Creating Serednya Slaviya's military, part the second

[ANS Kamas P81]

I figure the modernization and reorganization started in 2014, despite being NATO members since 2004.  Back then they were still poking around with a few Soviet regiments left over from the old days, and equipment was wearing thin.  Cue the annexation of Crimea and sudden demand to modernize and bring up a military that's NATO-compatible and a ten year plan to do it in.  They pulled it off, but at not insignificant cost.

Also I realized I was missing an entire battalion of transport vehicles from the list.  I had doubled up the distribution battalion, but hadn't accounted for the second BN's trucks in the total list.  Adjusted figures are below.

  604 HMMWV ($6 million) (+$0.4 million)
  39 LMTV 4x4 Truck ($2 million)
  353 FMTV 6x6 Truck ($26.4 million) (+$2.8 million)
  325 HEMTT 8x8 Truck ($93.7 million) (+$30.6 million)
  72 Assorted Engineer Vehicle ($36 million) (+$10.5 million)

That takes another $43.3 million off the table, eating into my IT budget and cutting it down to $256.7 million.  I wonder how much an AS/400 costs...I mean, it's Serednya Slaviya, the computer system probably really does look like this.



Oh yeah - set aside $15 million for the RQ-7B Shadow UAV, its two ground stations, and four aircraft.  That and 6 RQ-11B Raven systems, one for each infantry company, for $1.5 million.  So $240.2 million for computers after that.  Platoon level drones need to have a dedicated drone operator in the platoon, something I don't have but could attach. 

[Daryk]

With all those Ravens, do you really need the Shadow?

[ANS Kamas P81]

The Shadow's listed in the Stryker brigade in the engineer battalion as its own tactical UAS platoon with four planes.  That's one system with two ground stations as well, so that is "canon" as it were.  The Ravens are my own addition, with each $250,000 system having three planes - that's enough to push it down to platoon level, with 18 mechanized infantry platoons in the brigade.

[truetanker]

Question, would you "cross-train" your Armed Forces with each other?

Like have an Army, Navy and an Air Force, but cross-train your Army and Navy personnel to be the Marine equivalent and how the old Army Air Corp became what is now considered the Air Force? How the Marines were originally Sailors trained in Army formations back in the wind.

Or go forward and cross-train the Army into the Marines, Navy and Air Force? As the Army is just a bunch of ground huggers, traditionally. You could just make it all Marines, still call it "Army", but at least they will be mobile enough.

Marines attached to every other unit to provide local security and general "Army" duties, Air Force to provide all things ground and air support and the Navy to support all things in need of aquatic.

TT

[ANS Kamas P81]

Nah, I don't see cross-training like that happening.  The country's landlocked with just some rivers to patrol, and that can be done by civilian police organizations instead of the military.  There's no Marines in the Serednya Slaviya Armed Forces.  Besides, the term of service is only 9 months in the active duty forces, you're there to be trained to do your job, keep your gear maintained, and maybe go through a field exercise or two during that time.  There isn't time to train army folks to do air force jobs, and that would muddy the waters between them anyway.

The Air Force is primarily an airspace-monitoring force, though they do have a handful of Alpha Jets for tank plinking with Mavericks and air patrol with Sidewinders.  There's also the attack helicopter squadron of 12 MD-530Fs with TOW missiles, again for tank plinking.  Beyond that there's just a few personnel transport planes and patrol helicopters.



Pictured: a BK 0010 personal computer, likely the state of government information technology in Serednya Slaviya.  I love the retrofuture look to it.

[Daryk]

It's even a Russian keyboard... hilarious! :D

[truetanker]

Does it use ROL (Russian OnLine) to bootstrap your basic dial-up internet?



As seen in the street corners of Serednya.

TT

[ANS Kamas P81]

Yup, the BK 0010 was pretty much the only mass-produced personal computer in Russia.  Hell, Serednya Slaviya's probably still heavily dialup, with widespread broadband limited to Lviv.

I wonder what's on TV?



Yes, that's a plastic water-filled magnifying lens to make the screen look bigger.  I imagine Serednya Slaviya is full of technological workarounds like that, while the military gets the big funding. 

[chanman]

Yup, the BK 0010 was pretty much the only mass-produced personal computer in Russia.  Hell, Serednya Slaviya's probably still heavily dialup, with widespread broadband limited to Lviv.

I wonder what's on TV?



Yes, that's a plastic water-filled magnifying lens to make the screen look bigger.  I imagine Serednya Slaviya is full of technological workarounds like that, while the military gets the big funding.

Once globalization really kicks off in the 21st century, even Serednya Slaviya's going to get dem cheap consumer goods. And in this day and age, I think that wood case and brass fitting are probably the most expensive components :P

[ANS Kamas P81]

Yeah, I suppose cheap consumer goods will be a thing, but don't forget the economy.  I'm copying Ukraine in that regard, where the average worker's pay is $4,100 a year.  Imported goods are still luxuries, really, though I suppose I could handwave it somewhat with locally produced items.  Talk Samsung into opening an electronics factory in Lviv, maybe, something to help stem the tide of people emigrating away from Serednya Slaviya in search of a better life.

I dunno, something just feels wrong somewhere.  I think I'm making a mistake with my independent reservist battalions, and that they should be reservist brigades instead...with all the attachments and costs that entails.  I think there's a rework coming there.

[chanman]

Yeah, I suppose cheap consumer goods will be a thing, but don't forget the economy.  I'm copying Ukraine in that regard, where the average worker's pay is $4,100 a year.  Imported goods are still luxuries, really, though I suppose I could handwave it somewhat with locally produced items.  Talk Samsung into opening an electronics factory in Lviv, maybe, something to help stem the tide of people emigrating away from Serednya Slaviya in search of a better life.

I dunno, something just feels wrong somewhere.  I think I'm making a mistake with my independent reservist battalions, and that they should be reservist brigades instead...with all the attachments and costs that entails.  I think there's a rework coming there.

I think you might be overdoing conscript pay. I think the Russians pre-war had something like a $30/month stipend :P. They don't need to be paid a living wage because the state is paying for their living - which in terms of room and board, are rather cheap in poor countries.

Reservist units aren't anywhere near full strength either. You'll have to dig up the particulars but I think something like 30-50% of paper strength wouldn't be out of the question, and even regular forces might only be at 70% of paper strength.

[truetanker]

Yeah, a flea smitten roach Motel here in America could be a Ritz Carleton in Serednya?

...

TT

[chanman]

Obviously, you'll need to muster savings and tap some... unconventional funding sources so that Serednya Slaviya can steal a march on the world and bootstrap their covert Mobile Suit program! 

[ANS Kamas P81]

My average pay of $4,100/yr applies to the active duty folks; the reservists get 20% of that at $820 annually.  It's more of a supplement than a living wage, though according to Google searches said living wage is only around $1,500 a year. 

I figure with conscription going - and only to small levels; averaging out male and female conscription I'm calling up about 8% of my population turning 18.  That lets me be pretty selective about who gets pushed into the army, and suggests I should hit target staffing levels easily.

I also had my SSAF troops switch to the SSLF after their active duty term was up, which didn't make sense to me.  I redid things a bit so that the SSAF has its own reserve force, outside the SSLF's own troops.  Though that is going to increase my operations spending...which starts a death spiral of funding again.

I'm also not happy with the 3% GDP spending; I don't think Serednya Slaviya can afford the increase of $254.6 million dollars over the NATO minimum.  I've got to choke that down to 2%, and a total of $509.2 million in spending for 2023.  That means heavy cuts to my operations budget, which is by far the king of my total expenses.

I'll start buying hardware in 2004.  That's when Serednya Slaviya decided to push its military spending up to NATO's 2% minimum; prior to that it was lower with limited procurement and a Soviet-style army still.  2004-2013 would be a period of reorganization and the start of heavy procurement, with an urgency that became stronger in 2014.  They couldn't increase funding, instead having to look for foreign military aid and cheap weapons.

That means buying American, at least in some ways.  I can save $60 million just by replacing my cavalry vehicles with Bradleys, so I'm back to those.  I can also save $150 million more by getting rid of the NEMO mortars and using Nona-SVKs, and replacing my VABs with BTR-80s.  I'm going to miss the NEMO significantly, it's got some fantastic capabilities but I just can't afford them.

I'll take a closer look at cuts tomorrow; I'm clutching the Pandur IIs with all my might despite their cost because I want that large platoon size.  I'm just not sure I can afford them...there's also the question of what to do with the reserve brigade and its equipment.

[chanman]

Piggy back off OIF spending. At the very least, that should cover some of the basics like body armour. Start with PASGT and switch to Interceptor, especially once the Marines start replacing theirs. That also means some of your units might be mechanized on well-used Humvees and MRAPs. Which would... actually look very Ukrainian these days.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Interceptor vests run $1585, so getting enough to outfit the active and reserve brigade only costs $25.4 million in total.  That's affordable for a full set of body armor, and is one expense I'm definitely making.  As far as other OIF stuff...I don't suppose the Army would sell off trucks cheap; the logistics requirements is eating significantly into my budget.  They actually cost a little more than the Pandur II APCs do, all told.

I think I'll have to axe the Fenneks too, at 1.6 million per vehicle they're not just pricey but they're arguably extraneous to the cavalry.  I could save another 14 million per brigade by axing the Cavalry Squadron's Centauros and relying solely on the Bradleys for their firepower, while keeping 36 of the vehicles around split between the active and reserve infantry companies.

So far I've reached this point:
  32 Centauro ($32 million)
  12 Fennek ($19.2 million)
  36 M2A2 ODS Bradley ($58.7 million)
  84 Pandur II APC ($151.2 million)
  9 Pandur II TOW ($18 million)
  104 BTR-80 (pre-owned)
  36 Nona-SVK (pre-owned)
  12 Gvozdika (pre-owned)
  6 RM-70 Grad ($4.7 million)
  12 ZSU-23-4 Biala ($12 million)
  604 HMMWV ($6 million)
  39 LMTV 4x4 Truck ($2 million)
  353 FMTV 6x6 Truck ($26.4 million)
  325 HEMTT 8x8 Truck ($93.7 million)
  72 Assorted Engineer Vehicle ($36 million)
  Total $422.7 million

[Daryk]

Around 2001, several navies in South America were so broke, they furloughed everybody (without pay), so your funding struggles are totally par for the course.

Regarding Bradleys, there's a video floating around of a Bradley vs. T-90 battle.  It's interesting to say the least!

[ANS Kamas P81]

I understand that was the case in the early 1990s in Russia as well.  Units going a year without paying their troops, and living off a barter system after the end of the USSR.

Saw the video.  Way to go Bradleys!  Looks like the tank crew managed to bail out after what was a wild ride when the turret malfunctioned.  Surprised not to see any TOW usage in the available footage, though.

[truetanker]

Get Coporate money, like First Burger King, KFC and Domino's... or Greggs. ()

Make Corporates pay for your arms!

TT

[ANS Kamas P81]

They already are, where do you think the tax money comes from?

EDIT: As for that money.... Estonia is spending an average of 2.16% GDP on its military over the last ten years, with a big ramp up the last two years.  Gee I wonder why.

Sure, I can afford to buy most of what I need and some of what I want - not all - on a 2% budget over 20 years.  But I can't afford to expend it in training; I'm having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on missiles for aircraft and SAMs just to fire off one a year per vehicle.  I need a general stockpile of ammunition as well as the stuff that gets expended in training every year as well, which increases things further.

These cuts run deep; I'm keeping my helicopters and adding a few Avantis for more personnel transport, but axing the Alpha Jets and their AAMs and AGMs.  That saved me more than $50 million there, even after buying a lot more Buk missiles to allow for a small stockpile after training expenditures.

I have 30 years of training ammunition for a 20 year period, that should give me enough of a stockpile to last a little while in combat.  The same goes for the reserves, with a 10 year supply there.  That comes to $40,000 worth of munitions per soldier, which seems like a lot until you start adding in cannon and mortar rounds at a few thousand dollars apiece. I'm pretty sure it's insufficient for national needs, but I've got no way to figure out what is "sufficient" in the first place.

[idea weenie]

Once globalization really kicks off in the 21st century, even Serednya Slaviya's going to get dem cheap consumer goods. And in this day and age, I think that wood case and brass fitting are probably the most expensive components :P

Get the right marketing, and those wood cases + brass fittings can be resold as fancy smartphone holders for the steampunk culture.

As to why Russian computers didn't do that well, here is a video about that:
Why the Soviet Computer Failed (19 minutes)

[chanman]

They already are, where do you think the tax money comes from?

EDIT: As for that money.... Estonia is spending an average of 2.16% GDP on its military over the last ten years, with a big ramp up the last two years.  Gee I wonder why.

Sure, I can afford to buy most of what I need and some of what I want - not all - on a 2% budget over 20 years.  But I can't afford to expend it in training; I'm having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on missiles for aircraft and SAMs just to fire off one a year per vehicle.  I need a general stockpile of ammunition as well as the stuff that gets expended in training every year as well, which increases things further.

These cuts run deep; I'm keeping my helicopters and adding a few Avantis for more personnel transport, but axing the Alpha Jets and their AAMs and AGMs.  That saved me more than $50 million there, even after buying a lot more Buk missiles to allow for a small stockpile after training expenditures.

I have 30 years of training ammunition for a 20 year period, that should give me enough of a stockpile to last a little while in combat.  The same goes for the reserves, with a 10 year supply there.  That comes to $40,000 worth of munitions per soldier, which seems like a lot until you start adding in cannon and mortar rounds at a few thousand dollars apiece. I'm pretty sure it's insufficient for national needs, but I've got no way to figure out what is "sufficient" in the first place.

The GWOT is like a two-decade long live fire training exercise. 

But seriously, no one trains as much as they'd like, and conscripts least of all for the reasons you're finding out. When Taiwan recently announced they'd extend mandatory military service again, one of the big questions was if they would also free up funding for useful training or if the conscripts would just be spending 9 extra months cutting grass and picking up litter. One account mentioned that during their mandatory service in the mid-2000s, they had enough of an ammunition budget for 17 rounds each.

Also also, for basic marksmanship training, you can use .22 training guns/conversions. They have a longgggg history. Once the basics are taught, they can move on to the real service weapon.

I know I've made the comment either here, in the previous thread, or in one of the AFV threads that dedicated OPFOR units like the 11th ACR or aggressor squadrons are so effective regardless of which doctrine they're mimicking because they themselves are units that effectively train full-time.

The PLA's equivalent to the 11th ACR is the 195th Mechanized Infantry Brigade  - a dedicated BLUFOR unit that has similarly lopsided performances against line units, and for similar reasons. They undertake brigade-level training and wargames as a way of life in a way that line brigades rarely get to do. I'm sure if unlimited food, space and spare parts were available, every unit would benefit from more frequent training at scale, but y'know, limits.

[Daryk]

Even though F16 hasn't posted in a while, I definitely hear things he'd have said here... :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

Interesting video on the Soviet computer situation.  As it says, centralized planning along with short-term decision making pretty much doomed the industry.

Basic marksmanship training is handled by DOSAAF style pre-military-induction shooting clubs.  I suppose firearms ownership is legal in Serednya Slaviya, though pretty heavily regulated and limited in scope of what can be owned.  Shotguns and rimfires off the top of my head, with a general ban on handguns.

The pre-military training is likely voluntary, though there's social pressure to join the clubs.  The teams compete against each other on a regional level, with national level events akin to the Olympics.  Each region sends its best to the national competitions, and the winners get assembled into the Serednya Slaviyan Olympics team.

I guess it comes down to how much training I'm getting out of that $4,000 per person in munitions expenses.  That's based on the DOD 2024 budget, which spends $5.6 billion on ammunition.  There's another $17.3 billion spent each year on tactical missiles.  That's an extra $12,357 per person, for a total of $16,357 in training.  If I'm training my active duty folks at the same level of my reservists, with one weekend every three months for live fire training and a five-day field exercise, I'm spending $125.8 million annually on both the active and reserve duty troops for ammunition expenses.

That only comes to five billion dollars across 20 years...which forces me back into more than 3% GDP spending over 20 years to cover those costs.

This just doesn't work.  More later, maybe

[ANS Kamas P81]

So Poland and Estonia both are both dropping 3-4% GDP spending on their military in 2023 and 2024, while Lithuania is spending 2.5% and Latvia 2.4%.  That gives me some ideas to settle spending numbers, running Serednya Slaviya's GDP back from 2004.  From 2004-2008 defense spending averaged 2%; after the Georgia invasion through to 2014 spending increased for an average of 2.25% of GDP.  Then comes the Crimean annexation and the early Russian invasion of Ukraine, and spending from there to 2022 averages 2.5% of GDP, while 2023 sees a big jump to 3.5% of spending.

That requires a switch to the current organization in the early 2000s, with the single active and single reserve brigade and the Air Force's current size being consistent over those years.

The big thing is training and ammunition expenses.  The DOD spends $16,357 per soldier on ammo and missiles; I'm going to cut that price in half because I'm only operating in a peacetime setting without combat expenditures.  Of that $8,179, $2,000 is regular ammunition.  With the establishment of a munitions plant in Serednya Slaviya, I can cut that expense down by $1,400 by producing bullets and shells in my economy.  That brings my annual expense to $6,779 per soldier, or $52.1 million for the active and reserves each.  Across 20 years, that's a total of $2,084 million dollars...and adding in two more years of procurement to cover a small stockpile on top of the annual expenditure, I come to $2,292.4 million for my ammunition.

That leaves $230.9 million for my air force vehicles, which probably won't exceed $30 million, and $10 million per year for a computer system to bring everything under one controlled roof.  I suppose that counts as workable, though that's going to be a pretty behind the times computer system.  Windows 11 it ain't.

[Daryk]

If you're lucky, it's Windows NT... that was the most stable version I've ever used...

[ANS Kamas P81]

Yeah, NT and 2000 were both good at stability and reliability.  They were also things that allowed user control, and not the kinds of BS I have to deal with on this Win10 machine...but that's just personal frustration.  Admin rights aren't entirely admin rights...

Oh look, a BTR-80 armored recovery vehicle.



EDIT: Man, Serednya Slaviya is poor.  I found this list of oblasts by GRP and adding up the five that make up Serednya Slaviya, my GDP isn't 25.46 billion...it's 17.6 billion.  That's a 30% hit to my total money available, and puts me at less than half of Estonia or Latvia and practically 1/4 of Lithuania...let alone Poland or Belarus.  Going back to 2004, the GDP of Serednya Slaviya was a whopping $6,484 million dollars, with a NATO-mandated spending of $129.68 million.

Okay, rough pass.  At $180 million to operate just a Stryker BCT of 4,509 personnel in the Serednya Slaviyan economy, that's $39,920.16 per head per year.  Early on I don't even have that much money in the entire budget, let alone anything for paying people or maintaining facilities.  I'm not going to be making brigades, I'm making a few battalion tactical groups and damn the torpedoes; I can't come up with a more capable military force.  Operations and pay budgets eat so much along with training that it's not funny.  At least fuel is covered under the Operations budget.

[Daryk]

Don't forget to recoup some costs from selling your BTR-80s on... ;)

[ANS Kamas P81]

So each soldier is worth $39,920 in the active duty role and $11,089 in the reserves annually. 

Quoth Wikipedia

"These BTGs comprised a tank company, three mechanised infantry companies, two anti-tank companies, two or three artillery batteries, and two air-defence batteries."

Combat Battalion Group
  Battalion Headquarters & Headquarters Company - 107 personnel
  Mobile Gun Company - 57 personnel
  Mechanized Infantry Headquarters - 190 personnel
  Mechanized Infantry Company - 196 personnel
  Mechanized Infantry Company - 196 personnel
  Mechanized Infantry Company - 196 personnel
  Cavalry Troop - 105 personnel
  Antitank Company - 53 personnel
  Antitank Company - 53 personnel
  Artillery Battery - 91 personnel
  Artillery Battery - 91 personnel
  Artillery Battery - 91 personnel
  Target Acquisition Platoon - 32 personnel
  Air Defense Battery - 57 personnel
  Air Defense Battery - 57 personnel

Each Mech Inf. company is based around having 55-man platoons instead of the 44-man platoons of the Stryker company.  All told that comes to 1,572 personnel, and lacks support elements.  I'll start off with a Support Battalion Group instead, listed below.

Support Battalion Group
  Battalion Headquarters & Headquarters Company - 107 personnel
  Engineer Headquarters - 88 personnel
  Engineer Company - 87 personnel
  Engineer Company - 95 personnel
  Military Intelligence Company - 100 personnel
  Signals Company - 45 personnel
  Support Headquarters - 86 personnel
  Distribution Company - 133 personnel
  Maintenance Company - 102 personnel
  Medical Company - 87 personnel
  Infantry Forward Support Company - 90 personnel
  Artillery Forward Support Company - 93 personnel
  Engineer Forward Support Company - 97 personnel

That comes to 1,210 personnel.  For the first few years in NATO there was just 500 personnel in the SSAF and one Support Battalion group, there to provide support to NATO forces stationed in country.  By 2023 I can see having two Support Battalion Groups and a single Combat Battalion Group.  That comes to 3,992 SSLF troops and 1,500 in the SSAF, for a total of 5,492 personnel. 

SSLF Vehicles
  23 B1 Centauro (34.5 million)
  12 M2A2 ODS Bradley ($26.4 million)
  57 Pandur II APC ($188.1 million)
  18 Pandur II TOW ($63 million)
  64 BTR-80 (pre-owned)
  8 Nona-SVK (pre-owned)
  12 Gvozdika (pre-owned)
  6 BM-21 Grad (pre-owned)
  24 ZSU-23-4 Biala ($24 million)
  288 Igla missiles ($25.9 million)
  475 HMMWV ($4.8 million)
  39 LMTV 4x4 Truck ($2 million)
  302 FMTV 6x6 Truck ($22.7 million)
  226 HEMTT 8x8 Truck ($65.2 million)
  66 Assorted Engineer Vehicle ($33 million)
  Total $489.6 million

SSLF + SSAF Infantry Weapons
  5,500 Grot B rifle ($14.9 million)
  5,500 Interceptor body armor ($8.7 million)
  5,500  SSh-68 helmet (pre-owned)
  5,500  Bayonets ($0.1 million)
  5,500 Uniform Sets ($11 million)
  500 Glock 19 ($0.3 million)
  200 GP Grenade Launchers ($0.3 million)
  200 Mossberg 590 ($0.1 million)
  200 Ultimax 100 ($0.9 million)
  500 MG3 ($1.5 million)
  250 M2HB ($3.5 million)
  250 Mk 19 ($5 million)
  550 AN/PVS-14 Nightvision Optic ($1.6 million)
  5,000 AT4 ($7.4 million)
  300 Spike SR missiles ($22.5 million)
  3 RQ-11B Raven System ($0.8 million)
  9 RQ-28A System ($0.4 million)
  Total $79 million

SSAF Vehicles and Weapons
  16 MD530F ($96 million)
  540 TOW missiles ($54 million)
  8 P.180 Avanti ($16 million)
  100 HMMWV ($1 million)
  20 LMTV 4x4 Truck ($1 million)
  32 FMTV 6x6 Truck ($2.4 million)
  12 HEMTT 8x8 Truck ($3.5 million)
  Total: $173.9 million

Drone-wise I'm well stocked; the RQ-11B is a company level asset while each platoon gets a pair of RQ-28A quadcopters and a ground control unit handled by a Drone Operator in the platoon.  They're not "underground Ukrainian drone factory" cheap but I can still afford enough of them for the tiny military Serednya Slaviya has.

There's no reserve force outside of "trained former soldiers" that can be called up in an emergency, just the three active battalion groups.  The idea is to provide a logistical support structure for NATO allies stationing troops in-country, and has just enough of a combat force to be an annoying speedbump in an invasion.  They're more of a stubborn national pride than a serious attempt at a combatant force, though there's probably enough AK-74s in cosmoline coccoons alongside all those AT4s that a civilian reserve can put up a fight.

I refigured the price of the Pandurs at $3.3 million apiece, with the extra cost going to service and tech support from SDP.  The price of the Bradleys was also increased to $2.2 million apiece, to reflect tech support for them.  Last was an increase in the price of the B1 Centauros to $1.5 million each, to reflect the price of refurbishing them as well as continued support.  Serednya Slaviya needs that support, which is why things cost as much as they do. 

All in all, the leftover budget for vehicles and weapons is $956.3 million, of which I've spent $742.5.  That leaves me $213.8 million to come up with a computer system, which should be workable.  It'll be behind the times, but maybe not so much as I was joking about - per person, I'm spending $38,929.35 on information infrastructure.  That's more than enough for a laptop for everyone and network servers to connect everything.  Dialup is still the most common form of internet for Serednya Slaviya, though with that much cash per person I suppose broadband is making inroads across the nation.

Plans for 2024 give me $136.53 million in procurement after annual expenses, while holding military spending at 2.5% GDP.  That's enough to modernize my fire support elements with new Korean SPGs and MLRSs, as well as add in a handful of Patria AMVs with NEMO turrets to replace the Nona-SVKs.  After that, I suppose replacing the rest of the BTR-80s with Pandur IIs is the priority.  After that the plan is to raise a third support battalion group by 2030.  That way I can support NATO partners, and maybe once that's finished I'll start on a second CBG.

Related because Bradleys, an interview with the Bradley crew that bagged a T-90.

[Daryk]

Starlink will be HUGE for you!