SLN
VS
OFS
"Since I'm aware of how business works, something has bugged me since the beginning of the Honorverse," the dummy in the back of the class lets slip.

"Pardon me?"
"
1. OFS is an [entity instrument] of the government's. Not of the SLN, when you get right down to it—how business really works and how big government really works, that is. They were the part of the navy in the fighting rings and up against the ropes. They should have had the best hardware right off the docks. In my head, I see an OFS branch of the navy where the power truly lies. Essentially, OFS should have been the Seal Team of the SLN. They had the same access as the SLN to the enormous budget of the League, not the budget of the Navy. I really can't understand why OFS didn't benefit from the exact same enormous budget as well. Especially when appealing to the public that the deaths of its sons and daughters were happening on the front lines. In OFS. It would have been like sending only our second and third generation equipment to occupy our bases, since currently we have the luxury of redeploying quickly to head off any insurrection. That isn't a luxury in the Honorverse. To dispense her responsibilities, OFS would have had to have ships everywhere - an enormous fleet to cover its equally enormous "sphere of influence," even in time of peace.
2. Plain and simply. . . Why didn't OFS have a much more powerful navy? Since they had access to the same TUFT units of aupressedLn from the League's enormous naval budget. Plus, they were not idiots or ignorant like the Battle Fleet that had no battles. You mean to tell me, no one in OFS had a single connection in the government that could divert some of the enormous naval budget to itself? Or hath charm to soothe the savage beast into its own budget? There was so much money available.
3. That's another thing, talking about the Reserve Fleet the SLN had. Why didn't OFS have at least twice as many ships? Why was the SLN reserve so large, lying dormant? When OFS was so small, relatively compared to its enormous bailiwick? The universe is large - huge even.*
*Even though nobody was stupid enough to challenge the gorilla face to face, it doesn't mean every system played nice all the time. The Protectorates. The Verge. They all needed policing. Theft, crime, piracy and insurrection, browbeating and expansion, should have naturally guaranteed the size and quality of OFS. Or how could UPS err OFS absolutely get there overnight? To suppress piracy, practically, your response time had to be low. Very low. How low can you go?
Same as in the real world, I would imagine the criminal element screws around with the cops, especially Keystone Cops. Tell me it 'taint so polities mess with OFS? Certainly not OFS. But if OFS couldn't respond quickly to anywhere in the Protectorates, what difference is it if they show up long after cargo has been looted, bootied and bandied about, and the men and women raped, long before any response time? What's more, how is cargo ever even recovered?
Therefore, I seem to see the reality of the situation meriting them having enough ships buzzing all about the galaxy to essentially turn OFS into some modern day equivalent of the Gestapo - the largest police force in the galaxy. Enough to make the Nazi War Machine envious, but proud.*
THE HUMAN ELEMENT OF OFS's BAILIWICK
Let's not forget the human element and human nature in OFS' activities. If citizens are always moving outward from the Core to escape the gorilla's smell then OFS is running into them again and again. "Fancy seeing you here." Guaranteeing your present assignment constitutes browbeating the very same family and friends you kissed goodbye months ago.
For the US, it takes an awful lot more firepower to represent "over seas." In the Honorverse, OFS essentially operated "over seas." They were the entity deployed. They were the Frontiersmen. These boys are supposed to be packing! They're supposed to have the latest shit. You didn't go to hostile ports unless you had your best fighters. Whoever was in charge of OFS should have been fired and an Admiral appointed who had some balls. Didn't OFS have any Halsey's?
Forgive me, but in UH, I was expecting someone from OFS to give Honor a go. "I'll take that challenge, Harrington."
"I know. I know. We all know what would have happened. But perhaps, just maybe, OFS -- because of a better trained and supported "Navy," would merit Honor laying its robe upon its worthy body after defeat.
So what exactly did happened to OFS. And how did she get to be so dirty? What went wrong from the days of the young, beautiful and noble OFS of her supple youth?
4. Exactly how did OFS browbeat star nations to accept its protection? How does that work? If I decide 'No I'll take my chances.' What does that mean, exactly?
5. In light of all of that, let's make it clearer this time, "What the "f**k" happened to OFS?'" I know much of what textev says, but it looks different under a microscope.
She should have been the modern equivalent of the Gestapo. Only much deadlier.
AND ANOTHER THING. DIDN'T OFS AND THE SLN SCRIMMAGE? You mean NO wargames between the two? Then how did the SLN know they weren't outclassed? Which should have been the case all across the board.
I'll stop right there to catch my breath, before I can catch up with myself."