The Charles Ward

cthia wrote:I know that the CW shouldn't be too quick to seek battle. Though I'm certain that fact won't sit too well with Ginger if push comes to shove. She'll push and shove back if so.

"Run away. Run away!” she murmured under her breath.
It was one of her favorite lines from one of the incredibly ancient “movies” to which Duchess Harrington had introduced her (and much of the rest of HMS Wayfarer’s crew) on her very first cruise. Fortunately, however, none of her bridge crew heard her. Somehow she doubted it would have comported well with the gravitas of a proper CO.

snip

It felt…odd to be about to run away from the enemy, but Ginger Lewis had been aboard another armed fleet auxiliary which had taken on battlecruisers, and she hadn’t enjoyed the experience.

However, what would be the likely operational doctrine of the Taylor class auxiliaries? In the past, these auxiliaries would hyper in a system, drop off their load and disappear back into hyper until needed, in the midst of battle. They also didn't have the accel to keep pace with the party. In SoV, the CW was kept right along with Tremaine's force. I always thought that leaving a ship behind near the hyper limit risks getting that ship captured or destroyed if an enemy force happens to hyper in on top of it.

So, what should be the operational doctrine of the new David Taylor class supply ships? Should it change or remain the same?

I wonder, if someone is able to develop a doctrine for the FSVs at all. After all, they are the most variable usable unit I can imagine.
1st, because the ships themselves are highly variable in their fittings. For example - they are able to carry LACs; but they don't have to. Second: are they operating as single units or as part or a taskforce?
If they operate solo, they would be ideal as privateers; if they operate as part of a taskforce, they could play the role of bait - a bait with sharp teeths.
Or, you could use them to protect your convoys (after all, she is a merchant - regarding her mass)
So, if you want to develop a doctrine, you have to do that for each single mission profile you want to fulfill with the FSVs.

cthia wrote:I know that the CW shouldn't be too quick to seek battle. Though I'm certain that fact won't sit too well with Ginger if push comes to shove. She'll push and shove back if so.

"Run away. Run away!” she murmured under her breath.
It was one of her favorite lines from one of the incredibly ancient “movies” to which Duchess Harrington had introduced her (and much of the rest of HMS Wayfarer’s crew) on her very first cruise. Fortunately, however, none of her bridge crew heard her. Somehow she doubted it would have comported well with the gravitas of a proper CO.

snip

It felt…odd to be about to run away from the enemy, but Ginger Lewis had been aboard another armed fleet auxiliary which had taken on battlecruisers, and she hadn’t enjoyed the experience.

However, what would be the likely operational doctrine of the Taylor class auxiliaries? In the past, these auxiliaries would hyper in a system, drop off their load and disappear back into hyper until needed, in the midst of battle. They also didn't have the accel to keep pace with the party. In SoV, the CW was kept right along with Tremaine's force. I always thought that leaving a ship behind near the hyper limit risks getting that ship captured or destroyed if an enemy force happens to hyper in on top of it.

So, what should be the operational doctrine of the new David Taylor class supply ships? Should it change or remain the same?

I would assume it depends on the situation. If the supporting formation is coming in hot and loaded for bear, I would assume that after dropping pods, a Taylor would either jump back into hyper, or jump to another point, further from the hyperlimit, and watch what happens.

When not on an attack mission, I would expect a Taylor to stay with the formation, like we saw at Wroclaweck (sp), and follow the formation all the way in to the planet, or until the situation devolves.

Eagleeye wrote:I wonder, if someone is able to develop a doctrine for the FSVs at all. After all, they are the most variable usable unit I can imagine.

...

Second: are they operating as single units or as part or a taskforce?

I very much doubt that a Fleet Support Vehicle would ever operate as a single unit; especially not as an offensive single unit.

The closest one might get to single unit operations is supporting a wide-spread task force,such as the deployment of Tenth Fleet in The Talbott quadrant in SoS. One might be tasked as a roving repair. Resupply, and mail ship which would require her to travel without escort from detachment to detachment. (rather than sit in one system like the ammo ship Terekhov dragged to Monica.)

The role of convoy escort might be a bit much for one ship alone in what is potentialy an engagement with one or more actual warhsips. Haveing one of these new FSV's (with LACs) accompany at least one warship- of class and strenght fitting the needs of the convoy- would make a big surprize for an enemy ship comming in.

The Q-ship role is possible, again, against your average pirate with a lightly armed freighter conversion. Surprise and probable ability to overwhelm a normal pirate should win the day.

The CW was described as armed compariable to a light cruiser

Weird Harold wrote:I very much doubt that a Fleet Support Vehicle would ever operate as a single unit; especially not as an offensive single unit.

The closest one might get to single unit operations is supporting a wide-spread task force,such as the deployment of Tenth Fleet in The Talbott quadrant in SoS. One might be tasked as a roving repair. Resupply, and mail ship which would require her to travel without escort from detachment to detachment. (rather than sit in one system like the ammo ship Terekhov dragged to Monica.)

Kind of my assumption as well. The notional design goal was to keep up with, and provide support for, a BC(P)/BC(L) raiding force. I assume more of the time the FSV would linger out beyond the hyper limit while the BCs braved the system defenses. The onboard LAC give a limited self-escorting option - making it riskier to try jumping the detached unit. And avoid having to attach DDs or CLs to ride heard of the support ship, or to detach one or two of your BC to do the same.

Now there are some situations where it'd make more sense to loan the LACs to the BC raiders and hyper clear rather than hanging around. There may even be some situations where the ability to act as a pod supply ship is worth actually entering the hyperlimit with the BCs - but I suspect you wouldn't against systems with heavy fixed defenses (though if that's all they had a ship the size of a Taylor could haul a lot of mistletoe drones to sucker punch those fixed defenses without the BCs having to sacrifice much of their normal recon drone storage to their single-use cousins.