Republic of Haven Armed Forces

 

            The Republic of Haven Armed Forces constitutes a relatively small number of fulltime professional soldiers, sailors, and airmen. Regular troops are supplemented by a yearly influx of individuals fulfilling their M2S (two year Mandatory Military Service). All citizens of Haven must complete at least two years of military service between the ages of eighteen and fifty. Such service can be completed as one two year stint or broken into two one year commitments, with the first year to be initiated no later than an individual's nineteenth birthday and the second year to be started before the fifty-first birthday.

            All Havenites are schooled in basic combat procedures, including the use and maintenance of a wide-variety of weapons. Everyone is given sniper training and taught the fundamentals of hand-to-hand combat, with an emphasis on the ways to kill a vamp.

            There is no distinction made between males and females when it comes to the roles they play in the military system. Women are expected to be as much a part of any future combat situation as men will be. Accordingly, they also undergo flight-training, are taught nautical lore, and are schooled in special operations procedures.

            All "legal" age citizens of Haven are considered soldiers, but in the event of a war the government exercises the constitutional right to enlist individuals as young as fourteen for combat duties and as young as thirteen for behind-the-lines postings.

            Much of the heavy equipment of the Armed Forces dates from before the end of the war. The deep water fleet anchored at Carmichael Naval Base is composed of battleships, cruisers, destroyers and escort carriers that survived the last great sea battles. Other, smaller ships are located at places like Dunington, Easthaven, the Southern Approaches, North Pointe Lookout, and the Western Battery.

            Many of the larger vessels, such as the RHS Salvation (formerly the USS Missouri), RHS Defiant (formerly the HMS Duke of York), and the RHS Caelo (formerly the USS Enterprise) are mothballed. Only a handful of smaller vessels are fully maintained and kept on the active roster, including the escort carriers RHS Chaser (formerly the HMS Chaser) and RHS Charger (formerly the HMS Charger), the destroyers RHS Dunington (formerly the HMCS Haida) and RHS Barrow (formerly the USS Kearny). A dozen large patrol craft of the Island class, built in Haven over the last decade, regularly monitor the waters surrounding the islands and are the Navy's main operational fleet during peacetime.

            The republic's air force consists largely of modified and updated aircraft from the war. P-51s, Zeros, Spitfires and such make up the bulk of the air fleet. The air force also maintains two airships for long range patrol purposes. B-29s and Lancasters also serve patrol duties, having been extensively modified for submarine tracking.

            Recently the air force unveiled its very first jet fighter, built and designed in Haven. It is known as the "Dagger", and provided budgetary constraints do not force a shutdown of the program, a squadron of these fighters may be operational within the next decade. Proponents of the program contend that it will give the republic technology equal to the vamp's Messerschmitt jets.

           The Articles of Peace restrict Armed Forces activities to areas within the vicinity of the islands. Under the truce signed with the Third Reich, Haven military vessels may not stray beyond a two hundred mile radius of the republic without the express permission of the Kriegsmarine. Only the Navy's specially marked Lightning search and rescue vessels are exempt from this provision.

           The terms of the truce prohibit Haven from maintaining and operating submarines in any capacity.