Trinity Defense System

The Trinity Defense System (also known as TRINITY or the TRINITY Program) is the national integrated aerial defence system and military program for the Imperium of Caphiria. The Trinity Defense System is a multi-layered network of overlapping systems working together alongside the three primary defense systems: MALEPHIST, The Twelve Disciples, and WORMWOOD.

MALEPHIST is a short-range laser air defense system designed to destroy short-range rockets, artillery, and mortars up to 10 km; The Twelve Disciples is a mobile all-weather air defense and C-RAM system designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 10 km to 300 km; WORMWOOD is the medium/long range anti-ballistic and surface-to-air missile system designed to intercept enemy planes, drones, tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles from 50 km to 500 km.

Also part of TRINITY is ODES, a low-level, quick-reaction surface-to-air missile system capable of engaging aircraft, helicopters, unmanned air vehicles, drones, and precision-guided munitions that is available in short and medium range configurations. The Trinity Defense System utilizes the Revelation family of missiles, which consist of 22 all-weather, all-terrain surface-to-air missiles. TRINITY also includes an overlapping network of early warning and tracking radars, as well as command and control posts.

While the TRINITY program was approved in 2001 and operational in 2016, its origins can be traced back almost four decades. Funding for a national air defense system was approved shortly after the start of the Occidental Cold War in the 1960s, but the development would not begin until 1984. This early system proved to be a success and ultimately led to the the modern program. The scope, scale, and capabilities of the TRINITY program have been continuously growing and expanding, making the program one of the most actively developed military programs in the world and with an estimated lifetime cost of over $200 billion, the TRINITY program is also one of the most expensive projects ever, military or otherwise.

Background and development

The concept of an integrated defense system came from the growing geopolitical tension between Caphiria and Urcea, primarily in the form of the theory of the Levantine Creep and subsequent Occidental Cold War. Caphiria became increasingly paranoid of the threat of ballistic missile attacks on its soil and the while it already utilized air defense systems in strategic locations, the idea for an integrated system across the country gained momentum.

The Ministry of Defense approved a $100 million research and development project in 1967, codenamed CLYPEUS, but the project was put on indefinite hiatus at the end of 1971, with experts saying that the project would consume more resources than even the most liberal projections.

As Cold War-era tensions relaxed, particularly with Burgo-Caphirian relations in the so called "thaw", Caphiria was experiencing rapid economic growth by 1982. This increased government spending and ultimately allowed the CLYPEUS project to be re-examined. An additional $400 million in R&D was given in 1984 to fund the CLYPEUS II project and the first successful prototype was tested in 1989. This led to the development of CLYPEUS III, which was given an initial operating budget of $1.5 billion with development starting in 1990.

CLYPEUS III went from the drawing board to combat readiness within less than six years, a remarkably short period of time for a weapons system designed from scratch, according to military experts. It proved its effectiveness against rocket attacks, having intercepted 20 missiles and rockets fired into Caphiria with an overall effectiveness of 75 and 95 percent. Because of this success, the project expanded in scope and capability and in 1997 the CLYPEUS III project was designated as "completed" and became defunct.

The successor project, TRINITY (originally in reference to trinitarianism and later to reference short, medium, and long distance coverage) was approved by the Senate in 2001 with an initial $25 billion of funding and subsequent $5 billion annual budget. In 2008, the project was "promoted" by the Ministry of Defense and integrated directly into the Imperial Armed Forces as the TRINITY program. It was declared operational on 21 May 2016.

Funding and cost

The entire CLYPEUS project (CLYPEUS, CLYPEUS II, and CLYPEUS III) cost an estimated $2-5 billion across its entire lifetime. When the TRINITY program was approved by the Senate in 2001, it was given an initial operating budget of $25 billion.

From 2001 to 2016, the annual budget for the TRINITY program was $5 billion (a total cost of $75 billion). When the defense system went live however, the Ministry of Defense stopped publishing the budget for the program publicly for security purposes. It is speculated that the budget for TRINITY has significantly decreased since being declared operational. This means it is only possible to see the budget for the TRINITY program during the Census. The 2020 Census revealed that the annual budget was $3.5 billion ($2.5 billion for R&D and $1.5 billion for operation and maintenance); the 2025 Census showed no change in budget; projections for the 2030 Census indicate a slight increase to $4 billion, which is in line with current and future expenditure.

Using Census data, the TRINITY program has cost an estimated $40 billion from 2016 to 2026. Combined with previous data, the estimated cumulative lifetime cost of the modern TRINITY Program from 2001 to the present is $140 billion, which would make it the 6th most expensive megaproject in Caphirian history and one of the most expensive military projects in the world, active or otherwise.

Deployment

Due to the scope of the project, TRINITY was deployed in two phases to minimize risk and failure. Testing lasted several years from 2010 to 2015 until The Imperium felt confident in each individual component. The Legion would deploy the Trinity System in multiple locations to assess its combat readiness in both remote and hostile environments. The bulk of the testing was done on Coribus, a small island in the Odoneru Ocean. The system successfully intercepted several missiles and successfully attacked the squad that had fired the rocket.

In February 2016, the Ministry of Defense was satisfied with the results and declared TRINITY was ready for an "evaluation phase" in the field and was declared as an "operational experiment".

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Components

ODES System

The ODES System is a short and medium range air defence system which provides air defence for fixed assets and for point and area defence for mobile forces in combat areas. The ODES is fitted atop any TELAR and is designed to work with any Revelation-family, or Astaros missiles. However, Quicksilver Industries developed a custom family of air-to-air missiles (AAMs) called Cartian, which are among the most advanced in the world.

There are two variants of the ODES: the ODES-SR (short range) and the ODES-MR (medium range). Both systems are quick reaction, all weather, network-centric, multi-launchers, and self-propelled. A typical battery consists one central command and control unit, six missile firing units, and a resupply vehicle. Both variants also use the same Perius 2106 radar system, which can track and engage multiple targets simultaneously and can control the missile firing units at a distance of up to 10 km away from the CCU. The ODES System has a range of detection for a fighter aircraft is 70–110 km; it can detect hovering helicopters at a range of 40 km and UAVs at 40–60 km.

ODES-SR has a short range of interception, with a maximum altitude of interception of 9 km and the maximum range of interception is 15 km. The ODES-MR has a greater operation range of 35 km and an altitude engagement of 16 km due to the missiles being equipped with boosters.

The Cartian-5 missile, developed specifically for the ODES System, is a beyond-visual-range missile, meaning it is capable of "lock-on after launch" (LOAL), and has all-aspect/all-direction (including rearward) attack ability. The missile features an advanced electro-optical infrared homing (with imaging infrared) seeker which scans the target area for hostile aircraft, then locks-on for terminal chase.

• Length: 310 cm
• Span: 64 cm
• Diameter: 16 cm
• Weight: 105 kg
• Guidance: infrared homing + electro-optical imaging
• Warhead: 11 kg
• Speed: Mach 4

Revelation missiles

Revelation is a series of short, medium and long-range surface-to-air missile systems designed to work with or without TRINITY. There are 22 total missiles; Revelation 1-6 are short range, Revelation 7-14 are medium range, Revelation 14-22 are long range.

All Revelation missiles features include management and distribution of command and control information, air defense mission planning at the battery and battalion levels, multiple engagement and successive firing, data links for midcourse guidance, integrated air picture generation, operational capabilities in the day, at night and in adverse weather conditions, a global positioning system (GPS) and navigation, remote control, wired or wireless communication between systems, 360° effective area with the capability of vertical launch, Multi-Target Multi-Radar fusion and embedded simulation, identification friend or foe (IFF), modular structure, hybrid control system.

File:Hisarmissile.jpg

A Minor Revelation missile firing test at the a military compound in Audonia

Minor Revelations system

Revelation 1-6 missiles (collectively called the Minor Revelations system) are mounted in an eight cell container (which requires little maintenance) and are launched straight up. Minor Revelation system's launcher uses a compact vertical launching system, with an 8-cell module weighing 1,700 kg (3,700 lb). Fire control is provided by an equally compact C3I system that weighs 1,300 kg (2,900 lb), which can either operate independently or in conjunction with other on-board sensors. Its Perius radar system provides 360-degree coverage with an electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) system and the missiles can take down an incoming missile as close as 500 metres (1,600 ft) away from the ship. Minor Revelation systems have midcourse guidance with INS and RF data link, terminal guidance with IIR. Each Minor Revelation system (missile container, radar, computers and installation) costs about $20 million. The system is designed to defend against aircraft and anti-ship missiles, including sea-skimming missiles.

• Minimum range: 2 km
• Maximum range: 15 km
• Maximum altitude: 5 / 8 km

Medium Revelations system

Revelation 7-14 missiles (collectively called the Medium Revelations system) are very similar to the Minor Revelations system, and use same systems-III seeker, RF link, fuse, dual pulse rocket motor, but the dimensions of the missile are bigger and the range is improved. Another difference is the Medium Revelations system uses Evotune VESTOR phased array 3D search and track radar. The Medium Revelations system has the capability to detect targets, track, identify and perform command and control, and fire control functions autonomously. The missile system is effective against fighter aircraft, attack helicopters, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

• Minimum range of the missile: 3 km
• Maximum range of the missile: 25 km
• Maximum altitude of the missile: ≥ 15 km
• Fighter detection & track range : 40-60  km
• Number of tracks : > 60 targets
• Ready to fire missiles:
  • Per vehicle: 6
  • Battery level: ≥ 18 (3 missile launcher vehicles)
  • Battalion level: ≥ 54 (9 missile launcher vehicles)
• Guidance:
  • Midcourse guidance: Inertial navigation through data link from fire-control system
  • Terminal guidance: Infrared homing missile seeker
• Vehicles types used by Medium Revelations system:
  • VESTOR phased array 3D radar vehicle
  • Electro-optical suit vehicle
  • Tactical data link connection system vehicle
  • Fire control center vehicle
  • Missile launcher vehicle

Major Revelations system

Revelation 14-22 (collectively called Major Revelations) are designed to defend against any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs as well as ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and combat jets. The Major Revelations system features a dual pulse rocket motor as well as thrust vector control, and possesses high degrees of maneuverability at target interception range. A second motor is fired during the terminal phase, at which stage the active radar seeker is activated to home in on to the enemy track. The system has been designed to counter a wide variety of air-borne threats, such as; anti-ship missiles, aircraft, UAVs drones and supersonic missiles .When coupled with a modern air-defence system and multi-function surveillance track and guidance radars, the Major Revelations system enables the capability to simultaneously engage multiple targets during saturation attacks.

• Minimum range: 30 km
• Maximum range: 100+ km
• Maximum speed: Mach 3

Criticism

Cost

Before the system was declared operational, many conservative Senators balked at the cost of the project compared to traditional defense systems. One vocal detractor of the program, Senator Eduarin D'Antotta pointed out that Caphiria's enemies could simply drain the Imperium's financial resources by launching very large numbers of missiles that would overwhelm the system and ultimately bring financial ruin. Potică Schiappelli, one of TRINITY's lead managers,responded that the cost issue was exaggerated since TRINITY intercepts only rockets determined to constitute a threat, and that the lives saved and the strategic impact are worth the cost.