fester wrote:Ships are an expensive way to defend a system. Manticore used forts to defend the Junction for two reasons: For a given dollar/tonnnage/crew member value, the forts can pack significantly more firepower than the biggest, baddest, meanest waller of the same technological generation.
You may be right that ton for ton forts are more powerful than SD(P)s... but SD(P)'s are far superior to forts in one simple way and that is they can move from system to system. What good are forts in Manticore if Trevors star is under attack or vice versa? Forts are specialized weapon systems since they are exclusively for defence as it would be quite hard to take forts with you on the offensive. SD(P)s on the other hand can defend and also bring the fight to the enemy.
Given a choice I would go for the balanced defence approach where forts and other fixed defences are included but to me at least heavy mobile assets are a must when facing an unknown enemy.
Ships of the wall including podnoughts are extremely specialized ships.
So are forts... after all the fort specializes in defence and not offence right? Can't drop 100 forts on Darius if the GA were to find it but you sure can drop 100 SD(P)s.
they are overkill for picketing a system,
Depends on the system and it's importance. Picketing Spindle with SD(P)s is a good idea, picketing a system of no value with SD(P)s maybe not so much
they are overkill for raiding most convoys.
Most They are perfectly appropriate for engaging and defeating by fire and maneuver enemy fixed defenses and enemy battle fleets.
Something the fort is not suited for... unless the enemy somehow and for some reason brings their fixed defences to your system.
The wall of battle is most useful when one needs to project significant firepower across interstellar distances and the second best use is to use the wall to defend critical targets against opposing walls as the defending ships have the option value of becoming offensive units at some future point.
They also have the ability to withdraw from a system, something the fixed defences do not have. They also have the ability to switch defensive position and reinforcing one system or another much faster and easier than fixed defences.
Let's look at the RMN's threat profile at this time. Haven is a close ally. Grayson is a close ally. The Andermani Empire is a de facto ally. Beowulf is an ally. Erewhon is in the combined Haven-Manticoran sphere of influence. Maya is friendly if not in the sphere of influence. And who else can build modern podnoughts?
The people who killed 7+ million people from Manticore, more than 5 million people from Grayson, more than 6.5 million from Mesa, 46 million from Beowulf if I remember correctly 250,000 in New Tuscany. Just because they have not used them does not mean that they don't have them or can't acquire them. For all they know MAN has 500 or more SD(P)s under construction.
There is no other modern wall of battle out there including the Mesan Alignment Navy.
The GA does not know that. There are plenty of reasons why the Mesan Alignment has not used SD(P)s and it would be criminal to assume its because they don't have them.
The current Solarian wall is obsolete and the successor state(s) of the Solarian League can more effectively defend themselves with fixed fortifications and shoals of missile pods while commerce protection can be done far more effectively with cruisers and destroyers.
That will eventually change but the main threat to the GA is not from the League or successor states, it is from the MA. Afterall the SLN managed to kill less than 20,000 GA members in the entire war while the MA managed to kill in excess of 60 million people.
Who would you be more worried about? The guys who just finished getting crushed in engagement after engagement or the guys who have proven their willingness to kill people by the millions at the first opportunity?
The biggest reasonable future mission RMN is the commerce protection mission as the Solarian successor states will make 1907 PD Silesia look like a well run and safe region to make a living. And for that mission, an incredible number of light cruisers and destroyers are needed where the biggest challenge is sheer numbers for coverage rather than capability of the particular ship (once a minimum floor is met of course)
The biggest mission is to keep the people who just killed over 60 million of your citizens and allies citizens from repeating the performance.
The RMN will need a wall of battle. It will need it to defend the core systems (Manticore Binary, Trevor's Star, Beowulf, Basilak) of the Empire, act as a mobile fire brigade and be able to slice off enough of the wall to act as the Hammer of God for Eridani Edict enforcement in the League Succession Wars. It does not need enough of a wall to hold off the Havenites or the Solarians attacking into Manticore Binary's fixed defenses.
What about the 16 systems in Talbott or ~30 systems in Silesia? Are they to be defended with light units only? I'm sure that will do wonders for the unity of the empire if Manticore and Trevor star get real fleets while Talbott and Silesia gets defences that will have to roll over and play dead if a technologically equal opponent comes a knocking.
So forting up the core systems of the Empire with tens of thousands of Apollo pods and Mycroft centers based in super-dreadnought hulls or forts as the central control node, covering secondary systems with thousands of Apollo pods and a few LAC wings with nodal reaction forces and then maintaining a powerful counter-attacking force makes sense. SD-Ps can go into reserve if the RMN needs to maintain both the construction capacity and the ability to mobilize 300-400 wallers in a short period of time over the next twenty years.
With fixed defences it becomes every system for itself much like what the Americans did to Japan in WW2. You can have 16 systems that combined have 5 times your firepower but it is divided in 16 systems so you can pick and choose where and when to hit each system and defeat them in detail. Relying on mothballed ships means the war might be over before the first one comes to active service.
The RMN's focus is going to be on lighter ships as the mission and threat has changed.
The mission and threat has not changed. The primary mission is to defend Manticore, it's people and territory. Support and defend allies and distant second would be to protect commerce. Manticore is at war, Beowulf is at war, Haven is at war, Grayson is at war. They may not know where the enemy is, how strong the enemy is or how advanced he is but they know he is there and the proof of that is the bodycount.
