Hm...that poses some thoughts then, if the military was already heavily focused around its engineers even during the Cold War. Say that the majority of the combat elements were Russian troops, while the support elements - the transportation, engineers, maintenance folks - were Serednya Slaviyan locals. When the Russians retreated, they took a lot of their equipment back with them, leaving the locals relatively high and dry in combat forces but well equipped with support troops and equipment.
Centrally-planned apathy though the 80s as well as the corruption issues endemic to the eastern bloc probably left the cities in dismay, and the rural areas downright bucolic. It'd be a place ripe for rebuilding, and the army to do it with. Granted it'd be slow going with the post-Cold War corruption problems in Eastern Europe, but the idea of focusing the army on building a new and prosperous nation might well be something championed in "Building The Communal Future" propaganda for the masses. I'd have to funnel some serious resources to the army to retain its brain trust.
That also means I'm likely to have at least one really good engineering college in the country to train these troops, especially the officers.
I don't think that SereSlav has the major funding to rebuild its combat arms, while maintaining its engineering corps. That leaves them in a weird military situation until they joined NATO, an army for construction and limited national defense. I'm thinking that a Militia Federal Police paramilitary force would end up standing in for the army in a combat situation, while acting as both a border guards and a federal & military police force. That lets me build up my MP corps quite a bit, and turns them into their own separate force from the army. Going with that thought, it would make sense to spin off the ADA troops in the army into an Air Defense Force that generally lacks aircraft (bye bye MiG-29s) but is well equipped with SAMs and other AA vehicles. That leaves me with three military forces operating independently, the Engineer Corps, the MFP, and the ADF.
Corruption...yeah, especially in construction it's pretty endemic. That's probably something in the jurisdiction of the MFP, especially when it involves the Engineer Corps, and is something being fought hard but impossible to root out all together.
As far as the MFP goes...what's the makeup of a Soviet style KGB Border Guards unit? What kind of heavy combat equipment do they get outside of trucks and light vehicles? I'm eyeing the ERC-90 as a combat vehicle for them, something lighter and more amphibious than the AMX-10RC - not to be used as a tank, but as a recon and fire support vehicle. Mexico and a few other South American countries bought into the ERC-90 program as a major component for their land forces, so it's got utility in a military that lacks heavy equipment. This would be something for after their accession to NATO, and an attempt to modernize with Western equipment - and with the French getting rid of their ERCs for Griffons, they'd be dirt cheap and something simple enough for the MFP to maintain. They just don't have the industry for heavier vehicles like main battle tanks.
I like the idea of potentially hiring out the Engineer Corps as a revenue-generating force. They would have a lot of opportunity in Africa, perhaps working alongside the French. Maybe that's what prompts the purchase of ERC-90s and other French equipment...maybe replacing the antiquated Soviet SAM launchers with modernized secondhand Crotale NG vehicles as well for the ADF.
EDIT: I admit I still want at least the one squadron of fighters, even if they're based in Poland and the Poles help with the maintenance and modernization. With an independent ADF of 3100 personnel, that's doable, while still heavily stacking up ADA units in-country. Copying the
Croatian Air Force, I could step down to 1,260 personnel and still have a squadron of MiG-21s. Back to the Balalaikas, I suppose, while adding a few more personnel to the force to run four Soviet SAM regiments. I wouldn't have much in the way of transport capabilities, but a good set of firefighting gear if I copy the Croatians completely - which I think I'll do.
As far as those SAM regiments, each has five firing batteries of four SA-6 carriers for a total of twenty vehicles each. Since each of the regiments has just over 500 personnel, that means I'd need to poach a few from the Land Forces to get a total of 2,020 Air Defense Force personnel.
That leaves me with 29,500 between the MFP and the Engineers Corps. A Soviet BTR-transported infantry regiment is 2,523 personnel. Add in an Antitank Battalion of 195 and a Reconnaissance Battalion of 340 and I come to a total of 3,058 personnel. Five of those would make a pretty potent military police force, especially when boosted with a number of ERC-90 tank destroyers replacing the 100mm towed gun batteries and T-72s in the Recon platoons. Each AT battalion would be twelve ERC-90s plus nine BRDM-2-based ATGM carriers for a total of 60 and 45 vehicles respectively. There's also the reconnaissance companies, which would have an additional six ERC-90s replacing tanks in the scout-hunter role. So a total of 90 ERC-90s for the military, that puts me in good with the French if I'm getting that many vehicles from them. The MFP districts settle easily into the five oblasts that make up the country - Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, and Volyn - so that gives me about 15,300 personnel in the MFP.
The remaining headcount is 14,200, which makes up the engineers and logistics folks. The Engineer Battalion of the MR Division and Tank Division is made of the following: BN HQ, Sappers, Assault Crossing, Technical (heavy construction), Road/Bridge Construction, Pontoon Bridge, Engineer Recon, Communications, Maintenance, and Service elements. That comes to about 400 personnel for each battalion, which would give me a whopping 35 Engineer Battalions. I think that many is overkill, so I'll cut it roughly in half to 18 battalions of engineers and let the remainder of my troops be maintenance and logistics personnel. We may not fly stuff around, but between the engineers and transport folks stuff will get where it's supposed to go.
Having 18 battalions also makes it easy to sort again - each oblast gets three engineer units, with three more deployed on foreign soil to work with the locals in building a better future and all that crap.
Thoughts on this? Am I overdoing it with the MFP as a military police force or does it seem like the kind of thing that could be counted on to at least slow down an invader and still handle internal security threats against the nation?