Perhaps one thing that separates the Caldari Navy from its rival in the Federation is its purpose. Since everything is owned by the megacorporations, they have their own forces to occupy and control territory.
So what do the Caldari Navy do in peacetime? It sounds to me that the Caldari Navy is an outright offensive outfit (from its corp desc for example). While not necessarily synonymous with power projection (State is not really an influence-spreading culture compared to Amarr or Gallente, they want to protect their own), their doctrine may be to go in, destroy, then let the megacorp come in.
Say a megacorp was under threat, and their security force was not enough. The Caldari Navy would be called in and would eliminate the threat, and leave. Probably why they're the more smaller armed force, and why you had comments from Reppola about "not being designed for a sustained offensive" etc.
This is different from the Federation and Empire militaries, who are influence-projecting. The Federation Navy does stuff like counter drug smuggling operations, anti-piracy, humanitarian/disaster relief, civil affairs etc. Their objectives is to secure Federation interests, and occupy territory if need be. Similarly, the Imperial Navy would be outfitted for total conquest.