Join the new world

eAustralia's military has needed a major overhaul for some time. Overseas armies have grown increasingly more efficient and effective, as constant warfare refines strong armies and obliterates badly run forces. We share a border with one of the best led armies in erepublik: eIndonesia's ABERI. eSAfrica's SAAF (Composed of the Pretorian Vangaurd and their elite Paratroopers) is also stronger than our own military due to their constant struggle to survive. eBrazil's Exército Brasileiro has also reached our borders in the past, overrruning eSAfrica during regions swaps with eIndonesia, and is backed by one of the best run economies in erepublik.

ERA's Defence Policy, the SPMM, is a radical overhaul of the eAustralian Military. In short the plan is to have a small elite force backed by numerous self-organised parmilitary groups, with funding of the secondary groups handled by independent contracts.

The DropBears - the Elite Force

The goal here is to have a small, reliable force who can be counted on to move and fight at a moment's notice. Forces like this are essential for our international relations, as they can be deployed to foreign battlefields; can move to assist in Resistance Wars; and are the deciding influence during the last few minutes of a battle.

There are two problems however:

SIZE: The decision to reduce the size of the DropBears will radically cut the cost of the force, but reduces the firepower of the unit nearly as severely. Even the toughest eAussies have Strengths much lower than those available to units overseas; to be as effective on the battlefield, we will need larger units. The final decision on whether an eAussie should belong to this unit needs to be based on their damage and reliability, not be based on an arbitrary quota!

TRANSPARENCY: The fear that this will become a "boy's club" dedicated to its' own self interests has already been raised in the comments. Will this be the case? Unfortunately, even the fear of this can destroy the policy by demoralising the rest of the military. eAustralia is still bleeding from old divisions; this policy would require complete transparency to prevent cries of corruption - but that in turn would allow our enemies access to valuable military information.


THE PRIVATE COMPANIES

This is where the SPMM becomes interesting. Units are to be self-organising, and funded by private contracts awarded on a case by case basis.

This has a lot of potential, as it allows units to be formed around anything that inspires players. Frex, the Communist Party could create a "Red Guard" unit, formed from members of their commune, and equiped with weapons from the commune. Weapons Companies could found their own units, and seek the contract to equip themselves, creating cyberpunk-style megacorps. The Kiwis could create a unit serving in eAus, to push for the addition of NZ to erepublik. Mercenary groups could sign long term contracts with eAustralia, offering protection in return for training weapons and wars.

The advantage of these units is that they keep people involved. A major problem for military forces is the constant attrition caused by players leaving the game. Anything that creates links, friendship, society: encourages players to stay.

HOWEVER:

this scheme will waste damage totals. Friendships, political affiliations, company employment - these are all independent of your strength and military rank. Yet weapons need to be assigned by Strength - Q5s to the biggest tanks, and working down through the military until we run out of Q1s. Any variant from this reduces the damage we can inflict.

This requires swift decision-making: something eAus is notoriously bad at. Having served in similar units overseas, I can assure you that any delay in approval of weapons or other resources is incredibly demoralising, and inevitably results in people abandoning the unit. Each unit approval will be as complicated as our (non-existant) budget - can eAus politicians really be trusted with something this important? Especially as this policy will succeed or fail depending on public enthusiasm?

These units will become lobby groups with vested interests: and most will have powerful political or commercial connections! The potential for corruption is incredible.
Every month, politicians serving in these units will be elected by parties possessing their own military units. Every budget, they will have to decide on contracts offered by their own (or party) companies! Not in and of itself a problem; we want our politicians to support the military! But what about the units based around parties that don't have elected representatives? What about the companies who are just starting out, and don't have the connections or experience to arrange contracts? They will suffer - and so our defenses suffer.

This system doesn't (yet) account for the importance of the other manufacturing industries. Gifts don't increase your damage as much as weapons - but they also increase your productivity and experience totals. Moving Tickets don't increase damage at all - but they can get you to a fight!
Suppose a Moving Ticket company offers to supply a unit composed of its' workers, who can be moved to any battlefield at a moment's notice? How about a Gift company that wants to supply the workers in a Q5 weapons company, so that they not only fight harder, but work harder, providing the weapons needed to win the war?
Can the SPMM cope with these ideas? Well, sort of - with a bit of tweaking. Not difficult to do, but due to the risk of corruption, rules need to be laid down before the system is implemented. (eSAfrica built their military around the idea of Gift based damage back in March, due to their high supply of Gifts, shortage of Weapons and the need to do what they could during the calm before the storm of PEACE attack. We need to talk to them about how well this worked).

Worst of all, this means that units will be operating without control or information from the eAus Govt.

Thes units are independent - that is they can fight when they chose, using their resources when they chose, in the wars that they chose. In earlier, simpler wars, that would have been fine; but modern ewars are subtle games of feint and counterfeint. Suppose this system had been in place before the liberation of WA? Several units would have been overseas fighting in North America. Others would have taken government claims seriously and would have fought GREEN in WA!
The eIndonesians are the finest strategists in this game; they will have no difficulty in out manouvering these units, tricking them into fighting in sidewars so that they are tapped out when the hammerblow falls.

IN CONCLUSION:
The idea of independent companies has potential, a lot of potential - but needs to be tweaked and refined to work. Further, it will need to be backed by an efficient streamlined Senate, clear of any suspicion of incompetence or corruption. Finally, it will need every unit leader to be of proven loyalty and discretion, so that the units can be reigned in when facing a cunning enemy.