How many Star Nations are there with Ships of the Wall?

Brigade XO wrote:Who do we know that are building their own SDs? Manticore, Haven, Grayson, IAN, Erwhon, presumably Beowulf. Possibly Mannerheim. We don't know about the Alignment for sure.

Weird Harold wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:Who do we know that are building their own SDs? Manticore, Haven, Grayson, IAN, Erwhon, presumably Beowulf. Possibly Mannerheim. We don't know about the Alignment for sure.

We know that Mannerheim is a major component of the "Mesan Alignment Navy" and so probably has SDs with the capability to fire Cataphract B or C missiles, plus whatever advancements/upgrades Technodyne couldn't sell to the the SLN -- advancements/upgrades that do more for actual combat power than the cosmetics of "Fleet 2000."

The other members of the Renaissance Factor/MAN probably have significant SDFs built locally or by Technodyne of Yildin. I would figure each of the RF members for at least a squadron of SDs or DNs that are marginally better than the Scientist Class of SLN SDs.

Weird Harold wrote:

Brigade XO wrote:Who do we know that are building their own SDs? Manticore, Haven, Grayson, IAN, Erwhon, presumably Beowulf. Possibly Mannerheim. We don't know about the Alignment for sure.

We know that Mannerheim is a major component of the "Mesan Alignment Navy" and so probably has SDs with the capability to fire Cataphract B or C missiles, plus whatever advancements/upgrades Technodyne couldn't sell to the the SLN -- advancements/upgrades that do more for actual combat power than the cosmetics of "Fleet 2000."

The other members of the Renaissance Factor/MAN probably have significant SDFs built locally or by Technodyne of Yildin. I would figure each of the RF members for at least a squadron of SDs or DNs that are marginally better than the Scientist Class of SLN SDs.

nrellis wrote:Having the ability to fire Cataphract missiles possibly isn't a very good idea. The Cataphract is the Alignment's initial attempt to create a multidrive missile, and its performance characteristics are quite distinct from a true multidrive missile.

The only known operators of the Cataphract have been the phantom attacker who carried out the Yawata Strike (now provisional identified as the Mesan Alignment), the State Security mercenaries at Congo (likewise linked to Mesa), and the SLN at BoMA courtesy of "Technodyne".

nrellis wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:We know that Mannerheim is a major component of the "Mesan Alignment Navy" and so probably has SDs with the capability to fire Cataphract B or C missiles, plus whatever advancements/upgrades Technodyne couldn't sell to the the SLN -- advancements/upgrades that do more for actual combat power than the cosmetics of "Fleet 2000."

The other members of the Renaissance Factor/MAN probably have significant SDFs built locally or by Technodyne of Yildin. I would figure each of the RF members for at least a squadron of SDs or DNs that are marginally better than the Scientist Class of SLN SDs.

Having the ability to fire Cataphract missiles possibly isn't a very good idea. The Cataphract is the Alignment's initial attempt to create a multidrive missile, and its performance characteristics are quite distinct from a true multidrive missile.

The only known operators of the Cataphract have been the phantom attacker who carried out the Yawata Strike (now provisional identified as the Mesan Alignment), the State Security mercenaries at Congo (likewise linked to Mesa),
and the SLN at BoMA courtesy of "Technodyne".

The SLN will slap the development of improvements to the Cataphract with a very high security classification and won't permit "export licences" to allow SDFs to operate the missile, so anyone who does use it is implicating themselves as having links to the Alignment (something the Onion was organised to prevent).

The Alignment may be hoping the SLN's arms suppliers develop the Cataphract into a true multidrive missile for them and the RF navies "acquire" the technology either during the breakup of the SLN, or as part of the negotioations for placing the SDFs under SLN command for the war against the Grand Alliance, but that is pure speculation on my part.

SWM wrote:Cataphracts were not used in the Yawata Strike. Technodyne is known as the source of the cataphract missiles. And there is no reason for Technodyne to avoid selling the cataphract to Solarian League System Defense Forces, like Mannerheim.

Mission of Honor: Ch 29 wrote:And then the conventional Mesan missiles began their attack runs.
✧ ✧ ✧
Daniel Detweiler’s researchers hadn’t yet figured out how to fit multiple full-size, sustainable drives into a single missile of manageable dimensions. They had, however, realized what the RMN must have done, and they were working industriously to duplicate the Manticoran advantage. In the meantime, they’d come up with Cataphract, a variant of their own based on taking the standard missile bodies for the SLN’s new-generation anti-ship missiles and adding what amounted to a separate final stage carrying a standard laser head and a counter-missile’s drive system. For Oyster Bay, they’d brought out the longest-ranged, heaviest version of their new weapon, fitted the birds into out-sized pods, then launched them behind other, specialized pods which carried nothing but low-powered particle screens and the power supplies to maintain them for the ballistic run in-system to their targets. The missile-laden pods had followed in the zone swept by the shield-equipped platforms; now they completed their own system checks and began to launch.
A version of the new weapon had been used with lethal effectiveness against Luis Rozsak’s ships at the Second Battle of Congo. Unfortunately, the full report on that wasn’t available to the RMN. They knew something had improved the range of the missiles which had been provided to the “People’s Navy in Exile,” and they’d managed to deduce approximately how it had been done, but that was about it. And even if they’d had access to Rozsak’s report, it wouldn’t have fully prepared them for this. Rozsak had faced the Cataphract-A, based on the SLN’s new cruiser/destroyer Spatha shipkiller; the pod-launched missiles of Oyster Bay were Cataphract-Cs, based on the capital-ship Trebucht, with much heavier and more powerful laserheads. The combined package had a powered range from rest of over sixteen million kilometers and a terminal velocity of better than .49 c. That attack envelope would have made it formidable enough by itself, but installing the high-speed drive as the last stage also gave it far more agility when it came to penetrating the target’s defenses during its terminal maneuvers.