Stupid idea that David is going to hate.

pappilon wrote:

Theemile wrote:Torch's Growth is currently about 10 million a year, most with little to no formal education. Most of the RTN senior naval leadership has come from Manticore, Haven and Beowulf, all of which are gearing up for the fight with the SL - so they will be limited how much of their trained personnel they can give to Torch in the near term.

Don't forget, Torch got it's independence in 1919, and only 3 years have elapsed since then. It's starting population was not that big (only in the low Millions). Torch with it's pharmaceutical base has the ability to make lots of money, and it is currently making a good fraction of it's potential, but most of that is being pumped into infrastructure, medical and education - the building blocks to make a prosperous future for the planet

In ~10 years Torch will have proper education systems in place for the stream of wayward children it will continue to attract, and be able to direct those who have the potential into the correct professions - which includes the armed forces. In addition, a fair portion of the ex-slaves and slave decendants that are currently serving in the BSDF, RMN and RHN will probably resign their current posts and take their skills and experience to the RTN.

But for now, growth will be slow - the RTN won't just be able to grow 6x overnight without placing thousands of people in positions they are not ready for.

And most of the immigrants with naval experience are non-coms and not officers. IIRC, Thandi was bemoaning the lack of experience in command positions. She had the most and she was a Marine LT.

saber964 wrote:

pappilon wrote:

And most of the immigrants with naval experience are non-coms and not officers. IIRC, Thandi was bemoaning the lack of experience in command positions. She had the most and she was a Marine LT.

Yes and no on that question. Some of the immigrants to Torch had some command skills just no enough of them. Also the SEM and RH were sending technical and military advisors. They were also probably offering military aid packages too. Remember HMTS Spartacus she was a Mars-A design with that problematic reactor. Bet you the RHN offered to totally upgrade her and the rest of the captured PNE ships as part of a military assistance package.

Lord Skimper wrote:Your sting ship would be better as a sting pod. How about an Eight missile Mk16 missile pod with a Ghost rider missile in place of the Apollo have it with the impeller nodes exposed so it can use it's wedge without killing the missiles or pod. Can do everything a Ghost Rider can do, slightly more visible and armed with 8 Mk16 missiles it is much better than this sting ship idea or anything less than an LAC and in some ways even better than that. Unlike a normal pod it can move and it has the best sensor suite in the Honorverse.

Theemile wrote:... Just seeing another escort will scare off run of the mill pirates.

Weird Harold wrote:

Theemile wrote:... Just seeing another escort will scare off run of the mill pirates.

If that were true, convoy escorts would routinely deploy EW Drones mimicking additional warships in high risk areas. That would provide a deterrent to timid pirates and make identifying the actual escort more challenging to an over-confident pirate.

Theemile wrote:Before Ghost Rider tech, drones which mimicked ships burned out in a few minutes (~10 I believe) and required them to be constantly refreshed. After Ghost Rider became cheap and plentiful, it could be that such measures as you described were taken regularly for important convoys- we really didn't see any on camera Convoys after IEH, but we do know that the Mantes used E-warfare drones extensively during WoH against the Andermani - after Honor gave the order to do anything to avoid confrontation.

Weird Harold wrote:

Theemile wrote:Before Ghost Rider tech, drones which mimicked ships burned out in a few minutes (~10 I believe) and required them to be constantly refreshed. After Ghost Rider became cheap and plentiful, it could be that such measures as you described were taken regularly for important convoys- we really didn't see any on camera Convoys after IEH, but we do know that the Mantes used E-warfare drones extensively during WoH against the Andermani - after Honor gave the order to do anything to avoid confrontation.

Actually, I don't think it would have been economical until the advent of Lorelei Drones -- which are apparently free-flying and of relatively long duration. EW Decoy drones earlier than Lorelei apparently had to remain fairly close to the deploying ship.

Something like Lorelei that could be deployed to fly formation with a convoy when exiting a Grav Wave to cross a dangerous stretch like the Selker Rift and then retrieved for reuse before entering the next Grav Wave. Set to mimic a poorly stealthed low-power wedge they should be able to last for long enough for most rift passages or traverse of a hyper-limit to port.

Make the simple and cheap enough and every merchant ship could carry one (or two) and Pirates would never be sure a ship wasn't escorted by a real warship.

Weird Harold wrote:

Theemile wrote:Before Ghost Rider tech, drones which mimicked ships burned out in a few minutes (~10 I believe) and required them to be constantly refreshed. After Ghost Rider became cheap and plentiful, it could be that such measures as you described were taken regularly for important convoys- we really didn't see any on camera Convoys after IEH, but we do know that the Mantes used E-warfare drones extensively during WoH against the Andermani - after Honor gave the order to do anything to avoid confrontation.

Actually, I don't think it would have been economical until the advent of Lorelei Drones -- which are apparently free-flying and of relatively long duration. EW Decoy drones earlier than Lorelei apparently had to remain fairly close to the deploying ship.

Something like Lorelei that could be deployed to fly formation with a convoy when exiting a Grav Wave to cross a dangerous stretch like the Selker Rift and then retrieved for reuse before entering the next Grav Wave. Set to mimic a poorly stealthed low-power wedge they should be able to last for long enough for most rift passages or traverse of a hyper-limit to port.

Make the simple and cheap enough and every merchant ship could carry one (or two) and Pirates would never be sure a ship wasn't escorted by a real warship.

cthia wrote:
Unfortunately, just like Killer Bees, these may die after one sting. Yet the target is also doomed.