The discussion of RFC's implied Mk-16 equipped Light Cruiser has been ongoing for several years, and while currently derailed by the OB raid, suggesting it mass be around 282-336 KT [1.5 times the Roland to the midpoint between a Roland and a Sag-C] and carry some 20-24 broadside missile tubes with 600 Mk-16's has been touted here and at the bar many times.
While Roland's were stated somewhere as taking a couple years before construction resumed, that was before Beowulf and Haven stepped in to help.
So I wonder how long before such a CL might be built now.
RFC has posted how the SEM will be well back on its feet within 5 years, ie producing SDP's in some numbers etc, so I expect all lesser classes to be in volume production well before then, and given the promise of the Roland, a Mk-16 CL makes a lot of sense, in lieu of Nike's etc that are still too big to be available as soon as the increasing requirements demand.
L
Armed Neo-Bob wrote:JeffEngel wrote:While I'm at it - For that next generation unit, if they are building it a bit larger than a destroyer, they may want to build it with some modular elements. For instance, with quarters/storage that can be configured without terribly trouble for either (1) flag staff and systems, (2) a Marine detachment, (3) additional stores for longer patrols, (4) (this one is a bit wilder, granted) systems to service and monitor a larger number of recon drones, for scouting work.
It wouldn't help in a case when you just have to go do a job with elements you cannot predict ahead of time, like Saltash, or even one where you wouldn't have the time for a minor refit. What it would do is leave the RMN with a better mix of mass production and unit diversity. They've traditionally satisfied that with a mixture of units of different generations with different emphases, and the whole range of destroyers through battlecruisers, at some times even frigates through battleships. But the MDM is squeezing the range of viable warships, with a far higher minimum floor, at 300-400 ktons. A more modular 300-400 kton "new light cruiser" or "heavy frigate" may be a way to satisfy that need for diversity at or around that higher tonnage floor. (For names, they may build that modular basis and use the destroyer/light-cruiser/whatever label depending on the module(s) used.)
JeffEngel,
I agree that meeting all of the missions of light ships with just one unit -- especially one with MDMs-- will end up being the long awaited 300K ton vessel (I vote for "Sloop!"). However, please avoid the nomenclature "heavy frigate." The sound of that seems to invite invoke the "Ghost of Lord Skimper's Past Posts."
And I do read his posts; however irrational he sounds, he thinks outside the box, and the people responding are interesting.
Ok, we're crossing posts, so I will comment on the other one here, too.
The main reason people are so hot for Marines to have been included at Saltash, is hindsight. It is worth remembering that until recently, the Manticoran Navy had sufficient presence (and Manticore had sufficient economic clout with the home ministries) that Dueñas' own superiors would have hung him out to dry. With the wormhole network closed, Monica, Spindle, and the whole Havenite War front to worry over, he figured on getting sliding through the cracks. As some one I liked put it, "too many fires and not enough people to piss on them."
I think it is safe to say that neither Mike nor Dueñas really expected a boarding action; Zavala grossly outmassed the destroyers there, Dueñas' refusal to admit his failure isn't rational. Your post seems to think it was inevitable; but it just another instance of abject stupidity. To paraphrase another person I like, "What mistakes have the Sollies avoided?"
Grist for the mill.
YMMV, of course.
Rob
