Project Privateer

[Imperial Federation]

0730 Hours, Somewhere in the South African Kalahari Desert Basin

In a research station miles from any civilization, men and women file rapidly back and forth under guard from South African Army Military Police. Sentinels take point in guard towers around the complex, itself surrounded by barbed wire fence and a sally port gate. Still, 2 kilometers from the sally port was another gate with armed guards and Casspirs, checking credentials and all too ready to fire upon any who did not have proper authorization. If one were to fly overhead without being shot down for violating restricted airspace, they would see what appeared to be a large warehouse. A rather conspicuous yet unassuming rectangular building, unpainted cement, with sparse windows and about only half of the structure rising to a second story. What you are unable to see from the surface however is the comparatively extensive underground apparatus, taking up approximately 1.5x the space of the surface structure.

These men and women are a collection of scientists and researchers. This building was designated SAFARI-3, although if any civilian in or outside of South Africa attempted to research this installation, no evidence of its existence would be available. The SAFARI program, or the South African Fundamental Atomic Research Installation program, is ostensibly for exclusively nuclear research in relation to development of medical isotopes and advancement of nuclear energy generation. While SAFARI-1 and SAFARI-2 do in fact serve these purposes, SAFARI-3's research is of a different variety. SAFARI-3 is the installation dedicated to the advancement of the Top Secret South African nuclear weapons program. While the South African government had done research into nuclear weapons decades ago, with the end of the Cold War the project was abandoned. In recent years however, succeeding presidencies have supported the reinstatement of the program. Now under the banner of "Project Privateer", the nuclear weapons program has begun once again.

While previous research done from the original project have been made available and have eased the early steps of development, the creation of the weapons will require additional research as the goal is to create a variety of systems of a higher degree of sophistication than the original. Much of the weaponry has yet to be developed in physical prototypes, while SAFARI-3 has been underway in enrichment programs to create such prototypes.

[Imperial Federation]

SAFARI-3 has proven to be quite useful, having the capability to produce the desired level of enrichment from the uranium available to build an effective weapon. The volume currently generated has developed a quite small amount, enough for a 20-tonne payload as a proof of concept for the development process. This small scale weapon will be tested underground without much issue setting up a testing area. Nicknamed "Key", the small device is to be detonated in the controlled underground environment and analysis of the detonation will hopefully assist in the continued development of weaponized warheads.