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The Pantorran Missile Crisis*this page is still incomplete*
A Soodean Anti-Ballistic Missile Unit test-fires during a training exercise. While most Anti-Air Defense units are equipped with the more advanced BUK-M2 and S-300, the urgency of the crisis led Reserve Units to activate hundreds of older SAM systems as well.
Overview:
The Pantorran Missile Crisis refers to a period of high tensions between the United Kingdom of Pantorrumand the other nations in the Grand Coalition. At its lightest, it was a time of tension and mutual distrust. At its worst, it led to widespread fears that the Soodean Imperium and other nations in the region would come under nuclear attack. While the crisis is largely seen as a negative event that led to widespread instability, many historians note that it also had the effect of bringing the nations in the region closer together.
Origins:
The Pantorran Missile Crisis originated with a violent and chaotic uprising in Pantorrum. The first week alone saw the toppling of the old government, a biological-weapons attack by terrorists, and the sudden rise to power of an absolute monarch, Charles I. Mistaking the monarch for an usurping force, Palafox moved in with an aid fleet to restore stability, but was forced to turn back when King Charles threatened to test a nuclear weapon against them. For a moment, it looked like the region was teetering on the brink of nuclear war.
While this crisis was eventually disarmed, the region remained a dangerous tinderbox, in part due to the more hostile temperament of King Charles' regime. In the next week, a Pantorran proposal to ban nuclear weapons led to confusion and outrage when it was found that only two nations had voted on it. Seeing the revision as a personal insult, King Charles announced that he would instead vastly expand his own reserve of nuclear weapons. The Soodean Imperium responded by cutting off all trade and began considering defensive preparations. The seeds of the standoff had been planted.
Nekheb: the Spark that Started it All:
The true tipping point came some time later, when the Federation of Nekheb decided to leave the Coalition. Seeing this move as a personal insult to his reputation, King Charles reacted by ordering a full-scale invasion of the smaller nation, readying ships, troops, and conventional spread-burst missiles. This unprecedented move led to outrage throughout the region, casting King Charles in a negative light. The Western Missile Defenses were placed on full alert, but due to the large-scale military deployment in Themiclesia's Murderist Insurrection, the Expeditionary Corps and its well-trained troops were not in a position to take offensive action.
BUM-M2 SAM/ABM system on the West Coast. These
advanced systems made up the bulk of the primary
Missile Defense Network.
Before fighting could commence, however, growing threats of retaliation from Nekheb's allies tipped the balance of the situation. The United Republic of Samukan and the Peaceful Republic of the Hackleberry Islands, prominent representatives of Nekheb's new alliance, contacted United Tiberia threatening greater retaliation if Nekheb was not left to be at once. They also contacted the Soodean Imperium directly, beginning friendly relations with the nation. These moves prompted United Tiberia, head of the region, to step in and demand an end to the fighting and a process of de-mobilization.
The Confrontation Continues:
While Pantorrum did withdraw its forces from Nekheb's sea border, it continued testing progressively more advanced weapons, and banned all foreign ships from using its ports. While official propaganda proclaimed that the economy was self-sufficient and prosperous, there was widespread speculation on the outside that the self-imposed embargo was taking its toll. The Imperium of Nationalist Reichland, though remaining officially neutral, pledged its support for the Soodean Imperium, and the regional heads began a serious discussion about finally stripping Pantorrum of its position as Minister of Defense.
King Charles replied with increasingly ferocious and unstable rhetoric, announcing that he would expand his nuclear arsenal. Air quality tests by a Soodean MiG-25RR over the CNA detected elevated levels of radioactive particles, confirming that atmospheric nuclear tests had been performed within the rogue country. Now seriously concerned by the possibility of a ground invasion, the Economic-Production Bureau stepped up the production of tanks and other arms, and commenced a major recruiting effort aimed at increasing the size of the conventional force. Struggling to meet the ambitious production targets, Soodean arms factories began manufacturing vehicles in the base configuration, leaving missile guidance, all-weather optics, and reactive armor to be installed on the field at a later date.
The Spy War:
While conventional forces were being prepared, Soodean High Command began to realize that the lack of credible intelligence was making it difficult to assess the situation. The Charles Regime regularly issued official reports, but the information contained was often deemed improbable and unrealistic, especially with regard to the nation's alleged economic prosperity in the face of trade sanctions from all states in the Coalition. There were also widespread concerns about the possibility that Pantorrum was testing and amassing a substantial nuclear arsenal.
A Tu-95 on recon patrol over the CNA
In response to this lack of information, the Defensive Corps began sending flights of long-range, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft to gather vital information on the status of Pantorran mobilization. While these scouts had been venturing further and further out to sea earlier on in the conflict, they were now regularly making flights near Pantorran territory. In time, photographs of Soodean Tu-95RT recon-bombers would become an enduring symbol of the conflict and the perpetual suspense that accompanied it.
The Defensive Corps' decision to employ long-range recon flights remains a source of controversy in the Soodean Imperium today. While technically legal in that they were charted to remain over international waters or allied land, the missions were nonetheless a visible provocation. Some justify the flights because they gathered vital intelligence on Pantorran ground movements and nuclear tests, while others suggest that they may have played a role in escalating the crisis by posing a credible threat to Pantorran aerial sovereignty.
The Height of the Crisis:
The Pantorran Missile Crisis reached its climax in the months that followed, as King Charles stepped up nuclear tests and announced that Parliament would take definite measures to punish the Soodean Imperium. Panic spread like wildfire across the country, as many interpreted this as an open nuclear threat. All non-essential workplaces were closed down, and the citizens were organized into teams of construction workers to dig bunkers and bomb shelters across the country. The Western Missile Defense System was placed on its highest state of alert, and all across the country people feared that the disastrous events of 1945 to 1948 would be repeated.
These fears fell somewhat when it turned out the threat only concerned a (redundant) ban on trade, but tensions remained high. After Pantorran fighters shot down a Palafoxian airliner and fired on CNA jets, the Soodean Imperium sent a small force of reconnaissance planes and interceptors to the Consolidate Nations Alliance to bolster its defenses. This admittedly risky move set off another series of ground military exercises on the border, with both sides threatening pre-emption. At sea, the same scenes played out, as King Charles accused Palafox of sinking one of its destroyers and claimed to have lost a submarine near Soodean territorial waters. Large Pantorran naval forces were spotted circulating in the Northern Sea near the Soodean Imperium.
Peace, Resolution, and Outcome:
In an effort to end the inevitable escalations, Nationalist Reichland summoned all nations' diplomats to a meeting in their capital, where an eventual truce was worked out. Already, there had been some efforts at negotiation, including one unusual event in which a Pantorran official landed without warning in Szantiago to offer peace - though this negotiation ended in disappointment, as the Soodean representative stated that he would only discuss peace if Palafox was not threatened.
In the end, these negotiations culminated in a decision to eject Pantorrum from the Grand Coalition. As King Charles had threatened every member state at one time or another, the vote was nearly unanimous. Infuriated again, the Mad King traveled abroad with the goal of amassing military aid from old allies, but once the full facts of the crisis came to light, few outside powers were willing to believe their claims. After some time, a final truce was offered by which the two sides would put the crisis behind them and refrain from hostilities against one another. This treaty appears to have succeeded in ending the Pantorran Missile Crisis once and for all.
