Manticore and Grayson just had their ship yards destroyed. They are not going to rebuild anything much less captured SLN SDs.
However; there is no reason why SLN SDs could not be utilized by former SL systems that chose to ally themselves to Manticore or at least sign a non aggression pact or neutrality treaty. The ships were all captured with full magazines and even a fleet train full of reloads, spare parts and maintenance equipment.
Crew size can be severely reduced if you operate the ships only for system defense rather than deep space strikes and assume that you need crew only to fight the ship rather than fight the ship and do damage control during a space battle.
If you want the captured SDs to be more effective, you can as munitions production and loyalty concerns permit, provide them with pods of Buttercup era, capacitor fed MDMs.
The result will be about perfect for the new, Imperial paradigm that the SEM must adopt. Just as ancient Rome could not muster enough Legions to garrison its empire and needed to depend on Auxiliary forces for local defense, the SEM needs auxiliaries. The fact that these captured SLN SDs are no match for RMN ships is a feature. No local SDF is going to think that their allotted squadron of former SLN SDs give them the means to rebel after it has been explained to them that a squadron of Rollands loaded with Mk-23 pods or better yet Apollo pods to fire in non-FTL mode can defeat an equal number of these SDs.
The RMN will be sort of like the Praetorian Guard.
Lord Skimper wrote:While Mk23 are not a problem for refit, they have been done, the Harrington 2s also have Apollo missiles although not strictly stated as being internally launched, it does state that the Harrington 2's where given "internal tubes and modest ammunition for them", in case the pod core was was crippled.
The life support when automation takes over crew stations, will free up ammunition space, as will crew space etc... SD had huge crews, SD(P) lowered this to half or a Quarter. The Wolfhound is 50% larger with 25% of the crew of older destroyers. This should free up huge crew quarters which on SD are noted to be generously large and spacious. While most of this space will be used for ammunition fitting room for 300 marines shouldn't be a problem. SD are noted to have about 10-12,000 crew automation should reduce this to less than 3000.
SD(P) have never been really tested in close quarters combat, one doesn't really know what happens when the pods go off inside the ship although the deployment rail / door if jammed kills the Invictus ability to fire missiles.
The Harrington Greyson SD(P) has 60 plus cm and PD and 24 of each Graser and missile tubes (32) missile tubes for the Harrington 1. And the broad side only covered 1/2 to 2/3 of the length of the ship.
Keyhole 2 is a tethered platform roughly the side of an LAC, not a destroyer, tethered likely means with tractor beams rather than wires, mounting this on the side of the ships likely means that it could be fit to other ships during a refit.
As for no space on the external hull, a Gryphon SD is a few % points smaller than an Invictus or Harrington SD(P). It has a broadside 3x the size of a Nike BC. Doubling the numbers of what is there, and shifting the size from BC to SD should fit nicely.
The Saganami C CA also points out that quad broadsides can be brought to bear on targets. As such 200 missile waves could be launch from such a SD.
This shouldn't be a problem and as noted the ships exist but are no longer part of the active wall, freeing them up for refit is not a problem, given the on or the Yawata strike, which ever you prefer, did not take out the smelter or fabrication facilities. Doing a Greyson park the ship a build the refit dock around it with techs from Grendlesbane, Hancock and anyone from Silesia and new recruits / retired personnel should also expedite such refits.
Nothing is impossible when you put your mind to it especially when you have refitted ships to look at, and all the instruction manuals. Plus grief and anger make great motivators for those who otherwise stayed at home, and all the 100's of 1000's of commercial spacers now idled.
For those with lesser security clearance thereis lots of declassified removal work that the less trusted could start out with. Laser removal berth removal bulkhead removal...all sorts of things the under trained or unreliable can do.
Of course there are the Sollie SD's, there are around 200 of them and all the Haven SD's that survived. 3 Dozen Beowulf SD's and whatever the Andie's might want to sell, Whatever the Silesian's Had albeit those would likely be the most primitive. That would leave 3 - 400. For most of these ships striping them out of bulkheads weapons and non automated systems while keeping staterooms, life support, hanger bays, ammunition feeds, and grasers, plots bridge and command decks and await new automated systems and installation by future crew members and rotating Silesian crews in as they will be transformed from backwater crews to building new docks and berths in Silesia. Being absorbed into the SEM means your going to improve their general lot and tech levels.
Use what you have of course most of the olderships will be filling up the Silesian byways until replaced with the newer tech. Better this newer tech be built in many out of the way places than in singular locations. Especially if one can't detect ghostly ships. 50 additional refit bases located in Silesia could come in handy especially when everyone and every slip else where is busy doing something else. In this case what you have is many real noebarb worlds happy for tech and training and reorganisation....
