New Manty ship ideas.

Brigade XO wrote:If you are going to "mount" LACs on freighters as a semi-permanent feature, you are going to have to make what amount to non-trivial modifications to at least the freighters involved and add some extra gear to what is normally involved in servicing a LAC

Not necessarily - here is some of RFC's discussion on the subject:
They can be deployed from freighter bays or even transported limpeted onto the hulls of regular warships. A CLAC offers many significant tactical and strategic advantages, including the ability to provide rapid turnaround time for LAC sorties and the defense of firepower and shipboard electronics capabilities built into them. They also tend to be faster than most freighters, as well as specifically configured to carry large amounts of ammunition, spare parts, etc., to service their LAC groups. They aren't necessary to the process, however.

From the Pearl here. Some more detail about parasite LACs here.

Werrf wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:If you are going to "mount" LACs on freighters as a semi-permanent feature, you are going to have to make what amount to non-trivial modifications to at least the freighters involved and add some extra gear to what is normally involved in servicing a LAC

Not necessarily - here is some of RFC's discussion on the subject:
They can be deployed from freighter bays or even transported limpeted onto the hulls of regular warships. A CLAC offers many significant tactical and strategic advantages, including the ability to provide rapid turnaround time for LAC sorties and the defense of firepower and shipboard electronics capabilities built into them. They also tend to be faster than most freighters, as well as specifically configured to carry large amounts of ammunition, spare parts, etc., to service their LAC groups. They aren't necessary to the process, however.

From the Pearl here. Some more detail about parasite LACs here.

Also, a Properly designed container could have power ( via a fission stack), life support and crew quarters. If you plan on these as being used as part of a self sufficient LAC "Base infrastructure" for system defense, such a module could be used both for the Frieghter escort and the quickly deployed system defense role.

Yes, we have seen LACs deployed from freighter bays that were one of the weapons systems for the Wayfarer and her sister ships. These were built as Q ships from a standard freighter design with the upgrades to military hardware and systems built in. Then there were the modifications that Honor’s Chief Engineer made on the way to the deployment to run both new passageways (for crew etc) and power and data and other lines to improve the ability to operate.
I note that the quote says “even transported limpeted onto the hulls of regular warships”. That’s transported, as in carried as external hull cargo, not docked for use in an offensive or defensive role.
When the Masadan’s brought the LACs to the Grayson system they were having all sorts of problems. I didn’t go back to look but I think that Honor’s escapee fleet from Hades was using small craft docked to external hatches to expand the space available for people, they had all sorts of challenges with issues including environmental systems. When I have read that part my image was docking hatches on both the ship and the small craft latched open and cables and ductwork being run to/from the small craft. Potable water in, gray and black water out. Move air into the main ships distribution and recirculation system. Get power and communications and monitoring information in and out of the small craft.
Wayfarer was set up to service and rearm it’s LACs in the cargo bay. That would be a good way to rearm and repair/service LACs carried and deployed from the hull of a freighter, as it would allow access to the magazine without running ammunition systems from the magazine to each hull mount. It would mean that you may be limited to rearming/servicing one or two LACs at a time but then these nominal freighter conversions would not be intended for extended combat situations.
If you are anticipating to launch in response to a pirate attach then you “should” have a resolution to the problem fairly quickly. You either chase the pirate off, you engage and damage/destroy the pirate, or you are out classed and/or out gunned and the LACs and their transport are lost. Same if you run into a warship. If you have 8 to 12 LACs and no or minimal defensive systems (counter missiles and laser clusters with some depth of magazines and tactical systems) the freighter is going to be toast along with the LACs unless the attacker captures the freighter and uses it as an pirate LAC ship.
Your probable best option is to dedicate a cargo hold for the LACs and deploy from there on a one-use basis. If you have to deploy them against a pirate, you recover them and have them serviced at the next port of call.

Brigade XO wrote:I note that the quote says “even transported limpeted onto the hulls of regular warships”. That’s transported, as in carried as external hull cargo, not docked for use in an offensive or defensive role.

No, the quote says "Deployed from freighter bays OR transported limpeted onto the hulls".

Brigade XO wrote:When the Masadan’s brought the LACs to the Grayson system they were having all sorts of problems.

Yes, because they were using a jury-rigged system that was the first time any such deployment had ever been attempted.

Brigade XO wrote:I didn’t go back to look but I think that Honor’s escapee fleet from Hades was using small craft docked to external hatches to expand the space available for people, they had all sorts of challenges with issues including environmental systems.

It wasn't specified that they were docked with external hatches, just that they used the small craft to expand the available life support. The problems and strain were entirely due to overcrowding, and were felt on the starships, not just the small craft.

The second post, which I did not quote from directly, also refers to the endurance of Manticoran LACs as compared to Havenite ones. Since Manticoran LACs are designed with much greater endurance than Havenite ones, they could be carried limpeted to the hull or just floating in the cargo bay with no problems.

A good method, XO, to deploy them from a cargo bay. Even if you have a one off system, (Once you've used up everything your onboard LACs came with, you're done.) what are the odds of running into multiple encounters of heavily armed pirates? If the pirates get that thick in the waters, then the real Navy will go hunting.

Fireflair wrote:A good method, XO, to deploy them from a cargo bay. Even if you have a one off system, (Once you've used up everything your onboard LACs came with, you're done.) what are the odds of running into multiple encounters of heavily armed pirates? If the pirates get that thick in the waters, then the real Navy will go hunting.

Don't forget, With Shrikes/Ferrets/Katanas all the gangways, umbillicals and connections are in the nose - all you would need is a nose adaptor for everything BUT heavy maintenance. The rest of the dock could be open volume (With a 20K ton tractor grab).

Compensators use the wedge as an inertial sump.

There should be a way for LACs towed inside of the wedge of a host ship to use beta nodes to use the wedge of the host ship as their inertial sump.

Until the SKM advanced LAC capabilities, this was hardly worth doing. And, it obviously was not incorporated into initial LAC design. But, then, neither were sternwalls.

Imagine that Scotty is summoned, again, to meet with Admiral Hemphill. He arrives to be told that she had a chance encounter with Sir Horace, and that the chat with Sir Horace was quite interesting ...

waddles for desert wrote:Compensators use the wedge as an inertial sump.

There should be a way for LACs towed inside of the wedge of a host ship to use beta nodes to use the wedge of the host ship as their inertial sump.

Until the SKM advanced LAC capabilities, this was hardly worth doing. And, it obviously was not incorporated into initial LAC design. But, then, neither were sternwalls.

Imagine that Scotty is summoned, again, to meet with Admiral Hemphill. He arrives to be told that she had a chance encounter with Sir Horace, and that the chat with Sir Horace was quite interesting ...

Uh, I don't see that as plausible. I expect that using the wedge as an inertial sump requires a direct connection to the impeller nodules producing the wedge.

"
"Don't forget, With Shrikes/Ferrets/Katanas all the gangways, umbillicals and connections are in the nose - all you would need is a nose adaptor for everything BUT heavy maintenance. The rest of the dock could be open volume (With a 20K ton tractor grab)."

Ahhh...not quite all. You need to connect that nose docking assembly to things like power, enviornmental, the ammo handing systems, personel spaces, etc, etc, etc. Sure, you can just mount the docking assemby where you need -or can find a place you can run all the connections to/from- and then make whatever modifications are the minimum needed service said LACs. Little things like ammunition magazines for the missiles (including counter-missiles) and the handling equipment.

Details.

At this point, and pending more detail on Silesia, you could deploy LAC squadrons in freighters as an anti-piracy tool in Silesia and free up the newer but non Mk 16 carrying ships like the Culverin DD and Avalon CL for forward work in places like Talbott Quadrant. That would be the primary reason and place for something like a lightly modified freighter with LACs to be used in an escort role. You might want to do things like add a LAC carrying freighter to a convoy that would normally be given a single DD escort if you thought there was something more dangerous than basic pirates -think a CL- operating on the route. A squadron of modern Manticore LACs and one new (if not Mk 16) RMN DD should give a CL or perhaps a CA pause if it tries to attack the convoy. That presumes the warship in question has an actual understanding of what the RMN ships can do.

That would require confidence that no enemy (the SL, the Alignment) is going to deploy full-up warships to Silesia to try and destablize the area and that piracy is becomming a very dangerous business in the area.

It is a calculated risk in both ends of shifting the warships since Talbott is going to still be a place where at least FF ships are operating. The Culverin and Avalon can probably take any SL ship in their respective classes but against multiple ships or a Solly BC, things will get very difficult. Still, it would put more combat power into Talbott with perhaps a deeper ammuntion supply to rearm.