Menghean Navy

Menghean Navy
대멩 해군 / 大孟海軍 Dae Meng Haegun
File:Soodean Naval Flag.png Naval Flag of the Menghean Navy
Founded	1898
Current form	1988
Service branches	Maritime Border Forces Marine Infantry Naval Aviation
Headquarters	Sunju
Leadership
Supreme Marshal of Menghe	Choe Sŭng-min
High Admiral	Yi Han-bin
Personnel
Active personnel	250,000 (est.)
Expenditure
Budget	$297 billion
Percent of GDP	2.1%

The Menghean Navy (Menghean: 대멩 해군 / 大孟海軍, Dae Meng Haegun) is the Naval Military arm of the Socialist Republic of Menghe. It was originally established in 1898 with the formation of the Federal Republic of Menghe.

History

Menghean People's Navy

The immediate precursor of today's Menghean Navy was the Menghean People's Navy, officially established in 1964 at the end of the Menghean War of Liberation. At that time, Menghe faced pressing naval threats on all coastal frontiers: Vuortakane, the Organized States, and New Oyashima all opposed its expansion, and the Federation of Socialist Republics, its main ally, was too far away to provide naval assistance. In this context, naval planners in the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe sought to rapidly build up a strong short-ranged naval force, capable of holding back foreign fleets or at least buying enough time for ground troops to organize.

While high in ambition, the Menghean People's Navy was also low on talent. Its naval architecture industry, on par with the world standard in the 1930s and 1940s, had stagnated during the late 1940s through the early 1960s. Early fleet expansion efforts focused on gun-armed destroyers and destroyer escorts, arguably a pragmatic choice given Menghe's infant radar industry but ultimately a poor one.

In 1972, General-Secretary Shim ordered a major reorganization of the Menghean People's Navy, laying off veteran designers from the 1940s and appointing technical staff trained in the FSR. This marked Menghe's belated transition toward a fleet built around warships with anti-air and anti-ship missiles. In 1975, Menghe even began work on the first of two conventionally powered aircraft carriers, and in 1981 it was laying down destroyers roughly on par with surface combatants in the FSR.

For all these advances, however, the MPN still lagged numerically and technologically behind the naval forces of New Oyashima and the OSC. Naval High Command's embrace of a "decisive battle" technique based on direct surface attacks against carrier battle groups was optimistic at best, and suicidal at worst. Even with the support of nuclear-tipped anti-ship missiles and coastal aviation, the Menghean Navy remained in a difficult position.

Structure

In addition to its combat surface forces, the Menghean Navy contains three specialized sub-arms: Naval Aviation, the Marine Infantry, and the Maritime Patrol Forces.

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Naval Aviation

EDIT AND CONDENSE Ever since the commissioning of the first Menghe seaplane tender in 1918, the Imperial Soodean Navy has operated its own aviation forces. These are divided into Shipborne Aviation and Coastal Aviation. Shipborne aviation consists of assets directly based from ships at sea, such as the helicopters carried in warships' hangars and the aircraft that make up carrier air wings. Coastal aviation, meanwhile, refers to aircraft operating from Navy air bases on the shore. As of 2015, Soodean Coastal Aviation operates over 1,000 aircraft of all types. These include not only maritime patrol aircraft, but also maritime strike bombers, attack planes, air-superiority fighters, and, since 2014, attack helicopters. It is intended to pursue full-spectrum operations, including maritime and aerial reconnaissance, strikes on enemy port infrastructure, anti-ship missile attacks on enemy warships, escort flights for its own attack aircraft and warships, and defense against enemy bombers or attack aircraft bound for the mainland.

Originally, Coastal Aviation functioned operationally and administratively as a separate branch within the Imperial Soodean Navy and its predecessors. The various land-based Wings and Aviation Regiments were pooled under the control of the "Admiral of Land-Based Aviation." During the 2004 reforms, however, Coastal Aviation was broken up and placed under the direct control of the three fleets and one flotilla. Each Fleet now contains its own Coastal Aviation assets, and is responsible for all aerial missions within its sector. This change was intended to facilitate cooperation between sea and land-based forces, making it easier for Admirals to coordinate aerial strikes with sea-based ones.

Marine Infantry

EDIT AND CONDENSE

File:Class 3 Mechanized Marine Battalion.png

A Mechanized Marine Infantry Battalion, the backbone of the Marine Infantry's brigades. As of 2016, all active Marine Infantry Brigades have been upgraded to this equipment standard.

The Soodean Marine Infantry (Sudeyanri Marin Peitai) are an arm of service that has historically been passed between Army control, Navy control, and independent status. Since 2005, it has been a semi-independent arm of the Navy; it has its own Marshal at the administrative level, and uses Army ranks and doctrine, but its units are operationally controlled by the Navy. Marine Infantry soldiers can be distinguished from their Army counterparts by their uniforms, which follow a different camouflage pattern, and their shoulder insignia, which use the same rank markings but on a dark green background rather than a dark red one. They generally receive better training than their Army counterparts, and have a higher ratio of volunteers to conscripts than the Army average. They are also among the first units to receive new equipment, often in a -MP (Marin Peitai) variant modified to suit their needs.

Current active forces consist of six Marine Infantry Brigades. Three are under the control of the First Fleet, and are operationally assigned to Amphibious Assault Battlegroups that include long-range LPDs and LSDs capable of transporting the entire Brigade over a long distance to strike objectives in the enemy's strategic depth. The remaining three Marine Infantry Brigades are under the control of the First Flotilla, and would make shorter-distance landings with smaller units in smaller landing craft. There is also a seventh brigade, the Marine Tank Brigade, which is also stationed in the First Fleet but which would need to transfer to another unit's Amphibious Assault Battlegroup or be transported to a secure port by converted cargo ships. The organization of Marine Brigades is based on that of Army Regiments, but has been steadily adapted to meet the Marine Infantry's needs, including a high level of amphibious capability and greater small-unit autonomy. The Marine Infantry, along with the Air Assault Infantry, are the only two sub-branches of the Soodean military to be administered through a Brigade rather than a Divisional system.

Maritime Patrol Forces

EDIT The Maritime Patrol Forces (often abbreviated MaGyoTai) function as the coast guard of the Soodean Imperium. Its main missions consist of search and rescue and maritime law enforcement. The latter includes regular patrols of key fisheries and mineral deposits in the Soodean exclusive economic zone, as well as anti-smuggling operations around Soodean {{wp|Territorial_waters|territorial waters)). Even before the Soodean Imperium's establishment, smuggling along the borders with Erusuia and Innominada has been common, with the Soodean government identifying drugs and firearms as the most threatening goods. Like the ISN, the Maritime Patrol Forces operate their own helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, which are mainly intended for search and rescue but have also been used to patrol for intruders across large stretches of ocean in the EEZ.

Unlike coast guard forces in many other nations, the Soodean MaGyoTai are a paramilitary organization, and are administratively under the control of the Navy. Many of their warships carry military-grade weapon systems, usually in the form of 30mm CIWS and light surface-to-air missiles but sometimes including guns of up to 76mm caliber. In times of war, the Navy could mobilize the Maritime Patrol Forces as a reserve force, with their armed warships serving as low-grade escorts for supply ships or troop transports. In the period after the collapse of the Innominadan government but before the Soodean invasion of Innominada, the Maritime Border Forces were also deployed in armed counter-piracy operations off the Innominadan coast, where they demonstrated their usefulness in light combat.

Fleets

EDIT AND ELABORATE Since the last reorganization in 2008, the Imperial Soodean Navy's warships have been divided into three fleets and one flotilla. The First Fleet was originally headquartered in the city of Fai, from which it patrolled the southwest approach to the country. In October 2015 its headquarters were formally relocated to the city of San Vicente on the southwest coast of the Republic of Innominada, and its patrol area was expanded to include the eastern areas of the Helian Ocean. On the opposite side of the country, the Third Fleet is responsible for a broad swath of ocean running from the south coast of Erusuia to the north coast of Xiangshu. Because this patrol area is adjacent to the allied country of New Oyashima, the Third Fleet is the weakest and least modern of the ISN's three major fleets. The Second Fleet is still headquartered in Changzha, which also serves as the headquarters of the ISN. It is mainly intended to serve as a reserve force for the First or Third fleets, but could also be deployed against Xiangshu if the latter attempts to aid Maverica in a Soodean-Maverican war. The First Flotilla, established in 2004, is a collection of smaller craft originally organized to fight along the coast of the Republic of Innominada in the event of a Soodean-Innominadan war. In 2015, after victory in the Soodean-Innominadan war, it was relocated to Las Playas on the west coast of the Republica Innominada.

Prior to the 2004 reforms within the Navy, the ISN also contained a Fourth Fleet and a Fifth Fleet. These were merged into the First and Second Fleets, respectively, and many of their older warships were decommissioned. The Second Flotilla, formed in 1985 to defend the northeastern coast against instability in Erusuia, was disbanded in 2007 and its component warships were transferred to the First Flotilla.

Equipment

Ships and submarines

Main article: List of active Menghean Navy ships

Aircraft carriers: 6

• Sibiwŏl Hyŏgmyŏng class: 2
• Dolsando-class: 4

Cruisers: 9

• Chungsŏng-class: 8
• Chŏnro-Dong class: 1

Destroyers: 29

• Wihae-class: 14
• Haeju-class: 10
• Insŏng-class: 5

Frigates: 52

• Dandohan-class: 12
• Yŏngbok-class: 22
• Jŏngdŏk-class: 11
• Yŏngtae-class: 7

Corvettes: 91

• Kim Sam-sun class: 16
• Kim Chŏl-jin class: 22
• Cha Ryong-dŏk class: 24
• Ri Sun-hŭi class: 29

Submarines: 56

• Bbarŭn-class: 24
• Gyohwalhan-class: 8
• Sesimhan-class: 8
• Daedamhan-class: 16

Other

• Rogang-class landing platform dock: 4