2021-07-05 Update

The South Pacific Special Forces have had a steady but active week keeping raiders at bay all across NationStates. Defending as a whole is incredibly strong right now, with high turnout from SPSF and our allies and partners almost every update, especially for significant operations. By comparison, raiding organizations and their partners are incredibly weak, lacking in motivation, resources, and morale. Many updates, there are not even tag raiders to defend against, and the remaining numbers of tags to detag are dwindling. Nevertheless, the SPSF remains present and vigilant, prepared for the few cases where raider activity emerges. Here is a summary of significant SPSF activity this week:

• This week represented an uptick in activity from The Black Hawks, an organization which has committed acts of hostility against the Coalition. Despite this, TBH has not attempted a major occupation May 2nd, representing 2 months since their last significant activity. In terms of their low level tagging activity, SPSF deployed to counter TBH raids on June 28 at major update, July 3 at major update, and July 5 at major update. In total, SPSF and its partners have conducted 46 defenses against tag raids by The Black Hawks this week.
  
• Additionally, the SPSF deployed to counter tagging activity from a coalition of Independent and unaligned regions - specifically the North Pacific Army, the Europeian Republican Navy, the Thaeimperial Army, and on one evening some role played by The Black Hawks. Specifically, on June 30 and June 29 SPSF deployed against these militaries, with high rates of success.
  
• Tidal Force maintains its activity levels, generally conducting one mission per day under the supervision of Tidal Force Coordinator Melix.
  
• Unfortunately, our occupation of Confederate Army has come to a close as the founder of the region has returned. Fear not, if the region ceases to exist again, SPSF will return.
  
• To help our members stay prepared, we have begun conducting wargame exercises, including one internal set of wargames to help one of our members learn how to trigger and a set of chasing exercises with our allies in TITO.
  

Off the battlefield, work has continued:

• My work to compile past SPSF battle records into a spreadsheet for processing is nearing completion. Thanks to Commander W&S and the General Corps for answering my endless barrage of questions. After I have finished data compilation, Luca will take over the project to do some coding work and make the system more sustainably managable.
  
• Discussions have begun with Local Councillor Melix about an onsite event. Additionally, discussions about celebrating Defender Day have begun with Minister of Culture Tin. Given the Ministry of Engagement's current timeline on the Dispatches project, work on SPSF Dispatches has been pushed back slightly.
  

Priorities for the upcoming week include on-site recruiting and outreach methods and finishing the data entry for the long-term member records project. Additionally, RaiderCon is generally held in the month of July and we expect an increase in raider activity as a result, which SPSF will be managing carefully.