Air power has always been a difficult prospect for Alcovia. With land that turns to mud in the winter and spring, swamps, hills and mountains making up a good portion of its native terrain, airfields have, in the past, proven difficult to construct and maintain. Modern construction techniques have alleviated many of these problems but these conditions have very much made Alcovia a helicopter nation.
Since their advent, helicopters have been embraced both by Alcovia royalty, which had for so long scoffed at air power, and the military. Several models have been purchased over the years and the country has maintained it helicopter fleet to a standard the is perhaps disproportionate to any other part of its military save for the tanks and equipment of the Lifeguard units. At present, there are three amin helicopter types in service with Alcovian forces, each operating with a few variations.
Mi-17/A "Phoenix"
Named for an Alcovian myth of a magical firebird that carried the royal family to safety when the Kuzak horse nomads invaded the country, the Mi-17/A is and Alcovian variant, produced under license, using domestically procured or manufactured electronics suites.
At present 32 Mil-17/A helicopters are in service within Alcovia. They are used in both transport and support roles the Mi-17/A and are the work horse throughout the Alcovian military transporting supplies, troops, and even light vehicles as well as providing air support with rockets, gun pods, and guided missiles.
The Alcovian military boasts 24 Mi-24 attack helicopters. Spanning several versions of the design through Mi-24 and Mi-25 variants, these helicopters provide a crucial role in defense and potential attack. They are generally kept on ready status at forward positions separate from main bases, allowing them to be deployed at a moment's notice. Maintenance and supply of these craft are provided within these remote depot, with any vehicle being able to use any depot when needing to repair or reload.
Ka-29
The Ka-29 was purchased for use specifically by the ASA River Marines as well as search and rescue elements. It's compact size and naval design make it ideal for landing river monitors and the riverside helicopter pads of found along the Alcovian bank of the Borka river. In its combat role, the Ka-29 is used by Alcovia to deliver it's elite forces and to support them during these landing. At this time 15 Ka-29s are in operation in Alcovian military forces with another 6 in civilian services.
Other Helicopters
there are numerous other helicopters used throughout Alcovia by private companies. These civilian craft are not equipped with military hardware and systems as standard but any number of these may find their way pressed into service during the civil unrest throughout the country.
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6 comments:
I continue to enjoy the rationale behind Alcovia's weapon acquisition. Being a small country, it probably can't afford to design it's own vehicles outright. But it takes far fewer resources for a country to modify standard designs to better suit it's own requirements- especially when some nations (Russia in particular) have a habit of stripping out all the electronics from their export models.
Rivetting stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing more,
Brian,
Thanks for the continued feddback. It seems that now days anybody can design their own homebrew design. I am also surprised just how many tanks some smaller countries can seem to afford.
True, but when it comes to tanks it really is quality that counts over quantity. Not just in the tanks themselves, but in the skill of the crews. Just look at the repective armour kills in Gulf War I.
True the Gulf War tanks didn't do well, but they were also lesser "monkey models" and ill-equipped.
I know that numbers do not count, but I was really speaking on an economic level. A large fleet of tanks costs regardless of the quality of your troops.
I think you are dead on with the scale and type of military equipment available for such a country as you have created. I particularly enjoy the selection of choppers although I am surprised they have not purchased some of the early UH model Hueys from American resellers for scouting and light weight military purposes.
An interesting point about the UH-1s. I had considered this and may amend this post later. The Mi-* is a big chopper. The Ka-29 is a chopper that can easily be adapted to the roles usually performed by the UH-1 however.
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