Why would I join the army if I can’t drive a Gundam!

Chapter 214 Military Reform Plan
The military parade concluded successfully without any mishaps thanks to the strong cooperation of the Federal Army. This greatly satisfied the vanity of the Federal Parliament officials and significantly enhanced the sense of security among the Federal civilians.

At this moment, even the space dwellers who are still displaced in outer space can't help but straighten their backs when they hear about the invincible Federation army. After all, if the Federation is like this, then good days are just around the corner!
No one knows when the good days will arrive for the space dwellers, but the high command of the Federation Army knows that their good days are coming, because after the New Year, the Federation Parliament will review the Federation Army's new military spending plan!

The reason the Federal Army cooperated so well with the military parade was simply for the money. Since the Federal Army was so cooperative, the councilors couldn't just wield their swords and drastically cut military spending.

Moreover, with the end of the war, the Federation Army's staggering expenditures have already been reduced by more than half. After all, without war, there is no need to continue producing the GIM Sea, Iron Ball Sea, Salamis Sea, and Magellan Sea!

Compared to the Gundams, it was this sea of ​​weapons that truly terrified the Zeon forces. After all, even someone as powerful as Markarius, piloting a Gundam, only managed to destroy a little over four hundred Zeon mobile suits. Including warships, that was a small number. The Zeon forces suffered the most losses from their massive ordinary troops. Even one of Gihren's prized Dolos-class supercarriers was brutally overwhelmed and killed by a massive number of Federation mobile suits during the war.

Even after the war ended, thousands of mobile suits were still being assembled and tested on the production lines of the Federation's military factories, and there were even more Iron Balls!
Now that the war is over, the production of these technological equipment has been immediately halted. After all, the Federation has won, so the funds can be saved to develop newer equipment!

In fact, the Federation's military reform plan had already been initially promoted before the start of the war. The Nelson-class and Trafalgar-class warships were urgently promoted to cope with the pressure of war. In order to form combat capability as soon as possible, the Federation's military industry adopted existing mature designs. Although they tended to be conservative, they could be realized in a short period of time. As for the subsequent designs, they could confidently and boldly abandon the conservative ideas and proceed.

However, the outbreak of war interrupted this process, and now that they have won, it is natural to start all over again.

In fact, during this brief but highly destructive war, the high command of the Federation Army clearly realized that the ideology of warfare was changing. With the existence of such disgusting substances as rice grains, the traditional, single tactic of winning battles through long-range artillery fire was no longer suitable for the current battlefield environment.

This is not to say that artillery warfare is unimportant, but rather that in complex jamming environments, artillery warfare places more stringent demands on various conditions, such as search and fire control systems that can operate well under millimeter-level jamming, clearer optical aiming systems, and closer-in weapon systems that respond more quickly.

Besides changes in artillery warfare, there have also been tactical shifts. Mobile suits have proven their worth on the battlefield. Despite their fragile armor and low survivability under heavy artillery fire, they are highly mobile and their weapons can inflict deadly damage on warships.

Therefore, the combined operations of warships and mobile suits will become the mainstream tactics in the future, and the number of mobile suits carried will become an important factor in assessing the combat effectiveness of warships.

Therefore, the largest component of the new military reform proposal submitted by Reibal on behalf of the Federation Army was the tender for a completely new fleet.

After a year of war, the Federation forces, while not entirely clear on what kind of warships they idealized, at least knew what kind of warships met their requirements.

The requirements for the new cruiser are to have the same cost and manufacturing time as the Salamis-class cruiser, as well as similar maintainability, while ensuring the basic artillery combat capability and better anti-aircraft performance of the Salamis-class cruiser, and also having the capacity to carry at least 12 mobile suits.

This standard was not something that was just made up on a whim, but rather a conclusion reached by the Federation Army General Staff after comprehensively considering specific tactical information. In the later stages of the war, the organization of the Federation Army's mobile suit units gradually changed from three-aircraft formations to four-aircraft formations. A squadron consisted of exactly 12 mobile suits. In the Mobile Suit Tactical Manual, three squads were combined with the mothership they were on board to form a tactical unit.

In this way, mobile suit units can rely on the mothership to carry out a variety of tactical missions, including sabotage, engagement, and search. If a larger-scale battle is encountered, independent combat units can be continuously combined into larger combat units.

In fact, the emergence of this combat mode was mainly due to the fact that before this, the Federation's mobile suit units and fleets were not fixed pairs, but rather independent entities. This made tactical deployments prone to problems and coordination with warships unfamiliar. With the new organization, mobile suit units and warships formed a fixed pair, and both sides could maintain tacit cooperation through long-term training, thereby achieving greater combat effectiveness.

As for the battleships to replace the Magellan-class battleships, the Federation also put forward corresponding requirements. The first requirement was to retain the Magellan-class's powerful artillery capability. For the Federation, artillery warfare was the foundation of the Federation, just as ancestral laws could not be abandoned. In addition to artillery warfare capability, mobile suit carrying capacity was also important. As for the carrying capacity, it was also at least twelve mobile suits. Moreover, considering the efficiency of sorties, both cruisers and battleships were required to have at least three mobile suit catapults.

Considering that the design of the warships was completely different from the previous Salamis-class and Magellan-class, the Federation Forces were quite lenient regarding the design of the new warships. Although they weren't exactly flush with cash, they had ample budget and time, since the reform plan was based on a five-year timeframe. In other words, the plan only required that the new Space Force fleet be completed and combat-ready by around 85. This wasn't a complete replacement, as producing new warships to replace old ones was an extremely lengthy process. The existing Federation Forces fleet was so large that unless there was an emergency, it would take at least one or two decades to replace them all. Therefore, Reibir's plan was naturally phased. After the first five-year plan ended, there would be a second five-year plan. Although the old man might no longer be the commander of the Federation Forces by then, his successors would still steadfastly carry it out.

Moreover, in some respects, the Federation fleet is currently in a rather awkward position. The warships it possesses are actually quite young, ranging from three to five years old to a year or even just a few months old. Most of them are only a few months old. This is because the Federation fleet suffered heavy losses at the beginning of the war, and in order to restore its combat effectiveness as much as possible, the Federation has been desperately producing warships using its existing production lines to fill the gaps.

However, both the Salamis-class and Magellan-class ships were products of the military reorganization in the 60s. In other words, their designs were somewhat outdated. During wartime, people couldn't care less about anything else, but once the war ended, even the sweetest relationship would gradually sour. Especially after testing and mapping the captured Zeon warships, the sweetheart naturally became the shrew.

If the Federation had the money to replace the entire fleet in one go, even Reibir would have wanted to replace and upgrade the entire fleet in a single day. Unfortunately, the amount of money required to achieve this goal is so large that even if the entire Federation and all the space residents sold their butts, they couldn't raise enough. Therefore, the officers and soldiers of the Federation fleet will have to continue working and living on their old and new ships for a very long time, and some may not even see their new wives until they retire.

Since a quick replacement is not possible, improving and extending the service life of the existing Salamis-class and Magellan-class ships naturally becomes one of the mission objectives for the next phase. After all, these ships are too new, and there is not enough excuse to retire them.

As for mobile suits, needless to say, although at the beginning of the war the Federation Army had considered the service commonality of the GM and other models as well as the specifications for subsequent upgrades, for various reasons, the mobile suits produced still had to be different according to different batches and places of origin. This naturally caused a lot of trouble for the maintenance personnel. For example, the early GM used Luna Titanium for its armor, but after it was fully deployed, the GMs produced later sacrificed protection in order to increase production. In addition, there were various special-purpose mobile suits and battlefield modified versions made by local forces according to their own needs.

In addition, there are specifications for power reactors, etc. The military reform plan also proposes to reorganize the Federation's current GMs, which have different specifications and types, into a single model. As for different mission requirements, the backpack mode of the Zeon Warrior series will be used as a reference.

The report submitted to the council included sections on mobile suit upgrades, naturally written by Macarius, the Federation Army's most authoritative mobile suit expert. Although he had never been to the council or engaged in any underhanded dealings with interns, Macarius knew exactly what the council members wanted to see. Therefore, he wrote long, complex sentences describing the prospects for mobile suit improvements. The council members would naturally find these passages daunting. Subsequently, they would selectively skip over the seemingly complicated parts and focus on the simpler, clearer sections. Thus, all the council members would see was the cheapest option!
Of course, reports on new mobile suits are equally important, but they are not part of the military reform plan. The manufacturing plan for new mobile suits will be in a separate report, and the funding will naturally be allocated separately.

As for the size of the Federation Army, Rebil did not propose a reduction in the report, because this was also a very complicated matter. Considering that the Federation Army would face a large wave of demobilization after the war, actively reducing the size of the army would actually affect its combat effectiveness.

After all, the Federation Army is reluctant to let those officers and soldiers with outstanding skills and excellent performance leave, especially the ace pilots among the mobile suits. Although the top ace has no intention of retiring from active service, many other ace pilots, including Major Jung of Luna II, have already decided to retire. As a result, the commanding officers of the units to which these pilots belong have tried many ways to persuade them to stay, whether it is by promising a raise or paid leave. As long as they can stay for a while longer, the commanding officers will agree!

Although many chose to stay in the military due to improved benefits, some still wanted to return to their hometowns to open bakeries. As a result, the Federal Army Command had no choice but to resort to a last resort: transferring these aces who were determined to leave to military academies to serve as instructors for a period of time before transferring them to active duty.

In fact, Reibill's proposal went far beyond this, covering all aspects of the Federation forces, including the army, navy, and air force. However, due to battlefield factors, the space force took center stage, but he didn't forget his little brothers. The other three branches of the armed forces also included equipment upgrades, including new particle cannon tanks, fighter jets, and naval mobile suits. The navy, in particular, received a relatively high share, even surpassing the air force. This was naturally because the only remaining fully-fledged Zeon force on Earth was currently at sea. Although those few Shark-class ships didn't seem to pose much of a threat, they were still like a scab that made the Federation uncomfortable.

The navy is currently the only branch of the military that still has a clear combat mission after the war. Unfortunately, those few Shark-class ships disappeared after their last appearance in the Black Sea. According to the confessions of captured Zeon prisoners of war, after transporting personnel in the Black Sea, these Shark-class ships received a large amount of military supplies for their use and then sailed away into the vast ocean without looking back.

These shark-class destroyers could be in the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. In any case, it will take the Navy a lot of effort and time to catch them.

In parliament, the members of the federal parliament don't actually have the energy to read the entire report. Their deputies will provide them with a detailed summary copy later. Many people will skim through it and then quietly wait for the vote.

As the portly Speaker tapped the gavel in front of him, everyone put down their flexible screens and began voting on whether to approve the proposal.

Of course, this is just a formality. The final result was a unanimous vote. The parliament and the federal army headquarters had already reached an agreement on the passage of this plan. If the government and the army did not even have this much understanding, then the parliament would not have any reason to exist!
(End of this chapter)