Ibican Navy

Ibican Navy
Seal of the Ibican Navy
Founded	1 January 1701 (1701-01-01) (323 years, 11 months)
Country	Ibica
Type	Navy
Role	Naval warfare, power projection, nuclear deterrence, and sealift
Size	336,978 active duty personnel 279,471 civilian employees 101,583 ready reserve personnel 290 deployable ships (as of 2019) of 480 total ships 3,900+ Dept. of Navy manned aircraft combined (Ibican Navy operates 2,623 manned aircraft and the Ibican Marine Corps operates 1,304 manned aircraft)
Part of	Ibican Department of Defense Department of the Navy
Headquarters	Willmington Navy Yard Willmington, West Monroe
Motto(s)	"Semper Fortis" ("Always Courageous"), (official) "Non sibi sed patriae" ("Not for self but for country") (unofficial)
Colors	Blue, Gold
Commanders
Commander-in-Chief	President Evaline Buckley
Secretary of Defense	Peter Young
Secretary of the Navy	Milford Alexander
Chief of Naval Operations	ADM Adam Paul
Vice Chief of Naval Operations	ADM Silvester Hardy
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy	MCPON Beryl Moore

The Ibican Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the Ibican Armed Forces. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the Ibican Navy is the third largest of the Ibican military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft.

The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, which is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Navy. The Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) is the most senior naval officer serving in the Department of the Navy.

Mission

The Ibican Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of Ibica. The Navy's three primary areas of responsibility:

• The preparation of naval forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war.
• The maintenance of naval aviation, including land-based naval aviation, air transport essential for naval operations, and all air weapons and air techniques involved in the operations and activities of the Navy.
• The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, and equipment of naval combat and service elements.

Ibican Navy training manuals state that the mission of the Ibican Armed Forces is "to be prepared to conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest." As part of that establishment, the Ibican Navy's functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to "sealift" duties.

Organization

Simplified flowchart of Ibican Navy command structure

The Ibican Navy falls under the administration of the Department of the Navy, under civilian leadership of the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). The most senior naval officer is the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), a four-star admiral who is immediately under and reports to the Secretary of the Navy. At the same time, the Chief of Naval Operations is one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which is the second-highest deliberative body of the armed forces after the Ibican National Security Council, although it only plays an advisory role to the President and does not nominally form part of the chain of command. The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations are responsible for organizing, recruiting, training, and equipping the Navy so that it is ready for operation under the command of the unified combat command commanders.

Operating forces

Main article: List of units of the Ibican Navy

There are nine components in the operating forces of the Ibican Navy: the Ibican Bosphorus Fleet, Ibican Carpathian Fleet, Ibican Naval Forces Pheonis Command, Ibican Naval Forces Central Command, Naval Network Warfare Command, Navy Reserve, Naval Special Warfare Command, Operational Test and Evaluation Force, and Military Sealift Command. Forces Central Command controls a number of unique capabilities, including Military Sealift Command, Naval Expeditionary Combat Command, and Navy Cyber Forces.

Shore establishments

Shore establishments exist to support the mission of the fleet through the use of facilities on land. Among the commands of the shore establishment, are the Naval Education and Training Command, the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, the Naval Supply Systems Command, the Naval Air Systems Command, the Naval Sea Systems Command, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, the Bureau of Naval Personnel, the Ibican Naval Academy, the Naval Safety Center, the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, and the Ibican Naval Observatory. Official Navy websites list the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and the Chief of Naval Operations as part of the shore establishment, but these two entities effectively sit superior to the other organizations, playing a coordinating role.

Relationships with other service branches

Ibican Marine Corps

A Marine A-18 prepares to launch from the INS Mobile

Main article: Ibican Marine Corps

In 1800, the Ibican Marine Corps came under the Department of the Navy. Historically, the Navy has had a unique relationship with the IMC, partly because they both specialize in seaborne operations. Together the Navy and Marine Corps form the Department of the Navy and report to the Secretary of the Navy. However, the Marine Corps is a distinct, separate service branch with its own uniformed service chief – the Commandant of the Marine Corps, a four-star general.

The Marine Corps depends on the Navy for medical support (dentists, doctors, nurses, medical technicians known as corpsmen) and religious support (chaplains). Thus Navy officers and enlisted sailors fulfill these roles. When attached to Marine Corps units deployed to an operational environment they generally wear Marine camouflage uniforms, but otherwise, they wear Navy dress uniforms unless they opt to conform to Marine Corps grooming standards.

In the operational environment, as an expeditionary force specializing in amphibious operations, Marines often embark on Navy ships to conduct operations from beyond territorial waters. Marine units deploying as part of a Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) operate under the command of the existing Marine chain of command. Although Marine units routinely operate from amphibious assault ships, the relationship has evolved over the years much as the Commander of the Carrier Air Group/Wing (CAG) does not work for the carrier commanding officer, but coordinates with the ship's CO and staff. Some Marine aviation squadrons, usually fixed-wing assigned to carrier air wings train and operate alongside Navy squadrons; they fly similar missions and often fly sorties together under the cognizance of the CAG. Aviation is where the Navy and Marines share the most common ground since aircrews are guided in their use of aircraft by standard procedures outlined in a series of publications known as NATOPS manuals.

Ibican Coast Guard

An Ibican Coast Guard helicopter prepares to land on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship INS Ibica

Main article: Ibican Coast Guard

The Ibican Coast Guard, in its peacetime role with the Department of Justice, fulfills its law enforcement and rescue role in the maritime environment. It provides Law Enforcement Detachments (LEDETs) to Navy vessels, where they perform arrests and other law enforcement duties during naval boarding and interdiction missions. In times of war, the Coast Guard operates as a service in the Navy. At other times, Coast Guard Port Security Units are sent overseas to guard the security of ports and other assets. The Coast Guard also jointly staffs the Navy's naval coastal warfare groups and squadrons (the latter of which were known as harbor defense commands until late-2004), which oversee defense efforts in foreign littoral combat and inshore areas.

Personnel

The Ibican Navy has over 400,000 personnel, approximately a quarter of whom are in ready reserve. Of those on active duty, more than eighty percent are enlisted sailors and around fifteen percent are commissioned officers; the rest are midshipmen of the Ibican Naval Academy and midshipmen of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps at over 180 universities around the country and officer candidates at the Navy's Officer Candidate School.

Enlisted sailors complete basic military training at boot camp and then are sent to complete training for their individual careers.

Sailors prove they have mastered skills and deserve responsibilities by completing Personnel Qualification Standards (PQS) tasks and examinations. Among the most important is the "warfare qualification", which denotes a journeyman level of capability in Surface Warfare, Aviation Warfare, Information Dominance Warfare, Naval Aircrew, Special Warfare, Seabee Warfare, Submarine Warfare or Expeditionary Warfare. Many qualifications are denoted on a sailor's uniform with Ibican Navy badges and insignia.

Bases

Main article: List of Ibican Military Bases

The size, complexity, and international presence of the Ibican Navy requires a large number of navy installations to support its operations. While the majority of bases are located inside Ibica itself, the Navy maintains a significant number of facilities abroad.

The second largest concentration of installations is at Willmington, West Monroe, where the navy occupies over 36,000 acres (15,000 ha) of land. Located at Willmington are Naval Station Willmington, homeport of the Bosphorus Fleet; Naval Air Station Wilmington, a Master Jet Base; Naval Amphibious Base Rock Creek; and Training Support Center Willmington as well as a number of Navy and commercial shipyards that service navy vessels. Albion is home to Naval Air Station St. Clarke, which houses the Navy's Test Pilot School. Also located in Albion is the Ibican Naval Academy, situated in Troy, Albion. Naval Base Laurel, [[Romane is the main homeport of the Carpathian Fleet.

Underwater Demolition Team members using the casting technique from a speeding boat

Combat Camera Underwater Photo Team – An Ibican Navy diver during underwater photography training off

Foreign countries

The largest overseas base is the Naval Station Pheonis, Pheonisland (part of the larger Joint Base Pheonis, which serves as the home port for the navy's largest forward-deployed fleet and is a significant base of operations in the area.

Equipment

The navy operates over 460 ships, including vessels operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) crewed by a combination of civilian contractors and a small number of uniformed Naval personnel, 3,650+ aircraft, 50,000 non-combat vehicles and owns 75,200 buildings on 3,300,000 acres (13,000 km²).

Ships

Main article: List of Ibican Navy Ships

The names of commissioned ships of the Ibican Navy are prefixed with the letters "INS", designating "Ibican Naval Ship". The names of ships are officially selected by the secretary of the navy, often to honor important people or places. Additionally, each ship is given a letter-based hull classification symbol (for example, CVN or DDG) to indicate the vessel's type and number. All ships in the navy inventory are placed in the Naval Vessel Register, which is part of "the Navy List". The register tracks data such as the current status of a ship, the date of its commissioning, and the date of its decommissioning. Vessels that are removed from the register prior to disposal are said to be stricken from the register. The navy also maintains a reserve fleet of inactive vessels that are maintained for reactivation in times of need.

The Ibican Navy was one of the first to install nuclear reactors aboard naval vessels; today, nuclear energy powers all active Ibican aircraft carriers and submarines. In the case of the Carter Class carrier, two naval reactors give the ship almost unlimited range and provide enough electrical energy to power a city of 100,000 people.

Aircraft carriers

INS Carter, a Carter Class aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is typically deployed along with a host of additional vessels, forming a carrier strike group. The supporting ships, which usually include three or four Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers, a frigate, and two attack submarines, are tasked with protecting the carrier from air, missile, sea, and undersea threats as well as providing additional strike capabilities themselves. Ready logistics support for the group is provided by a combined ammunition, oiler, and supply ship. Modern carriers are named after Major Cities.

The Navy has a statutory requirement for a minimum of 8 aircraft carriers. Currently there are 7 that are deployable and one that is currently undergoing extensive systems and technologies testing until around 2021.

Amphibious warfare vessels

INS Ibica, an Ibica Class amphibious assault ship

Amphibious assault ships are the centerpieces of Ibican amphibious warfare and fulfill the same power projection role as aircraft carriers except that their striking force centers on land forces instead of aircraft. They deliver, command, coordinate, and fully support all elements of a 2,200-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit in an amphibious assault using both air and amphibious vehicles. Resembling small aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships are capable of V/STOL, STOVL, VTOL, tiltrotor, and rotary wing aircraft operations. They also contain a well deck to support the use of Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) and other amphibious assault watercraft. Recently, amphibious assault ships have begun to be deployed as the core of an expeditionary strike group, which usually consists of an additional amphibious transport dock and dock landing ship for amphibious warfare and an Aegis-equipped cruiser and destroyer, frigate, and attack submarine for group defense. Amphibious assault ships are typically named after World War II aircraft carriers.

Amphibious transport docks are warships that embark, transport, and land Marines, supplies, and equipment in a supporting role during amphibious warfare missions. With a landing platform, amphibious transport docks also have the capability to serve as secondary aviation support for an expeditionary group. All amphibious transport docks can operate helicopters, LCACs, and other conventional amphibious vehicles while the newer San Antonio class of ships has been explicitly designed to operate all three elements of the Marines' "mobility triad": Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles (EFVs), the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, and LCACs.

The dock landing ship is a medium amphibious transport that is designed specifically to support and operate LCACs, though it is able to operate other amphibious assault vehicles in the Ibican inventory as well. Dock landing ships are normally deployed as a component of an expeditionary strike group's amphibious assault contingent, operating as a secondary launch platform for LCACs.

Cruisers

INS Port Royal, a Madison Class cruiser

Cruisers are large surface combat vessels that conduct anti-air/anti-missile warfare, surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and strike operations independently or as members of a larger task force. Modern guided missile cruisers were developed out of a need to counter the anti-ship missile threat facing the Ibican Navy. This led to the development of the AN/SPY-1 phased array radar and the Standard missile with the Aegis combat system coordinating the two. Four of these Cruisers are attached to Combined Task Force 1 and CTF-2, tasked to the Maritime Security Force under the authority of the International Free Trade Coalition.

Destroyers

Destroyers are multi-mission medium surface ships capable of sustained performance in anti-air, anti-submarine, anti-ship, and offensive strike operations. Like cruisers, guided missile destroyers are primarily focused on surface strikes using Tomahawk missiles and fleet defense through Aegis and the Standard missile. Destroyers additionally specialize in anti-submarine warfare and are equipped with VLA rockets and LAMPS Mk III Sea Hawk helicopters to deal with underwater threats. When deployed with a carrier strike group or expeditionary strike group, destroyers and their fellow Aegis-equipped cruisers are primarily tasked with defending the fleet while providing secondary strike capabilities.

Frigates and Littoral combat ships

INS Liberty, a Littoral combat ship

Modern Ibican frigates mainly perform anti-submarine warfare for carrier and expeditionary strike groups and provide armed escort for supply convoys and merchant shipping. They are designed to protect friendly ships against hostile submarines in low to medium threat environments, using torpedoes and LAMPS helicopters. Independently, frigates are able to conduct counterdrug missions and other maritime interception operations. As in the case of destroyers, frigates are named after Ibican Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard heroes.

The LCS is a class of relatively small surface vessels intended for operations in the littoral zone (close to shore). It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals". They have the capabilities of a small assault transport, including a flight deck and hangar for housing two helicopters, a stern ramp for operating small boats, and the cargo volume and payload to deliver a small assault force with fighting vehicles to a roll-on/roll-off port facility. The ship is easy to reconfigure for different roles, including anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations, and logistics, all by swapping mission-specific modules as needed.

Mine countermeasures ships

Mine countermeasures vessels are a combination of minehunters, a naval vessel that actively detects and destroys individual naval mines, and minesweepers, which clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of the mines. The navy has approximately a dozen of these in active service, but the mine countermeasure (MCM) role is also being assumed by the incoming classes of littoral combat ships.

Patrol boats

A patrol boat is a relatively small naval vessel generally designed for coastal defense duties. There have been many designs for patrol boats, though the navy currently only has a single class. They may be operated by a nation's navy or coast guard, and may be intended for marine ("blue water") or estuarine or river ("brown water") environments. The Navy has approximately a dozen in active service, which are mainly used in the littoral regions, but have also been used for home port patrols and drug interdiction missions. The navy's current class of patrol boats have names based on weather phenomena.

Submarines

INS Haviland, a Haviland Class ballistic missile submarine

INS Arbor, an Arbor Class attack submarine

All current and planned Ibican Navy submarines are nuclear-powered, as only nuclear propulsion allows for the combination of stealth and long duration, high-speed sustained underwater movement that makes modern nuclear submarines so vital to a modern blue-water navy. The Ibican Navy operates two types: ballistic missile submarines and attack submarines. Ibican Navy (nuclear) ballistic missile submarines carry the stealthiest leg of the Ibican strategic triad (the other legs are the land-based Ibican strategic missile force and the air-based Ibican strategic bomber force). These submarines have only one mission: to carry and, if called upon, to launch the Trident nuclear missile. The primary missions of attack submarines in the Ibican Navy are peacetime engagement, surveillance and intelligence, special operations, precision strikes, and control of the seas. To these, attack submarines also add the battlegroup operations mission. Attack and guided missile submarines have several tactical missions, including sinking ships and other subs, launching cruise missiles, gathering intelligence, and assisting in special operations.

Aircraft

Four Navy A-18F Super Hornets

Carrier-based aircraft are able to strike air, sea, and land targets far from a carrier strike group while protecting friendly forces from enemy aircraft, ships, and submarines. In peacetime, aircraft's ability to project the threat of sustained attack from a mobile platform on the seas gives United States leaders significant diplomatic and crisis-management options. Aircraft additionally provide logistics support to maintain the navy's readiness and, through helicopters, supply platforms with which to conduct search and rescue, special operations, anti-submarine warfare (ASW), and anti-surface warfare (ASuW).

The Aircraft Investment Plan sees naval aviation growing from 30 percent of current aviation forces to half of all procurement funding over the next three decades.

Weapons

Current Ibican Navy shipboard weapons systems are almost entirely focused on missiles, both as a weapon and as a threat. In an offensive role, missiles are intended to strike targets at long distances with accuracy and precision. Because they are unmanned weapons, missiles allow for attacks on heavily defended targets without risk to human pilots. Land strikes are the domain of the BGM-109 Tomahawk, which was first deployed in the 1980s and is continually being updated to increase its capabilities. For anti-ship strikes, the navy's dedicated missile is the Harpoon Missile. To defend against enemy missile attack, the navy operates a number of systems that are all coordinated by the Aegis combat system. Medium-long range defense is provided by the Standard Missile 2, which has been deployed since the 1980s. The Standard missile doubles as the primary shipboard anti-aircraft weapon and is undergoing development for use in theater ballistic missile defense. Short range defense against missiles is provided by the Phalanx CIWS and the more recently developed RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile. In addition to missiles, the navy employs Mark 46 and Mark 50 torpedoes and various types of naval mines.

Naval fixed-wing aircraft employ much of the same weapons as the Ibican Air Force for both air-to-air and air-to-surface combat. Air engagements are handled by the heat-seeking Sidewinder and the radar guided AMRAAM missiles along with the M61 Vulcan cannon for close range dogfighting. For surface strikes, navy aircraft utilize a combination of missiles, smart bombs, and dumb bombs. On the list of available missiles are the Maverick, SLAM-ER and JSOW. Smart bombs include the GPS-guided JDAM and the laser-guided Paveway series. Unguided munitions such as dumb bombs and cluster bombs make up the rest of the weapons deployed by fixed-wing aircraft.

Rotary aircraft weapons are focused on anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and light to medium surface engagements. To combat submarines, helicopters use Mark 46 and Mark 50 torpedoes. Against small watercraft, they utilize Hellfire and Penguin air to surface missiles. Helicopters also employ various types of mounted anti-personnel machine guns, including the M60, M240, GAU-16/A, and GAU-17/A.

Nuclear weapons in the Ibican Navy arsenal are deployed through ballistic missile submarines and aircraft. The Haviland-class submarine carries the latest iteration of the Trident missile, a three-stage, submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) with MIRV capability; the current Trident II (D5) version is expected to be in service past 2020.