been the second Indonesian President since President Suharto’s ouster. There had still been some political instability after the first President had assumed the office from longtime President Suharto. A little over two years later, President Munaf had been elected to the office.
The Indonesian President was dark-skinned and heavy-set, demonstrating the effects of years of a much higher standard of living and diet than most people who lived in Indonesia. He had worked his way through the Indonesian political structure until he was in the right place to take over the Presidency when the last man there was forced to resign over a corruption scandal.
President Munaf had learned of a very peculiar secret arrangement that President Suharto had entered into with a mysterious foreign group as well as with the government of Argentina. Copies of the documents detailing the arrangement had been delivered to President Munaf via courier shortly after he became president.
Then the new Indonesian president was contacted by a representative of the foreign group who explained the history of the curious arrangement. The deal made it necessary for Indonesia to contact an additional partner to fulfill all of the conditions though.
President Suharto had started the relationship with the Argentine government several years earlier. His latest successor had continued the project with Argentina since the Indonesian military and ruling class wanted desperately to regain the lost territories and reinforce the popular support of the Indonesian people.
President Munaf was sitting in his office when the President’s chief political advisor Elang Akol was let in by the President’s secretary.
“Welcome, my friend. It has been an extraordinary past couple of weeks, hasn’t it?” Safwan said to his friend as he invited Elang to sit down in a nearby chair.
“Yes, it has been. Your moves against your predecessor were very skillful. He had no idea that his position was in danger until he was practically already out the door.”
“President Siahaan didn’t last very long in this office, did he?” Safwan replied with a knowing smile.
“The corruption charges that were filed against him forced him to resign and call for new elections, I’m afraid.’
“That seemed rather unusual. The charges appeared out of nowhere. A couple of weeks later, President Siahaan resigned and called for new elections. Then he disappeared from public view.”
“He made the mistake of thinking that he could fight against the Indonesian military without consequences. If you choose to do that, you had better be completely free of any semblance of corruption. Otherwise, that corruption will be exposed and used against you very quickly.” Elang pointed out.
“Or manufactured, if necessary.” The new President replied, almost as a confession of how he might have been involved in the ouster of his predecessor.
“I suppose that is true also if someone wanted badly enough to remove you from power.”
“You are probably right. Naturally, someone would need to be in a position to be the leading candidate to be elected as the next leader of Indonesia. Of course, I also know well enough to work with our military leaders to ensure that they receive all of the resources that we can give them to defend our nation’s security concerns.”
“Of course, I have heard that you have resumed a certain procurement program that President Siahaan had tried to cancel when he assumed office.”
“This is true. It was a project that President Suharto had started. His successor had chosen to not continue the program despite its potential of achieving our nation’s political goals.” President Munaf explained.
“It appears to be quite expensive. This project with the Argentinians has cost us at least half as much as our own military budget expenditures during the same period.”
“True. But our oil sales have been able to easily finance it, especially since much of our naval purchases during the past decade have been of used warships from Germany and France that we have upgraded with guided missiles and other updated equipment. So we have been able to significantly increase the quality and number of warships at a very economical price.
The rest of our military have likewise been taking advantage of the purchase of used but still quite capable weapons and other equipment from other nations at the same time.”
“How have you been able to cover the amount and the purpose of the money that has been transferred to Argentina? Surely, there would be people who would question sending the money to a South American nation that has been somewhat less than stable instead of spending it at home.” Elang asked.
“We have created an international finance institution that we provided the funding to. The leadership of the institution was officially tasked to provide loans to other Third-World nations. Of course, we control the institution’s leadership and have directed them to supply ‘loans’ to Argentina at exceptionally low rates.
Privately, we have told the Argentine government that if they can keep the English occupied with the defense of the Falkland Islands to the point that they are unable to provide reinforcements to Australia, then we will forgive most or all of the amount of their loans.”
“How can we be sure that they will hold up their end of the bargain?”
“We can call in the loans that we have given them to start with. That will crash their economy within a month if we do that. We can also work with our other oil-exporting partners to embargo Argentina from any oil exports as well. So the price of breaking their agreement with us will exact a price that they cannot afford.” President Munaf intimated.
“How has our military buildup proceeded so far? I have to admit that I’ve never kept up with our military and the equipment that they purchase. For most of my life, I just saw the soldiers marching around in their uniforms and otherwise ignored them.” Elang explained.
“As we are a nation of hundreds if not thousands of islands, our navy has received the primary focus for modernization and expansion naturally. Our navy has substantially increased its number of ships and overall tonnage.
We now have five destroyers, fourteen frigates, another fourteen oceangoing light combatants, and more than thirty light attack craft of various types. Many of these warships are coming from European navies who are replacing them with new vessels. In fact, all of our newly acquired destroyers came from France. Many of our frigates came from Italy, which is in the middle of a major modernization program for its navy.
These ships are undergoing modernization with new missiles and other upgrades being added as they are brought into our shipyards for scheduled maintenance periods. The new Chinese government has been quite willing to sell large quantities of the anti-ship cruise missiles that they manufacture for a very reasonable price. The weapons themselves are not as advanced as the missiles that the Australians use on their warships. But quantity does have its own sense of quality, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose so. But will the warships that we have purchased have room to install these missiles? They are not like transport ships where you remove one load of cargo and replace it with another load.”
“Yes, they are going to be modified as needed to provide enough space and mass for the new weapons that we are installing on them. We have been removing the old torpedo tubes and even some of their gun armament to provide the space and weight necessary to mount these missiles. The old torpedoes and guns were obsolete in modern warfare anyway. We are also fitting new short-range anti-aircraft missiles on our destroyers at the same time to make them far less vulnerable to enemy aerial attacks.”
“Where did we get the anti-aircraft missiles from?” Elang asked.
“Our mysterious friends put us in contact with the manufacturer in Germany. We were then able to purchase enough missiles, launchers, and associated fire control systems to outfit all five of our destroyers. They also arranged for the services of qualified technicians to come to Jakarta to design the necessary modifications to the former French destroyers that we are installing the missiles aboard.”
“Our new friends seem to be incredibly helpful. I wonder what their purpose is for all of this. Are they acting as sales agents where they are profiting financially? Or are they arming us so that our people will end up being mercenaries for their own purposes? We have seen this happen to our people at the hands of the West as well as the result of our own neighbors’ cruel schemes, unfortunately.”
“They have not made any specific demands so far. I have also wondered if they had an ulterior motive. But I have found that it was better to not worry about such things but to accept the gifts that are offered while they are still available. We cannot worry about what might happen in the future. God’s will surely come to pass regardless of what we do.” President Munaf replied.
“It is good that we are substantially increasing the number of warships in our navy. But they won’t be able to deliver troops to the shores of Papua, will they?”
“No, they won’t be able to. However, we have also significantly increased the number of amphibious warfare vessels and have adapted more than a dozen civilian ships to supplement them. Those vessels will transport our troops to set up beachheads and provide the logistical supplies necessary to continue the attack.
Finally, our navy is in the process of procuring several minesweepers to clear any possible mines from our planned invasion targets.”
“It sounds like our navy will be ready for the ‘special operation’ when we launch it. I am concerned that we do not have anything that is the equivalent to the Australian’s aircraft carrier.” Elang noted.
“We don’t have a ship that can operate regular aircraft like what the Australians, English, and Americans operate. However, we are in the process of procuring a large civilian cargo ship that we will convert into a helicopter carrier. This will be very useful for transporting troops very quickly to enemy shores and will not be especially expensive.”
“I trust that we will have enough helicopters to operate from it. Even if we do, that would seem to leave us at a severe disadvantage against the Australian Navy still.”
“To answer your first question, we are indeed in the process of purchasing enough troop-carrying and armed attack helicopters from European manufacturers to operate from our helicopter carrier when it is ready.
But we have something else in mind to deal with the Australian aircraft carrier. First, we are purchasing nearly a dozen submarines of various types. They are coming from several European navies that are currently disposing of them while they purchase new vessels. We are having them modernized as necessary. Admittedly, some of them are fairly small. But that has its advantages when operating in the Straits of Malacca, of course.
“I am assuming that we are also doing similar modernization programs for our air force and army. I’m afraid that my expertise is more along the lines of economics rather than military subjects, Sir.”
“Yes, we have been upgrading our air force at the same time. We have only been able to obtain a small number of the most modern combat aircraft. But we have purchased more than a hundred and fifty older aircraft including sixty of the Ajeet light fighters from the Indians who were retiring them.”
“Aren’t those aircraft very small and short-ranged?” Elang asked.
“Yes, but the Ajeet had additional fuel capacity installed. Plus, aircraft like that are relatively expendable. Notably, some of the aircraft that are too worn for manned use may be turned into unmanned flying bombs that are flown remotely to their targets. They will have more than enough fuel for a one-way trip to their targets. Who would guess that we would be using such small aircraft for offensive missions instead of merely for local air defense?
We are also buying more transport aircraft to supplement our existing fleet. That will permit us to quickly fly in reinforcements after the beginning of the invasion.”
“This is all incredibly impressive. What about the improvements for our army? They will need to be able to hold whatever territory they capture. The Australians will certainly bring in heavy forces to attempt to reclaim New Guinea.”
“You must remember that the Australians have never had an especially large army. Their population is so small for the size of Australia’s land mass that they cannot afford to field that many troops. We greatly outnumber Australia by far and can afford to field at least ten times as many soldiers as the Australians can.” The Indonesian President firmly asserted.
“Will that be enough against the Australian tanks? I have always thought that the Australians had a large number of very powerful tanks and armored personnel carriers for their troops to fight from?”
“Certainly, we have not invested nearly as much money into heavy armored vehicles as the Australians. We have procured a small number of main battle tanks from the Russians because of the sheer shock value and difficulty in neutralizing that they pose. The facts are that heavy armored combat vehicles are unsuitable for most of the terrain that we are going to be operating in. The Australians also do not base any of their heavy armored vehicles in New Guinea for the same reason.
