Conference for Amity and Cooperation

From TEPwiki, Urth's Encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Conference for Amity and Cooperation
  • Corric: Conferencia de Amistad y Cooperación
  • Cryrian: Konferens för Vänskap och Samarbete
  • Regic: Konferencia a barátságért és az együttműködésért
Map of the CAC (2022)
AbbreviationCAC
Motto<Something Witty>
Predecessor<Maybe?>
FormationA Date
Founded atSomewhere?
TypeInternational organisation
HeadquartersVarenica
Region
Novaris
Membership
Cryria
Antora
Älemsi Negdel
Kelamí League
Mexregiona
Varentine League
Official language
Corric
Cryrian
Regic
E’lixsienk

The Conference for Amity and Cooperation, or CAC, is an international organization consisting of Älemsi Negdel, Antora, Cryria, the Kelamí League, Mexregiona, and the Varentine League. The group incorporates a wide variety of cooperative agreements and endeavors in the economic, scientific, intelligence, and military fields. The CAC is considered a sub-organization of the League of Novaris.

Some of the projects the CAC has undertaken include joint warship development and a range of Rotantic programs. Other areas of cooperation encompass expanding free trade provisions, space-based infrastructure, scientific research, and the development of trans-Novaran trade routes through the Rotantic.

Historical Background

Initiatives

Rotantic Heritage Shelter Program

The Rotantic Heritage Shelter Program encompasses two separate facilities located in the northern Älemsi steppes - The Global Biological Archive and the Global Cultural Archive respectively. These two centers are sited in the vast Älemsi interior due to the island's geological and climatological predictability, as well as its remoteness from potential conflict zones.

Global Biological Archive

The Global Biodiversity Archive surface installation and elevator in 2022

The Global Biological Archive is a secure facility intended to house the world's crop diversity in order to protect the world's food supply in the event that natural disaster or mismanagement otherwise leads to the loss of particular species. This concept dates back to the height of the Novaran Cold War, when it was feared that a general nuclear exchange could result in severe short- and medium-term environmental changes which, alongside the destruction of conventional genebanks, would drive some crop species to extinction.

The Archive provides long-term storage for duplicates of seeds developed and grown around the world at no cost to the depositors, and its ultimate mission is to serve as a final backup source for agricultural biodiversity. The project is jointly funded and supported by the governments of the CAC nations but is managed by a separate nonprofit, the BioArchive Institute. This is to ensure the operation of the Archive remains isolated from political issues. The facility itself consists of a small surface installation and freight elevator that services four hardened vaults 200 meters below the permafrost. It is built on land donated by the Burim Autonomy of Älemsi Negdel.

The Archive essentially functions like a bank vault where participating donors can deposit seeds at the secure site while still retaining ultimate ownership over them, along with the right to withdraw their deposit in times of need. Any entity may make deposits, though the Cryrian government has reportedly prosecuted a handful of individuals for making "Highly inappropriate contributions." No further details on these cases were made available by the Ministry of Justice, and the defendants did not elect to make their trials public.

Seeds are stored in specialized packages and kept at low temperatures with regulated oxygen levels in order to maximize their lifespan. The site further benefits from its location as the cold climate surrounding the facility will help maintain the necessary temperatures should the Archive's power fail. Donors can choose to transport their seeds directly to the Archive via two special Royal Antoran Merchant Marine Vessels - the ACRC Bona Amanecer and ACRC Bona Anochecer - fitted with refrigeration units and helicopters.

Global Cultural Archive

The Global Cultural Archive facility in 2021

The Global Cultural Archive is the sister facility to the Biological Archive. Located several dozen miles away in the Altan Autonomy, the Archive provides storage for cultural information, artifacts, and other data. It is intended to serve as a neutral repository for information of special heritage or purpose such as the founding documents of nations and the source code for important computer programs. The Cultural Archive was created as a result of the constant low-scale conflicts across Urth which provide opportunities for important cultural heritage to be damaged or lost. As with the Biological Archive, the Cultural Archive was also designed to be disaster-proof and viable for long-term storage in case of global catastrophe.

The Archive supplies governments, corporations, and other non-governmental organizations with storage space for documents, audio and video recordings, photographs, and computer data for a nominal operation fee. In contrast to the Biological Archive, the potential sensitivity of the Cultural Archive contents has required additional security measures and safeguards. The InfoArchive Institute operates the site itself, which receives funding and material support from the CAC. Reachable only by helicopter, the Archive facilities include an aboveground building with a deposit/withdrawal office, a viewing area, and living quarters for staff. Buried in the mountainside are three self-contained storage centers: one for photographs, one for text documents, and one for computer data. All three possess a digital backup system and are hardened against electromagnetic interference.

All information donated to the Archive undergoes an initial digital backup, and in the case of physical records are copied onto microfilm for ease of storage. The Archive intends for additional updates and backups of stored information to happen at least once every five years. Current deposits include copies of the First and Second Corric Constitutions, transcriptions of several hundred tablets from pre-First Kingdom Mexregiona, over 2,700 hours of music, and portions of the Urth-wide Utility network.

Nordörn

Nordörn (Cryrian: Northern Eagle) is a joint military training, development, and demontration program between CAC nations. With a focus on researching modern defense technologies and tactics between interoperable militaries, Nordörn is hosted in the early spring of even-numbered years. The exercises cover land, sea, and air warfare and usually simulate a scenario to assist with operations planning and realism. The first Nordörn was held in 2000 as an inaugural exercise for what CAC leadership termed "The Century of Advanced Warfare." The Nordörn exercises are often used by participating nations to showcase and field test prototypes, such as the debut of the Kelamí League's Unmanned Combat Agent program. Nordörn 2022 is the largest exercise in the history of the CAC, with over 22,000 participating personnel, several hundred armored vehicles, and more than 40 warships.

Cooperative Warship Development Program

The final Amity class ship prototype, the XV Progress.

The Cooperative Warship Development Program is the CAC's longest-running military hardware initiative. It was conceived in 1998 as a research & development agreement to create a low-cost, adaptable, and modern vessel for defense and patrol. Special attention was paid to the operational independence of the design, as well as the ability to be used as an icebreaker in the cold Rotantic Ocean. Each CAC nation contributed areas of expertise: Corric gunnery, tactical, and propulsion systems, Cryrian Skeldar V-200 reconnaissance drones, Mexregionan radar systems, countermeasures, and raw materials, Kela'mué electronics and climate controls, AND OTHER COUNTRIES ADDED THINGS LATER. The Program was an independent organization from the CAC governments and militaries, using privately-owned facilities and resources. They cooperated with the various private shipbuilding companies in CAC territory to facilitate testing. Trials for prospective designs took place mostly in the Pacific and Rotantic oceans. After fifteen years of design, manufacturing, and testing, the Program was declared a success in 2013. In honor of completing the first defense collaboration in CAC history, the designers chose to christen the final design the Amity class offshore patrol vessel.

Amity class ships are large for patrol craft, owning to being designed as multirole, long-range warships capable of adapting to evolving defense requirements. At 90 meters long and grossing over 2,200 tonnes, the class rivals some CAC frigates in size. Their twin gas-turbine/diesel hybrid engines can sustain a cruising speed of 15 knots for 6,000 nautical miles, with a top speed of 28 knots. The Amity class can be used as a territorial and trade patrol vessel with its 21-day endurance rating or as a pursuit or response vessel thanks to their high speed. They are armed with a 76 mm cannon and two 30 mm autocannons and are fitted for but not with missile launchers, depth charges, and torpedos.

The Amity class has a wide complement of utility capabilities: they carry two RHIB boats as well as a single larger launch for expeditionary, search & rescue, and transport operations. The ships are equipped with two crane arms for operating remote-control submersibles and dive bells and have decompression chambers on-board. Though the class does not have aviation facilities, these cranes can be modified to tend seaplanes. Additional features include power-saving programs, bow maneuvering thrusters, and dynamic GPS systems. Space has been provided on the hulls to add on UAV launching capabilities, more advanced sensors, and CIWS.

The most important ability the class possesses is icebreaking. Patrol of the seas around Älemsi Negdel and Mexregiona is made difficult by winter ice sheets, so a military vessel capable of operating in these conditions has been a point of major interest for many years. The Amity hull was designed according to the h-v-curve to allow broken ice to submerge under and around the vessel without compromising seakeeping or stability. The bow is stiff and wide below the waterline, while the sides are reinforced with frame bracing and armor plating. To avoid limiting the seakeeping or speed of the class, the designers created a modular bow intended specifically for icebreaking. This armored bow, much wider and smoother than a traditional warships', can be attached in drydock with half a day's work. This has allowed the Amity class to operate in normal water conditions in summer and ice in the winter, greatly improving cost-effectiveness and staying power.

The Amity class is currently in service with the Royal Antoran Armada, operating six ships as replacements for older Garra class patrol vessels. The vessel also serves as the primary patrol craft of the Älemsi navy. The Kingdom of Cryria elected to bring four Amitys into service in 2020 amidst questions regarding the RCRNs ability to conduct EEZ enforcement activities without the deployment of its more militarized assets. Despite this official reasoning, some political analysts have viewed the purchase decision as one made for largely geopolitical reasons and a desire to show support for the CAC by supporting the joint program. The Government decision clashed with published military proposals to produce more domestically built Ivar Hellqvist or Thetis class offshore patrol vessels, purportedly on the basis that the suggested vessels were too overmilitarized for regular enforcement purposes, and that there were already shipyards tooled to produce the Amity class while production lines for the older ships were either occupied or concluded. In Mexregiona, both the Navy and Coast Guard will make use of the Amity class, with the latter pledging to replace its entire fleet of 4 icebreakers by 2035. As of 2022, the Mexregionan Navy had accepted delivery of one Amity class vessel with one remaining on order, while the Coast Guard has taken delivery of one out of its four ordered. The Kelamí Coastal Patrol Force operates three Amity class as fully-militarized vessels to supplement their Rotantic patrol and support ships. AND HOPEFULLY OTHER NATIONS.