Zavala's Response to the BC's at Saltash

The E wrote:...or 2, your opponent thinks he has something to even the odds regardless. In order to ensure his command's safety, Zavala had to engage, and engage hard, because the risk of possibility 2 being in effect outweighs other considerations.

TheMonster wrote: One of these days we're going to see a Manty commander who thinks that their tech advantage is so overwhelming they can't possibly get hurt... and that's when they'll get crushed.

He cocked an eyebrow at the First Lord, and Janacek made a sound which the less charitable might have described as an irritated grunt.

"No other navy in space has so far commissioned any pod superdreadnoughts," he pronounced with the infallibility of God. "Admiral Jurgensen and his analysts at ONI have amply confirmed that! We, on the other hand, have a solid core of over sixty. That's more than sufficient to defeat any conventional navy, especially with the CLACs to support and scout for them."

...

"You're probably right," Janacek conceded sourly. "But in answer to your question, our only conceivable enemy for the immediate future would be the Peeps. As you say, they undoubtedly have an incentive to match our capabilities, but, frankly, their tech base is much too far behind ours for them to duplicate our hardware any time within the next ten years or so, by ONI's most conservative estimate. I've discussed this very question with Admiral Jurgensen, and he assures me his analysts are virtually unanimous in that opinion.

"Furthermore, even if they had the technical ability to build matching ships, they'd still have to lay down the hulls, build them, crew them, and then train them up to an operational standard before they could pose any threat to us. As all of you are aware from the ONI reports I've shared with you, Theisman, Tourville, and Giscard are still busy fighting their own dissident elements with exactly the same obsolescent ships they used against us. We've seen absolutely no sign of any enhancement in their capabilities. Even better, from our perspective as a potential adversary, the way they're continuing to kill one another off is not only continuing to cost them their more experienced officers and crews but producing a steady drain even on the ships they do have."

TheMonster wrote:

wholf359 wrote:While he does underestimate the mod-g warhead by quite a large margin it really does not matter. As a commander his job was to protect the people under his command, not protect the people trying to kill his people.

No policeman or soldier is required to "fire a warning shot", "shoot to wound, not to kill", or "shoot the gun out of the desperado's hand". You're lucky to get even one chance to surrender without getting shot.

saber964 wrote:That much is true about the police shooting the gun out of a badguys hand.

There has in the United States only 'one' deliberate case of a police officer shooting the gun out of a badguys hand in the last fifty years, and that shot was taken by a SWAT sniper at range of 45yds. The police sniper in question was also a former army sniper.

MaxxQ wrote:

saber964 wrote:That much is true about the police shooting the gun out of a badguys hand.

There has in the United States only 'one' deliberate case of a police officer shooting the gun out of a badguys hand in the last fifty years, and that shot was taken by a SWAT sniper at range of 45yds. The police sniper in question was also a former army sniper.

Talking about this one?:
http://youtu.be/AHvWaviIXsk

Gotta love the Columbus, Ohio Police Department.

saber964 wrote:That much is true about the police shooting the gun out of a badguys hand.

There has in the United States only 'one' deliberate case of a police officer shooting the gun out of a badguys hand in the last fifty years, and that shot was taken by a SWAT sniper at range of 45yds. The police sniper in question was also a former army sniper.