Well that's pretty neat, thanks RAE. I wonder if we'll actually see an increase in the use of private military assets among the houses in order to keep military strength up while paying lip service to the "swords to ploughshares" push.
From what I read in the current sources (namely, the
Field Report series and
Technical Readout: 3085), all that "swords to ploughshares" talk is a big pile of you-know-what from Stone's PR managers, who are trying to create an image of a messiah, leading the nations of the Inner Sphere to a new age of peace and prosperity.
The thing is, no one is converting their swords to plowshares, because no one got any swords left in the first place. Look at the actual numbers of 'Mech regiments in the Successor States miltaries of 3079: AFFS got 26.1, CCAF has 19.8 and DCMS has 18.2. I'm pretty sure that LAAF is not in a better shape, and I'm not even talking about the sundered FWLM and other minor factions.
FRs also indicate that providing transport even for these astonishingly low numbers of troops appears to be a problem. So, even if the pace of the Great Houses' rebuilding efforts will somehow catch up with the '50s-60s arms race rates (which, I'm sure, won't happen due to the severe damage military infrastructure and industry took during the Jihad), it will be directly tied to a number of produced Jumpships ('cause why would you need another five regiments of 'Mech, when all you can transport is a single battalion?), which, as we know, was low even in better times.
So, I guess, mercs, especially those that can boast their own transportation divisions, are likely to be a valuable asset for the Inner Sphere states in the times to come.