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.

History

Menghean People's Navy (1946-1988)

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. Between foreign disarmament and the evacuation of Republican ships, its list of assets was pitifully short: two super-heavy cruisers, three destroyers, and six submarine chasers, as well as various torpedo boats and light patrol craft. Most of the major assets had been captured during the Gyŏngsan Mutiny, and all ships save for two submarine chasers were of PSW vintage. Having just emerged from thirty years of continuous conflict with the Western powers, the leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Menghe were deeply concerned about the possibility of a foreign sea invasion, and launched the First Emergency Shipbuilding Program in an effort to restore some naval defensive capability. Many ships built during this period, such as the Taepung-class destroyers, were based on late-war designs and were obsolete from the moment they were laid down. The DPRM also purchased a number of warships from Letnia, which, due to its neutrality policy and relations with Kolodoria, became a major supplier of arms for the Menghean Navy.

From its formation onward, the Menghean People's Navy was highly defensive in orientation. Menghe's recovering shipbuilding capability left its fleet numerically and technologically inferior to the forces of Dayashina, Tír Glas, Sieuxerr, and Anglia and Lechernt, ruling out any meaningful power projection. At the same time, the DPRM's economy was relatively isolated from trade, and its main resource suppliers shipped goods over land, so there was little need to protect sea lanes in a conflict. The main role of the MPN was to intercept enemy landing ships and aircraft carriers, or at least buy time for the Menghean People's Army to prepare beachhead defenses. To serve this mission, the MPN was divided into two forces: the South Sea Fleet, which focused on intercepting traffic through the Strait of Portcullia, and the East Sea Fleet, which focused on engaging Dayashinese and Hanhaean forces around the East Sea (or Sea of Fuso). To allow free travel between the two areas, the DPRM invested in a naval landing force capable of seizing the Renkaku Islands, which formed a chain between the East and South Menghe Seas. Submarine bases in Maverica and Polvokia also allowed Menghean submarines to raid transoceanic shipping without having to slip through bottleneck areas en route.

It was in this period that Menghean naval doctrine developed into a new model emphasizing the counteroffensive strike. Faced with numerically and technologically superior large-ship forces, the Menghean People's Navy aimed to leverage its short supply chains and proximity to home ports, relying heavily on shore-based missiles, naval aviation, and light missile craft. Even its larger ships, like the Nunbora and Chŏndong classes, had relatively short ranges, and were designed to sortie from base, launch a salvo of anti-ship missiles, and withdraw to re-arm. To detect incoming threats, the Navy built a large network of HF/DF stations along the east coast of Menghe and the south coast of Innominada; to reduce losses in the face of enemy air superiority, maritime reconnaissance aircraft would only sortie to confirm the locations of approximate targets. As enemy anti-ship missile defenses improved, the Navy placed an increasingly heavy emphasis on saturating targets with large numbers of missiles from multiple directions. This demanded large investments in C3ISTAR assets and capabilities, and a different approach to training and planning. While the Menghean People's Army encouraged some lower-level initiative as part of its Fluid Battle Doctrine, the MPN adopted a very top-down approach. Under ideal circumstances, admirals in land-based installations would issue all commands to forces at sea, down to the exact launch time of each missile. Diesel-electric fleet submarines enjoyed some autonomy on oceangoing raids, but in the fleet support role they were expected to operate close to the surface and receive commands via radio periscope.

By the mid-1980s, the Menghean People's Navy had developed into a potent fighting force, with a large force of destroyers, submarines, and maritime bombers. The supersonic YDH-23 missile, originally a Letnian air-launched weapon, was developed into ship-launched, land-launched, and even submarine-launched variants, and Western and Dayashinese intelligence sources regarded it as a serious enough threat to merit the development of newer surface-to-air missile systems. While the cruiser projects of the 1970s, like Plan 137 Bangpae, never progressed beyond the design stage, in 1981 Menghe laid down its first postwar aircraft carrier and was planning to lay down another. Diplomatic setbacks, however, forced a serious re-evaluation of the Navy's defensive prospects. Following the nuclear test at Naran Gaja in November 1984, Western powers invoked the STAND Treaty to impose a total economic embargo on the DPRM, and even Menghe's allies in Hemithea cooperated out of a concern over Ryŏ Ho-jun's instability. This forced the MPA and MPN to withdraw their forces from Polvokia and Innominada. The loss of the former denied Menghe submarine bases on the Helian Ocean, and the loss of the latter denied Menghe air and naval bases on the Strait of Portcullia. Ryŏ responded by ordering the Second Emergency Shipbuilding Program, which focused on Chŏndong-class destroyers and Plan 215 corvettes with longer strike radii.

The Menghean Navy in transition (1988-2005)

The Decembrist Revolution which brought Choe Sŭng-min to power ushered in a period of détente with Menghe's main rivals, allowing a decrease in military spending and a shift toward economic growth. Despite back-channel efforts to broach the issue, Innominada and Polvokia refused to return former Menghean bases on the Helian Ocean and Strait of Portcullia, and the new Menghean leadership ultimately dropped the issue out of a fear that pushing it too hard would undermine efforts to normalize trade relations. Instead, the MPN (now simply the Menghean Navy) shifted its focus toward longer-range warships which could patrol the Strait of Portcullia while operating from bases in Southwest Menghe. Ships of this generation included the Ansa-class frigates and Chanjok Jachido-class cruisers, as well as the last batch of Chŏndong-class destroyers and the later Pyŏng'an-class destroyers.

During the 1990s, the Menghean Navy still relied primarily on exported Letnian powerplants and weapon systems, though a domestic missile design industry was emerging alongside them. Hallia, one of the first states to normalize trade with Menghe, took the risky step of selling state-of-the-art sonar equipment for the Chanjok Jachidos, in the hopes that a stronger Menghean Navy would counterbalance the EC's presence in the South Menghe Sea. Highly impressed with the performance of Hallian sonar on trials, Menghe ordered additional sets for the Hawŏn-class frigates and Pyŏng'an-class destroyers.

In the late 1990s, Menghe entered into negotiations with Tír Glas over acquiring a production license for the SM-2MR and Mark 41 Vertical Launching System. Major obstructions to the deal included allegations of human rights abuses during the Disciplined Society Campaign and diplomatic pressure from Dayashina, whose military planners still did not fully trust the new Menghean government. The situation finally eased in March 2001, when Choe Sŭng-min visited Dayashina in person and agreed to relinquish all territorial claims to the Renkaku Islands. As a sign of goodwill, Dayashina partially lifted its arms embargo on Menghe, and the licensing deals for the Mk 41 VLS and SM-2MR went forward in May. The availability of a universal hot-launch vertical launch system allowed for a new generation of Menghean surface combatants, first among them the Haeju-class destroyers.

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.

Fleets

Organizationally, the Menghean Navy is composed of two fleets and three flotillas. Fleets (Hamdae) conduct blue-water operations over a large area, contain a mix of large surface ships and submarines, and are commanded by an Admiral (OF-9 rank). Flotillas (Sohamdae) conduct green-water operations in specific littoral areas, are comprised of missile craft and small submarines, and are commanded by a Vice Admiral (OF-8 rank).

Each Fleet or Flotilla is assigned to a designated zone of operation. These areas of operation are only approximate; in a real conflict, overlap between operational areas would be the norm, and zones of responsibility could be shifted to counter the distribution of threats. As a conflict progresses, ships may also be transferred from one unit to another, especially between flotillas. In peacetime ships often rotate between fleets or flotillas to keep all units at full strength when individual ships are withdrawn for long-term maintenance.

The South Sea Fleet and East Sea Fleet trace their history back to 1964, when they were assigned to the East Menghe Sea and the South Menghe Sea, with their zones of responsibility divided by the Renkaku Islands. Since then, their zones of responsibility have evolved, and expanded further beyond Menghe's shores. In 2002 the division between their operational areas was changed to the line of longitude running through Gyŏngsan, and in 2015 it was changed to the line of longitude running through Sunju. Following the Innominadan Crisis in 2015, the South Sea Fleet has increasingly sent surface ships through the Strait of Portcullia to conduct operations in the Meridian Ocean. There has been some recent discussion of creating a third fleet for Meridian Ocean operations, but as of 2020 the East Sea Fleet and South Sea Fleet are the only Fleet-level organizations in the Menghean Navy.

• The South Sea Fleet (남해 함대 / 南海艦隊, Namhae Hamdae) is assigned to the area west of Sunju. It is the larger and more important of the two fleets, even after repeated expansions of the East Sea Fleet's zone of responsibility. Its main mission, today and in the past, is to destroy any enemy assets approaching from the west to threaten Menghe's south coast. This includes a heavy focus on securing and defending the Strait of Portcullia, a strategic choke point for any movement between Casaterra and Menghe. In combination with the three Flotillas, it is also tasked with supporting operations around Altagracia, Isla Diamante, and Portcullia, including amphibious landings from long-range landing ships.

• The East Sea Fleet (동해 함대 / 東海艦隊, Donghae Hamdae) is assigned to the area east of Sunju. Historically it was tasked with engaging Dayashinese forces in the East Menghe Sea and sending commerce-raiding submarines into the Helian Ocean, but following steady improvements in relations in the 1990s, Dayashina and Tír Glas are now allies of Menghe. This forced a reorientation of the East Sea Fleet to wider missions. Since 2015, it has taken over the South Sea Fleet's mission of engaging EC units based in Maracaibo, and it now sends patrols further into the Helian Ocean to threaten Sieuxerrian and Anglian island bases.

• The Goŭn Flotilla (고은 소함대 / 高恩小艦隊, Goŭn Sohamdae) is assigned to the area around Altagracia (known in Menghe by its original name, Goŭn). In the event of a war with Sylva, the Goŭn Flotilla would be tasked with launching a surprise attack on any Sylvan warships in or around Altagracia, conducting amphibious landings on the sides of the peninsula, providing fire support for Army units advancing over land, and intercepting any reinforcements which manage to reach the area.

• The Argentstan Flotilla (찬국 소함대 / 儧國小艦隊, Changuk Sohamdae) is assigned to the coast of Argentstan. It is tasked with destroying naval forces based on Isla Diamante and supporting amphibious landings on the island. Under the Namhae Front's shared command structure, it is part of the Joint Argentstan Task Force, which is commanded by a Menghean Admiral and includes the ships, aircraft, and marine units of the Argentstani Navy.

• The Strait Flotilla (해협 소함대 / 海峽小艦隊, Haehyŏb Sohamdae) is assigned to the south coast of the Republic of Innominada. It is tasked with intercepting surface ships and submarines which attempt to pass through the Strait of Portcullia, and supporting amphibious operations against Portcullia itself. Under the Namhae Front's shared command structure, it is part of the Joint Strait Defense Task Force, which is commanded by a Menghean Admiral and includes the ships, aircraft, and marine units of the Innominadan Republican Navy.

Equipment

Ships and submarines

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