Styrke 2025

Styrke 2025 (Acrean Nordic: Force 2025) is a modernisation and reform program of the Acrean Armed Forces to optimise, change, and modernise in order to meet its anticipated operational requirements for the 2020s and beyond, which began in 2016 and is scheduled to be completed by 2025. The program was first conceptualised in 2011, in the aftermath of the Zemplen War. The conflict was Acrea's first expeditionary war in over two decades, and presented both a substantial challenge and vital learning experience. Following the war, Acrean military planners noted the emergence of new technologies first fielded during the war, such as 5th-generation stealth aircraft, cyber-warfare, and large-scale drone use, as well as the scale of attrition in a high-intensity, near total-war scenario. The program's main impetus was the Midsummer War in 2015, which reinforced lessons learned in Ruvelka and led to implementation of the program beginning in 2016.

Styrke 2025 focuses on four areas: funding, personnel development, modernisation, and doctrine.

Funding

In order to meet Styrke 2025's objectives, then-Minister of Defence Jürgen von Edel advocated for a gradual increase of military spending at a rate of .1% per year, which would cap at 5% by 2023 to be maintained until 2025.

Personnel

RAMC recruits complete a loaded march during their last leg of basic training.

Army infantry during a field exercise.

The intended total active-duty strength of the Acrean Armed Forces was reduced from 2015 in order to reflect new recruitment constraints necessitated by increased compensation as well as increased mental and physical standards. The maximimum active duty strength from the 2021 reforms for each branch is: 435,000 for the Army, 165,000 for the RAMC, 325,000 for the RAAF, and 300,000 for the Navy. As of 2022, the Acrean military is just below these numbers and reported Riksdag that it is slightly understrength to a degree not impacting overall readiness.

An Army cyberwarfare specialist.

A new set of physical fitness tests and standards, called Markstyrkor Stridskonditionstest 2020 or MSKT 2020, for the Army and RAMC were developed beginning in 2016 and first rolled out to the entire force in 2018. The new standards were designed to be conceptually different than previous tests, focusing on activities which reflect real-world combat scenarios based on the Army and RAMC's experiences in the Zemplen and Midsummer Wars. MSKT 2020 standards for the Army and RAMC are slightly different, with RAMC minimum standards being higher. Feedback from the new tests and standards during its first two years from 2018 and 2019 showed the desired result of a notable increase in readiness and physical capability among combat troops, but also came with the challenge of the standards being too demanding for non-combat and reserve troops. To address this, tiered standards based on occupational specialty were introduced in 2020, the same year the standards were finalised.

Both the RAAF and Navy introduced increased standards for demanding combat roles, most notably for combat aviators for whom pay was increased significantly. The shift towards integrated networking and 5th generation tactical combat aircraft saw a shift in the screening and selection for Acrean military aviators going into fighter aviation, which has been described as a shift in focus towards "thinking over flying". The RAAF also began to outsource non-critical administrative and support roles to civilian personnel, and increased its force of aircraft maintainers and other combat-critical support personnel. All branches of the military substantially increased their recruitment of cybersecurity personnel.

Technology

A CVU-2 UGV fires a SAT-2 PSVS anti-tank missile on a range, 2022.

The development and fielding of new technology has been the most substantial and budgetarily intensive part of Styrke 2025. Acrean ground forces have become more mechanised, with the conversion of one marine division to a mechanised heavy marine division in the RAMC, and of 3 infantry divisions to mechanised divisions in the Army. The Integrated Battlefield Awareness System began to be fielded en masse in combat vehicles and aircraft in 2020, with the accompanying infantry VISR system following suit for Army infantry starting in 2022. Older vehicles are being supplemented and replaced by new ground combat systems such as the Strv 126 main battle tank and CVU-2 unmanned ground combat vehicle.

Two EF-650 Strigas fly alongside a B-71 Banshee.

The RAAF has implemented some of the most radical modernisation objectives of any branch, with the stated goal of converting to a wholly-5th generation and stealth combat air fleet by 2025, with the introduction of the EF-650 Striga in 2017 and the updated EF-662C Vampyr in 2020. The change has been met with substantial resistance, as the new force requirements mean a substantially smaller combat air fleet compared to the size of the fleet during the Zemplen and Midsummer Wars: the new fighter force would be composed of less than 1,300 aircraft, compared to nearly 1,600 in 2015 and nearly 1,800 in 2010. The RAAF has countered critcism by pointing to heavily lopsided kill/loss ratios of 121:1 for the EF-662 and 72:1 for the EF-650 in large-scale exercises with both other Acrean and allied Ossorian, Shalumite, and Ruvelkan 4th and 4.5 generation fighters, and vastly improved survivability meaning more efficient and effective strike operations. With current full rate production of the EF-650, the RAAF is behind schedule to meet this goal as MDA also fulfills large-scale orders of two variants of the aircraft for the Royal Ossorian Navy, and anticipated orders from the Ruvelkan Imperial Air Force after statements of intent from the Ruvelkan government to pursue procurement of the aircraft. The B-71 Banshee entered service in 2021, with 72 slated to be produced to supplement an existing 34 B-61 Wraiths as the RAAF seeks to field a 100-strong bomber fleet by 2030.

The Navy has not adopted the same procurement decisions for its combat aviation fleet, instead opting to replace up to a third of its fleet with the carrier-based variant EF-650. Instead, the Navy has continued its partnership and procurement cycle with the RON and is supporting the development and construction of a new class of aircraft carrier for both navies.

Doctrine

The procurement and fielding of new weapons systems has largely been the product of new requirements identified by the refinement of Acrean doctrine. Lessons from the Zemplen and Midsummer Wars led to Acrean strategic planners increasing the weight of Acrean formations, reflected in the increase in mechanised units in the years since. The centre of Acrean operational formations remains a combined arms force of armoured and mechanised units, with combat aviation in the form of helicopters provide direct close air support. The number and weight of both regimental and divisional artillery units was increased, with the addition of more 155mm self-propelled artillery vehicles and self-propelled rocket artillery.

Based on operations during the Midsummer War, Acrean doctrine was altered to focus on what the Acrean Defence Staff called "paralysing warfare", centered on focused strikes and maneuver planned using effects-based targeting and conducted rapidly to disrupt, disable, and paralyse opposing forces. This builds upon the primary operational focus of modern Acrean doctrine, which aims to disrupt critical points of the enemy's decision-making chain, often through disabling or degrading important communications and sensor systems or by destroying key assets. A key tenet of Styrke 2025 was to ensure that doctrine informed the development and procurement of new systems, rather than allowing those systems to inform doctrine and thus introducing dependencies on those new systems.