Radio Telefís an tIarthar

[Manetheren]

Tahoe's International News Agency

Raging Wildfires Cause 30,000 to Flee

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — After days of torrid temperatures and ferocious wind, morning fog gave some relief Saturday to firefighters battling the wildfire that has burned 80 homes and forced 30,000 people to flee.

The 8,700-acre blaze was 30 percent contained, Santa Barbara County Deputy Fire Chief John O'Malley said. O'Malley warned, however, that the cooler weather may not last.

"The weather tends to be a little fickle around here ... so our guard is up," he said at a morning news conference.

Authorities said the blaze had burned across more than 13 square miles.

Some 3,500 homes were still considered threatened and 30,000 people were under mandatory evacuation orders. Some have been living in shelters for days. An additional 23,000 people had been warned to remain ready to leave at a moment's notice.

"Sundowners," fierce local winds that sweep down the mountain slopes from north to south and out to sea, were blamed for stoking what had been a small wildfire into a savage inferno that destroyed farms and towns, including famous orange groves.

About 4,000 firefighters were battling the blaze along a five-mile front, aided by fleets of aircrafts that included a DC-10 jumbo tanker capable of dumping huge loads of retardant.

Thirteen firefighters had been injured, including three whose engine was overrun by flames on Wednesday.

President O'Deaghaidh has met with local leaders and toured the firefighter's camps, pledging financial support to victims of fire damage, but reminding locals that "Nature is a fickle thing, and those that live in areas susceptible to natural disasters do so of their own volition and should not expect their countrymen to aid them. Free men may live where they want, regardless of the consequences, but free men must also take responsibility for themselves."

[Manetheren]

Space Program Recieves Funding

The National Assembly has approved funding totaling M100,000,000 (one hundred million marks) up front followed by M30,000,000 bi-monthly for the purposes of exploring the final frontier of space. For the next two months, the government plans to begin building ground sites to begin manned space flight activities.

The National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) has been created for purposes of administering the nations public space program. In addition to the space program, it is also responsible for long-term civilian and military aerospace research. NASA's self-described mission statement is to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research." NASA's motto is "For the benefit of all".

Included in the bill creating NASA, the following sites will be created or handed over to NASA administration:

Research Centers

Ames Research Center, O'Casey Federal Airfield, California

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

Test Facilities

Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California

Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California

Launch Facilities

National Space Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California

Barking Sands Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii

Great Basin Space Center, Provo, Utah

Deep Space Network

Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, Barstow, California

A manned moon mission is planned within the next few years, as is the creation of a manned permanant space station

[Botha]

"If Tahoe requires any tracking stations in Africa, the Government of Transvaal is more than willing to co-operate." - Foreign Minister H Strijdom

[Manetheren]

"We are currently planning to construct tracking stations across the globe in both the territories of Tahoe and friendly nations. A tracking station in Transvaal would certainly be of great benefit to the space program."

- Foreign Minister Cavanagh

[Comrade]

Molakia offers to host a tracking station.

[Manetheren]

"At this time NASA is not formally requesting any tracking stations be built for the expanded space program to come. Our current Deep Space Network is more than capable of handling civilian satellite tracking and our military tracks satellites at classified facilities. By the time we begin manned space flight within two months, we will have tracking stations up and running."

- John Tydall, Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Agency

[Manetheren]

National Defense Reseach Department

The National Defense Research Department is a recently announced department of the Ministry of Defense. Established for the purposes of research and development for the military, the NDRD has offices established across Tahoe, including secure facilities within the Tahoe Air Force's vast Nevada Test and Training Range. Although the facilities at the range are within the area managed by Nellis Air Force Base, the Groom Lake facility is run as an adjunct of the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC) at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, around 186 miles (300 km) southwest of Groom, and as such the base is known as Air Force Flight Test Center (Detachment 3).

The Ministry of Defense denies the existance of the base, although admitting that a classified facility exists within the Nevada Test and Training Range, as well as admitting that the NDRD manages facilities at the well known Edwards Air Force Base.

OOC: Weapons Reasearch Complex

[Manetheren]

Integrated Warrior System

After three years of research and development, the Integrated Warrior System (IWS) is coming online. Beginning with special forces, assault and armored units, the IWS will allow a commander a godlike view of any battlefield, combining data recieved from aircraft, drones, scouts and every unit on the battlefield to give a realtime map of the battlefield showing the locatation of all friendly units and known hostile units. Every friendly unit is equipped with a GPS device, allowing them to be tracked and marked on the IWS maps. Information recieved is sent back down the chain of command to allow commanders on the ground to know of threats in their vicinity, receive orders remotely and know the happenings across the battlefield.

Target recognition software installed in helmets will allow for quicker reactions against enemy forces.

Infantry Assault Armor

Infantry Assault Armor allows an individual soldier to take and recieve much more punishment than a naked human body, combining modern anti-ballistic weapon technology with medieval principles of "total protection". This system uses classified weaves of metal and carbon to resist shrapnel, bullets and bladed weapons, while still allowing free range of movement. The armor isn't bulky, with comparable sizes to more traditional kits worn by soldiers, and allows countless configurations of pockets, pouches and other outerwear to allow the soldier to completely customize his kit.

The helmet allows for vision in numerous light ranges, automatically marks enemy targets and can, in emergency, serve as a totally sealed gas mask against biological and chemical weapons. A small camera allows soldiers to recieve and send video messages, as well as allowing totally encrypted voice messages while remaining totally silent outside.

Due to the high unit cost for the armor, currently only special forces, paratroopers and assault units will be allowed access, although there are plans to distribute the armor more extensively in the future, particularly in cases of urban warfare.

[Manetheren]

Wargames

The Ministry of Defense announced Operation Medved, a joint wargame with the Navy, Air Force and Army practicing amphibious assaults in tropical climates. The Operation, developed by the Naval War College, theorizes an encounter between a Tahoan Carrier Battlegroup and an OpFor naval group of larger size but significantly lesser technological capabilities.

Operation Medved will be the largest combined forces wargame in Tahoan military history, involving dozens of vessels and thousands of men. The OpFor, although using modern vessels, will have significant restraints placed upon them to allow those "playing" as the actual Tahoan Navy to practice having greater technological capabilities. The catch? They will be outnumbered 2 to 1.

During and after the naval portion of the Operation, the Air Force and Army will get to practice defending and assaulting beach positions.

[Manetheren]

Military Movement

The Ministry of Defense announced that four infantry and one motorized divisions were being transported into Canada, as per the announcement of protection over Canada following that country's recent collapse. A majority of the troops are being moved via train, through Viniland.

Additionally, two armored divisions have reinforced the units currently stationed on the Tahoe-US border.

[JEDCJT]

OOC: My, you sure don't like the United States, eh?

[Comrade]

If Tahoe wishes to fight against a less technical enemy for wargames, Molakian troops are getting fat and lazy. We could easily play OpFor.

[Manetheren]

OOC: My, you sure don't like the United States, eh?

OOC: Not particularly

IC:

If Tahoe wishes to fight against a less technical enemy for wargames, Molakian troops are getting fat and lazy. We could easily play OpFor.

Message from the Ministry of Defense

There are currently no wargames, other than the ones already underway, that are planned for the immediate future requiring training against forces of significantly lesser technology.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

National Defense Research Department Announces new Aircraft

The NDRD, tasked with advanced weapons research and development for the Military of the Tahoe Republic is particularly known for its advances in aeronautics. After various Tahoan agencies in both the military and civilian sector directly worked with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman for decades, the NDRD coalesces all research groups into direct links with the civilian research community, who contract with the Government for purposes of research and development. A number of prominent aircraft in the past decades, including the F-117 stealth Nighthawk, F-15, F-22, and F-35 have made Tahoe into one of the world's leaders in aviation technology.

The most recent addition to this pantheon is the F/C- 709 Longsword. The Longsword is a large mothership type aircraft, holding about a hundred UCAV drones in a massive launch bay. Capable of extreme long range flight, the Longsword is primarily designed for aerial defense, capable of staying aloft for over 72 hours at a time without refueling. Its drones are released upon target acquisition and, using a rocket motor, speed towards their target at over Mach 5, simultaneously releasing a number of possible weapons, including 2 long range missiles or 4 short range missiles/kinetic kill weapons.

The Longsword also makes use of the most modern stealth technology while also being capable of burning almost all of its fuel in a short period of time to go supersonic and evade threats. With a crew of 5-10 (although it can theoretically be flown only by two, the rest are flight engineers and backups) all having bunks, a bathroom and small kitchen, it is designed to keep its crew in comfort for extended flights. Additionally, each flight crew member is equiped with an ejection seat in case of emergencies.

Artists rendering of the F/C 709 Longsword

Production line of UCAV drones. Note their flat profile, allowing large numbers to be stacked on top of each other. Each drone can be equipped with a number of weapons or surveilance equipment.

[LeVentNoir]

We severely doubt the ability of those drone to carry long range missiles. Simply put, it looks like one LR AAM weights about the same as the drone.

[Manetheren]

The exact specifications for missiles and drone alike are classified. In flight tests, the drone was capable of carrying and launching no more than two LRAAM although in most cases maximum preformance was reached by only carrying one. The numbers listed were its maximum possible carrying capacity, as with almost all military aircraft, best preformance and maximum capacity are not the same. Regardless, the F/C-709 is still in prototype stage and changes are likely to be made.

[LeVentNoir]

The exact specifications for missiles and drone alike are classified. In flight tests, the drone was capable of carrying and launching no more than two LRAAM although in most cases maximum preformance was reached by only carrying one. The numbers listed were its maximum possible carrying capacity, as with almost all military aircraft, best preformance and maximum capacity are not the same. Regardless, the F/C-709 is still in prototype stage and changes are likely to be made.

Indeed, we recommend the major change be to scale it form the size of a desk (as seen in photo) to a object able to carry a 3.5m long, 150kg missile.

[Manetheren]

National Railway Announced

In the largest public works project ever for the Tahoe Republic and indeed one of the largest in the history of the world, the Federal Government of the Tahoe Republic announced that the National Railway was to be built. For decades, train traffic has been used to transport goods and people throughout Tahoe, although trucks and air travel have always been industry leaders.

After much consideration and pledges from the State Governments and various Corporations, the Government of the Tahoe Republic is pleased to announce the National Railway System.

The National Railway System will consist of two three meter gauged tracks running essentially in a giant loop around the nation, with branches leading to various cities. Two major stations, one in central California (Sacramento) and one in central Colorado (Denver) would connect the cities of the nation.

The track will be 3 m wide with a maximum axle load of 30 tons. The maximum speed for passenger trains should be between 200 to 250 km/h and freight trains at 100 km/h.

The passenger cars are immense with a length of 41 m and a height of about 6.85 meters (two floors). The interiors of these cars can hold between 250 and 300 people with with spiral staircases and multi-row seating, and luxuriously designed pompous decoration. Sleeping car compartments will be partially equipped with hardwood. Naturally, lower class accomidations with lesser decorations will be used as well.

Freight cars will be able to carry dozens of massive freight containers on their open air platforms.

Artists depictions of planned cars - interior and exterior

First Class Dining Hall

Staircase

Second Class Dining Room

First Class Sitting Room

Exterior view of the size of an engine, compared to a normal train

Freight Train

Model showing size of car compared to traditionally sized caboose

[Manetheren]

Ever since the end of Canada, the government of Tahoe has known that countless secrets were lying hidden ready to be found. Immediately, plans to raid key government, research and military sites across Canada were developed and carried out quickly and quietly by Special Forces accompanied by dozens of scientists and researchers. Particuarly keen to get their hands on information was the NDRD for purposes of applying discoveries made in Canada to Tahoan military purposes.

The first location raided was the Black Mesa research facility. Discovered by Salvage Team 38 (consisting of four Special Forces security personnel and four research scientists), one of the key finds there was the Hyperion Miniature Nuclear Reactor. Roughly 2 meters by one meter by one meter, the Hyperion reactor was used across Canada to provide power for countless operations. Producing 25 megawatts, the Hyperion was in most cases destroyed in the "transition" although a few intact examples were recovered. The government plans to use the Hyperion to provide backup power if necessary for important facilities, once reverse engineered and properly rebuilt, as well as possibly powering the massive National Railway engines.

Classified

*Begin Message*

RE: Hyperion Nuclear Reactor

It will generate 27-30 Megawatts of electrical power from 70 MW of thermal power. This means 0.5 to 0.75 tons per MWe for the nuclear reactor. The steam turbine to convert the power is counted separately. Using a lot less material (including 10 to 20 times greater efficiency with the Uranium fuel) means that the uranium hydride reactor can be scaled to provide more power. Eventual use of advanced thermoelectrics instead of steam turbines would mean that the weight of the reactor and power conversion would be less than one ton per MWe.

The 15-20 ton 27-30 MWe Hyperion nuclear reactor will be factory mass produced starting in 2010. It uses ten to twenty times less material and less uranium fuel as current reactors which will allow society to scale this up a lot more. Goal of 12 month from order to finished factory product. Goal is to make hundreds to thousands each year. Here is a description of how Hyperion Power Generation plans to leverage proven Triga reactor safety systems and processes.

The reactor core of an S6G (26MWe) submarine nuclear power plant (just the vessel that holds the fuel and the fuel itself) weighs about 110 +/-3 tons. It needs 20000 gallons (80 tons) of water for coolant. After you add in the rest of its systems you are looking at at least 1000 tons of machinery. The reactor fits in a space about 10m long, 10m wide, and 12m tall. Two hundred times more space than the Hyperion Reactor. The S6G is rated at about 130 megawatts thermal power. The electric output is 26 megawatts.

Current light water nuclear reactor power plants have 36-51 tons of steel per MWe and 324 tons of cement per MWe. 600-800 times less weight for Hyperion UH reactor and probably at least 30 times more material per MWe over a full Hyperion reactor facility.

High temperature (HTR-PB) reactors will use about 118 tons of steel and concrete per MWe. HTR-PB is one third the weight of regular reactors but at least ten times more than the Hyperion Uranium Hydride reactor.

- Professor Albus MacCraven

Edited June 11, 2009 by Emperor Mudd

[Lynneth]

OOC: I approve of the above post.

[Manetheren]

Classified Message

Salvage Teams 172 and 24 have uncovered something of great interest to the nation. The Improved Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) was one of the first fusion reactors in the world and helped make Canada into one of the worlds technological powers. Although previously unexplored despite its proximity to Black Mesa, which is currently being thorougly scoured, two salvage teams made contact with the facility early today. Although offline and disabled to prevent it from being restarted, we have recovered nearly all the technology, blueprints and a few former employees of the facility, leading us to believe we can reverse engineer the reactor and build our own.

From the description given by the lead scientist of the project who was captured:

"ITER will, according to plans, run for up to 1,000 seconds or more than sixteen minutes. It is a tokamak - magnetic confinement fusion - research and engineering project, to help science understand fusion better and help to make the transition from today's studies of plasma physics to future electricity-producing fusion power plants.

The reactor is planned to produce up to 500 Megawatts during the time it is running, by fusing half a gram of deuterium/tritium mixture in the reaction chamber, which will be roughly 840 cubic meters big. It releases 5-10 times more energy than the amount consumed to heat up the plasma to fusion temperatures, though this energy will not be used to generate electricity."

Such a facility, if it were to be built in Tahoe could be used for a number of purposes including research and power production.

-Professor Albus McCraven

[V The King]

OOC: Dude Mudd, I have a Fusion Power Plant operating commercially. Could've asked for some kind of deal.

[Manetheren]

OOC: Now that I remember, I believe I will

IC:

*** Classified Message to Viniland ***

Research teams operating in our joint protectorate of Canada have recently discovered the Canadian ITER facility, an advanced fusion reactor. Although the reactor is inoperable, the blueprints and technology recovered from that site will allow us to develop a working fusion reactor within a few years.

A joint Tahoe-Vinilandese project, working on our fusion reactor, would greatly speed the construction proccess. Specifically, the scientists, architects and engineers who designed your reactor, if assisting with ours, would greatly increase Tahoe's domestic green energy and help wean us off foreign oil.

Sincerely,

Steven Finnegan,

Secretary of the Department of Energy

Approved by the Minister of State

[V The King]

Classified reply to Steven Finnegan

We will confirm that, as far as we are concerned, the scientists, engineers and architects that worked on the Lethbridge Fusion Power Plant are not engaging on any major project for the time being and will very likely accept working on a Tahoan fusion reactor.

We had previously heard of the existence of the ITER, albeit we've never had many details about it. However, we speculate that the reactor may be further worked on and eventually become the basis for a commercial reactor. Indeed, the team that worked on the LFPP will figure that out with the Tahoan scientists. They ought to be in your nation within 72 hours.

-The Vinilandese Ministry of Energy

[Manetheren]

Government Sworn In

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy (no relation to the prominent Tahoan Kennedy political family including former Presidents John and Robert Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy...no relation to the New England politicans of the same name OOC: Jed stealing my politicians...) swore in the ministers of the second Government under President Sean O'Deaghaidh early July 5, 2009. Kieran Kelly was elected by both houses of the National Assembly (Parliament...not to be confused with the General Assembly, which is the lower house of the National Assembly/Parliament) as Prime Minister for the second term. The twelve other members of the Cabinet include four ministers from the Democratic Party, two non-partisan positions and seven National Party ministers. After the recent elections, the National Party and Democratic Party signed coalition agreements, giving them a dominant role in the General Assembly and Senate. The coalition is expected to pursue economic deregulation and massive tax cuts are expected. It remains to be seen what role the government will take on foreign policy.

Prime Minister: Kieran Kelly (National Party)

Minister of Foreign Affairs: Darragh McDonnel (Democratic Party)

Minister of State: Eamon O' Brian (National Party)

Minister of the Treasury: Sean Hannity (Democratic Party)

Minister of Labor and Industry: Lucas Muller (Democratic Party)

Minister of Commerce: Aidan Ó Dochartaigh (National Party)

Minister of State Security: Tomás Ó Coileáin (National Party)

Minister of Justice: Michael Fitzgerald (National Party)

Minister of Health: Eoin MacDonald (Democratic Party)

Minister of Religious Affairs: Archbishop Patrick Wood (Religious/Non-Partisan)

Minister of Defense: Colin Flanagan (National Party)

Minister of the People and Heritage: Sean Mac Giolla Phádraig (National Party)

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: General Eamon Niall (Military/Non-Partisan)

Intelligence Community Reorganized

Part of Prime Minister Kelly's proposal to reorganize, streamline and reduce the size of government including coalescing the various intelligence agencies, bureaus and departments that have previously been spread throughout the various cabinet level ministries and the military. The Ministry of State Security will now be responsible for all of Tahoe's intelligence operations in addition to more traditional duties such as controlling customs and immigration, border patrol and the national police/invesigative force, the Garda Siochana. However Tahoe Military Intelligence which formerly provided all external intelligence will be removed from the Ministry of State Security and organized into the Ministry of Defense. It will now only provide military intelligence with external intel gathering being given to a new agency. The new Department of Intelligence in the Ministry of State Security will be responsible for tasking and strategic direction and will include the following agencies:

National Security Service (NSS): Counter intelligence and security. Its remit includes the protection of Tahoan republican democracy and economic interests, counter-terrorism and counter-espionage within Tahoe. While mainly concerned with internal security it does have an overseas role in support of its mission. Colloquially known as G1.

National Intelligence Service (NIS): Foreign intelligence gathering. Using a variety of intelligence gathering methods including satellites, human intel, black ops, ect. the NIS is tasked with gathering intelligence vital to Tahoe's strategic geo-political interests around the world. Operates primarily overseas, although legally may conduct operations in Tahoe, although usually with the support of NSS. Colloquially known as G2.

National Communications Agency (NCA): Intelligence agency responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance to the Tahoan government and armed forces. It operates under the guidance of the Department of Intelligence. Colloquially known as G3.

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA): Agency of the Tahoan Government with the primary mission of collection, analysis, and distribution of geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national security. Colloquially known as G4.

Edited July 6, 2009 by Emperor Mudd

[JEDCJT]

...OOC: Jed stealing my politicians......

OOC: Hey, in my defense, I didnt know you RPed them before I established New England.

... within the UK...

OOC: The UK?