For fun: Upscaling... the LAC cores...

pappilon wrote:

Joat42 wrote:I was thinking you could probably make a special version of the LAC used by the repair ships to provide emergency power to crippled ships until they can be towed into dock. Remove the weapons and missile stowage and add engineering extras instead.

Dunno if it's practically and economically feasible compared to the standard engineering tugs available.

Tugs are mission designed for that, LACs are designed for combat. Not sure they have the structural integrity to tow a whale into dry dock. But with a shortage of tugs in an emergency situation, all logic is nullified.

My thought was that they would be used as an engineering fast response or even SAR to crippled ships, not towing. But as I said, the practicality is questionable.

Joat42 wrote: My thought was that they would be used as an engineering fast response or even SAR to crippled ships, not towing. But as I said, the practicality is questionable.

Yes, weren't they used after Filareta's Fiasco to find pods? Seems to me they were used in several instances for at least finding pods. Not sure how one could dock to another ship for SAR. Then again not sure one could not.

pappilon wrote:

Joat42 wrote: My thought was that they would be used as an engineering fast response or even SAR to crippled ships, not towing. But as I said, the practicality is questionable.

Yes, weren't they used after Filareta's Fiasco to find pods? Seems to me they were used in several instances for at least finding pods. Not sure how one could dock to another ship for SAR. Then again not sure one could not.

A standard docking collar design probably has long been established.

pnakasone wrote:

pappilon wrote:]

Yes, weren't they used after Filareta's Fiasco to find pods? Seems to me they were used in several instances for at least finding pods. Not sure how one could dock to another ship for SAR. Then again not sure one could not.

A standard docking collar design probably has long been established.

Well, yes, there is all the text evidence for that.. for real hyper capable ships. Are LACs even large enough to have one? They don't dock to their carriers, they enter the docking bay like pinnaces.

pappilon wrote:

pnakasone wrote:A standard docking collar design probably has long been established.

Well, yes, there is all the text evidence for that.. for real hyper capable ships. Are LACs even large enough to have one? They don't dock to their carriers, they enter the docking bay like pinnaces.

A Shrike class lac is 72 x 20 x 20 meters. So I would say you could fit a standard docking collar on that if not more then one. Any competent designer would account for a LACs having to dock to places or ships that would/may not have a such a bay available.

pappilon wrote:Well, yes, there is all the text evidence for that.. for real hyper capable ships. Are LACs even large enough to have one? They don't dock to their carriers, they enter the docking bay like pinnaces.

Not exactly. Docking bays are usually on the underside of warships, and pinnaces get grappled from above as they enter the bay. A CLAC's LAC bays are on its broadsides and the LACs dock nose in and presumably the primary docking restraints are also at the nose. There is some kind of pressurized personnel access through the nose.

We also know that shuttles and pinnaces can connect to external hatches on a startship's exterior hull - they don't have to use the docking bay. (Useful for search and rescue work). Any standard docking ring that can fit on a pinnace could easily fit on a LAC (or on an extendable docking tube that a LAC could extend). So I'd be a little surprised if a LAC wasn't capable of making a temporary pressurized connection with a ship's exterior hatch. It might not be able to do so while anybody was under acceleration, but if both ships are coasting...