Foreign Policy ReviewUtembo Purchases Small Arms, AFVs from LDMS June 4892New LDMS Faru to be Exported to Utembo, Enter Liori ServiceFollowing discussions between officials within the Utembo Royal Armed Forces and their counterparts within the Liori Arch Ministry of Defense (AMD) and overseeing officials within the Liori Defense Manufacturing Syndicate (LDMS), an arms sale was agreed upon between the two parties and approved by their respective governments. The deal, which Liori officials approached Utemban counterparts with in order to help with the fellow Dovani Pact Security Member's military expansion (and no doubt further discourage reliance on Yingdala), will see the sale of thousands of units of small arms and a couple-dozen armored fighting vehicles to the Utembo Royal Armed Forces. The meat of the deal lies in the sale of 30,000 LDMS AR1 assault rifles to Utembo. Having been in mass production since the founding of the LDMS, the AR1 has been slowly rotated in as the primary assault rifle of the Liori ground forces as production of the rifle has been ramped up with the creation of new and expansion of old arms manufacturing facilities. The fulfillment of the assault rifle order will occur at a shipment rate of 2500 rifles per quarter while the LDMS continues to fulfil domestic needs, setting the total time frame of fulfillment at three years.
In addition to the 30,000 rifles, Utembo committed to purchase a much more humble total of twenty LDMS Faru (OOC:
IDF Achzarit) armored personnel carriers, a recently finished assault vehicle design that is soon to enter production. The Faru, which was designed in order to fulfill Liore's need for a standardized and domestically-produced armored personnel carrier, is the intellectual product of Kinyonga, a private defense company operating within the Ndardhi SEZ that was syndicated under the LDMS in 4888, but has had its schematics shared throughout all LDMS subsidiaries, though Kinyonga has been assured compensation for its product. Kinyonga has also been given the exclusive right (among private subsidiaries to the LDMS) to export the Faru abroad, and as such has been awarded the contract to fulfill the Utemban order, which company spokesmen have indicated should take no longer than one year and two quarters, giving Kinyonga to make necessary adjustments to equiment and facility expansions to produce the new vehicle.
While Kinyonga handles the Utemban order, all other LDMS subsidiaries have been instructed to prepare for mass production of the Faru so as to fulfill demand for Liori forces, which will require more than 1000 Farus in order to both supply unmechanized units and replace aging APCs. Such a modernization project government spokesmen confirm will take years even after LDMS facilities finish their needed upgrades, and will require further government attention in the future.
President Approves Development Package to Bianjie November 4892Returning to the Hami policy of direct developmental assistance into Dovani, President Jail Obama approved a plan of the Trade and Financial Ministries to invest directly into the economic and military development of Bianjie. The deal, reminiscent of the Liore-Vascania Investment project and agreed upon by both the Liori and Bianji governments, will see among other things a direct influx of funds and finances into the Bianji economy from the Liore. Primarily, this will occur through the sending of economic development grants to Bianjie to be used as the government sees fit as to develop the domestic economy, and as long as the funds are used appropriately Bianjie will not be required to pay Liore back. More directly, the Liore government will also be investing directly into the portfolios of a select few promising Bianji companies. The deal will also see an abolition of most trade barriers between Liore and Bianjie and a general opening of trade between the two nations, though due to protectionist policies that require large foreign companies to provide 30% of all products to the Bianji government free of charge, any influx of Liori companies is expected to be small, with a notable exception bein the establishment of a Lidor Pharmaceuticals facility in Gemun, which has accepted the obligation to provide a portion of its product to the government free of charge.
The development package also included a military development section dedicated to boosting the experience of the Bianji officer corps and training quality of Bianji troops. The section will the the dispatching to Bianjie of a group of Liori military advisors and experts, including Liori officers (retired and currently serving) and Defense bureaucrats and theorists, to Bianjie to fulfill a number of tasks, including advising Bianji policymakers and military leaders as well as the overseeing and direct training of Bianji troops. The advisors have also been instructed to work with the current Bianji officer corps to establish a military academy in Bianjie to train a next generation of Bianji officers in modern tactics developed in Liore and abroad.