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New ship idea

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New ship idea
Post by pushmar   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:10 am

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Haven't notices if this has been posted before; has anyone considered how a small LAC-carrier would be for a merchant escort? Holds perhaps 30 LACs. Military grade impellers and compensators. Identifiable as a military unit, not a Q-ship. A few modern Manticoran LACs could probably take on a Solly destroyer; 10 possibly a Solly light cruiser. Until the Sollies modernize, this would help them keep the League off their merchant fleet.
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Re: New ship idea
Post by Draken   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:24 am

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We have secure territory, so why we should build it? In emergency situations it can't be used with fleet and it's easier to create convoys, which could be protected by even CL, but not the LACs, they're good but your proposition require, at least few years to put these ships into service and find all errors
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Re: New ship idea
Post by kzt   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:39 am

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IIRC, David's suggestion was bolt-on LACS. Externally mounted to a freighter.
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Re: New ship idea
Post by SWM   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 10:12 am

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See David's response to exactly this question back in 2008:
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... ngton/73/1
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Re: New ship idea
Post by JeffEngel   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 7:32 pm

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pushmar wrote:Haven't notices if this has been posted before; has anyone considered how a small LAC-carrier would be for a merchant escort? Holds perhaps 30 LACs. Military grade impellers and compensators. Identifiable as a military unit, not a Q-ship. A few modern Manticoran LACs could probably take on a Solly destroyer; 10 possibly a Solly light cruiser. Until the Sollies modernize, this would help them keep the League off their merchant fleet.

One modern RMN LAC would likely handle one or more SLN DD's; much less than 10 for a CL. They probably wouldn't do it in a "stand up" battle, but then, when you've got better stealth and EW, you don't fight stand up battles, not without profound command impairment or a bad, bad situation.

As noted, the escort CLAC's been addressed by RFC and found wanting for that purpose. Also, the RMN particularly doesn't care for units any more specialized or niche-role-optimized than they have to be, so this sort of raid is still likely to be conducted by DD's or CL's with ERM's and, if need be, spare ammo. If there were some reason to use LAC's but not a whole CLAC, they'd probably rethink the mission first, but if they did go ahead with it, then packing the LAC's inside a freighter (perhaps a military one with a military-grade hypergenerator, compensator, etc.) or tacked on the hull of a CL or CA would likely be preferred as a make-do solution of a peculiar circumstance rather than a ship class just for that niche role.

That fleet train freighter stuffed with LAC's comes within shouting distance of your notion, I suppose. And I think RFC's made positive noises about the possibility of some navy building LAC service modules for freighters or other ships. It's plausible the RMN could be sold on something like that, though they're not building much of anything right now. Erewhon may well build something like that for Torch or Maya. But it's likely motivated less as a unit configuration to satisfy a regular military need than by a need to conceal the actual capabilities of a unit - something that may look a lot more like a freighter for surprise, or something that doesn't sound like a warship on paper for Maya to launder its military capability for OFS.
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Re: New ship idea
Post by Draken   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 7:50 pm

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Easier thing and much more cheaper would be to create convoys and they could have dividion of destroyers as escort, maybe when it would be really big or really nasty situation on the other side of the wall, then up to squadron of destroyers or two divisions of cruisers.
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Re: New ship idea
Post by n7axw   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:00 pm

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RFC's point taken, it is still true that there is at least some precedent for a similar idea. Mantie Q-Ship Wayfarer carried some LACs in Silesia in Honor Among Enemies. I don't remember any incident there where they made a decisive contribution to an action, though.

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Re: New ship idea
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Thu Nov 20, 2014 8:28 pm

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n7axw wrote:RFC's point taken, it is still true that there is at least some precedent for a similar idea. Mantie Q-Ship Wayfarer carried some LACs in Silesia in Honor Among Enemies. I don't remember any incident there where they made a decisive contribution to an action, though.

Don

They were quite useful as a threat in capturing Caslet's ship. Also, they were left behind at Sidemore to act as a system defense force.
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Re: New ship idea
Post by Duckk   » Fri Nov 21, 2014 8:28 am

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The Q-ships were prototypes, and hodgepodge ones at that. They were useful for testing new systems, but should not be indicative of how design and doctrine should change.

n7axw wrote:RFC's point taken, it is still true that there is at least some precedent for a similar idea. Mantie Q-Ship Wayfarer carried some LACs in Silesia in Honor Among Enemies. I don't remember any incident there where they made a decisive contribution to an action, though.

Don
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Re: New ship idea
Post by Lord Skimper   » Fri Nov 21, 2014 3:21 pm

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Ideally you want as big of a ship as you can get for any encounter.

What would work best is to just deploy the Nike BCL as convoy escorts.

1 per dozen ships or 1 per stationed location (any location one is staying in for an extended time period that isn't already protected with an LAC base / Mycroft Missile pod system)

Like each planetary or System location in Silesia or Talbot.

The Nike can handle any single other enemy ship and provide system security against any 6 smaller ships.

Luckily a Nike has a Pre Tech revolution Crew level similar to a CL.

Downside is built time, upside is everything but build time.

Nike Carries Marine, Has SD weapons, SD defenses Keyhole I and fancy sideways. Add in MK16's and it can do anything that needs to be done in Convoy Freighter Transport defense and escort.

Plus it can outrun in N space any non alliance ship.
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