Last use for SL SD captured

Theemile wrote:Better?

Yes.

Standard doctrine: Take any captured SL SD, remove the crew, tweet one fusion plant with a timer to lose containment and get the hell away from it.
Boom......very quietly since this is in space....end of problem.

The ideas that some fans come up with are a side effect of one of the things that RFC does well. He is good at giving the readers the illusion that they understand the technology and the politics and the rest of his universe better than they actually. do. He provides enough information to tempt people to fill in the rest from what they know of current and historical technology and politics.
This provides verisimilitude in his stories. But it provides material for those who want a challenge to their ingenuity. However there is usually background material not in the books which renders the fans' ideas impractical. And of course he is describing the actions of professionals who are not looking for challenges to their ingenuity. They are tying to solve problems.

Just to point out the obvious text so some people will read it this time. *** read this section ***

1. Take the fast transports from the SL marine transports which hauled the 500,000? SL Marines to Manticore, to Silesia, to the various systems that have expressed interest in joining the Star Empire. And send a courier to the others doing the rounds. Raising several Prize crews that can pilot a SL SD to Silesia shouldn't be too difficult. If need be a couple dozen Manty Marines can be stationed on each ship.

2. Transport the SL SD, under own power or towed if need be, through the Basilisk Terminus. Then in hyper space to the various systems. Add in the necessary parts for building a Dispersed yard to dismantle the ships.

*** Dismantle the SL SD Ships *** not remove weapons and use them as freighters. There are lots of freighters in the Manty system, 10's of 1,000's maybe 100's of 1,000's. A few hundred of these Freighters can be converted to Fast Freighters, free of charge with free parts, to the Freighter captains/owners if Skimper Transports & Freighters are not used. If Skimper Transports - Freighters are used the SL SD will be purchased, for scrap.

3. Inner Armour doesn't prevent you from removing or installing Grasers, Lasers, or in this case CM and Missile tubes. Bottles and Impeller Nodes. Displays and Chairs decking and computer systems etc... Bunks and life support. It has to get installed in the first place and refit and replaced along its old age. Most of these ships are hundred plus years old.

The freighter is parked next to the SD and the dispersed yard built around both. We could start with Five or so per incorporated system, Park the rest of the SD in these systems until the others fall in line. Moving Five SL SD with Silesian Prize crews or tow crews at a time will keep them busy for a while. A single Transport can haul all five prize crews to Manticore from Silesia and Talbot through the junctions from Silesia.

Hey if you don't want the Silesians to have any Manticore Support Skimper Transports will be more than happy to monopolise the Silesian Protectorate. The Largest Section of the Future Star Empire. And with ships that can serve the free SL systems without worrying too much about the inevitable pirates that will operate in the SL after the Mandarin's fall. Even if they charge a premium for guaranteed delivery, there will be lots of customers. 10,000 systems worth. 340 ships can serve the far flung systems better faster and scaring away most Pirates and running away for help from anyone that isn't.

Now if having Missile tubes is too big a problem, one could just use Half the PDLC's and CM from each SL SD mounted on the Fast Freighters

Taking 18+ CM and 24 PD from each SL SD, plus the bottles, and nodes and wedges and control systems, Displays and command decks Each SD has at least two command decks. Life support and Bunks etc.... All Easily removed from the SL SD.

You end up with a Silesian Heavy side walled, CM and PD armed Fast Freighter with a drive signature that looks just like a SL SD. 6.5mega ton to 7.2 mega ton Freighter. SD Sidewalls, SD PD, SD CM, Fast Hyperspace and Fast High G Acceleration. Add in SL Counter Missiles and perhaps Vipers or the Cataphract last stage versions.

Lots of Cataphract missiles were captured. Plus all the reloads.

340 Freighters can be plying the dangerous trade routes in 10 years.

Lord Skimper wrote:Just to point out the obvious text so some people will read it this time. *** read this section ***

1. Take the fast transports from the SL marine transports which hauled the 500,000? SL Marines to Manticore, to Silesia, to the various systems that have expressed interest in joining the Star Empire. And send a courier to the others doing the rounds. Raising several Prize crews that can pilot a SL SD to Silesia shouldn't be too difficult. If need be a couple dozen Manty Marines can be stationed on each ship.

2. Transport the SL SD, under own power or towed if need be, through the Basilisk Terminus. Then in hyper space to the various systems. Add in the necessary parts for building a Dispersed yard to dismantle the ships.

*** Dismantle the SL SD Ships *** not remove weapons and use them as freighters. There are lots of freighters in the Manty system, 10's of 1,000's maybe 100's of 1,000's. A few hundred of these Freighters can be converted to Fast Freighters, free of charge with free parts, to the Freighter captains/owners if Skimper Transports & Freighters are not used. If Skimper Transports - Freighters are used the SL SD will be purchased, for scrap.

3. Inner Armour doesn't prevent you from removing or installing Grasers, Lasers, or in this case CM and Missile tubes. Bottles and Impeller Nodes. Displays and Chairs decking and computer systems etc... Bunks and life support. It has to get installed in the first place and refit and replaced along its old age. Most of these ships are hundred plus years old.

The freighter is parked next to the SD and the dispersed yard built around both. We could start with Five or so per incorporated system, Park the rest of the SD in these systems until the others fall in line. Moving Five SL SD with Silesian Prize crews or tow crews at a time will keep them busy for a while. A single Transport can haul all five prize crews to Manticore from Silesia and Talbot through the junctions from Silesia.

Hey if you don't want the Silesians to have any Manticore Support Skimper Transports will be more than happy to monopolise the Silesian Protectorate. The Largest Section of the Future Star Empire. And with ships that can serve the free SL systems without worrying too much about the inevitable pirates that will operate in the SL after the Mandarin's fall. Even if they charge a premium for guaranteed delivery, there will be lots of customers. 10,000 systems worth. 340 ships can serve the far flung systems better faster and scaring away most Pirates and running away for help from anyone that isn't.

Now if having Missile tubes is too big a problem, one could just use Half the PDLC's and CM from each SL SD mounted on the Fast Freighters

Taking 18+ CM and 24 PD from each SL SD, plus the bottles, and nodes and wedges and control systems, Displays and command decks Each SD has at least two command decks. Life support and Bunks etc.... All Easily removed from the SL SD.

You end up with a Silesian Heavy side walled, CM and PD armed Fast Freighter with a drive signature that looks just like a SL SD. 6.5mega ton to 7.2 mega ton Freighter. SD Sidewalls, SD PD, SD CM, Fast Hyperspace and Fast High G Acceleration. Add in SL Counter Missiles and perhaps Vipers or the Cataphract last stage versions.

Lots of Cataphract missiles were captured. Plus all the reloads.

340 Freighters can be plying the dangerous trade routes in 10 years.

This seems to ignore the reality that there is no longer a Silesia as an independent entity. Roughly half of it is under the stewardship of the Star Empire and the other half under the Andermani. I think pirates will soon migrate to safer hunting grounds. Solarian SDs have nothing to contribute there as modern navies clean up the cesspool.

Also, the project of dismantling and revamping the SDs would be more expensive than simply manufacturing new ships from scratch. So why bother?

Don

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Lord Skimper wrote:Just to point out the obvious text so some people will read it this time. *** read this section ***

1. Take the fast transports from the SL marine transports which hauled the 500,000? SL Marines to Manticore, to Silesia, to the various systems that have expressed interest in joining the Star Empire. And send a courier to the others doing the rounds. Raising several Prize crews that can pilot a SL SD to Silesia shouldn't be too difficult. If need be a couple dozen Manty Marines can be stationed on each ship.

To point out the obvious: those marine transports never entered Manticoran space. They probably ran away back to Tasmania when Filareta didn't send someone to fetch them.

munroburton wrote:

Lord Skimper wrote:Just to point out the obvious text so some people will read it this time. *** read this section ***

1. Take the fast transports from the SL marine transports which hauled the 500,000? SL Marines to Manticore, to Silesia, to the various systems that have expressed interest in joining the Star Empire. And send a courier to the others doing the rounds. Raising several Prize crews that can pilot a SL SD to Silesia shouldn't be too difficult. If need be a couple dozen Manty Marines can be stationed on each ship.

To point out the obvious: those marine transports never entered Manticoran space. They probably ran away back to Tasmania when Filareta didn't send someone to fetch them.

We don't know what happened to the SLN transports. Until RFC tells us I prefer to think that they were captured with the rest of Eleventh Fleet. If the did capture them then the SEM gained a boat load of frontline SLMC equipment.

saber964 wrote:

munroburton wrote:To point out the obvious: those marine transports never entered Manticoran space. They probably ran away back to Tasmania when Filareta didn't send someone to fetch them.

We don't know what happened to the SLN transports. Until RFC tells us I prefer to think that they were captured with the rest of Eleventh Fleet. If the did capture them then the SEM gained a boat load of frontline SLMC equipment.

Actually, we do know. The casualty and PoW numbers from 2nd Manticore add up to ~433 SLN SDs(at 6k per). They only brought 427 plus a small screen. It's clear from those that half a million SLMC personnel were not captured, nor killed.

n7axw wrote:...the project of dismantling and revamping the SDs would be more expensive than simply manufacturing new ships from scratch. So why bother?

I keep seeing the same people ranting about how all the Manty production has been destroyed and then ranting that "well they can just make new ones cheaper" - HOW? their production is ZERO. Use the hulls you have! I would suggest keeping (at least initially) some of the stock missile tubes and some magazine space or it will get out that they are all bluster and no bight. As I pointed out earlier, the SL missiles are crap against GA tech but not anyone else's. Also, the Talbot and Silesians area not barbarians in loincloths throwing rocks. they are space faring people and can learn to operate these ships, perhaps with great reduction, as suggested, and corresponding reduction in crew needs. but they could serve to deter SL raids into both areas.

hmmm...we can't build new hulls, we need new ships, what do we do with these hulls? oh, just throw them away.

During the Spanish American war, the US sank most of the Spanish Navy, many in Manila Bay. Most of those ships were obsolete junk. But, the US raised, repaired and took into service, several of those junk heaps anyway. A hulls a hull, get it out there.

MAD-4A wrote:

n7axw wrote:...the project of dismantling and revamping the SDs would be more expensive than simply manufacturing new ships from scratch. So why bother?

I keep seeing the same people ranting about how all the Manty production has been destroyed and then ranting that "well they can just make new ones cheaper" - HOW? their production is ZERO. Use the hulls you have! I would suggest keeping (at least initially) some of the stock missile tubes and some magazine space or it will get out that they are all bluster and no bight. As I pointed out earlier, the SL missiles are crap against GA tech but not anyone else's. Also, the Talbot and Silesians area not barbarians in loincloths throwing rocks. they are space faring people and can learn to operate these ships, perhaps with great reduction, as suggested, and corresponding reduction in crew needs. but they could serve to deter SL raids into both areas.

hmmm...we can't build new hulls, we need new ships, what do we do with these hulls? oh, just throw them away.

During the Spanish American war, the US sank most of the Spanish Navy, many in Manila Bay. Most of those ships were obsolete junk. But, the US raised, repaired and took into service, several of those junk heaps anyway. A hulls a hull, get it out there.

One, the GA isn't actually in urgent need of new hulls. Manticore along has enough to destroy the rest of the in-service SLN before running out of their stockpile of missiles; and Haven has that again plus active production lines for both ships and missiles.

A crappy hull you don't need isn't the solution to upgrading Haven's warships to Apollo capable, nor getting Beowulf more moderns ships. And it's not the solution to getting the factories online to build additional Apollo missiles, nor all the plug&play parts that will become needed to maintain the existing cutting edge ships Manticore already has.

I don't see a pressing need for Manticore to get more hulls at any price; which is why I don't see an upside to them messing around with very hard to rework, manpower intensive, obsolete 3rd or 4th rate crap. It distracts them from getting their spare parts and ammo production back online; and that actually is important.