A question about shipping companies in Honorverse

But by the same token, armed merchants are no longer afforded the same protections as unarmed ships under the laws of war. You're required by interstellar covenant to let the crews abandon ship (and pick them up afterwards, if in inhospitable space). But armed ships are considered combatants, and thus can be blown out of space immediately.

EDIT: Also consider this infodump from David:

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... gton/324/1

Duckk wrote:But by the same token, armed merchants are no longer afforded the same protections as unarmed ships under the laws of war. You're required by interstellar covenant to let the crews abandon ship (and pick them up afterwards, if in inhospitable space). But armed ships are considered combatants, and thus can be blown out of space immediately.

EDIT: Also consider this infodump from David:

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... gton/324/1

Seems reasonable considering that if the armed ship beats the pirates, the pirates are dead.

The major point should be that if you're going to arm a merchant ship, better do a good job of it.

cthia wrote:

Rednek731 wrote:Getting back to the original topic, I would think that a company of this or similar nature would be in high demand from nation's that are at war. It has to change logistic equations just a little when you're dealing with a company that guarantees the safe arrival of vital goods, although I doubt they would transport military hardware.

I think a military that would use such companies are crazy. Classified information and hardware can be too much of a temptation, and a target, even for the intensely vetted.

I can hear some general or Commander in Chief blistering battle steel.

"You shipped a highly classified, extremely dangerous, strategically important piece of equipment by who?"

"They were armed shippers sir!"

"Un huh. And the outfit that now possesses our latest war ending weapon is also armed! With our weapon!"

Jonathan_S wrote:Sure you wouldn't want to risk your best toys on a 3rd party freighter, or even on a domestically flagged freighter without a solid naval escort (and a lot of the time your most sensitive stuff would be carried on actual naval auxiliary ammo and repair ships.

But there's lots of important but non-classified logistics to move around to support a war. You'd ideally still like to move that on your own (or closely allied) merchant hulls; defended by your own escorts. But sometimes that't not possible.

I guess I could see a military sometimes farming out a contract to move (say) fuel, food, normal spare parts, small arms ammo, etc on independently sailing 3rd party ships. Though whether those should be armed would depend on what price premium they command and what the anticipated risks are.
At the scale the military might need that stuff moved losing an undefended ship or two might be less expensive than paying a significant premium to exclusively use armed freighters for all independent sailings.

I don't see a problem shipping general planetary resources. But it seems that shipping even fuel and foodstuffs, in time of war, wouldn't be warranted, considering the greater ease it might afford an enemy in attacking your "supply lines." Embargoes can hurt awfully bad and huge losses of even simple items like foodstuffs and fuel becomes a major problem if important to the war effort. Which means the navy will end up protecting the shipments after these losses begin to mount, anyways. So, why ship it with 3rd party companies in the first place, if in the end you'll only end up cancelling the contracts and escorting the armed shippers? IOW, you may end up escorting the escorts.

Reminds me of a time I had to call a tow truck and then the tow truck had to call a tow truck.

In peacetime, sure. But commerce raiding is a real strategy. You don't want to make it easier for your enemies.

1. Armed 3rd party shippers aren't sworn by oath to protect their charge.

2. They may lack the tactical expertise needed to protect convoys. It isn't like they may have graduated from Sag Isle, the Crusher, or even an allied nation. They could be a bunch of Santinos and Youngs drummed out of their own navy for incompetence and their last job was ferrying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong. Heck, they could even be ex-League shippers by way of whatever outfit they're with. That introduces vetting responsibilities, yatta yatta yatta. Too messy for the military. IMO.

3. This really seems like it opens a whole can of security clearances and vetting worms reminiscent of the discussions fielded in the Ramblings and Musings thread beginning here.