With the CalNav being a national-level organization like the CCA, it seems reasonable to me that those full-time Navy officers and enlistees drawn from corporate forces would also come from the lower end of the spectrum.
I can see the logic behind that, but being a custom inspector doesn't quite have the prestige as being in the Navy proper. My character was a Home Guard officer, so I've done a lot of digging over the years into Home Guard related PF and my feeling is that HG is like CN's little brother trying to do everything the exact same way his big brother does. He gets the same hair cut, wears the same t-shirt etc.
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Image:Caldari_Navy.jpghttp://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Image:Home_Guard.jpgIf that is true, and I'm not saying that it is, then CN would probably be able to poach HG's best and brightest.
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1913&tid=6Perhaps just as importantly, if not more so, the security services provide a gateway to employment in the Caldari Navy, and for the best and the brightest it may be the first step towards a career as an officer or even a pod pilot. In fact, progressing through the Navy is one of the only ways a common Kaalakiota employee can enter the capsuleer training program, and so a significant proportion of rookies sign up in the hope that their compulsory term of service will provide them to a new life flying among the stars.
Also note that not all of the eight paramilitaries have a Naval force. Some of them only have ground forces and hire other corporations such has Home Guard, the Caldari Navy it's self or Mordu's Legion to protect their space born assets. Infact I suspect that Home guard and Mordu's Legion have a much closer working relation ship with the Caldari Navy than the other paramilitaries and that as mentioned in the Masks of Authority chronicle: "Home Guard’s image is second to none, not just among the corporate corps establishment but also in the popular cultures of all four empires." is because they use the prestige of the CN to boost their own.
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Mordu%27s_Legion_%28NPC_corporation%29Thirty-Five percent of the Legion's stock is owned by the Caldari Navy and it's partner is listed as Home Guard.
The Mordu's Legion chronicle states that:
The Legion has always had close ties with the Caldari State and the two assist each other on many issues...Members of the Legion get access to high-tech Caldari military equipment, even prototype weapons to test out, and are guaranteed plenty of employment if they so wish
I suspect that those of the eight paramilitaries with a Naval orientation plus Mordu's legion trade personnel back and forth with the Caldari Navy. The CN gets hotshot new recruits from them and the Old CN vets have a place to retire to were they can tell war stories and train the next generation. At the end of the day, the paramilitaries are corporations and as such are expected to make a profit - and the Caldari Navy is huge source of such profit. I can't prove that of course, but I can link so some material that strongly suggests it.
http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=28-07-08The passage of time had done little to diminish the Kaalakiota leadership’s wartime alertness; they had long been advocates of increased military spending, particularly towards protection of assets in the homeland. The Sukuuvestaa, meanwhile, wanted the available funds diverted towards land partitioning on newly settled planets, reasoning that the creation of new assets was every bit as important as the protection of existing ones. That Kaalakiota dealt primarily in arms at the time, and Sukuuvestaa primarily in real estate, were topics not raised at the meeting.
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=354&tid=4This little news article is one that has been very important to my RP.
2004.04.18 19:20:52
The Caldari State has revealed that the budget for the Caldari Navy will be slashed for the 10th consecutive year. A high-ranking official was quoted as saying: "The war with the Federation is long since over and in our estimate there is no imminent threat on the horizon. Besides, our annual spending for CONCORD forces has been on the rise, which counterbalances the cuts for the Navy. We are confident that despite these cuts our Navy will still be more than capable of performing its duty 100%."
The Caldari armament industry has yet again criticized the decision, claiming that the history of the Caldari people amply demonstrates the need for a strong space fleet and that these cuts are jeopardizing the national security of the State. Furthermore, spokesmen for the armament industry predict these cuts will put small armament companies under and force larger companies to cut down on their R&D efforts, which can seriously affect the technological armament race being held with the Federation and others.
State officials have dismissed these doomsday prophecies, stating that the same claims have been heard for 10 years now, yet the Caldari armament industry has shown no signs of a decline, if anything it has grown over this period. This indicates that the armament companies have adapted to the new situation by finding customers outside the State. Indeed, State officials have gone on the offensive by insisting that the identities of these customers should be revealed, something that the armament companies are unwilling to do.
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1926&tid=62008.04.10 14:48:40
Meanwhile, in the same session, Nugoeihuvi advanced a proposal to trim the budget for both the Caldari Navy and the Caldari Business Tribunal by nearly 15%. "While the defense of the State must be a high priority, the economic strength of our corporations cannot be threatened by paying billions of ISK to fund expansion of a military force already sufficient to defend our current interests," said the Nugoeihuvi statement. "Though important, military expenditures are not an investment, they are overhead, and we all know that overhead must be the first thing trimmed whenever a budget is reevaluated. Meanwhile, we have seen an increasing number of Tribunal investigations end with no charges brought and no damages assessed; perhaps cutting their budget will convince them to engage in fewer frivolous investigations and concentrate on those of more weight."
Once again, this proposal was not greeted quietly in the halls of the Panel. "Cutting the budget for the Navy at this time, so soon after such obvious Gallente provocations as the Kassigainen incident and the so-called 'Brothers of Freedom' is not only ill-advised, it is criminal," refuted the Wiyrkomi delegation.
"Is it a coincidence that Nugoeihuvi, which has been the target of 17% of the Tribunal's investigations this year, is calling for a reduction in their budget? Somehow I doubt that very much," commented a member of the Lai Dai delegation. Still, despite resistance from the Patriot corporations and some resistance by Ishukone, a major Navy contractor, the measure seemed to find some support among the other Panel members, placing it in a similar position to the tariff measure.
...Perhaps most telling about both of these initiatives is that five or ten years ago, such measures would both have little if any support among most of the Panel members. "Ever since the end of the war, the Navy's budget has been almost sacrosanct,"
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1910&tid=6Word of the attempt on the life of the Chamberlain has been a hot topic in the boardrooms of the Caldari megacorporations. With the worsening Caldari economy, the threat of instability in their largest foreign market sent a momentary shudder through the Kimotoro stock exchange. The Lai Dai Corporation and CBD Corporation suffered the worst drops due to their larger involvement in the Amarr market, though they both managed to recover most of their losses in short order.
http://www.eveonline.com/news.asp?a=single&nid=1929Financial newsmagazine The Kimotoro Report is reporting that two of the eight Caldari megacorporations are considering increasing their stakes in a number of foreign markets as a hedge against the faltering State economy. The Lai Dai Corporation and CBD Corporation, already heavily invested in a number of foreign markets, were reported to be in "high-level discussions regarding foreign acquisitions and trade contracts,"...According to the article, Lai Dai, which already has a minority stake in the Carthum Conglomerate, is considering expanding its holdings in the Amarr corporation...According to these sources, the prospect of one of the Empire's largest aerospace and heavy industry concerns becoming more tightly linked to the State than it already is has been called an "imperial security matter"
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Carthum_Conglomerate_%28NPC_corporation%29The Carthum is a fairly new company that was formed with aid from the Caldari Lai Dai mega corporation, which owns a considerable share in the company.
http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Khanid_Innovation_%28NPC_corporation%29Lai Dai owns 30% of Khanid Innovations
Khanid Innovation is a hi-tech research firm that has come up with many astounding discoveries in the past few decades. The company has always been at the forefront of weapon research thanks to the urgency in combating the threat of an Amarrian invasion.
In 2004 (YC106?) when the CN's budget was cut the patriots were forced to find other sources of income. This source, in my opinion, was upgrading the antiquated but ridiculously large and wealthy Amarrian and Khanid military. Ingame most patriot faction stations within the State's borders are within a jump or two of Caldari Navy mission hubs and many of them outside the State are in the same system as or are within one jump of an Amarrian military station.
What does this have to do with the relationship between the Mega Paramilitaries and the Caldari Navy or the relative quality of CN personel and equipment to them? Well the fact that Patriot corporations are all huddled around CN stations makes me think that for them the Caldari Navy is their bread and butter even if they have to subsidize that with Amarrian contracts nowdays. Also note that the Megas private navies (those that actually have private navies) are also in the profit making business and that they are probably going to be trying to find all sorts of ways to provide services to the Navy. This includes everything from training personnel to building ships to doing low-priority security work. And they would still have to compete with the other security corporations so the better combatants they produce for the CN the better their paycheck.
This is all of course just wild speculation and I've not hard evidence that any of it's true.
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Topic: Megacorporate Paramilitaries and CalNav (Read 3657 times)