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East Africa 1930: An ORBAT Quest

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I would like to include an officer and artillery school at this early juncture, but sorting out the basics is arguably a better base to build on.

Tough call for me.

[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver
 
If we're going for a plan based on foundations of maneuver, can we please somehow squeeze in something about a domestic arms industry? It'll take several years to get it up and running, and people voted to have domestic steel production and heavy industry. We should make use of that instead of being reliant on foreign arms imports, which will be the first thing Italy or Britain cut off in a war.
 
My updated plan based on the more recent talks:


[X]Plan: Lay The Foundation and Get Our Priorities Straight 3.1
-[X] Establish an officer training school with an ROTC program detached to the others few schools in the country
-[X] Establish an artillery school with technical tertiary school specializations (is better to call it an Ordnance school)
-[X] Establish a Council-controlled Information and Analysis Office
-[X] Reform the Carabinieri
-[X] Create a domestic, nationalized arms manufacturing industry

Rationale:

  • We need to put the basis for our military cadre to implement more reforms, it doesn't matter if we have the best equipment and services if our officers and soldiers don't know how to use them best. This will also ease and streamline our modernization process as we have a more military and technologically savvy officer cadre to carry out our reforms. This will save us the issue of removing incompetent officers later when they entrenched themselves in the army bureaucracy, which will take us more time than if we do it now.
  • A broader Artillery & Ordnance school will do similar things, but also expand the ability of the procurement and R&D service of designing and creating new tools. This will help us by handling the testing of our ideas, thus preventing the most costly mistakes. While also having useful employment in the civilian field, mainly infrastructural projects, thus giving us more political support.
  • The annexed schools will also raise literacy and reasoning capabilities among our ranks, increase the capacity of taking the initiative and maintain it. Plus, the morale of the ranks will increase and more people will join the armed forces as they will be able to exit the military with a comprehensive education that will help them in life after the service.
  • We need an espionage service to get a grasp on other military latest developments and at least some information on the units stationed around us.
  • Reforming the carabinieri will get us political support from the President and the Majority.
  • We also need a nationalized arms industry that will help us starting to modernize and will wean us from being reliant on foreign imports.
  • We need to put the basis for our military cadre to implement more reforms, it doesn't matter if we have the best equipment and services if our officers and soldiers don't know how to use them best. This will also ease and streamline our modernization process as we have a more military and technologically savvy officer cadre to carry out our reforms.
  • The annexed schools will also raise literacy and reasoning capabilities among our ranks, increase the capacity of taking the initiative and maintain it. Plus, the morale of the ranks will increase and more people will join the armed forces as they will be able to exit the military with a comprehensive education that will help them in life after the service.
  • A broader Artillery & Ordnance school will do similar things, but also expand the ability of the procurement and R&D service of designing and creating new tools. While also having useful employment in the civilian field, mainly infrastructural projects.
  • We need to get a grasp on other military latest developments and at least some information on the units stationed around us.
  • Instead reforming the carabinieri will get us political support from the President and the Majority
  • As @Potato Anarchy put up, we have to wait to have more political and popular support to desegregate the armed forces.
    • We currently have ethnically segregated units that aren't even permitted their officers. That has to change. (credits to @grimely for the idea)
  • Based on a good argument by @C_Z and @Rat King , a nationalized arms industry will help us starting to modernize and will wean us from being reliant on foreign imports.
  • Doing anything before laying these bases will prejudicate and make more difficult any future development.

[ ]Plan: Lay The Foundation and Get Our Priorities Straight 3.1
[ ] Establish an officer training school
[ ] Establish an artillery school with technical tertiary school specializations (is better to call it an Ordnance school)
[ ] Reform the 1st Regiment into The Guard
[ ] Reform the Carabinieri
[ ] Create a domestic, nationalized arms manufacturing industry

Rationale:
  • We need to put the basis for our military cadre to implement more reforms, it doesn't matter if we have the best equipment and services if our officers and soldiers don't know how to use them best. This will also ease and streamline our modernization process as we have a more military and technologically savvy officer cadre to carry out our reforms.
  • The annexed schools will also raise literacy and reasoning capabilities among our ranks, increase the capacity of taking the initiative and maintain it. Plus, the morale of the ranks will increase and more people will join the armed forces as they will be able to exit the military with a comprehensive education that will help them in life after the service.
  • A broader Artillery & Ordnance school will do similar things, but also expand the ability of the procurement and R&D service of designing and creating new tools. While also having useful employment in the civilian field, mainly infrastructural projects.
  • The monarchists are right about one thing, a parade ground-only unit needs to be reformed. (credits to @grimely for the idea) But, the monarchists will not tolerate calling it the Republican Guard, so better call it "The Guard". This will also get us some political support.
  • Instead reforming the carabinieri will get us political support from the President and the Majority
  • As @Potato Anarchy put up, we have to wait to have more political and popular support to desegregate the armed forces.
    • We currently have ethnically segregated units that aren't even permitted their own officers. That has to change. (credits to @grimely for the idea)
  • Based on a good argument by @C_Z and @Rat King , a nationalized arms industry will help us starting to modernize and will wean us from being reliant on foreign imports.
  • Doing anything before laying these bases will prejudicate and make more difficult any future development.
 
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C_Z said:
If we're going for a plan based on foundations of maneuver, can we please somehow squeeze in something about a domestic arms industry? It'll take several years to get it up and running, and people voted to have domestic steel production and heavy industry. We should make use of that instead of being reliant on foreign arms imports, which will be the first thing Italy or Britain cut off in a war.
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I'm not sure we can make that call, although we can probably suggest it.
 
Rat King said:
I'm not sure we can make that call, although we can probably suggest it.
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C_Z said:
If we're going for a plan based on foundations of maneuver, can we please somehow squeeze in something about a domestic arms industry? It'll take several years to get it up and running, and people voted to have domestic steel production and heavy industry. We should make use of that instead of being reliant on foreign arms imports, which will be the first thing Italy or Britain cut off in a war.
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I adjusted my plan to your advices.
 
I like that plan, let's roll with it.

[X]Plan: Lay The Foundation and Get Our Priorities Straight 3.1
 
Hm. I think a variant plan like this could do that work? The point about domestic manufacturing is well-taken.

As much as I love cartridge standardization, there's a lot of standardization to go so fixing that part while we still have really heterogeneous units limits its full impact. And having domestic, nationalized sources of arms will pull us towards that end anyway. So it seems like the easiest substitution in FfM, leaving the other logistical improvements, the carbinieri reform, and the crucial bureaucratic-learning expansion working as intended.

[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver (Manufacturing Remix)
-[X] Write-in: Develop a nationalized arms industry.
-[X] Establish a Remount Service to supply horses to the Army
-[X] Find a way to improve logistics through horses
-[X] Establish a Council-controlled Information and Analysis Office
-[X] Reform the Carabinieri

[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver
 
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ILSergenteSalv said:
I adjusted my plan to your advices.
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Would you be willing to swap out the "turn the 1st regiment into the guard" with either logistics improvements or a Council-controlled Information and Analysis Office? I don't think having one fancy regiment is going to have significant impact in its effectiveness, and it'll give the military establishment greater political clout at a time where "these are the special-est people in the military (and are almost certainly all Somali)" is an attitude we really don't want to reinforce.

At this point the two plans are pretty convergent, I'm just not a fan of trying to adopt horse-based logistics in an area without pre-existing horses. That's not a smart idea, IMO.
 
@Rat King , are you ok with that?

C_Z said:
Would you be willing to swap out the "turn the 1st regiment into the guard" with either logistics improvements or a Council-controlled Information and Analysis Office? I don't think having one fancy regiment is going to have significant impact in its effectiveness, and it'll give the military establishment greater political clout at a time where "these are the special-est people in the military (and are almost certainly all Somali)" is an attitude we really don't want to reinforce.

At this point the two plans are pretty convergent, I'm just not a fan of trying to adopt horse-based logistics in an area without pre-existing horses. That's not a smart idea, IMO.
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Done. What do you think?
 
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[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver (Manufacturing Remix)

[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver
 
[X]Plan: Lay The Foundation and Get Our Priorities Straight 3.1
[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver (Manufacturing Remix)
 
[x] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver
[x] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver (Manufacturing Remix)
 
[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver
-[X] Choose a single cartridge for the military
-[X] Establish a Remount Service to supply horses to the Army
-[X] Find a way to improve logistics through horses
-[X] Establish a Council-controlled Information and Analysis Office
-[X] Reform the Carabinieri

Listen, we're kind of broke, and horses will still be 'viable,' (read: usable) until WW1, and maybe even the interwar period
 
RookDeSuit said:
[X] Plan: Foundations for Maneuver
-[X] Choose a single cartridge for the military
-[X] Establish a Remount Service to supply horses to the Army
-[X] Find a way to improve logistics through horses
-[X] Establish a Council-controlled Information and Analysis Office
-[X] Reform the Carabinieri

Listen, we're kind of broke, and horses will still be 'viable,' (read: usable) until WW1, and maybe even the interwar period
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This, combined with a comment on discord just now, made me do some digging and I'm concerned that horses may not be viable whatsoever. Somalia may or may not be, but in Kenya, African Horse Sickness is endemic and has a 90% mortality rate in horses. While horse-based logistics work great in Eurasia and North Africa, they could be very vulnerable to local diseases.

Also it's 1930, we're most of the way through the interwar.

Edit: the distribution of C. imicola, the primary vector of AHS, extends right to our southern border:

That's in a modern context, which is more hostile to C. imicola in the region (it's too dry for the flies). I don't know enough about bugs in the region to say how much of a risk we're at if we try to introduce a large population of horses in 1930.
 
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Yikes, I did not know that, and wow, our efforts to move away from Oxen have taken a shoot to the foot. We don't have the tech or industry to go motorized, and the region has an ongoing crisis. Should we use Camels? The western portion is arid no?
 
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