Shipbucket

PRISM Abp Foreclosure Task Force


PRISM Abp/Cerbère S.A. foreclosure task force (notional). Comprising six amphibious auxiliaries, a CVS equivalent, two destroyer divisions, and two stores ships, Cerbère S.A. maintains two such task forces on the northern and southern regions of the Sajaric Canal.

In the aftermath of the Alarian War, the dismantling of the Frisian Empire was given limited attention by the World Bank's members due to the chaos. Disruptions of MEO GNSS and the near total collapse of LEO industries in the face of the regional war had rendered international trade and travel almost impossible. A handful of countries, notably Gallia and the Union of Socialist Republics (UZR), had prepared for this implicitly and were able to use pre-positioned and still maintained radio-navigation systems to sustain some level trans-continental travel. The Sajaric Canal, closed due to major offensive minelaying operations by the Royal Navy and Army of Aten to deny Frisian submarines a "back door" to attack the Gallic Far East, had not been used by any trade ships since 2050, was seen as a primary target for re-opening.

The Frisian Canal, the other global canal, was operated intensively as a military lifeline during the war, allowing Federal troops from Oumei to cross safely into the Alarian Ocean. With the capture of the canal, a JV between the Royal Bank of Gallia and two investment banks from Oumeiguo, with the majority stake held by the Riksbank, was built. The Isthmus Canal Concern (ICC), although initially done on loan, is now backed primarily by the former gold bullion once held by the Frisian Canal Company. This bullion had been liberated from Frjentsjer by the 14th Army's 77th Infantry Division (Replacement), evacuated on several trains to continental Gallia and then ferried to the metropole, as a primary objective of Operation BULLDOZER. Using this money, and loans provided by Oumeiguo, manufacturing of "interim" alternatives to GNSS, such as hyperbolic radio navigation systems using polonium or caesium atomic clocks, had rapidly filled in the need for new trans-continental navigation systems.

By the late 2050's, nearly a decade after the end of the war, the world had begun to recover. International shipping picked up again, especially around the Sajaric Canal, which had been reopened following an intensive mine sweeping operation by private groups. Much of this activity was also supported by grants from the World Bank, as part of the Global Reconstruction Fund, although the GRF predominantly sought to alleviate food shortages rather than infrastructure concerns per se.

One of groups was a collective of capital management funds, including hedge funds, life insurance firms, and derivatives traders, which organized around the name PRISM. Initially standing for "Provisional Reconstruction Initiative for the Sajaric Mainland", in the style of the times, it successfully bid for a contract to maintain the Sajaric Canal for business.

With the two firms now handling the bulk of global trade, and both under Gallic control, the steady income stream allowed the Gallic government to stabilize itself. Reconstruction of naval yards and several major investments in factories for local manufacture of UZR, Oumei, and domestic goods (primarily heavy industry, machine tools, and automobiles respectively) allowed the Royal Navy to plan out the next 30 years of shipbuilding by 2067, with a move towards high speed, medium size (10-25,000 ton) surface naval ships (>35 kts), "dual-use" merchant/maritime auxiliaries, and submarine forces, which left little in the way for construction of new large vessels such as aircraft carriers and amphibious ships.

An order for such smaller vessels, for purposes of export, was made by the Memleket of Zazastan and paid for ahead of time in 2068. After his deposition by a UZR-backed Socialist coup in 2071, the ships were left in varying states of construction, albeit without a recipient. Initially the Supreme High Command's assumption was that the ships would replace the various down-scaled maritime squadrons of the Far East Theater, giving the Celestial and Wajin Marine Regiments their intra-theater assault capability, and the Far East Theater Commander the ability to perform his anti-piracy mandate.

A counter-offer was made by PRISM to the Treasury, now trading as Cerbère Canal Concern S.A. in deliberate imitation of the ICC, to take the ships instead and use them to fulfill the OHK's requirement for a third Marine Commando. 3d Cdo Division had been destroyed in the opening stages of the Alarian War, when the Admiralty Yards received several megatons of nuclear cruise missiles, and took a substantial portion of the RN's sealift capability with it. This resulted in a loss of the "two up-two back" thinking of the Royal Marine Commandos, which military historians believe may have hastened the end of the war by between four to six months, as it would have allowed the OHK to seize both canals simultaneously instead of sequentially.

The nearly 30 ship order, as well as attending helicopter wing, air refueling squadron, maritime reconnaissance squadron, and tactical strike fighter wing ordered by the ex-King of the Zazas, was subsequently transferred to PRISM Abp as they became available. Arguments in favor were that the design of the ships, already tropicalized, would have little difficulty operating in the Aten and Frisian Sea, and that PRISM's security detachments were composed of prior service RM Commandos anyway. Enlistment records would remain unchanged after moving from public to private employment, with an attendant increase in salary that brings, and would preclude PRISM from needing to establish an expensive training facility and adding unnecessary redundancy. Finally, the machinery aboard the ships was somewhat orphan, being designed for a foreign nation to their own requirements, and unsuited for operation with the greater battle fleet (>35 kts) due to its merchant equivalent (25 kts maximum) speeds.

After an onerous legal process, a public-private partnership QUANGO was established in 2071, taking on the ticker symbol of Cerbère (PRISM) while Cerbère itself adopted CCCMG as its symbol, with the Royal Navy overseeing the operations and H.M. Treasury funding the maintenance of the ships in newly built military dockyards on either end of the Sajaric Canal. By 2075, PRISM Abp found itself in control of an aeronaval assault force rivalling most medium size countries, and provided it answered when the government called for a foreclosure on a foreign investment, such as an LNG export terminal or shipping port, or for military action, it was allowed to maintain it essentially free of charge.

The ICC has attempted to stand up a similar force, with limited success, although it has organized a roughly brigade-sized mechanized force, backed by an airmobile "response battalion", and two brigades of light infantry/private security troops. These forces guard its canal zone, while a motor missile boat division, tactical aviation unit, and maritime patrol force protects its waterways from outside incursions.

Various other firms, such as the Sovlegprom's Tchaikovsky Division, Pinnacle Risk Management founded by famed war hero S.D. Plysksen, and the territorial/security battalions of the Sovgazprom and Atom A.B., compete in the same market space although none are as particularly impressive as PRISM, with the possible exception of Tchaikovsky.

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