Sigs wrote:Brigade XO wrote:Sure, it would be POSSIBLE to modify existing SL SDs to carry LACs.
That would mean whatever modifications you had to do to carry them and certainly you MIGHT be able to convert various capital missile magazines and the handling gear/passageways to do the same for the LAC missile weapons.
Same thing for crew space for the LAC crews/admin-command staff and maintenance/riggers. It would be a serious question about where people were being housed/trained/fed etc vs. where they duty stations would be but that is mostly a question of time to get to where you need to be. At least in the situation where you were involved in a planned strike, your crews would be in the LACs awaiting launch. In any non-combat day cycle they would just have to allow enough time to get where they needed to be.
You could also take away the crew otherwise needed for the SD weapons that you would need to remove or not be able to use because of having to modify for the LACs (hanger space/ C&C, etc).
Couple of things though. You probably are going to want to upgrade the SD's defensive suite of weapons to get rid of the auto-cannon in favor of defensive energy weapons and a massive additioin to counter-missile batteries (and related handling and logistics) plus the sensors etc needed.
IF the SL were to take commissioned SDs out of deployment- which mostly would keep the crew with them and train on the changes- while you do the upgrades to weapons and add the LAC modifications, you would get them back faster with trained crews and more modern ships (or at least newer) than attempting to upgrade anything in the Reserve Fleets for which you would still have to the upgrades plus find all new crew.
The other thing is just exactly what LACs would the SL be using and where would they get them? They don't have anything like the current generation RMN or RHN LACs or the weapons/sensors/defences of said LACs. Putting current "standard" SL LACs on the converted SLs might be such a great idea as SL LACs are more like customs enforcement gunboats and primarily equiped to do things like theaten merchant ships, not full up warships. I suspect that the engagement ranges of SL LACs both defence and offense is signicantly less than any of the current GA LACs and they will have siginicant speed and sensor challanges as well.
That would put a SL SD LAC tender conversion more in the range of carrying a load of clay pigeons if they have to launch against a stike by GA warships or LAC raid.
As a raider or participant in a raid against a verge system with SL equivenent weapons and a few actual warships, sure, they would probably help. Certainly just the size of one SD showing up as part of a strike had a certain level of intimidation but you are not going to get the same level of effectiveness against almost anything that a GA LAC strike would carry.
Sure, hitting a Manticorian system such one in the Talbot Clusterusing a multi-starship force and one or more SL SD LAC tender conversions against "only" three or four squadrons of RMN LACs is probably going to suceed in "capturing" the system and doing significant damage to the infrastructure but the cost to the raiding force is going to also going to be significant. The SD would survive- probably wouldn't even get attacke by the RMN LACs- but the SL LACs would be butchered and the lighter starships of the SL will probably get a bit hammered and take damage. How much damage depends on a lot of things but anything that ends up not being able to hyper out is going to be a write-off for the SL.
All of this will, however, let the SLN at least say and show they are "doing something". Tough on the crews though.
Unless I am forgetting something, the SLN has not witnessed the true power of the GAs LACs. So they will not be thinking in terms of LACs until they have a demonstration of the power of those ships.
And yes, the SLN could convert some of their SDs into LAC carriers but the amount of effort would discourage them. They might try on one or two and even they would realize it would be easier to start from scratch. And considering they would have LACs even weaker than the RHNs LACs they will need a carrier that can bring as many LACs as possible with it... something a converted SD would not.
Minor spoiler but it seemed like mesa system control had at least some idea of how potent the mantie lacs really are when describing the forces that entered their system. I would tend to assume the SLN who are not totally head inserted into rear probably have a similar level of data.