Christophum Special Weapons Development (MT, Info Thread)

[Christophum]

Imperium Christophum
Office of the Emperor
Official Diplomatic Message

As the Imperium Christophum enters onto the diplomatic world stage, we are faced with some harsh lessons and home truths. Across the world, the Imperium government sees war, invasion and destruction; countless thousands of lives demolished or enslaved for the purposes of furthering the ruthless leaderships of unscrupulous nations. We see potential carnage arranging itself in Yukata, we see tensions rising around Comaack and we know that examples of destroyed nations lie across the entire world. We will not allow ourselves to become one of these examples. As part of my government's pledge to continue expanding the size, sophistication and capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Imperium Christophum (AFIC), an amendment to the Armed Forces Act was proposed and passed through the Imperium Senate by majority approval. This amendment authorises a government-controlled research, development, construction and deployment program for an unconventional warfare arsenal to cover local, theatre and strategic military situations. We take this step without fear and without sabre-rattling, but with the calm evaluation of international political fact. The Imperium must protect itself from all possible military attacks, and developing an unconventional weapons arsenal is but simply another step towards protecting itself. The program itself will come under the direction of a sub-department of the Ministry of Armed Forces created by the amendment; the Department of Special Weapons Development (DSWD) will control all research, development and construction for any nuclear,radiological, biological, bacteriological, chemical, cyber or other unconventional weapon developed by the Imperium. The precise direction of funding will be controlled by another newly-formed government organ to be known as the Defence Oversight Committee (DOC),comprising the Emperor, the Minister for Armed Forces, the Minister for Economic Affairs, the most senior member of the AFIC before the Commander-in-Chief and the Department Head of the DSWD. The DOC will control the budget of the DSWD and will approve or deny proposals for individual weapons and programs. Each member of the DOC will be held by government secrecy laws and held to charges of treason for any breaking ofsecrecy over the activities of either the DOC or DSWD.

We wish to ally the fears of the international community; we are not warmongerers. We are merely realists.

Sincerely,

His Imperial Majesty James Winters, Emperor of the Imperium Christophum

[Christophum]

Imperium Times
Government announces Head of DSWD

The Imperium government named the new Department Head of the Department for Special Weapons Development to be former soldier-turned civil servant, Christian Marquez.

Former-Colonel Marquez, once an officer in the Anglo-Christophum Defence Force (ACDF) and the first person of Spanish-Christophum descent, commanded the ACDF's small chemical weapons section during the colonial rule of the Imperium by the British. Electing to transfer his commission to the newly formed Armed Forces of the Imperium. According to official sources, Colonel Marquez has been seconded to the Imperium government to overview the DWSD due to his own individual experience with the development of said weapons.

The move has sparked some controversy in government. The Liberal Democratic Party, Greens and Communists criticised the government's move of letting an active officer of the AFI maintain a civilian government post, setting a "dangerous precedent regarding military involvement in civilian governmental agencies," according to a Liberal Democratic Party statement.

[Christophum]

(OOC: Thought I would begin giving people a peek into the Imperium's weapons programme. However, as it says below, this is completely secret information unknown to anyone outside the Imperum government.)


Department of Special Weapons Development
Top Secret - Authorised Personnel Only
Summary of minutes taken from the 1st Budget Meeting of the DSWD and Defence Oversight Committee

In Attendance:
Minister for Armed Forces (MAF) - Acting as Chairman
Minister for Economic Affairs (MEA)
Vice-Chairman Imperium High Command (VCIHC)
DSWD Department Head (DSWD-DH)

Pre-Agenda
- MAF congratulates DSWD-DH on appointment, gives apologies from the Emperor for non-attendance due to diplomatic mission abroad.
- DSWD-DH acknowledges congratulations and expresses wishes for a fruitful relationship between DSWD and DOC.

Item One - Addressing the priorities of the DSWD in weapons development
- Discussion regarding concentration of initial efforts of the DSWD - nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, bacteriological, cyber and what should get priority.
- Discussion on the usefulness of nuclear weapons programme - VCIHC expresses support for development of program.
- MEA disagrees on basis of cost - money better spent at this time on developing conventional forces.
- MAF concurs.
- MAF asks DSWD-DH on own suggestions
- DSWD-DH suggests development of radiological weapons - argues that A) cheaper than nuclear weapons programme, B) more tactically viable as less likely to provoke nuclear response and C) useful as a delaying weapon in rendering territory or infrastructure unusable.
- VCIHC questions safety of such weapons.
- DSWD-DH counters that weapons no less safe than anything else being discussed, and that given proper facilities and safety systems no issues should occur.
- Discussion on chemical weapons program - MAF questions usefulness.
- VCICH expresses doubts on chemical program. Many nations in posession of basic chemical warfare protection systems, renders many products useless. VCICH expresses view that the development of weapons by the DSWD depends on the military doctrine of the Imperium as a whole, as many weapons would be effective in covert or first-strike situations and on civilian populations.
- MAF reaffirms that current Imperium policy is the use of unconventional weapons only in defensive situations.
- VCICH expresses view that therefore chemical and biological weapons largely irrelevent unless able to penetrate through protection suits.
- Cyber warfare - MAF queries tactical advantages
- DSWD-DH expresses view that cyber warfare systems extremely useful; many more armed forces utilising integrated combat information systems on the battlefield, and the ability to disrupt such a system in either an offensive or defensive combat situation would be useful. DSWD-DH also expresses view that cyber warfare attacks on civilian infrastructure would be both useful and viable in a defensive situation where a protracted defensive war could be shortened by attacking enemy production infrastructure.
- VCICH concurs with this view
- MAF puts to vote that priorities for the DSWD at this time are the development of radiological area-denial weapons and cyber warfare capabilities, and proposes setting up a research group within the DSWD to evaluate the overall costs and benefits of developing a nuclear weapons programme at a later date.
- Vote Passes: 4 Yay, 0 Nay, 1 Abstain

Item Two - Budget Proposals
- MAF asks DSWD-DH to put forward proposals on weapons programs as proposed by the DSWD in Item One.
- DSWD-DH puts forward financial proposal as follows - $300m for Radiological Weapons Development, based on a £50m initial capital investment in facilities and a running cost of $250m for research and production facilities for the next five years. DSWD-DH stresses that these capital investments would prove useful in providing infrastructure for a later nuclear weapons program.
- MAF questions how many weapons can be produced in this time under that budget
- DSWD-DH stresses that number is questionable depending on size and yield, but constant funding of development capabilities could provide the Imperium with a sufficient stock of artillery-level and tactical-level munitions to provide an effective area-denial stockpile in event of war. DSWD-DH reaffirmed his understanding that this constant funding would be subject to successful demonstration of the usefulness of radiological warfare.
- Cyber warfare systems - MAF queries as to costs
- DSWD-DH affirms that costs relatively unknown at this time, and proposes setting up a working committee to investigate the overall costs of such a program. Until such time, DSWD-DH requests an initial budget of $100m for initial developments of a cyber warfare capability, subject to a scaling down or scaling up of budget upon the findings of the proposed committee.
- MAF calls for vote.
- Vote Passes: 4 Yay, 0 Nay, 1 Abstain

[Christophum]

Defence Oversight Committee
Top Secret

To: Christian Marquez, Department Head
From: Charles Matthews, Minister for Armed Forces

Christian,

Following your recent submission to the Defence Oversight Committee, we are officially authorising the Department of Special Weapons Development to begin investment in the infrastructure, development and manufacture of Napalm-B for use by the Armed Forces of the Imperium Christophum.

Sincerely,

C. Matthews