1
Dispatch → Factbook → Military
Arkmunster Navy
Arkmunster Naval Ensign
Founded:
Country: Arkmunster
Type: Navy
Role: National Defence
Size: 50 Warships
Three frigates
Seven destroyers
Three subs
Thirty-two missile boats
Motto: "I would rebel and die in twenty worlds, sooner than bear the yoke of thwarted life"
Colours: Blue and Red
Engagements: Auchendale/Arkmunster Civil War
Summary
The Arkmunster Navy (abbreviated AN) is the naval force of Arkmunster. The navy came from a successful operation to capture several Auchendale ships in the Civil War, leading to it being founded a few days later. The motto comes from Armgart, a poem from Mary Ann Evans. The naval ensign is the flag of Arkmunster but with the torch replaced with an anchor and gear - symbolising naval workers. The modern Arkmunster navy is significantly outdated with recent attempts to modernise the navy focusing entirely on missile boats, but has struggled to receive funding due to governmental turmoil.
History
The navy began from the successful capture of ARN King Elias and it's escorts. King Elias was hit by a shell from a successful sortie by the Arkmunster Airforce, causing the ship needing to be repaired at the Harrow Drydocks and lifting the blockade around Ravenhaf. This success lead to the militias camped outside Harrow to begin a general advance and successfully took the city a few days later. Capturing King Elias in the drydocks and the eventual surrender of four destroyers and a frigate, they sat in port for several days until the requisite officers to man the ships were found. The Navy was founded five days after the capture and would have a five week training period before being launched from Harrow.
This five weeks of training would make for a serious problem as routine errors would befall the navy after it's launch, causing one destroyer to have to head back to Harrow for repairs and several stops along the way for minor fixes. The fleet would successfully meet with an engagement with Auchendale's fleet outside of Ravenhaf. This engagement between the cruiser Republic (renamed from King Elias), three destroyers, and one frigate went against Auchendale's five destroyers and one frigate.
The Battle off Ravenhaf would be accompanied by Arkmunster Airforce flying out of Ravenhaf International and took the Auchendale fleet by surprise. Believing that there was no actual officers to man the ship nor would Arkmunster put together the sailors quickly enough, they believed to still have unchallenged superiority of the seas. Leaping into action, Admiral Clayton would begin bombardment at 1PM of the Arkmunster Navy.
In the hours that followed, Arkmunster would lose one destroyer and one frigate with the Republic heavily damaged and listing in the war, while Auchendale lost one destroyer. While technically a victory for Arkmunster in finally breaking the blockade of Ravenhaf for good, Auchendale's navy lived to fight another day while Arkmunster's was mothballed for the rest of the war as a failure.
With the successful victory of Arkmunster in the war, captured ships would enter the Navy and expand it from three ships to nineteen. (Attempts to scuttle the ships failed due to anger and unrest from the sailors by not being paid, leading to open insurrections on several which killed two naval officers. The rest disobeyed orders and fled the country.) These ships would remain in dock for months, lacking the sailors to man more then two destroyers at once. Naval recruitment would be stepped up the following months and an aggressive training program was implemented to prevent the humiliation of the navy's first launch.
Actual funds for expansion and refitting, however, would be nil as governmental funds were constantly taxed in rebuilding from the war and keeping the populace happy. Despite Admiral Layton Owens's best attempts, the navy would remain fully manned but a good two decades out of date (if not more with the Republic until First Citizen Amelia Lewis's administration.
Lewis, attempting to wrangle through her Home Rule bill, would agree to sign off on a minor expansion of the navy. Unwilling to take funds to make a carrier (as Owens hoped), it would instead go to missile boats as an attempt to put teeth in an ineffective fleet. Between the focus on missile boats and the airforce, the navy began to rebuild itself around local blue and brown water defence, using the bigger ships as blockade busters. The navy would begin to be pared down again with several budget cuts effectively putting the Republic in mothball and half the frigates undermanned under President Nicholas, needing the funds to move to other programs. The Naval Union (superseding Admiral Owens with the creation of the Provisional Government) has begun to look towards options of decommissioning the rest of the fleet and expanding the amount of submarines, missile boats, and dockside artillery defences. This initiative, planning to come out a month after the snap election is already finished and is waiting for a new government to receive it.