Project Bases

[dragoon500ly]

I'm tossing into the pot, my own views of MP bases, as always, comments, jeers, opinions and flames are cheerfully accepted!

First, what does canon say? The most important installation is Prime Base and its backup. Not a lot of description was given into the Prime Base module was released.

Next is the permanent depot/base, which are described as being either manned or automated and scattered around the country. Their primary function is the resupply and support of Project teams, as well as complete stocks of materials and equipment to help start man back on the road to civilization. They uncle MARS-One vehicles and large arsenals if weapons and ammunition. It is suggested that there be no more then ten.

We also have "specialized" bases, these are the home to agriculture, hospitals, supply bases, and power stations. They are manned or automated as necessary. It is also rumoured that an experimental rocket base is buried.

Finally, canon lists the most numerous installations, the manned bolt-hole and the team supply cache. The bolt-hole is described containing nothing more than the team's freeze tubes, the team vehicle and a minimum of supplies. The bolt-hole is designed to be used once and then abandoned. The team supply cache is described as being a simple concrete cube 2m x 2m x 2m in size and containing a variety of Project Equipment and a good supply of ammunition and spare parts and a limited variety of reconstruction supplies.

[dragoon500ly]

This is a brief overview of the Morrow Project, listing it's National Command Support Bases and its Operational Regions.

Prime Base is the national command authority for the Project. It is an underground base with a dedicated staff that remains awake throughout the Final War, monitoring and evaluating communications and damage reports. After the initial fallout period is complete, Prime Base will send the recall signal that activates the Project teams. All teams assigned to Prime Base use the "Papa" designator, for example, "Papa Mike Five" is MARS Team Five assigned to Prime Base.

Omicron Base is the back-up central command facility. Personnel assigned here are in cyrogenic freeze and will be recalled with the rest of the Project. Prime Base automatically downloads information updates every 24 hours to Omicron`s computers. If Prime Base is unable to complete its mission, Omicron Base will automatically recall and assume leadership of the Project. All teams assigned to Omicron Base have the "Yankee" designator.

Sigma Base is the Project's central research facility. Here the Project's scientific talent laboured at creating fusion power, cryogenic freezing and other breakthroughs. It's personnel are in freeze, awaiting the recall signal. It's team's have the . "X-Ray" designator.

Beta Base is the storage and launch facility for the Project's satellite program. Awaiting recall here are a variety of communications, weather, surveillance and global all positioning satellites mated to disposable rockets. The launch facility contains the uplink systems and computers necessary to control the Project satellites as well assume control of any surviving satellites. Beta Base teams use the "Sierra" designator.

The Project is divided into ten regions. Each consisted of a regional command base which is responsible for the day to day operations of that regions assigned teams. Code named "Zulu" bases, the regional command bases have enhanced communications and computer links as well as dedicated command staffs.

Operational Region I covers New Foundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec (south of the St. Lawrence River), Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. "Zulu Alpha" is the command base, all assigned teams have the "Alpha" designator.

Operational Region II covers New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Zulu Bravo is the command base, all assigned teams have the Bravo designator.

Operational Region III covers North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Louisiana (east of the Mississippi River). Zulu Charlie is the command base and assigned teams have the Charlie designator.

Operational Region IV covers California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. It's command base is Zulu Delta and its team have the Delta designator.

Operational Region V covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. Zulu Echo is the command base and all teams have the Echo designator.

Operational Region VI covers Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahw, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa and Louisiana (west of the Mississippi River). It's command base is Zulu Foxtrot and its team carry the Foxtrot I'd.

Operational Region VII covers Quebec (north of the St. Lawrence River), Ontario and Labrador. It's command base is Zulu Golf, and of course, it's team carry the Golf I'd.

Operational Region VIII covers Saskatchewan, Manitoba, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota. Command base is Zulu Hotel as are its assigned teams.

Operational Region IX covers Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Wyoming. The command base is Zulu India and its team carry the India designator.

Operational Region X covers Alaska, Yuan, British Columbia, Alberta and Hawaii. It's command base is Zulu Juliet and its teams carry the Juliet designator.

[dragoon500ly]

The most common installation is the Team Supply Cache.

Each Project Team has several resupply caches scattered throughout their operational area. Each cache is stocked with a variety of equipment, including ammunition and spare parts, as well as items of potential assistance to any survivors that the Team may encounter. The Supply Cache is intended to provide a minimum of basic supplies that will allow the team to function until contact is made with their Regional Base.

For security reasons, the team is not given specific locations for their cache other than that the locations can be called up on their AutoNav by pushing the CACHE LOCATION button. The team has been instructed that, to locate the cache, they simply drive to the point on their map and start looking for the cache. It has been hidden/disguised in some manner that would only have meaning for the team.

The cache is usually buried and once located, the team will have to dug the entrance free. The entrance is a stainless steel hatch assembly located on the top. Next to the hatch, underneath a protective cover, is a card reader (power for which must be supplied by the team vehicle). Insertion of a MPID card will unlock the hatch.

The hatch itself is a simple concrete cube, of varying sizes, but can measure from 2-8 meters on a side. There is no internal power. Like the bolt-hole, the cache is filled with an inert gas at a slight overpressure. This gas must be vented before personal entry and it cannot be replaced without special equipment. As a safety note, once the hatch has been fully opened, allow ten minutes to pass to allow any residue cyro gas to escape before personnel entry.

A manifest of the cache’s contents is located on a clipboard located by the ladder next to the hatch. Due to the limited amount of space, locating a specific item requires unloading most of the cache in order to find it. In addition to the team’s supplies, there will often be some team member’s personal effects, such as CDs, books, or items such as skis or SCUBA equipment.

The cache will also provide supplies needed by survivors, such as seed grain, farming and general construction tools and supplies, textbooks, how-to-manuals, spare parts for equipment such as generators and phone systems as well as medical supplies.

Finally, each team has access to 2-4 Emergency Resupply Caches. These contain issues of personal equipment and weapons, basic ammunition loadouts as well as heavy weapons. The Emergency Resupply Cache is intended to provide only combat-orientated and basic survival equipment.

[kalos72]

Nice, thanks! Keep going! :)

[dragoon500ly]

The next most common installation is the Team Bolt-Hole.

The bolt-hole is simply a underground bunker, designed to protect its occupying team, their vehicle and a minimal amount of supplies. While a detailed description is included below, each team is reminded, that while the bolt-hole will provide both safety and security, it is designed to be abandoned.

CONSTRUCTION

The bolt-hole begins as a very large hole in the ground. The bottom-most layer consists of 4 meters by 4 meters panels, each 1 meter thick and constructed of reinforced concrete. Mounted on this floor are dozens of heavy steel springs designed to cushion the inner layer of the facility. Over this is placed another series of floor panels. Installed on this second level is a steel girder grid, which has a maze of wiring, tubing, pipes and gas canisters necessary for the operation of the bolt-hole. A third layer of floor panels is mounted on top and forms the actual floor of the structure.

The exterior wall panels are 2 meters wide, 8 meters tall and 1 meter thick, and are also constructed of reinforced concrete. Once the exterior wall has been completed, two additional sets of wall panels form the interior structure, each wall is separated by a 1.5m gap that is filled with gravel.

The top of the bolt-hole is also constructed of exterior wall panels set up in a triple layer separated by gravel. Over the very top layer, an additional layer is laid across.

The interior of the structure is painted with an eggshell white, fire-resistant paint designed to reflect and brighten any available light.

LAYOUT

The bolt-hole has several major features.

1) Weapons and Ammunition Storage: All easily removed vehicle weapons and all ammunition is stored in this blast-resistant room. The only entry is through a hydraulically operated blast door located at one end. To gain access a MPID card must be inserted into the card reader to the right of the door. In the event of any explosion, this storage room is designed to vent the force of the blast up and away from the remainder of the bolt-hole.

2) Cyrogenic Chamber: This room contains the team’s freeze tubes. Located on the left end of this room is a hydraulically operated blast door located at one end. To gain access a MPID card must be inserted into the card reader to the right of the door. Located on the outside wall is another hatch secured by a manual handle. To the left of this hatch is a grey metal wall locker, bolted to the wall. This locker contains: 1 Ration Pack; 1 Large MedKit; 4 Shovels; 1 Axe, double-bit; 2 Picks; 2 Crowbars, 400 Sandbags (empty). Next to the entrance door is what has been nicknamed the “Riot Rack”. This is a weapons rack holding two SPAS-12 combat shotguns with 50 rounds of 12 gauge ammunition. (These weapons are intended for the team vehicles).

3) Emergency Personnel Exit: Located in the Cyrogenic Chamber and intended for use only if the other two exits are blocked. This exit is packed with a very light, dry sand that is easy to dig. In fact, most of this sand will fall out of the exit, revealing a metal cylinder with a ladder mounted to one side. At the top of the later is a hatch that opens downward revealing a short length of ladder going up and a second hatch, that will also open downwards. The team knows that after opening this second hatch it will be necessary to dig 1-2 meters in order to reach the outside.

4) Main Room: located to one side of the hatch leading to the Cyrogenic Chamber is a metal picnic-style table intended to be used to clean and assemble weapons, unpack equipment and for any mission planning. At one end is a metal lockbox welded to the table. Inside this box (combination is held by the team leader and assistant team leader) is a sealed package containing mission orders and documents. Also placed on this table are bottles of fluid supplements and energy bars to assist the team in recovering from freeze.

Any team vehicles are parked in the center of this room, raised on four manual screw jacks and four metal blocks used to relieve any tension on the suspension. The vehicle(s) must be first raised, the blocks removed and then lowered to the floor. Suspended from the ceiling over each vehicle is an electrical power hook-up, connected to the vehicle’s onboard fusion reactor. This uses the bolt-hole’s power supply to give the initial jumpstart to the power plant.

A simple four-wheeled metal push cart stands next to one wall. It is used to help move equipment, weapons and ammunition around the bolt-hole.

On one wall is located the Bolt-Hole Computer. This is a very simple machine designed to monitor and control the cryogenics tubes, the ELF receiver, the atmosphere within the bolt-hole as well as the overall status of the bolt-hole systems during the suspension period. Eight hours after the recall signal has been received and the team awakened, the computer will automatically wipe its memory and shut down.

Next to the computer is a control handle for a radio antenna that will raise a 10 meter antenna when activated. A coil of cable is located here and has been run to the nearest vehicle and hooked up to the onboard radio.

On one side of the computer is a charger rack that holds the battery packs for all team equipment as well as a rack of watches for the team’s use.

5) Located off to one side of the computer is the Periscope Package. This package is lifted hydraulically into position, through the earth cover above the bolt-hole. It is designed to view the immediate area around the bolt-hole and is equipped with sensors to monitor the levels of radiation in the area. This cannot be removed from the bolt-hole.

6) Vehicle Access Doors: On the far side of the Main Room are double hydraulic doors. On the left side is a card reader and a control panel holding two levers, marked INNER and OUTER and with OPEN and CLOSED. This panel must be activated by a MPID. When opened, the inner doors rest flush against the sides of the Main Room. The outer doors are concealed behind 3 meters of earth. This exit is large and slow to open, as the armored doors are quite heavy. It is a very conspicuous and slow method of exiting the bolt-hole.

7) Vehicle Exit Tunnel: This tunnel has no standard length. It may slope anywhere from 0 degrees to as much as +45 degrees. In some cases the tunnel can be measured in negative degrees. The exact length and slope depends on local terrain conditions.

8) Personnel Exit: located on the far wall of the Main Room and used to first recon the area around the bolt-hole. This exit is packed with a very light, dry sand that is easy to dig. In fact, most of this sand will fall out of the exit, revealing a metal cylinder with a ladder mounted to one side. At the top of the later is a hatch that opens downward revealing a short length of ladder going up and a second hatch, that will also open downwards. The team knows that after opening this second hatch it will be necessary to dig 1-2 meters in order to reach the outside.

To the right of this exit is a grey metal wall locker, bolted to the exterior wall. This locker contains: 1 Ration Pack; 1 Large MedKit; 4 Shovels; 1 Axe, double-bit; 2 Picks; 2 Crowbars, 400 Sandbags (empty).

[dragoon500ly]

STORED EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

Except for the emergency supplies stored in the two wall lockers, all material in the bolt-hole is in storage. Vehicle weapons are not mounted; all munitions, supplies and ammunition are in sealed metal or plastic boxes, cans, crates and so on. Personal weapons, web gear, medkits, backpacks, etc are stored in the locker located at the end of each freeze tube. All battery powered equipment have had their battery packs pulled are placed in a charger next to the computer. These are automatically charged during the wake-up cycle.

The team members are wearing only light cotton underwear in their freeze tubes with needles in their arms, monitors wired to their chest and head, conductive shock pads taped to their chest and a respiration tube down their throats. Their MPID Card is located in a slot on the inside of the tube, removing this card unlatches and open that person’s tube. There is a one minute delay before the tube opens.

STANDARD OPERATION

While the team is in cyrosleep, the bolt-hole is filled with an inert gas at a slight overpressure. The bolt-hole itself generates a low-level electro-magnetic field, the combined effect is that nothing inside the bolt-hole suffers from the wear and tear of time.

The bolt-hole is powered by a self-contained, long-life, radioactive thermos-electric generator (RTG). The RTG module is buried in the solid rock, 30 meters below the facility. It is powered by a receptacle of low-level nuclear waste within a thick lead shield. This waste gives off heat as the radioactive material decays. Attached to the lead casing is a solid-state thermos-electric module which converts the heat into electricity. The constant heat from the waste is converted into low-level direct current which is then used to charge a series of Eternal Batteries (Project designed ultra- long-life power cells) which, in turn, power the facility.

This system is designed to provide a dependable source of electrical power that will last for hundreds of years without noticeable power degradation, so once buried, the bolt-hole would never need to be refueled.

The only problem with the RTG system, is that, due to the design limits of the system, they can only provide a limited amount of electricity, enough to run the minimal system requirements while the team is frozen, but not enough to run the bolt-hole at full power.

After receiving the recall signal, the bolt-hole computer sets the Eternal Batteries to run at OVERLOAD, thus generating the power needed to wake up the team as well as charging the team’s battery packs and---most importantly---to give the team vehicles fusion reactor its initial charge.
Important to the safe operation of the bolt-hole is the computer. This system monitors the over-pressure of the inert gas and should this pressure drop below a predetermined level, it will sound the Breach Alarm and wake the team. If any water is detected within the bolt-hole, again the computer will automatically wake the team. The computer also monitors the team’s freeze tubes and in the rare occurrence that one of the tubes malfunctions, it will recall the entire team. Finally, the computer monitors the Extreme Low Frequency (ELF) Receiver for the recall signal.

The recall signal can come from a number of places: Prime Base, Omicron Base or any Regional Command Base can trigger the recall signal.

Once the signal is received, the computer first evacuates the inert gas, replacing it with a pre-bottled atmosphere mixture. It then shuts down the electrical-magnetic field, and starts the wake-up process for the freeze tubes. It then turns on the overhead lights.

All Project vehicles are equipped with a fusion power pack with an 18-month supply of fuel. This pack requires an external power source to start the fusion reaction. A cable hanging from the ceiling has been run into the engine compartment of each vehicle and plugged into the power pack, after turning on the lights, the computer then activates the power pack. (The power cable must be manually disconnected from the pack).

After the computer has initiated the recall procedure and it has verified that all team members have been successfully recalled, the computer executes its final program, starting an eight-hour countdown then wiping all programs and shutting itself down. Once this is completed, the computer cannot be reactivated, it is essentially high-tech junk. The computer is equipped with a LCD screen that will display any messages or communiques that it has received, but this screen will fade out after 4 hours.

The bolt-hole’s Eternal Batteries will provide power for twelve hours after recall, they then will turn off. The air supply is good for up to eighteen hours of breathable air.

The override setting essentiality destroys the batteries and they are not recoverable. The RTG cannot be recovered. The bolt-hole is not designed for habitation, there is no water supply, no sanitation and no ventilation. The team must abandon the bolt-hole.

[kalos72]

How does the breakdown work in your game Dragoon?

Prime
Regional
...
...
Team Bolt Hole?

In some of the details I have seen, it feels that there is ALOT of resources spent at the higher echelons and very few of the most needed ones at the local level.

One medical Team in a Region of 5 states seems off to me, but I could be entirely missing the way the typical structure works.

I prefer the idea of a Regional Operations Center (my naming concept) in each state and then Local Operations Centers split out over 4-5 different districts across the state that house Combined Operations Groups that have all the particular skills/teams attached.

IDK, might be my MP naivety OR perhaps that my version of MP is set in the T2K world where there isn't Time Travel or such a massive nuclear exchange that happens 150 years in the past.

[dragoon500ly]

I go National-Regional-Group-Team.

Group kinda/sorta covers (roughly) a state. I run groups for major cities or key resources and then groups that cover the rural areas.

At the regional level, you see power teams, larger science teams, commo teams, medical teams as well as the depot teams, you will also MARS and recon teams, MARS to protect the specialists and recon teams that are larger and lighter than normal and intended for LRRP missions.

Groups vary wildly from 2-5 teams to a 75 team group that covers the LA-San Diego metroplex. LOL, in other words groups are a work in progress. One of my buddies works for FEMA and we have been running weekend skull sessions, nit picking the Project. He actually considers the concept workable. More on that later.

[dragoon500ly]

According to canon, the Project has two types of communications bases. In the module Final Watch, we are introduced to Base Kilo Alpha, a automated base and in American Out back we have the manned commo base Kilo Echo. K

Kilo Echo has a 6 person team assigned to operate it. We are also advised that it is one of a chain of 26 repeater stations, not including the Prime Base radio facilities. Of these, 8 are manned Kilo Echo types, 13 are Kilo Alpha types, 4 are attached to other Project facilities and the last is part of a power generation facility.

The main radio associated with these stations is the AN/PRC-70 which is listed as having a 4,000km with the AS-2975 antenna for CW only. Range for SSB and AM is up to 800 kilometres, range for FM is 40 kilometres.

The only real objection that I have with this network is that of using Project facilities as part of this network, if only from a security point. Anything that broadcasts cannot be detected and traced.

[dragoon500ly]

The module Fall Back! Has the next type of canon Project base, Agriculture Base TA-14. Here John Duke has done a wonderful job of describing the layout and the wealth of material a single agriculture base contains.

Unless otherwise requested, I will simply refer you to this module.

[dragoon500ly]

Each Project Team has several resupply caches scattered throughout their operational area. Each cache is stocked with a variety of equipment that the team will need, as well as items of assistance for any survivors that may be encountered. The team cache is intended to provide a minimum of basic supplies that will allow the team to function until contact is made with their group commanders.

The cache system is intended to provide supplies needed to aid in the reconstruction of the area. As such they contain large amounts of seed grain, farming equipment, various types of tool kits, textbooks, how-to-manuals, spare parts for equipment such as generators and phone systems in addition to the team’s resupply needs of rations, ammunition and trade goods.

Primary resupply for the teams comes from the various Group and Regional and National Supply Bases. Group Bases (nicknamed “Seven-Elevens”) are intended to support the Operational Group with up to two years-worth of basic supplies. The Regional Supply Bases (nicknamed “Bruce-Marts”) contain massive amounts of supplies as well as basic manufacturing equipment and limited stocks of raw material. The National Supply Bases have stocks of supplies, but feature numerous pieces of manufacturing equipment as well as stockpiles of raw material.

Finally, each team has access to Emergency Resupply caches (nicknamed “Stash-N-Grabs”). Each team has between 2-4 of these caches which contain reissues of personnel equipment and weapons, basic ammunition loadouts and any heavy weapons that the team may reasonably expect to need. The Stash-N-Grab is intended to provide only combat-orientated and basic survival equipment.

The module The Starnaman Incident, Delta Base we have an excellent listing of the items considered necessary for a major reconstruction effort.

[dragoon500ly]

The concept of a National Supply Base (NSB) is something that I have been working off and on for the last 3 months. It is a major work in progress.
The idea began with an examination of the nuclear strike patterns contained in the North American Target List, V1.01. In this, we see the destruction of much of the heavy industry of the United States. With this level of destruction, would the Project planners not have some kind of idea about rebuilding this critical infrastructure?

A NSB simply contains a variety of necessary supplies, but focuses instead on the manufacturing of this equipment. This concept consists of an abandoned mine, that has additional shafts dug for the siting of various needed manufacturing equipment. One shaft might be dedicated to the production of small arms and ammunition, another on the construction of fusion power packs, a third to produce electronic gear and so forth.
Additional levels would house trained technicians to operate this equipment.

Overall, I believe that there may be between 3-6 NSBs to support the project.

I do apologize for the lack of detail, but, it is in progress.

[cosmicfish]

I go National-Regional-Group-Team.

Group kinda/sorta covers (roughly) a state. I run groups for major cities or key resources and then groups that cover the rural areas.

I use National-Regional-Area-Group-Team, with 1 Nation*, 7 Regions, 43 Areas**, 216 Groups***, and... a lot of Teams. National, Regional, and Area commands have permanent command facilities, Groups and Teams are mobile. So for me, an Area is roughly the size of a state, on average.

Groups vary wildly from 2-5 teams to a 75 team group that covers the LA-San Diego metroplex. LOL, in other words groups are a work in progress.

I tried to keep units standardized both because it makes planning a lot easier and because the nature of the mission is such that activating the Project is already going to require a major shifting of assets to address Project losses, survivor locations, and habitable areas. I look at it like Congressional districting, only without the partisanship - Divide the area of interest into X sections of roughly equal population**** and optimize so that the perimeter/area ratio is minimized. And then on Day 1, throw everything out the window and redraw the lines as needed!

One of my buddies works for FEMA and we have been running weekend skull sessions, nit picking the Project. He actually considers the concept workable. More on that later.

Looking forward to the output of this!!


*: under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
**: Each Region has 6 Areas, plus Alaska is a separate Area Command that reports directly to Prime Base.
***: 5 per Area, with Hawaii as a separate Group reporting direct to Prime Base.
****: On my to do list is to figure out some kind of scaling factor that accounts for the fact that some people will require heavier Project staffing. For example, Wyoming may require more Project members per capita simply because they are so spread out. Conversely, an inhabited city may ALSO require more staff because of higher hazards. The reason I have not delved into this is because it may be more than I can casually address.

[kalos72]

Great stuff Dragoon, thank you!

I cannot find the Fallback module in PDF but I will keep looking.

Do you have some thoughts on how big the area is for a Project Team?

As for the relay stations, great point and idea. I hadn't thought about this really, is SSB true voice communications versus CW/Morse?

[cosmicfish]

The concept of a National Supply Base (NSB) is something that I have been working off and on for the last 3 months. It is a major work in progress.
The idea began with an examination of the nuclear strike patterns contained in the North American Target List, V1.01. In this, we see the destruction of much of the heavy industry of the United States. With this level of destruction, would the Project planners not have some kind of idea about rebuilding this critical infrastructure?

A NSB simply contains a variety of necessary supplies, but focuses instead on the manufacturing of this equipment. This concept consists of an abandoned mine, that has additional shafts dug for the siting of various needed manufacturing equipment. One shaft might be dedicated to the production of small arms and ammunition, another on the construction of fusion power packs, a third to produce electronic gear and so forth.
Additional levels would house trained technicians to operate this equipment.

Overall, I believe that there may be between 3-6 NSBs to support the project.

I do apologize for the lack of detail, but, it is in progress.
My TOE includes factories and logistics bases at all levels of the organization.

On the first part, I wanted to make sure that the Project had the ability to do more than scrounge, production capacity means they can help build factories and get an economy going. I have 3 National factories (I try not to have just *1* of anything in my Project!), 7 Regional factories, and 2 facilities per Area - a general machine shop to support the mission of the Project, and a maintenance shop to support Project assets.

On the second, moving assets and supplies around the country is always going to be a major challenge, so I have a similar set of bases devoted to housing and distributing whatever assets the Project has. Not only are there significant pre-war stores, but one of the "when possible" tasks for field Teams is recovering noteworthy assets and getting them into the Morrow logistics chain.

"You need a replacement XM-226 dynamo, a pair of 60 gpm pumps, and a new crankshaft to get that hydroelectric plant up and running? Well, a Recon Team in Mississippi marked a salvageable XM-226 a month ago, we'll send someone to collect it but it'll probably take a few months to get it to you. We've got plenty of salvaged pumps, you can have those today. As to the crankshaft, get us a drawing and we'll send it to the regional facility, they can handle something that large, we can't. Maybe two weeks?"

[cosmicfish]

Great stuff Dragoon, thank you!

Agreed! Lots of great work here!

I cannot find the Fallback module in PDF but I will keep looking.

I lack the last couple of modules, I would greatly appreciate info on the ag base.

Do you have some thoughts on how big the area is for a Project Team?
Can't speak for @dragoon500ly, but I am currently dividing everything by expected post-war population, so the area covered by any Team or Command can vary dramatically.

As for the relay stations, great point and idea. I hadn't thought about this really, is SSB true voice communications versus CW/Morse?
SSB can absolutely be true voice, it is really just a bandwidth-management technique and if the original signal can handle voice then SSB can as well. I also like unmanned relay stations, but also use manned stations to handle comms management tasks. I also include a Project intranet with an email system - real-time communications are great, but email allows for records management as well. Submit requests, file reports, etc.

[kalos72]

So if you are splitting it by population, are you saying that a Team can handle say an area with 100000 people pre-war, An Area Base would be made per 1 million or something?

I was going to split a state into Districts of 20 million and each District had its own Command/Resupply Base or something. Next question was, how many Teams, or other organizational units below that, would be required within that District.

As to the radio line, so putting a relay station every 700km would give adequate coverage typically?

[dragoon500ly]

Great stuff Dragoon, thank you!

I cannot find the Fallback module in PDF but I will keep looking.

Do you have some thoughts on how big the area is for a Project Team?

As for the relay stations, great point and idea. I hadn't thought about this really, is SSB true voice communications versus CW/Morse?

Single side band is AM voice, but with distortion (basically you sound like Donald Duck, underwater) in my own experience, it involves a lot of repeat last transmission. Still better than nothing, but expect lots of atmospheric interference. Best source on the net is Ham Universe for details.

[mmartin798]

The main radio associated with these stations is the AN/PRC-70 which is listed as having a 4,000km with the AS-2975 antenna for CW only. Range for SSB and AM is up to 800 kilometres, range for FM is 40 kilometres.

One thing to remember about these ranges is that they are for two specific antennas, one a rod (monopole) and the other a dipole. Nothing prevents the use of a properly tuned directional antenna, like a yagi antenna, to extent the range of repeaters well beyond those ranges. The biggest difference is that the monopole and dipole antenna have radiation patterns that work much better for broadcast than the highly directional nature of a yagi.

If the intent of the repeater is to facilitate point to point communications, the yagi would be the way to go. If they send and receive to a large area around the ground station, you would use a monopole or dipole antenna. Not having the module to read the intended use for the repeaters, I cannot say with any certainty what the spacing of repeaters would be. It is possible that they place different antennas at the repeaters to increase coverage while minimizing number of bases. For instance, there may be a number of stations that use dipole antennas that are wider spaced with a large, but acceptable, marginal signal strength that are interconnected via a network of directional repeaters. This would allow the directional repeaters to operate a lower power and therefore be smaller than the broadcast bases.

[cosmicfish]

One thing to remember about these ranges is that they are for two specific antennas, one a rod (monopole) and the other a dipole. Nothing prevents the use of a properly tuned directional antenna, like a yagi antenna, to extent the range of repeaters well beyond those ranges. The biggest difference is that the monopole and dipole antenna have radiation patterns that work much better for broadcast than the highly directional nature of a yagi.

If the intent of the repeater is to facilitate point to point communications, the yagi would be the way to go. If they send and receive to a large area around the ground station, you would use a monopole or dipole antenna. Not having the module to read the intended use for the repeaters, I cannot say with any certainty what the spacing of repeaters would be. It is possible that they place different antennas at the repeaters to increase coverage while minimizing number of bases. For instance, there may be a number of stations that use dipole antennas that are wider spaced with a large, but acceptable, marginal signal strength that are interconnected via a network of directional repeaters. This would allow the directional repeaters to operate a lower power and therefore be smaller than the broadcast bases.

You can also use multiple antennas on the same system - perhaps use directional antennas like yagis or dishes to connect to specific distant locations while using a dipole or monopole to broadcast or receive locally. Personally, I would expect this architecture to be a staple of team communications - put monopole on the hull serve as a hub for team communications, use a directional to connect to higher command.

[dragoon500ly]

One thing to remember about these ranges is that they are for two specific antennas, one a rod (monopole) and the other a dipole. Nothing prevents the use of a properly tuned directional antenna, like a yagi antenna, to extent the range of repeaters well beyond those ranges. The biggest difference is that the monopole and dipole antenna have radiation patterns that work much better for broadcast than the highly directional nature of a yagi.

If the intent of the repeater is to facilitate point to point communications, the yagi would be the way to go. If they send and receive to a large area around the ground station, you would use a monopole or dipole antenna. Not having the module to read the intended use for the repeaters, I cannot say with any certainty what the spacing of repeaters would be. It is possible that they place different antennas at the repeaters to increase coverage while minimizing number of bases. For instance, there may be a number of stations that use dipole antennas that are wider spaced with a large, but acceptable, marginal signal strength that are interconnected via a network of directional repeaters. This would allow the directional repeaters to operate a lower power and therefore be smaller than the broadcast bases.

Both modules make mention of being radio, satellite, microwave relay capable. They also mention a 50m mast, but no further details.

My understanding is that these are relay stations.

One thing that I've done in my games is equip the team with a dozen footlocker-sized units that contain a 15m antenna, solar cell panels, batteries and a radio set for retrans only. The idea is to set one up every 30-40 kms for broadcasting the team's transmissions. Secondary use is to help ID areas were their survivors that understand technology....when they scavenge the retrans equipment.

[kalos72]

So if you are splitting it by population, are you saying that a Team can handle say an area with 100000 people pre-war, An Area Base would be made per 1 million or something?

I was going to split a state into Districts of 20 million and each District had its own Command/Resupply Base or something. Next question was, how many Teams, or other organizational units below that, would be required within that District.


I dont want to get too far off topic on the radio lines, maybe split this off to a whole new convo?

Anyones thoughts on the above please?

[cosmicfish]

I dont want to get too far off topic on the radio lines, maybe split this off to a whole new convo?

Anyones thoughts on the above please?
I think it is complicated.

First, you really need to draw a distinction between pre-war and post-war populations - highly urban areas are likely to be more devastated than very rural areas, so two areas with identical population numbers pre-war may have very different numbers post-war. I put together a rough estimate of survival rates in another thread, and used the results to draw my regional boundaries.

For reference, I use 7 Regions (5,878 staff each) with an estimated post-war population of 4.5-5.5 million each. That means each of their 6 Districts* (876 staff each) is responsible for about 750,000-900,000, and that each of the Districts' 5 Groups (131 staff each) is responsible for about 150,000-180,000. Regardless, this is about 1,000 post-war population per team member, but don't put too much behind this number as it has little real meaning - anything below the Group level is too specialized to have responsibility over a population, their duty is to the Group population.

Second, the term "can handle" has no meaning. The aid that any team can give is dependent on their resources and the needs of the region, but there is no real top limit on the amount of aid the region will need and no specific mandate on what the Project should provide. Ultimately, the Project is simply resource limited. If the Project was 10 people, they could still help, just not much. If you have specific objectives (the Project will perform X tasks for Y population in Z time) then perhaps we can discuss whether or not a particular organization can handle it, but until then...

Third, it is always a challenge to remember that the Project should be built with the expectation of it working, even though the game is dependent on something going majorly wrong. Could they "handle" a particular population 5 years post-war? Perhaps, but it is 150 years post-war, and the situation is radically different. Easier, in fact - if the Project had gone off as planned it would have been a challenging task demanding all the Project could do and more, but as it is, anything they can do is great and anything they can't do is at least not catastrophic.


*: I was calling these Areas, but that word is just too general.

[kalos72]

I am leaning towards something like this, but its still very early and the naming convention is new:

National Operations Center (NOVEMBER) - 1 NOC - Headquarters - Permanent

Regional Operations Center (ROMEO) - 1 ROC per FEMA Region add Canada - Permanent

State Operations Center (SIERRA) - 1 SOC per State, depending on state
size/population, for examples Texas might have two but Maine,New Hampshire, etc might be combined under 1 - Permanent

District Operations Center (DELTA) - 1 DOC per Post-War Populations of between 1 to 5 Million people or major city - identified by County - Permanent

Special Operations Centers (ZULU) - As needed to address special priorities or needs - Could be Permanent or Mobile

Team Operations Facilities (TANGO) - Not sure yet besides the obvious but most likely Mobile.


My thinking is that storage facilities should be more localized and general versus Ag storage and Engineering storage in different facilities in the same area. Give a District the supplies it needs to handle ALL the needs of those people/area its assigned to support.

I am also using a roughly 65% death rate vs 2000 numbers, remember I am working this out in a T2K type environment so its a fair bit different then wild America 150 years after a full scale nuclear war.

[dragoon500ly]

Agriculture Base TA-14, from Fall Back!
By John Duke, a Morrow Project Module from Timeline.

Agriculture Team A-60 has seven members. The team has a veterinarian, a botanist, a historian, a biologist, and ecologist, a zoologist and an agronomist. The veterinarian doubles as the team’s medic. Their assigned vehicle is the Ranger MPV.

Agriculture teams have specialized bases for their use. These bases were essentially large warehouses, full of farming materials such as sacks of uncontaminated grain and seeds, stocks of scratch plows and other nineteenth century farming tools, fusion powered heavy equipment, fertilizers, insecticides, home canning supplies, books on farming, decontamination, food preservation, and more. The unique thing about an Ag base is the fact that it has farm animals, in hibernation.

The entire base is buried underground, built under the cover of digging up and decontaminating an old chemical waste dump. If it were above ground the base would be as tall as a three-story building. The ceilings in the rooms are five meters high and the ceilings in the bays are ten meters high, with doors that reach the ceiling. The ceiling in the bays are equipped with a series of mobile cranes and tracks running throughout the fodder bay, the vehicle bay and the freeze tube bay.

FACILITY LAYOUT

A. FODDER AND FEED BAY: this room opens into the vehicle bay and contains six months of feed for the frozen animals. Corn, hay, soybeans, and alfalfa are all stored for the long term. The supplies are stored in 20kg bags, packed in air-tight bins filled with nitrogen gas. These bins can be loaded onto and transported by either the dump trucks or the 2.5-ton trucks. These trucks are located in the vehicle bay. Each truck can hold three bins.

B. FERTILIZER BINS: The room next to the fodder bay contains bins of various fertilizers. The majority of the bins contain calcium (in the form of lime), nitrogen (in the form of urea), phosphorous (in the form of ammonium phosphate) and potassium (in the form of potash). All of these substances are solid granules, can be spread on a field using common farm machinery.
The other bins contain smaller amounts of commercial fertilizers such as sulfur, magnesium, iron, zinc, boron, molybdenum and chlorine. These are used in small amounts compared to nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and calcium. These are also stored in sacks of granules.

C. GRAIN BINS: This room opens into the vehicle bay. It is the grain bin storeroom. The bins contain sacks of wheat, corn, alfalfa, soy, grass and peanuts, all ready to be planted. There are also a smaller number of bins full of vegetable and fruit seeds.

D. HAND TOOLS: These are the stocks of tools to be given out to civilians for subsistence agriculture. There are hundreds of shovels, hoes, spades, rakes, sickles, scratch plows, harness kits, axes, home canning supplies, churns, spinning wheels and other farm tools. Subsistence agriculture is very labor intensive, but these tools would make it easier and would fill the gaps left by the loss of large-scale machinery.

E. BOOKS: Boxes of “how-to” books on farming, gardening, decontamination and homesteading ready to be given out.

F. INSECTIDES: These chemicals are stored as solids, but must be made into liquids before spraying. Each compound is species-specific for one of the insects that prey on common crops in this area. Each of these poisons is as safe for the environment as possible. The members of A-60 have had training in the safest means of applying them.

On modern farms, insect control is vital. Without some form of pest control, food harvests could be expected to drop anywhere from 20-60%. In addition, there may be times when an entire crop is in danger of destruction if the insects are not controlled by any means possible. In the worlds envisioned by the Council of Tomorrow, every harvest would be needed to combat starvation.

Chemicals like DDT, which have given insecticides a bad name, were not stocked. Only the safest, most ecologically sound pesticides were stores, with instructions to use them only if absolutely necessary.

The Agriculture teams are all knowledgeable about other, more organic methods of insect control, but the planners knew there would be times when there was no other option to chemical spraying.

G. WATER TANK: Although the base has a well underneath, this tank was filled with several thousand gallons of pure water, just in case. It is connected to the plumbing system. There is a water treatment system in the utility room. The treatment system is fusion powered and operates independently from the base’s power supply. The unit can be disconnected from the plumbing system.

H. RAMP: A gentle ramp to the second floor.

I. VEHICLE BAY: While the animals in freeze tubes take up a lot of room, they are only a small part of TA-14. The vehicle garage is the largest part of the base. Not many vehicles are here, but they are all large machines, larger than a V-150. There are 2 combines, 2 planters, 2 8-row cultivators, 2 tractors, 2 large dump trucks, 2 DED earthmovers (for use as forklifts among other things), 2 specialized scrapers and 2 2.5-ton trucks. All of these vehicles are fusion powered versions of commercial designs. Also included are 10 flatbed wagons. These are the standard 4-wheel flatbed wagon with stave sideboards used by farmers throughout the U.S.

The combines are harvesting machines set up to harvest most grain and seed crops, such as wheat, soybeans and alfalfa. A combine can even harvest corn, remove the husks and shell the gain from the bobs all in one process. The planters are designed to handle a variety of seeds and can plant them at any desired depth and spacing. A planter is essential for efficient use of seed, sine it puts the seed at just the right place, allowing nearly all of them to be grown and harvested. A cultivator is a large machine used for weeding huge areas of land at one time. The tractors are all-purpose machines which can be used to pull and power a large variety of farm implements including gang plows, mowers, hay balers, harrows and sprayers. Two of each of these attachments are stored in the vehicle bay. It was expected that other attachments could be salvaged from among civilian equipment. The two large scrapers operate by scrapping off and removing a preset amount of topsoil, grinding it up and throwing it into a dump truck. This was included to remove any soil that was heavily contaminated with fallout or bio-weapons. Decontamination teams have similar equipment and the means of separating the radioactive particles from the rest of the soil, and for sterilizing the bio-weapons. The 2.5-ton trucks are essentially the same as the trucks in Riverton. These trucks are armed with a .50-caliber machinegun.

There aren’t very many of these machines for the area that A-60 was supposed to cover, so 100 IC-to-fusion conversion kits were stored. These kits include vehicular fusion packs of several sizes and the power systems required to convert a civilian internal combustion engine to fusion. It was assumed that large numbers of civilian farm machines would be converted to fusion, in order to make the farmers more self-sufficient and efficient. There are also 300 kits for converting gasoline engines to run on ethanol or methanol.

The vehicles here are high-capacity machines, capable of working a large amount of acreage per day, ten or twenty times faster than a human being using hand tools. It was intended that the Ag team, while the process of converting civilian equipment, would travel from farm to farm using these machines on as large an area as possible, as quickly as possible, and then move onto the next.

J. ANIMAL FREEZE TUBE BAYS: The Council of Tomorrow expected that after a war, and the attendant fallout and food shortages, many farm animals would have perished. Whether due to the fact that they would be grazing on fallout contaminated fields, killed for food by starving people, succumb to biological weapons, or perish from a lack of food in a world that would have little to spare, the Council assumed that five to ten years after a war, most farms would have lost most of their animals.

Animals are essential to a self-sufficient farm. Cows provide milk, cheese, meat, leather and fertilizer. Horses are draft animals capable of plowing a field or being used for transportation without petroleum. Pigs are essential for recycling food waste into fertilizer and meat. Chickens provide eggs and meat. Sheep provide wool and mutton. Cats eat rats. Dogs guard flocks from wolves, coyotes, weasels, men and other assorted carnivores. Without farm animals, the survivors would find subsistence farming nearly impossible.
As it turned out, the Council of Tomorrow was correct. Very few animals survived the first decade after the War. Even 150 years after the War, areas that should be very productive agriculture regions are on the edge of starvation and poverty, largely due to the scarcity of domesticated animals.

Since the early prototypes of the freeze tubes were developed using animals as subjects, it wasn’t difficult to freeze farm animals. The first successful hibernation and awakening was performed on a dog. In 1963, Morrow scientists were more confident about to awaken a cow than a human. As time passed, of course, the process was perfected. A large number of the most common and useful domesticated animals were put into cold-sleep and stored in Agriculture bases. Ninety percent of these animals were female, for obvious reasons. To supplement the animals, frozen sperm and artificial insemination equipment were stored. The plan was to have the Ag teams give out animals to as many different farms as possible, get them all pregnant by artificial insemination, and start producing a healthy next generation as soon as possible. With any luck at all, the animals would be able to continue reproducing themselves and reestablish the populations within a short time. Beyond the fact that stored sperm eliminated the need for freezing male animals, it also allowed for a larger genetic base than would have been possible using only the small population of animals frozen.
Since it was possible that the high radiation levels immediately following the War might sterilize or damage the genetic material of surviving local farm animals, Morrow planners recommended using only the stored sperm for reproduction.

There are 50 cows, 50 horses, 100 pigs, 100 sheep, and 100 chickens. The freeze tubes are stored on racks reaching the ceiling. One of the mobile cranes is required to bring the freeze tube down in order to wake the animal. There is an emergency personnel exit in this room, similar to those found in MP bolt-holes.

K. FODDER BAY OVERHEAD: All overhead areas have tracks for the mobile cranes.

L. BUNK ROOM: The living quarters of the base. Since TA-14 was essentially a warehouse, the living quarters are very spartan. Two bunk rooms with four bunks each. The base is not as uncomfortable as Delta Base, but neither is it all that pleasant. For one thing, the base is unheated, and is kept at nearly 60F year around. The living quarters have the bare minimal of furnishings and equipment.

M. BUNK ROOM: The same as L. except it contains a hidden door that accesses the corridor leading to A-60’s bolt hole.

N. KITCHEN: A small kitchen adequate for producing simple meals. Contains a refrigerator, stove, sink, counter and cabinets.

O. DAY ROOM: Contains a small table and 4 chairs.

P. LATRINE: Here is a small bathroom with sink, toilet and shower.

Q. MISSION COMMAND: There are two desks, one with a computer terminal and one with a radio. Both desks have drawers with common office supplies. The radio has an encoder for raising C-13, A-60 or any other team, if the designation and code signal is known. The computer has a complete list of inventory. The computer can run other programs when they are loaded. There disk drives that will accept 5.25in, 3.5in or Morrow vehicular tapes. A huge number of agriculture-related reference books are stored on disk and kept in the office. The chairs are fairly comfortable office chairs. There is an empty set of shelves on one wall. This office was intended to be used until the warehouse was empty.

R. GENERAL STORES: Equipment and supplies for the living quarters and office as well as spare parts for base equipment.

S. MICROBIOLOGICAL AND LAB STORES: Rhizobium, semen, germ plasma, algae, fungi, agar and other types of important microbiological cultures were freeze-dried and stored here. The cultures were flash-frozen and dehydrated and stored in vacuum -sealed air-tight containers, allowing to be stored indefinitely. Nearly all the cultures are still viable, and can be utilized again by the addition of water. The bacteria and fungi samples can be growth cultured to increase stocks and they will grow very quickly in nutrient broth or agar, providing nearly unlimited amounts of these important cultures.

There are also a large stock of important lab equipment, chemicals and other supplies for the labs in this room.

T & U. LABS: These two rooms are small laboratories, one for plants and microorganisms, one for animals and fish. Primarily for use by the Ag team, the labs have everything needed for soil and water sample analysis, biological, microbiological or botanical investigations, animal research, development of hybrids and applied work on eradication of blights and diseases, but the labs can also be used for other purposes. For instance, part of one lab is set up to do biopsies of dead animals, but can be used for surgery on humans or animals. There are enough standard chemicals and pieces of equipment to do chemical analysis and limited production. The rows of tanks and lights can be used to grow a garden for food or research. The refrigerators can be used to keep all sorts of things cold, just as the incubators can keep all sorts of things warm. Among other things, each lab has a Science computer (described in Lonestar), refrigerators, ovens, incubators, microscopes, centrifuges, spectroscopes, autoclaves, an electron microscope and an Expanded CBR Kit.

V. UTILITY ROOM: Contains the heavy equipment for the base environment. The water treatment plant, the fusion power plant, electrical relays, water pipes, air ducts and filters, internal environment monitors, air tanks and laundry machines can be found here. There is also an emergency personnel exit here.

AA. CORRIDOR: Corridor leading to A-60’s bolt-hole. Has a hidden door at one end leading into Bunk Room M. The other end opens into the team’s bolt hole.

AB. BOLT-HOLE: This is A-60’s bolt-hole. This room contains only freeze tubes and associated support machinery.

Can't include the map as my scanner is kaput, but this will give you idea of the concept.

[dragoon500ly]

Great stuff Dragoon, thank you!

I cannot find the Fallback module in PDF but I will keep looking.

Do you have some thoughts on how big the area is for a Project Team?

As for the relay stations, great point and idea. I hadn't thought about this really, is SSB true voice communications versus CW/Morse?

I typically assign a Recon Team a primary operational area of 200kms. They will often have a secondary operational area of about 500kms from their bolt-hole. I want the recon teams to be out and about.

MARS Teams are typically responsible for a 400km area.

Science Teams run about 1,200km area.

[kalos72]

I typically assign a Recon Team a primary operational area of 200kms. They will often have a secondary operational area of about 500kms from their bolt-hole. I want the recon teams to be out and about.

MARS Teams are typically responsible for a 400km area.

Science Teams run about 1,200km area.


Thanks for the detail dragoon.

Let's take Arkansas as an example, at 137000 square KMS.
685 Recon Teams@ 6 per team=4110 Recon Members
342 MARS Teams@10 per team-3420 MARS Members
114 Science Teams@10 per team = 1140 Science members

Is that the sort of breakdown you see?

[dragoon500ly]

Command and Control

The “US Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms”, defines command and control as: "The exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission. Also called C2.

The edition of the Dictionary "As Amended Through April 2010" elaborates, "Command and control functions are performed through an arrangement of personnel, equipment, communications, facilities, and procedures employed by a commander in planning, directing, coordinating, and controlling forces and operations in the accomplishment of the mission." However, this sentence is missing from the "command and control" entry for the edition "As Amended Through 15 August 2014."

Commanding officers are assisted in executing these tasks by specialized staff officers and enlisted personnel. These military staff are a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units.

The purpose of a military staff is mainly that of providing accurate, timely information which by category represents information on which command decisions are based. The key application is that of decisions that effectively manage unit resources. While information flow toward the commander is a priority, information that is useful or contingent in nature is communicated to lower staffs and units

Another term often heard in the later part of the 20th Century is “C3I” or Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence. This is further defined as:

Command: The exercise of authority based upon certain knowledge to attain an objective.

Control: The process of verifying and correcting activity such that the objective or goal of command is accomplished.

Communication: Ability to exercise the necessary liaison to exercise effective command between tactical or strategic units to command.

Intelligence: Includes collection as well as analysis and distribution of information.

Typically, C3I is exercised in a command and control center is typically a secure room or building in a government, military or prison facility that operates as the agency's dispatch center, surveillance monitoring center, coordination office and alarm monitoring center all in one. Command and control centers are operated by a government or municipal agency.

Within the Project, C3I is exercised through a tier of command bases. Overall control is exercised through Prime Base.

Prime Base was always envisioned as a facility that would remain awake during the War and its immediate aftermath before recalling the frozen teams. Within Prime, there would be a dedicated team of professionals who would observe the War, collecting data but helpless to affect the outcome. This information, unobtainable in any other way would be of critical importance in determining what teams would first be activated and their immediate mission priorities. Once the teams were recalled, then Prime would act as the “national command authority” for the Project.

So, important is the role of Prime Base, it is the only major facility that has an identical duplicate, Omicron Base, that has its personnel frozen and ready to be recalled if anything happens to Prime Base.

For further details of Prime and Omicron Base, I refer you to the module “Prime Base” as well as the Prime Base thread that has been running on this forum.

In the chain of command, the next tier is the ten Regional Command Bases. Each of these bases contain the regional command team, a communications team, a science team, a MARS team, four Recon teams, a medical team and a logistic support team, all told some 150 personnel work and live here.

GENERAL LAYOUT
(from Chris Thompson on the morrowproject@cuenet.com )

Each base is completely buried with a vehicle access, an aviation access and five personnel exits.

The base itself consists of four levels, and a separate reactor, warehouse complex and communications array.

LEVEL ONE

The first level consists of a decontamination section (for the vehicle and aviation access points) and the bases vehicle parking bay/repair bay. The vehicle access ramp leads down into the vehicle parking bay which holds the bases’ complement of vehicles and aircraft. This area measures some 300-meters in length by 200-meters wide with a ceiling height of 20-meters. Around two of the walls are racks holding essential supplies for the vehicles. Along one wall are larger racks holding tires for the bases’ vehicles.

In one corner of the parking bay is an aircraft lift (30-meters by 30-meters) capable of lifting loads of up to 30,000kgs. This lift runs down to level three.

Opposite the aircraft lift is a personnel entrance that leads to a tunnel that runs roughly along the vehicle ramp.

The attached repair bay is 100-meters long by 50-meters wide with a height of 20-meters. The repair holds several racks capable of holding the weight of any ground vehicle assigned to the base. The walls of the repair bay are lined with tool lockers and racks of spare parts for common Project vehicles. Along the far wall of the repair bay is a section measuring 100-meters long by 10-meters wide with a height of 10-meters. Here are located a series of workshops and offices for the logistical support team. The shops on the first level can handle most vehicle repair needs as well as fabricating larger parts in the machine shop.

Located on an outside wall are two sets of doors, one is a lift that connects all the levels, the second leads to a set of stairs that wrap around the lift shaft.

LEVEL TWO

This level consists of personnel quarters and kitchen/mess hall, rec room, library, computer complex, hospital and offices for the command team, including a map room/situation room and two briefing rooms.

LEVEL THREE

This level holds the aircraft hangar, workshop and stores. The hanger bay takes up 100-meters by 100-meters by 20-meters. The rest of the level mainly consists of store rooms containing spare parts for the bases aircraft. An area adjacent to the lift houses the aviation workshop.

LEVEL FOUR

This level holds the environmental systems for the base including NBC filtration units and a 100,000-gallon tank for fresh water as well as air circulation, heating and cooling and sewage treatment facilities. Along one wall is a gym with weight room, and a firing range. Around the outer wall is a running track. On the south wall are the access corridors to the warehouse complex.

WAREHOUSE COMPLEX
There are four tunnels leading out and down from the base for 100 meters, at the end of each tunnel is a 100-meter by 100-meters by 20-meter storage chamber. Access to the tunnels is controlled through chip readers at the security doors leading to the tunnels and at security doors at the storage chamber end of the tunnel.

Chamber One houses the bases armory and munitions storage.

Chamber Two houses spare parts for MPVs and the bases aircraft.

Chamber Three houses general issue equipment.

Chamber Four houses food stores.

REACTOR CHAMBER
In the middle of level four is a small personal lift (4-man capacity) and a ladder behind a lead-lined security door. This leads down 250 meters to another lead-lined security door. Passing through this second door leads to a 15 meter by 15 meters by 10 meter reinforced concrete room (with lead lining within the walls) Here rests the bases fusion reactor and its support equipment. Along the walls are a series of lockers holding tools, and spare parts for the reactor.

COMMUNICATIONS ARRAY
Located on a hillside overlooking the base is a communications array that includes radio antennas, radio mast, microwave relays and satellite dishes. With this array, the base can communicate throughout its region as well as communicate with Prime Base.

VEHICLES ASSIGNED

6 Ranger MPV
8 V-150 APCs
4 V-150 w/20mm
2 V-150 w/81mm mortars
6 2.5-ton trucks
10 Quadrunners

AIRCRAFT ASSIGNED
2 Otter aircraft
2 Beaver aircraft
2 OH-6 helicopters
4 UH-60 helicopters

[dragoon500ly]

Thanks for the detail dragoon.

Let's take Arkansas as an example, at 137000 square KMS.
685 Recon Teams@ 6 per team=4110 Recon Members
342 MARS Teams@10 per team-3420 MARS Members
114 Science Teams@10 per team = 1140 Science members

Is that the sort of breakdown you see?

Don't go by a KMS, I also modify by critical infrastructure, military bases, etc. Don't forget I also use a 400km secondary operational area, so a Recon team might be responsible for an area of 600km in total.

Each of the Regional Command Bases have the following either assigned directly to the base, or to support regional operations:
Command Team
Communications Team
Operations Team
Logistics & Support Team
Aviation Team
Power Generation Team
MARS Team (Base Security)
MARS Team (HAAM)
MARS TEAM (Special Operations)
Recon Team (LRP)
Recon Team (LRP)
Recon Team (LRP)
Recon Team (LRP)
2-4 Engineering Teams
1-2 Frozen Watch Teams

Because these teams are intended to operate throughout the region, they trend towards the larger size (18-30 personnel).

Each state on the region would have the following:
Command Team
Communications Team
Medical Team
Science Team
1-3 MARS Team
1-8 Recon Teams
1-3 Engineering Teams
Frozen Watch Team
0-2 Decontamination Teams
Team sizes range from as few as six to as many as eighteen. For those states that do not encompass a large area (most of the New England states for example). They would have a command team and 1-2 recon teams assigned OR would fall under a Combined Team that would cover 2-3 of the smaller states.

The MARS Special Operations Teams range from 24-32 personnel in size and are supported by:

Command Team (6 men)
Communications Team (10 men)
Operations Team (15 men)
Logistics & Support Team (30 men)
Power Generation Team (10 men)
Science Team (6 men)
Aviation Team (18 men)
MARS Team (Base Security) (18 men)
Recon Team (LRP) (12 men)
Recon Team(LRP) (12 men)
Recon Team (LRP) (12 men)

Combined Teams range widely in size and composition. These would be groupings intended to secure a critical Project asset (such as Desert Search/Starnaman Incident), dedicated towards a specific area (Final Watch), or with a specific objective (Lonestar).

[kalos72]

So if you RECON Teams can support roughly 600km, is it radius from the bolthole?

How would you calculate the number of recon teams in Arkansas, NOT taking into account special locations or concerns, just pure area?

I am thinking of putting a RECON Team for each County and then a group of Counties would get a higher level command, say District Operations Center/Facility,under my naming, that would house the Specialty Teams and Supplies.

So for Arkansas I would have something like 75 RECON Teams, one for each County. And then assign District Commands for every 1 Million people or something?

[dragoon500ly]

So if you RECON Teams can support roughly 600km, is it radius from the bolthole?

How would you calculate the number of recon teams in Arkansas, NOT taking into account special locations or concerns, just pure area?

I am thinking of putting a RECON Team for each County and then a group of Counties would get a higher level command, say District Operations Center/Facility,under my naming, that would house the Specialty Teams and Supplies.

So for Arkansas I would have something like 75 RECON Teams, one for each County. And then assign District Commands for every 1 Million people or something?

The basic problem for the Project is how big can you be while maintaining security and how many survivors can you help. The best breakdown I have ever seen can be found on the supply bunker web site under "Social Engineering and Sociogenesis, The Project's Real Goals", here Steve Jackson theorizes a Project of 20,000 broken down into 5,400 recon, 2,200 science, 2,200 MARS, 2,400 medical, 1,600 engineering, 1,600 agriculture, 1,400 transportation and 3,200 support.

Now, I feel that with the longer lead that I use, Project reaches some 50,000 personnel, I use different percentages, but the big three are Recon, MARS/Science and Medical.

According to 3rd edition, Arkansas has five major targets (not including that speed trap town that gave me a ticket!), these are Little Rock with 2MT, Pine Bluff Army Arsenal with 3 500KT warheads, Blythville AFB with a biological warhead, Little Rock AFB with 100 2MT warheads and Russelville Nuclear Reactor with 4 200KT warheads.

Based on the target scatter and likely fallout patterns, this rules out planning on a team per county and even a team based on estimated population. Using FEMA and Hurricane Katrina as an example, the entire impacted area received assistance from just under 500 FEMA employees, a bit over 2,000 civil defensive personnel, roughly 4,000 Regular and National Guard personnel and an estimated 20,000 contractors. About 27,000 personnel to assist the three states impacted by the hurricane...and it was not enough!!! It took over three years to rebuild enough to have all the assistance leave and the coastal regions have still not economically recovered. Even in 2017, New Orleans still has areas of the city that has not been cleaned up, let alone rebuilt.

The major argument about the Project is the numbers, with an estimated 95% death rate, you are looking at some 332,500,000 dead out of a population of 350,000,000 or only some 17,500,000 survivors. 50,000 people are still not enough....

[dragoon500ly]

In the MP module “Final Watch” part of the combined group is Medical Facility VF-1C, originally this was cut to save space. So here is a description of a Project Medical Base.

MEDICAL FACILITY VF-1C from “The Final Watch”

By: Joseph Benedetto, Jr.

INTRODUCTION
The task of the Morrow Project- the rebuilding of a devastated civilization--was one so massive that there was simply not enough time before the War to plan and provide for everything that would be needed. To make the Project world, the Morrow Project Planners decided to use a flexible approach to the problem.

In the case of Medicine, it was realized that the Project could not hope to provide the medical care and aid necessary for an entire population two or three years after a nuclear war. Instead, the Planners went with the idea, where possible, of providing a core of dedicated, trained and experienced medical personnel who could work with the surviving doctors and medics, rather than replacing them. These MP teams would be provided with a large stock of drugs, medicine and supplies which would be used to assist the population until the civilian sector could start providing such things again. While the Project could have provided entire hospital facilities (and in some cases actually did) it was more practical to go with a system that was flexible enough to provide at least ample, rudimentary medical support to a wide area. Thus, was born the concept of the Medical Facilities.

Each Medical Facility was given three basic items: trained personnel, drugs and supplies, and specialized equipment. The actual hospital building itself was expected to be a local pre-War hospital that was still standing, or at worst any pre-War structure that was available. (Two pre-fabricated Quonset Huts were included at VF-1C for use in an emergency, such as providing shelter for patients of an epidemic or other post-War disaster.) In any case, the first concern of the Project was to provide trained medical personnel: Specialty Team VB-1, which consists of 21 doctors and paramedics who are frozen in place at Medical Facility VF-1C. The Project recruited General Practitioners rather than specialists; each candidate had to have several years of experience working either in rural America or undeveloped Third World countries, treating people in less-than-ideal conditions, dealing with sicknesses not often seen by modern doctors. Paramedics were chosen for skills in emergency medicine and problem management.

The second concern of the Project was to provide medical supplies. VF-1C contains a considerably large supply of drugs, plasma substitutes, bandages, hypodermic injectors, insulin, and so forth, all of it stored in inviolate storage of varying degrees -- inert gas, vacuum packaging, and the like. It was realized how quickly the War would deplete such stocks at hospitals and warehouses, and VF-1C is designed to help alleviate that shortage until the normal civilian supply could be restored.

The third concern that needed to be addressed was specialized equipment. Not stethoscopes or penlights, but rather x-ray machines, CAT scanners, and so on. The storage facility at VF-1C contains at least one of every major piece of equipment that might be found in a well-stocked Trauma or Emergency Center, as well as such needed objects like power in the form of Fusion Packs, as well as objects like the "Water Treatment Unit, Portable, Trailered" and the "Trauma Treatment Unit, Emergency Medical, Automated, Computerized, Portable, Trailered, Mini-Med" (both of which are detailed in PF-005, THE STARNAMAN INCIDENT). Such items, although not stored in large numbers, were vital to proper medical care.

Unlike Regional Supply Bases (like as Delta Base) which were placed far from the target zones, it was felt that Medical Facilities should be placed closer to the cities so as to provide medical care to those who would likely most need it.

These facilities and the teams of medics frozen at them were not expected to do the entire job of doctoring, but to receive a large amount of assistance from survivor doctors, paramedics and nurses, and from survivors or other MP personnel temporarily pressed into service to help them.

Transportation was a major concern; for this reason, the Project provided VF-1C with 6 Ranger Ambulances, 4 Ranger APCs and 5 XR311 jeeps with trailers (it was expected that the Project Medical Personnel would make house calls!).

As with other Morrow efforts, there was not enough time before the War to do everything. There were a small number of Medical Facilities and an even smaller number of complete Hospitals completed, and all were hidden in ways to conceal their true nature; no two camouflage jobs were the same and each site was hidden carefully.

PD NOTE: Much of this information would be generally available to the Command team. Specifics are up to the PD.

Because it is so large, a Medical Facility is awfully hard to conceal. In the case of VF-1C, the first of the Medical Facilities, the Planners found an ideal site: a very large, old warehouse along the Burlington & Northern Railroad line just north of Auburn. The site was obtained by Wilkinson Storage, a dummy company actually runs by Morrow Industries, and construction started in 1965. The new owners were busy renovating the warehouse when it was "found" that the old foundation was faulty, and would have to be completely excavated from within the site and rebuilt. In early 1967 it was "discovered" that the new foundation work was substandard, and the work had to be done over, extending the construction time (all of which allowed enough time for the construction of VF-1C beneath the warehouse). The warehouse was finished in November of 1966. When completed, VF-1C was a huge, two-level underground storehouse prepared to hold medical personnel, equipment and supplies.

Since the parent company had supposedly been bought out before the warehouse renovation was completed, the site remained empty for several months before being purchased by United Consolidated Corporation, a division of Morrow Industries. (This allowed the Project enough time to obtain and assemble all of the equipment and supplies that would be stored at VF-1C.)

United Consolidated soon moved in and began using the warehouse as a distribution center. (Much of what initially entered the warehouse was used to stock the Medical Facility buried beneath it; this included Medical Team VB-1 and all of their vehicles. After all, who pays that much attention to what people are moving into a plain old warehouse?)

The warehouse above VE-1C saw much use over the next 20 years, as Morrow Industries (in the form of United Consolidated Corp.) used the site to store and transport large portions of the Morrow Project gear and supplies, especially cache materials and such, for distribution to Morrow sites across the Pacific Northwest. Being a warehouse, no one was suspicious of the large numbers of trucks that came and went, loading and unloading crates all the time. What else does a warehouse do? It had only the usual minimal security expected of such a place: a guard shack, one guard, and little else. VF-1C does not have complicated defenses or weaponry; since it was a closed site that would not see extensive use, such defense was judged unnecessary. Likewise, the personnel of Medical Team VB-1 were given only minimum armament for self-defense, such as pistols and smoke grenades (see Standard Equipment, Medical Issue, p33 of the Game book). Heavy defensive firepower, if necessary, could easily be brought to bear in the form of the MARS teams at either Black Diamond or Southworth.

Entry to the Facility was not normally possible until after the Medical team was awakened; the site was constructed to be used mainly as a storage site until a suitable above-ground facility, preferably an existing hospital, could be found. Thus the only possible entry points would be through either of the standard emergency exits (one of which comes up within the warehouse, another outside of it) and/or through the Primary Exit, which is the usual ramp that rises up, but at VF-1C the exit point is hidden behind a thin brick wall at one end of the warehouse interior structure, which would be broken through when the hydraulic rams forced open the Main Exit doors. Because of its age, VF-1C was constructed with, and uses, technology that might be considered somewhat old; within the facility there is no automation of the level that would be found in a later Morrow base. The members of VB-1 were expected to simply walk through to whatever shelf they wanted and physically remove the material they needed. Also, because of the presence of a team on-site, it was felt that extensive internal/external defenses were not necessary. Again, the main function of the site after activation was merely storage of materials until they could be moved out to a more practical location. To this end the team could simply close the Primary Exit armored outer doors and relies on them to keep potential looters away from the medical Supplies. The presence of MARS Team L-3 at Black Diamond would help insure the safety of Team VB-1.

[dragoon500ly]

This is from the supply bunker web site, I've include it simply because it is teh sort of off-beat thing that catches my eye...

Morrow Project, Frozen Watch, Emergency Shelters

By: Joseph Benedetto Jr.

Snipped from Space Gamer/ Fantasy Gamer #85, before it went into print.

"...this combination of FW Team & Shelter was not standard; more like an experiment undertaken during construction (hence the "(S)" or Special designation in the team's code assignment."

The typical MP Emergency Shelter is a one-and-a-half story shed made of steel-reinforced concrete. Normally the visible shed walls look like stuccoed concrete block. This was done to make the building appear unappealing to the eye: utilitarian and cheap. The roof was made from several sheets of rustproofed steel supported by steel I-beam framing and welded together to provide a continuous sloping surface. Morrow industries engineers coated this roof to look like a cheap, common tern-metal (sometimes known as a "tin-metal") roof. The double doors are big enough to admit a truck, and the windows have swinging metal shutters that are designed to be fireproof. (When in an area where there could be forest fires, the buildings “should” (be fireproof, right?)

MP Emergency Sheds are few in number and are only found in remote areas--mostly the mountains, and a few in the deserts. The most common way of disguising one in the mountains was to place it at altitude in a forested region and then have Morrow Industries workers "age" the building so that it appeared to have been abandoned 20 or more years ago.

The normal cover was as a Forestry Service Fire Equipment Storage shed. This included appropriate signs on the front of the building--US FORESTRY SERVICE ... FIREFIGHTING EQUIPMENT ... US GOV'T PROPERTY. Inside, they would put in things that made it appear as though various items had “once” been stored here--a jeep and a water tank, perhaps; there were empty racks obviously designed to hold shovels and hardhats, plus other storage areas now all forlorn and empty. Everything would point to a time, once, when this shed had been placed and stocked for an emergency...a time now long past.
The entrance to the cache of MP emergency gear was a stainless steel panel set in the floor underneath the base of the ladder to the roof, built in such a way as to appear to be a metal floor-pad. The unmarked card slot would be in the wall behind the ladder so as to be rather inconspicuous. Obviously, only a MP member looking for a cache would think to check this panel and then the surrounding area for a card slot.

Once everything was in place the Morrow Industry people would then artfully aged the building, making the vehicle entry doors appear very rusty, covering much of the floor inside with dirt, taking the time to make everything look, feel and smell as though it had been in here, forgotten, for 20-odd years. (A calendar from 1967 did wonders for this effect.) Windows were smeared with dust; cabinets, shutters and the entrance doors were all left half open; every effort was made to make the place look old and abandoned. This included the access road. This was a dead end logging road cut from an original dirt road and leading up to the shed. (This is how the construction crew got in and the stuff got loaded into the shelter.) Once the shed was artfully disguised to look empty and abandoned they shut everything but the front vehicle doors, which were left standing open. This would allow animals to peek inside, and allow the weather to rain in, staining the (waterproof concrete) floor dirt and making it look and feel "old".

After that, the engineers seeded the area all around the shed with seeds representative of the local underbrush, to give the building an overgrown look. They then carefully planted a few young saplings in the entrance road, to make it appear as though no one had driven up here in years. The slightly open front doors would encourage the curious hiker stumbling onto the site to actually investigate it, and see for himself that the shed was just that--a shed.

The whole effect was such that within a month the local underbrush had grown up as desired, and the building blended in perfectly. Of course, now, 150 years after the War, the sheds are in poor condition due to 150 harsh mountain winters; the window shutters have often rusted completely away and the vehicle doors have rusted and fallen away; the windows may no longer be intact, and there is often a good chance that a bird has built a nest in the chimney, blocking it. Still, the concrete will remain viable, and if the roof is intact (or at least doesn't leak too badly) the shed can still be used as a shelter.