Nordland Vapenfabrik AB
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| Public company | |
| Traded as | CASE: NVAB |
| Industry | Aerospace Defense |
| Founded | May 16, 1891 |
| Founder | Government of the Greater Federation of Nori |
| Headquarters | |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Military aircraft |
Number of employees | TBA |
| Divisions | Defense and Aerospace |
| Subsidiaries | Nordland-Titania Superspace Solutions Simonshamn Propulsion Systems AB |
| Website | www.nordland.ris |
Nordland Aerospace Defence Industries (Riscelnian: Nordland Vapenfabrik AB) is a Riscelnian aerospace and defense contractor that focuses on the design and production of aircraft for use by the military. It is the sole military aerospace company in Riscelnia.
Nordland was founded on May 16, 1891, by the government of the Greater Federation of Nori, who wanted a government-owned weapons factory that would be under its own control; This resulted in the Federal Arms Investment Act of 1891, where Nordland Vapenfabrik AB was officially established as a company in the GFN.
Today, Nordland is one of the world's largest aerospace corporations and the sole Riscelnian aerospace company with its origins in the Allied Republics.
History
Foundation
Some stuff happened early in the history of Nordland, blah blah blah it ain't that important yet.
In 1919, the focus of Nordland was shifted from firearm manufacturing to aerospace developments which had been seeing increased importance during the waning years of the Olympic Wars (1912 - 1924). A year after the switch in priorities, the GFN declared war on the ZP, and the company got a trial by fire as the GFN's own warplane manufacturer.
Post-Federation-Pact War
After the end of the Federation-Pact War in 1923, Nordland successfully gathered enough support in the fledgeling Parliament of the Republics to become a private company; Though the government still owned 45% of the stocks in the company as to ensure it would remain loyal to the Allied Republics. The remaining 55% would be bought by a large variety of businessmen and was in a heavy state of fluctuation until 1925 when Sylvester Havsberg acquired 40% of the stocks and assumed the role as CEO (previously held by the government)
In 1964, Nordland bought Titania Aerospace (renamed Nordland-Titania Superspace Solutions), beginning the corporation's dive into the space market.
Products
Military aircraft
- Nordland B-16 Jägaren (twin-engine attacker/bomber, introduced in 1916, retired in 1929)
- Nordland S-21 Svanen (twin-engine reconnaisance aircraft, introduced in 1921, retired in 1935)
- Nordland J-58 Örnen (interceptor jet fighter, introduced in 1958, retired fully in 1977)
- Nordland J-72 Falken (multirole jet fighter, introduced in 1972, retired mostly in 1996)
- Nordland J-72E Super Falken (modernized variant of the J-72D, introduced in 2003 in limited numbers)
- Nordland S-77 "Molnhuvud" (airborne early warning and control aircraft converted from a TBD, 3 currently in service)
- Nordland J-91 Skatan (multirole jet fighter, introduced in 1991, remains in service)
- Nordland S-103 "Betraktaren" (airborne early warning and control aircraft converted from a TBD, 2 currently in service)
Controversies
Illegal aircraft upgrades
In 1995, when the Allied Forces Air Forces announced it was planning on decommissioning the aging J-72 in favor of the recently introduced J-91, Nordland, who had just started exporting some of the J-72's and had promised various private military contractors (PMC) continued supply of the fighter, started a campaign within the Parliament of the Allied Republics to try to convince them to fund the an upgrade of the J-72. On February 14, 1996, such a proposal was submitted to Parliament, and after a week of debate (with little to no public input), Parliament agreed to cover the R&D costs for an upgraded version of the J-72 (at the time dubbed FJ-96). This decision was widely criticized amongst the civilian populace, and over the next few months various activist groups protested the government's actions, with many calling an end to the "underhanded, shady dealings". The project continued despite this.
In 2001, the first prototype of the upgraded J-72, dubbed J-72E Super Falken by Nordland, lifted off from Simonshamn AFB successfully, and two years later the J-72E was approved for service with the AFAF, with 15 older J-72 fighters to be upgraded to the J-72E model while the rest were scrapped or sold off, on Nordland's own directive. Nordland, however, lobbied most members of parliament to let Nordland run on its own on the promise of not going over the 15 aircraft limit. In 2007 the newly elected representative of Simonshamn, Lisa Bäckverk, grew suspicious of Nordland's continued silence and decided to ask the Office of Federal Security to start an investigation into the corporation's ongoing businesses. On June 14, 2008, she revealed heavily incriminating evidence that Nordland had violated the contract it had signed with the Parliament and had gone over the decided upon number of upgraded J-72's that would be paid by the government and upgraded several more on the government's expense.
Nordland initially disputed this claim, but as more and more members of parliament (several of whom Nordland had lobbied to stay silent about the incident) spoke up against the corporation, Nordland issued a public apology on June 17 and immediately ordered all upgrades cease. Nordland faced several lawsuits, none of which the corporation won and thus lost several hundred million RDN. A proposal to ban Nordland from selling any aircraft to foreign countries was also submitted to the Parliament but rejected in a 37-45 (for-against) vote.