[Barnacle Bill]

Just a note on maintenance cost vs procurement cost. These figures come from "How to Make War" by James F. Dunnigan. The info on naval forces is presented in a way that I can't readily relate the two costs, but here are the figures for a US mechanized infantry division:

Cost to raise: $4519 million
Cost per DAY in combat: $75 million

This means translates to 50% maintenence per turn, in SE4 terms.

Of course that is in combat, with full consumption of fuel, ammo, and incidental loss of equipment, plus combat loses. Still, it means the SE4 maintenance percentage is not unreasonable.