[DEVELOPMENT] The Ashinaran Military Reorganization

[aimway921]

With Ashinara becoming part of the SATO alliance, and one of the initial agreements that were made during the initial conference being the arming of Touli nations with weapons of the old world, meant that now almost all of the SATO members would be using the same caliber for their main infantry weapons. This rekindled the hope of some Army R&D officials for joint weapons programs, however, they were drowned out by other officials who had even more ambitious ideas - they would design brand new weapons and submit them to the allied nations for adoption.

The first focus of their efforts would be machine guns. The ZiX Light Machine Guns purchased from Ulster Gaelia were an extremely effective instrument during the Tafatu War, both in defensive but even more-so in offensive operations. The R&D would work on modernizing the design, primarily focusing on making it simpler to both produce and operate, and lighter to carry. Furthermore, a beefier version of the same gun with higher ammo capacity would be worked on to replace the existing Heavy Machine Guns - the Ashinaran SS-12, while being an excellent gun, was deemed to be reaching the end of it's service life, especially due to the outdated feeding system of metallic ammo strips that required lubrication of their own. These new Heavy Machine Guns would also be designed with the option of being adapted to vehicle use - especially in tanks.

Next, after obtaining sidearms from Lusatia, UKUG and Seleucidenia, the R&D would work on prototypes for a brand new Ashinaran sidearm to replace it's revolvers - with consideration being put out to switching to the handgun caliber used by majority of SATO members.

Finally, they would design new rifles to fit the new caliber, also gaining inspiration from foreign rifles that happened to be in Ashinaran posession, either through purchase or battlefield capture - with particular interest shown to the Kumosenkan rifles that were sold to the UST during the Tafatu war and then captured by Ashinaran soldiers at the Battle of Ferville.

Above events canceled by DM intervention

[aimway921]

Ashinara has recently become a member of the SATO alliance. Among other benefits (and responsibilities), came a mass import into Ashinara of weaponry, in particular, rifles in the caliber adopted across most of the alliance members - the .30-06 caliber. Seeing as most of the potential fighting would be done together with the rest of the members - and that the .30-06 weaponry was, due to it's abundance, the only caliber the Alliance was really able to provide to Ashinara, a decision has been made to officially adopt the caliber.

With that, came the requirement for a new rifle. The SATO imports were well and good, but there were two fundamental problems with them - firstly, a great deal of them being the Marrish Imperial Service Rifle 1889/1900, holding only 3 rounds in their internal magazine, were deemed inferior to the domestic K-11 Ashinaran rifles which held 5 rounds. Secondly - they were a foreign import, which, aside from dealing an ultimately negligible blow to the national pride, was a supply line that for an island nation such as Ashinara could be easily cut off.

The requirements for the new rifle were simple - modify the design of the existing K-11 rifle from the original 7.7 mm caliber to the new .30-06 caliber, with the following caveats in mind:
1. The changes to production line machinery must be minimal to switch production as fast as possible.
2. The changes must be as minimal as possible to make it possible to convert existing rifles to the new caliber.

If the design could also be simplified to make the production both faster and cheaper, it would also be a welcoming change.

[aimway921]

It took the R&D Department about a month and a half of tinkering with the existing design, but they managed to meet the requirements set forth by the High Command.

The biggest change were the barrels and receivers. Thy machining dies would be modified by less than a tenth of a millimeter to accommodate the new, slightly smaller round and cartridge. The bolt face and extractor were considered to be changed to accommodate the new rim, but the difference was so negligible it was deemed unnecessary. The existing rifles would be modified by taking off the barrels and receivers, melting them down so that they could be cast and machined into new ones.

Then the following changes would be implemented to simplify the production:

-With the new cartridge making the possibility of back-blast extremely unlikely, the additional vents in the receiver would no longer be drilled.
-With the combat experience of the Tafatu War, it was deemed that infantry engagements would rarely exceed 500-1000 meters, the rear sights would only be adjustable up to 1,000 meters, and not adjustable for windage.
-The barrels would no longer be chrome-lined, requiring soldiers to clean it more often but taking out the single most expensive step out of the production.
-The design of the integrated dust cover would be slightly simplified.
-The design of the drain groves in the stocks would be slightly simplified.

With those changes, it was estimated that factories would take about 4 months to retool before they can begin producing the new rifles, the time to produce a rifle would be reduced from 10 minutes on the assembly line to 6, and the cost would be reduced by 20%.

The new rifle would be designated Gvyntivka Type-34. Quickly the military became divided in how they referred to it in speech - some called it the Type-34, and some called it the G-34.

[aimway921]

The Ashinaran military chiefs have gathered in the Royal Palace to agree upon a strategy moving forward. It was clear that some terrible conflict was bound to happen some time soon. The Galran posturing at the Celebration of Peace in Koi was evident of such. If they were not afraid to hurl such insults at just about every head of state in the world gathered in that banquet hall that night, among them some of the most powerful nations on Ouhiri, an assumption was not hard to make that they had the military might to back up those insults and threats. Report on Shiysil received from Franerre had the Shiysilian head of state, Azeri, directly crediting Galra in their plans to launch an expansionist war against Lusatia and Tafatu. Rumors about the whole civil war happening in Eleria, part of which was the assault upon the Samurai whom a unit of Ashinaran was sent to assist, has been set up by Galra, backing a new "Imperator" who would then be Galra's ally. The tension in the world was as taught as a string on a Kobza.

Several weeks have been spent reviewing the state of the Ashinaran Royal Armed Forces. The finding have been concerning. In the entire Royal Army, only a single Regiment was motorized, and even that only had about a dozen supply trucks and that's it. Ashinara only had a handful of armored vehicles, all of which were purchased from UKUG during the Tafatu War - and if the rest of the world was armed with the tanks that UKUG and other powers displayed at the Zedonia War Games, they Ashinaran Armored Corps was entirely inadequate. What's more, no domestic armored vehicle production has been set up, and what little domestic designs Ashinara has produced never even reached the stage of building a mockup. The Air Corps, similarly, consisted of a couple planes purchased from UKUG at the same time as the tanks, with no domestic production or designs.

Even the one ace up the Royal Army's sleeve - the Tachanka - could be written off now. In the Tafatu War, they enjoyed free reign on the fields of Le Troi thanks to a complete absence of automatic weapons on the UST side and limited enemy artillery presence. Same could be said about the Cavalry. When the frontline became more static in Ferville, with more powerful artillery on both sides and the enemy gaining access to fully automatic weaponry, they became borderline useless, and using them became suicidal.

Finally, the Royal Navy. It may have been the best Navy among those native Toulian nations who never been colonized. Hell, the Ashinaran flagship - an ironclad - faced off against the UST fleet of wooden frigates, and straight up rammed through one while shooting down the others. However when compared to the navies of the Old World powers - the Ashinaran Royal Navy was almost half a century out of date.

The conclusion could be summarized in just a few words - we are not ready. Next came the discussion of what could be done about it.

The consensus was that addressing the inadequacy of the Royal Navy was the one thing Ashinara was financially incapable of addressing no matter what was done. It was proposed then that a plea would be sent out to UKUG and perhaps even Kumosenkan to provide Ashinara with naval support, in exchange for Ashinaran support in other aspects.

The Ashinaran Infantry was the strongest aspect about the Royal Armed Forces, but even that was pretty outdated - but at least it was the easiest to address, in Ashinara's current conditions. New shipments of SATO equipment was already underway, with a new domestic Type-34 rifle designed to be cheaper than it's predecessor and compatible with the SATO's most popular caliber - production of the ammo for which was also already set up, in addition to the ammo and weapons being imported from SATO nations. Next would be the securing of superior modern artillery to replace the aging Ashinaran one, as well as machine guns. In addition, new training shall be implemented to better suit the new realities of the battlefield seen at the War Games - with a particular emphasis on forbidding the older conservative officers from using the Banzai charges, which now, with modern weaponry on the battlefield, would result in nothing more but a suicidal folly.

[EpicToaster1]

DEVELOPMENT STATUS

K-11 - Change from 7.7mm to .30-06

Gvyntivka Type-34 - Completed