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

George J. Smith wrote:[quote="Weird Harold]
Technodyne is a major supplier to the SLN and SDF forces; they are a convenient cutout for the MAlign in this regard.

If the cataphracts hadn't been supplied to the SLN, you would have a point about them being linked to the MAlign instead of Technodyne. Since they were supplied to the SLN by a long-term contractor for the SLN and SDF forces, the finger points at Technodyne as the origin and the MAlign as just another customer.

I don't doubt that any SLN attempt to classify the Cataphracts will be doomed to failure because Technodyne isn't a Solarian based Transstellar, it is a Mesan Board Member and sole owner of the Yildin system.[/quote]

Can we expect that early in the next book, Yildin will be targeted by a task force commanded by Sir Aviers? He really wants some payback for all his people who were killed in Monica as a result of what Technodyne provided to the Monican Navy.

T&R
GJS[/quote]

George J. Smith wrote:Where there any good sensor records of the Yawata strike available to identify the type of missiles used as the 2nd prong of the attack?

Without some form of information pointing to the type of missiles used it would be difficult to point fingers at Technodyne as the source of the missiles.


T&R
GJS

"My own feeling, and Admiral Hemphill's tentative analysis supports the same conclusion, is that what we have to be looking at is some radically new propulsive system. The missiles used in this attack were essentially conventional weapons—variants on our own MDMs. Analysis of their maneuvers from the moment they brought their drives up further suggests they were delivered in pods, probably coasted ballistically in to their launch points at a velocity of about point-two cee. The weapons that were used on the space stations were another case entirely. At this point, it looks like they were probably some sort of throwaway, disposable version of our own Shrikes, although nobody in Admiral Hemphill's shop has the least clue how Manpower—excuse me, how whoever launched this attack—managed to cram a weapon that powerful into a remote platform. Or how they gave its graser that sort of pulse endurance. For all intents and purposes, though, it's basically only a longer-ranged version of our own Mistletoe, probably using whatever new drive technology their ships use instead of relying completely on stealth the way Mistletoe does.

Theemile wrote:

George J. Smith wrote:Where there any good sensor records of the Yawata strike available to identify the type of missiles used as the 2nd prong of the attack?

Without some form of information pointing to the type of missiles used it would be difficult to point fingers at Technodyne as the source of the missiles.


T&R
GJS

There were tons of sensor records from the attack. The fleets were not hit - any merchant ships in transit were not hit, the planetary forts were not hit, the distributed sensor drones were not hit. Only the main stations and mobile shipyards were hit and any collateral damage happened in their vicinity.

Everything was designed to come in hard and fast - too fast for anyone to react, but there are sensor records of the attack in spades. And people will see the drive signature of the Cataphract-C if they look for it in that mountain of data.

The following is from The Queen's brief post OB in MoH:

"My own feeling, and Admiral Hemphill's tentative analysis supports the same conclusion, is that what we have to be looking at is some radically new propulsive system. The missiles used in this attack were essentially conventional weapons—variants on our own MDMs. Analysis of their maneuvers from the moment they brought their drives up further suggests they were delivered in pods, probably coasted ballistically in to their launch points at a velocity of about point-two cee. The weapons that were used on the space stations were another case entirely. At this point, it looks like they were probably some sort of throwaway, disposable version of our own Shrikes, although nobody in Admiral Hemphill's shop has the least clue how Manpower—excuse me, how whoever launched this attack—managed to cram a weapon that powerful into a remote platform. Or how they gave its graser that sort of pulse endurance. For all intents and purposes, though, it's basically only a longer-ranged version of our own Mistletoe, probably using whatever new drive technology their ships use instead of relying completely on stealth the way Mistletoe does.

All of which came from data from the surviving sensor systems.

kzt wrote:They launched so close and moving so fast there would have no need for a second stage. When you launch at .2 c and within a million KMs you really don't need a sophisticated weapon. Heck, they didn't even need a warhead, the missile wedge and/or the missile body direct hit would have obliterated most of the targets.

isaac_newton wrote:

potter12 wrote:SNIP

4. The RMN had battleships and Dreadnaughts that were in service for more than 200 years. There has to be navies around who still have Battleships of DN in service that are that old or older.

I guess this reply is not quite on topic, but the loooong life spans did surprise me when I first saw them... rather as if HMS Victory was still being used in WW1 & 2!

dreamrider wrote: quote="isaac_newton"]

potter12 wrote:SNIP

4. The RMN had battleships and Dreadnaughts that were in service for more than 200 years. There has to be navies around who still have Battleships of DN in service that are that old or older.

I guess this reply is not quite on topic, but the loooong life spans did surprise me when I first saw them... rather as if HMS Victory was still being used in WW1 & 2!

Theemile wrote:

kzt wrote:They launched so close and moving so fast there would have no need for a second stage. When you launch at .2 c and within a million KMs you really don't need a sophisticated weapon. Heck, they didn't even need a warhead, the missile wedge and/or the missile body direct hit would have obliterated most of the targets.

However, in the text I quoted above, Manticoran sensor techs did recognize them as multi-drive missiles in the post analysis, so they must have seen the 2nd drive fire up.

But agreed, it could have been done with SDMs just the same, just with a lower terminal velocity.