Albynia wrote:I'm trying to piece together the navy for my nation, but I'm not really sure where to start, or if someone could point me in the right direction.
Here's a general primer of my nation:
Albynia geographically and in terms of defense spending is roughly equivalent to Greece, however in this instance assume that the equivalents of Italy, Turkey, and a combined Libya/Egypt each have large navies that far outstrip that which Albynia would muster. The Albynian Navy is generally seen as the neglected branch after the Army and Air Force, and defense spending is not really much of a priority of the government, however, given the overall strength of the economy, the amount spent on defense is not inconsequential (around 7-8 billion USD a year). Albynia's main defense is that Albynia is seen as a neutral party between the three powers, and any attempt to infringe or meddle upon Albynia territories is generally opposed by the remaining two nations. However, there are some disputed islands and gas fields to the east in the Aegean that are claimed by various countries.
General question going forward is, as a relatively small nation surrounded by larger nations with much larger navies, is there much a point of maintaining surface combatants such as frigates or destroyers? I can see the the navy maintaining a few for the sake of having a large ship, but at the same time, are a handful of frigates capable of posing a threat to an actual navy? What would they be expected to do in a shooting war against a more numerous opponent? Does anyone have a primer on how modern naval combat works? Would a ship based Sea Sparrow/Aspide system be of any use for providing air defense to a city?
Second question is regarding policing and patrolling. Are these normally the duties of the Coast Guard duties, or can the Navy pull double duty and not have a Coast Guard at all? Could fast attack craft like the Osa-class be capable of performing patrol, police, and search-and-rescue functions while also being capable of participating in a shooting war?
In the event of an actual shooting war, would it practical to rely primarily on fixed wing aircraft equipped with antiship missiles, with submarines and fast attack craft supporting them?
I am thinking of perhaps 2-3 frigates, maybe 10-15 fast attack craft, and 2-3 submarines would work as a budget minded navy. I hope I am at least in the right ballpark. Thanks!
Yes frigates/destroyers make sense even for a small navy. They can serve as a nice convoy guard if nothing else, protecting your merchant marine from enemy submarines.
Coast guard is usually a separate duty, but you can easily have a navy that does coast guard duties, which is another reason to have a couple of big ships around to. It requires that your marine equivalent also have law enforcement and costumes training on top of combat duties, but that isn't to big an issue since they would be a relatively small force that could have high standards. Plus you wouldn't need to really train them at ground combat if you just wanted them to stay on the ship and leave ground combat to the army.
Your ball park sounds about right.
