Project ASTFOR - Astelandic Armed Forces

[Ketchup0434 13]

Only done Army so far, all aviation is included in Air Force, except some cases with naval aircraft, that are assigned to a ship

 

Does the Astorian Armed Forces have a CBRN unit? If so are they attached to the intelligence or medical battalions? Just from curiosity. Love the depth of this!

[slatts 1978]

Not to speak for John but CBRN is usually attached to the Engineers Corps AFAIK 

[j0nes 194]

Brave Sir Charge

The artillery were using is the Pzh2000, MLRS, 81mm, and 120mm mortars. A while back we were considering using some kind of static 155mm howitzer, but the more we looked the more we realized that the self propelled guns were definitely making static guns obsolete. We still have some static mortars but nothing static bigger than that

 

as far as the CRBN, theyre more or less grouped with the EOD battalion. most of the soldiers have all of that hazard training and equipment

Edited March 28, 2016 by j0nes

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Not to speak for John but CBRN is usually attached to the Engineers Corps AFAIK 

Yeah makes sense. Though looking at our chart, I've just noticed a pattern of us having a bit of a "battalion" fetish going on. Not sure if that's right or not, lol. 

[slatts 1978]

Perhaps change EOD, support/medical, loggy etc. from Battalion size to company, or perhaps renamed Corps. Battalions can be several 100 troops. Particularly EOD wouldn't be that big :p  

[war_lord 934]

Yeah, a 400 man minimum EOD department seems a bit... Excessive. At least for a country with a small active military and no domestic terror threat. 

[Brave Sir Charge 122]

@J0nes, Sounds good to have something else then the M109A6(?) and 2S3.

[wildcatbridge 377]

Not to speak for John but CBRN is usually attached to the Engineers Corps AFAIK 

In Britain the role is covered by our armored regiments, so that could make things a bit easier on organisation.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Perhaps change EOD, support/medical, loggy etc. from Battalion size to company, or perhaps renamed Corps. Battalions can be several 100 troops. Particularly EOD wouldn't be that big :P

Well, we never said we were very good handling EOD tasks. I suppose we need the extra people, apparently.  :P

[wildcatbridge 377]

Well, we never said we were very good handling EOD tasks. I suppose we need the extra people, apparently.  :P

you could grab those extra people from the Ammunition technicians in your logistics corps. Those guys are pretty much the same as EOD but with some differences (i don't know what but i'm sure someone will point it out) make some kind of combined arms unit from engineers and logistics for dealing with the disposal of explosives.

 

Edit: having said that though guys, you are creating your own armed forces from scratch. Like different traditions and policies are the reasons why each countries armed forces are all slightly different. Like genuinely if you had the right backstory you could have bomb disposal in your air force. In fact our air force medics are pretty highly trained with explosives because they have to be able to disarm all weapons on and around the patient, that includes his sidearm and the explosive bolts on the ejector seats, and i also think it extends to ordinance on the plane. So with military jets carrying bombs on the regular, you could have EOD formed from specialist ground crewmen. I know someone will probably have a problem with this but meh, its your own country, your own armed forces, do what you want. 

[slatts 1978]

Given my only knowledge of EOD comes from the Irish mil. I know that EOD can be a some what broad term. Here both the Ordnance Corps which contains the EOD unit, and the Engineers Corps are trained in what can be justified as EOD. However the difference is that the Ord. Corp EOD deal with civilian threats, criminal acts, HAZMAT etc. in country, abroad it's more mine clearance in PSO and IED threats to troops. While the engineers deal with military mine fields( Flails, miclic etc.) setting up mines etc. 

 

TL DR

EOD: Civilian threats, insurgent threats

Engineers. Military threats 

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Really, really appreciate this kind of feedback fellas. I'm no expert by any means, nor even a layman when it comes to the real of military technicalities. ArmA's been one of those learning opportunities for me to pickup things here and there from reading posts from you guys, so this kind of feedback really helps myself and in turn ASTFOR's development in getting things looking and sounding right and plausible. See originally, I was eying a structure kind of along the lines of Estonia, but felt maybe it would be been a bit too limiting when dealing with Asteland's numbers, but then when we looked at countries like Norway and Denmark, I worried maybe it would have been too large. I know Norway's army structure has quite a few "bataljon's". Argh, it's one of those things as you develop your mod that you realize "Holy crap, this is some serious level work to get everything within the realm of plausibility", lol. Keep that feedback rollin' in!  

[slatts 1978]

Unit sizes don't have to be exact and uniform. Some battalions or larger can have more units within them due to barrack closures, reorganization, unit re/deactivation. No two armies are going to be exactly uniform, though once you don't go toooo big you're golden :p

[j0nes 194]

also to shed some light on the size of the EOD force.
Asteland only has one EOD battalion for the entire country, both at home and abroad. The Home Guard has some troops trained in EOD, but they dont really have combat experience, and they are only EOD personnel as secondary jobs. The troops in the EOD battalion are only EOD and have quite a bit of experience. In Operation Arrowhead, Asteland was mainly in the background, running SAR, SPECOPS, and cleanup after the main operation was over, this included many undetonated mines and IEDs leftover from the offensive. Around 2020, the threat of national terrorists was growing at an alarming rate, and several bombing attempts were foiled by the military and successfully defused by members of the EOD battalion, so the government wanted to beef up its defenses.

[wildcatbridge 377]

if I'm honest I'd say the Defence Force Ireland is something you guys should look into in depth. I get they aren't exactly Nordic, but i mean how they operate and how your backstory is for Asteland they are kinda similar. Slatts your more than welcome to correct me on this cause i'm guessing you were actually in the DFI (especially on if that's actually what they call themselves) As far as i know they're pretty big players on the peace keeping side of things, for example lebanon. They are also quite a good demonstration on a force more geared towards the defense of their homeland rather than offensive operations, although they do have the rangers to give a bit of a punch if they need to. So yeah i'd strongly recommend giving them a gander.

[war_lord 934]

Although do keep in mind that the Defense Forces have historically been mostly geared to helping the Garda Siochana fight the IRA rather then external treats, we haven't really had many of those since the end of WWII.The Astorian armed forces would have always had Russia as a looming threat.

[Ramsey 16]

Well, we never said we were very good handling EOD tasks. I suppose we need the extra people, apparently.  :P

 

With the way you tend to handle EOD tasks.. I'd say you'll need the extra people. :D

 

And a boatload of medics..

[PTV-Jobo 820]

With the way you tend to handle EOD tasks.. I'd say you'll need the extra people. :D

 

And a boatload of medics..

 

 

You know, normally I'd have a snappy comeback but that holds so much truth...I got nothing, lol. Well 'least you can't say I don't keep you medics busy during missions.  :P I still remember Jarhead and me's infamous EOD mission in ArmA 2. Me casually walking up to an IED thinking I was such a badass because I watched Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan a billion times, "It's ok, I got this..." before being fatally blown clear across the other side of the map. I've fared no better to this day. Needless to say, if I'm handling EOD tasks in Asteland, we're in biiiiiiig trouble.  :lol: Well, at least I'll keep road workers super busy patching all those massive craters throughout the country. 

[Ramsey 16]

So.. time for a semi-bomb proof suit? Would be a nice addition and keep your body parts contained inside the suit.. Less cleaning.

[Ketchup0434 13]

Perhaps absorbing EOD duties into the engineering corps battalion with a explosives company and 3 pioneering/construction companies (2 armored) would be an economical solution. In a deployment scenario the armored companies can be broken into platoons and then redistributed into combat teams or battalions while the non armored company and the explosives company can be broken into platoons or smaller squads and then held in reserve to fill in anything that needs to be done. Its does stretch things a bit thin though on a strategic level. CBRN duties can then be done by Military Intel or the Military Police

[j0nes 194]

*END OF WEEK WIP REPORT*

*world building
were happy to have WildcatBridge65 join our team as a military consultant and 'worldbuilder' helping delve into the creation of an Astelandic Military ORBAT. Weve made some major progress in the past few days, and this has become more important than we realized. Creating this ORBAT allows us to objectively decide which vehicles we need to keep, instead of adding or removing them based on sources we found or other countries militaries. We hope to introduce you to the Astelandic Marines Battalion by the end of this week! We were also able to talk to our initial website designer who was unable to continue with the team some time ago, and he has agreed to pass on his vast knowledge to our current team members in the coming weeks. WildcatBridge65 and Doug will be adding information to the website as well as bringing crucial modules online, such as the forums, WIKI, and ORBAT viewer. Doug has also begun to explore our first terrain in the pipeline, locating buildings and planning item placement so that the map will be plug-and-play for the artists when the time comes. Our first island will be rich in history and we hope to fill you in on more details as they become solidified.

 

*art

The AG890k is nearing modeling completion with only the rear sight remaining. A wooden handguard and M203 have been added to the variants of the Galil SAR. After discussion, a variant of the HK417 has been chosen as our Special Forces DMR, and its model has begun production.

*Design

As the ORBAT began to be realized this week we have found that in order to make it work, we had to face our fears and add vehicles and equipment that we wouldnt have dreamed of in the past to our design list. As one of our team members put it "Everything is lore until its in game", a motto which now drives our design process. With our vehicle count nearing 50, not including variants, the list is extremely daunting to the limited number of modelers we have, however, it makes it easier to know that these are the vehicles that the Astelandic military uses NOT the vehicles that are guaranteed to be in game. We will prioritize vehicles with each release to help the player get the most enjoyment out of the ASTFOR mod, and keep the game world balanced. Some notable additions to the vehicle list that WILL be included in the final mod are the G-wagon, Cessna O1G, RQ7 Shadow, Elbit Skylark, PD100 Black Hornet, and more.

*admin

The team made a switch this week in its communications software, and are very happy with the results. It should allow us a much easier workflow and faster transition between voice and text, which will improve productivity in the coming months. 

[teddymosart1 40]

Keep it up!  Really want to see the AS-550 or the Gazelle helo in-game.Would the A-4 Skyhawk be possible for the light strike mission?

[teddymosart1 40]

Skyhawk and the OV-10 Bronco may well fit the bill of Light-Strike Mission,right?  

[R0adki11 3949]

Keep it up!  Really want to see the AS-550 or the Gazelle helo in-game.Would the A-4 Skyhawk be possible for the light strike mission?

 

 

Skyhawk and the OV-10 Bronco may well fit the bill of Light-Strike Mission,right?  

 

Please check the background and ORBAT.

[j0nes 194]

@teddymosart1 the JAS 39 C will be handling light strike missions. Its an extremely capable fighter and ground support aircraft, thats able to take on a variety of roles. The OV10 is definitely one of my all time favorite aircraft, but its too old to be used in modern combat, and it was never used in the region of Asteland. 2 Jets that wouldve been used by Asteland in the same time period as the OV10 and A4 would be the F86 Sabre and the F5 Freedom fighter. but both have been retired and replaced by the JAS39 C/D. Also, the AS550 will be in game, however, the Gazelle will not. The AS550 and AS555 will be the only light helos used by the Astelandic Air Force