State of the Art
A look into the technological resources of the Baltic Confederation
By Janine Rayner, Jan 1906

As requested by my patron, I have done a detailed survey of our current technological resources and what the masterminds of Krupp, Bofors, Mauser, and many others are working on.  As this is my first written report to the central archeives, I assume, and not just something discussed over a game of go, I will do my best to format this as best as possible.

First off, I will address our current ability to cast naval artillary.  We are rathered advanced and in this, we are both blessed and cursed.  With both Bofors and Krupp working dilligently to catch up with our European neighbors and each other, our abilities to cast rifles to match and surpass our neighbors should soon be on par.  My personal involvement has been limited to try to get the two companies to cooperate to make things easier for progress but only time will tell if these efforts will bear fruit.  For more hard information, our current naval rifle max caliber is 12"/45... adequate for now but not enough if we don't want to fall behind... then there is requirements for Project Mjolnir...

Now I shall address our current ability to build warships.  While sufficiently advanced and able to produce what has been described to me by the architects as 'all-big-gun' warships and with wing turrets, as has been the standards of our Ultor and Isbre class battleships, they have been just begun working on a more advanced concept that has started to be pioneered by some of our neighbors, name the concept of superfiring turrets and with promises of improvements to naval rifle mountings, recoil absorbers, and with sufficient improvements to the hydraulics and barbette rings to allow for a possible third gun in future warships.  Forgive the atrocious grammar there, these engineers have always made my head spin once they start talking.  I can follow, worry you not, I just adopt their ability to run on for an eternity.  While most of what they said did not interest me any more than a boring information gathering session, the talk of improved recoil absorbers did catch my ear and I will make sure those details are properly passed on.

While I did spend most of my time discussing the heavy units and their construction, ships being a family buisness and all, I did touch on how they have been progressing with lesser warships.  They all turned their eyes away from me, never a good sign to have men turn their eyes away like that.  Took some prodding but it seems that while we are rather advanced in our ability to build light cruisers... don't look put much stock in our ability to produce and effective Torpedo boat or Torpedo boat destroyer in the near future.  We should be happy that we have our light cruisers at the moment and seek to develope them further.  The only designs these men could show me for torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers were things that might have been across a design table when my father was still alive.  We should look towards outsiders for help if at all possible.

One of the prides and joys I am able to report to you currently is our centralized fire control systems and director systems that have been implemented on ships currently in service.  I beleive our predecessors had actually retired the ships that couldn't carry the new systems or had proven incompatable, thus why we are facing the current fleet concerns.  But I would suggest that we send the engineering teams at Krupp and Bofors a small congradulations gift at the next chance one of us is in town.  Its amazing what they did.

Our armor production standards are well developed at this time, with Krupp Cemented quite well developed.  Short of an Alchemical breakthrough at the moment akin to turning lead to gold, we shouldn't expect this standard to change at the moment... though who knows, it might happen.  The foundries are currently too pressed making steel for the heavier industries and our new ships to be worried about doing much further research at the moment besides treating it as a side project.

While I have reported on some of the things that I am... proud of, I must also report the things that I am not.  Which brings me to Torpedoes.  Someone must have been sleeping when this weapon was developed because not one effective model could be found anywhere in the industrial complex of the Confederation.  All answeres from the men in the munitions departments of the companies I visited pointed towards unreliable results, large size, dangerous handling proceedures, questionable safty concerns and a number of other reasons they haven't been developed.  While I also would be much akin to agreeing with them, it would be advisable that we should either start pouring money into this sink hole... rather unattractive, I know, or look to trading for a more modern incarnation of this weapon for our own local production.  As the torpedo has been adopted by almost all the nations of the world, it might be advisable.  Then again, maybe the artillary makers of Krupp are right and it is an unneeded weapon.   I am more akin to beleiving we might need this weapon.

Trailing in behind Torpedoes in lack of developement would be refinement of the undersea boat.  I know from researching the records that the invention was not well received by the former League and was thus not developed.  Blom+Voss has expressed an uncharacteristic dislike for them, production concerns they say.  Having worked with ship building most of my life, I have to agree with them, boats don't belong under water... that's called sinking... but, like torpedoes and their attendent carrier boats, it is something we should possibly aquire from other nations to help us get caught up on this possibly useful technology.

The munitions experts in the Confederation are very proud with their mastery of the armor peircing shell and that alone has made the armorsmiths at the Krupp foundries work extra hard to create ever thicker sheets of steel to counter the new artillary shells.  Good for business, good for developement.  Keeps the two sides of the coin working I guess.

Now to machinery and propulsion.  While we are rather advanced in our engine developement, there is alot of room for developement.  New refinements into Shp/shaft ratios are starting to turn up with our neighbors as well as newer boilers able to use oil have started to also enter service.  It is critical that we keep up with this trend, as to aleiviate the current problem of poor power ratios and slow speeds amongst our current generations of ships.  There is only brighter days ahead in this field.

Now our army, after many a lewd look as I toured our continental bases, I have to say we are rather standard with our neighbors.  The standardization of the forces brought on by your predecessor has proceeded rather seemlessly and is now complete.  Training seems to be up to par, nothing to fantastic but no... trouble makers to be seen.  While the current generations of equipment are fine, we should not sit and be content.  Already the small arms masters at Mauser Werke and Rhienmetall are working on refinements to the Gewehr 98 and an easier to move Maxim in addition to heavier field artillary peices.  In defense of our boarders and interests, these men are our shields, our walls, our swords and should be the best equiped for the missions they will be tasked with.

As for our cavalry, after being decimated with German defeat at the hands of the French and the departure of the former Kaiser, its seems there isn't a trace left of it to be found in the present military.  Needless to say, there has been no developement in this field.  We might have to look out to others for assistance in rebuilding the current cavalry into a more modern incarnation than the present standard that would have made our grand fathers proud.  Infact, I insists we do look to the outside since I would not want to send my child, if I had one, into battle with their current standard of equipment.  Strength of will and determination can only carry one so far against a hail of bullets.

In addition to the standing army, we have a very efficient system in place to rapidly equip and maintain a sizable reserve, one which could be expanded further in an emergency as we are at a mere 50% of our maximum reserve size.  Then again, there is no need to maintain such a reserve at the present time, at least from this observers point of view.

The oddities of aeronautical technologies are facinating to say the very least.  Luckily we are not too far behind the curve here.  It won't be a money pit to catch up here as it is for other technologies previously described.  Already the Fokker, Saab, and Junkers companies have begun researching into this field with bright eyes at the future.

In addition to these developements, our need to refine and develope internal combustion engines seems apparent in conjuction to the needs of the Aeronautical department.  The small 50 hp engines that currently are in production do not make the grade, useful only as an auxillary power source to move exceptionally large artillary and a few other uses.  It should be a focus for our research.

Mine and amphibious warfare.  Interesting but not a focus at the moment.  Enough said on that for this moment.  As our focus in the near future is on more conventional landings and defense, at least from an industrial point of view, these will be explored... as needed.

We now reach the area I am not in the least bit enthusiastic over.  CBR warfare.  If I had my personal way, we would bury any research into this as fast as we possibly can.  Turning the chemicals of industry and the medicines that help us live and keep us from getting sick from the very... diseases that these men even suggest that is possible... turns my stomach.  The only research we should even do into this most diabolical of fields is countermeasures against the chemicals and diseases... not into their actual use at this time.

And finally, I close my report with a comment on rigid airships... we should have been working on these but we didn't.  Much like so much else and thus, we begrudgingly will have to turn to others for help on these matters till we can either reverse engineer it, they allow us to learn from their centers of learning and their advancements, or develope it ourselves.

I hope this will help iron things out for you sir.  Hope to be able to assist you in your planning and look forward to arriving back in the capital soon.

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And now for the TL;DR for current Technology.  Current research will be italics.

Gun Quality
Advanced (+1)
14" Naval Rifles in single mounts.


BB/AC Max Armor Plate
Advanced +1 - Krupp Cemented

BB/AC Architecture
Advanced (+1): All-big-gun ship with wing turrets, improved turret hydraulics,
Torpedo Bulkheads
Cutting Edge (+3)

FC
Advanced (+1):  centralized FC, early directors - 12kyd

CL Architecture
Advanced(+1): ammunition hoists, deck torpedo armament, superfiring mounts

DD/TB Main Gun Layout
Baseline (0): single TTs - max 4, displacement 500t

Torpedoes
Primitive (-2) : 800m@26kts range, 50kg warhead (-1 dam.), compressed air 0.5t

Artillary Shells
Advanced +1 - Armour-Piercing

Propulsion
Advanced (+1) Engine year 1905, Max. Turbine power 4000HP/Shaft,
        Direct-drive Turbines
Cutting Edge (+3)

Submarines
Dated -1 - No Submarines

Infantry Unit Max Equipment Quality
Baseline
Advanced

Cavalry Unit Max Equipment Quality
Dated

Army Reserves
Advanced +1 - Can maintain two reserve unit per active strength unit

Internal Combustion Engines (Land, submarines, and air)
Baseline (0): Gas, petrol(gasoline) and alcohol-fueled engines up to 20HP
Advanced (+1): Land and airship engines up to 200HP, 50HP aeroplane engines

Anti-aircraft gun and altitudes
Baseline - High angle anti-ballon guns or machine guns (up to 1 pounders) = 1,000 feet

Heavier-than-air crafts
Baseline 0 - None, private experimenters with gliders
Advanced

Rigid Airships
Baseline: Type 0: Volume 10 000m³ nonrigid airships, 30kts

Mine Sweeping
Baseline 0 - primitive paravanes and dragged booms behind small expendable vessels- suicide duty

Amphibious Warfare
Baseline(0)  lifeboats and the use of enemy harbors.

CBR Warfare
Primative -1 - Blankets with Smallpot, Trebuchets w/ dead animals

'Black Book Projects'
Nothing to see here yet...  move along.

Gun Quality
Advanced (+1)
14" Naval Rifles in single mounts.


BB/AC Max Armor Plate
Advanced +1 - Krupp Cemented

BB/AC Architecture
Advanced (+1): All-big-gun ship with wing turrets, improved turret hydraulics,
Torpedo Bulkheads
Cutting Edge (+3)

FC
Advanced (+1):  centralized FC, early directors - 12kyd

CL Architecture
Advanced(+1): ammunition hoists, deck torpedo armament, superfiring mounts

DD/TB Main Gun Layout
Baseline (0): single TTs - max 4, displacement 500t
1904 Advanced (+1):double TTs - max 8, displacement 750t - ADDED 1/1907

Torpedoes
Primitive (-2) : 800m@26kts range, 50kg warhead (-1 dam.), compressed air 0.5t
1890 Dated (-1): 1200@26, 400@35, 100kg warhead (+0 dam.), compressed air 0.5t ADDED 1/1907
has samples of
1905 Advanced (+1): 5000@26, 2200@35, 100kg warhead, imp. wet heater, 1t

Artillary Shells
Advanced +1 - Armour-Piercing

Propulsion
Advanced (+1) Engine year 1905, Max. Turbine power 4000HP/Shaft,
        Direct-drive Turbines
Cutting Edge (+3) Engine year 1909, Max. Turbine power 12000HP/Shaft ADDED 1/1907

Submarines
Dated -1 - No Submarines
1900 Baseline (0) :up to 300 t surfaced, 8 knots submerged, 1TT, 3 torpedoes
ADDED 1/1907

Infantry Unit Max Equipment Quality
Baseline
Advanced - ADDED 2/1907

Cavalry Unit Max Equipment Quality
Dated

Army Reserves
Advanced +1 - Can maintain two reserve unit per active strength unit

Internal Combustion Engines (Land, submarines, and air)
Baseline (0): Gas, petrol(gasoline) and alcohol-fueled engines up to 20HP
Advanced (+1): Land and airship engines up to 200HP, 50HP aeroplane engines

Anti-aircraft gun and altitudes
Baseline - High angle anti-ballon guns or machine guns (up to 1 pounders) = 1,000 feet

Heavier-than-air crafts
Baseline 0 - None, private experimenters with gliders
Advanced

Rigid Airships
Baseline: Type 0: Volume 10 000m³ nonrigid airships, 30kts

Mine Sweeping
Baseline 0 - primitive paravanes and dragged booms behind small expendable vessels- suicide duty

Amphibious Warfare
Baseline(0)  lifeboats and the use of enemy harbors.

CBR Warfare
Primative -1 - Blankets with Smallpot, Trebuchets w/ dead animals

'Black Book Projects'
Nothing to see here yet...  move along.


Railroad guns
Advanced (+1) - guns up to 10" ADDED 2/1907