Dauntless wrote:navy hulls will always be limited it is true, but an escort is as much a deterent as it is protector, to make the enemy to0 worried to strike in the first place.
LACs even as dangerous as manty LACs are will not have the same effect. mainly due to inability to go anywhere without their carrier be it merchie or CLAC
A couple of lasers/grasers would be enough to scare of most pirates and should in theory make the ship safer and yet we saw that in silesa, a well known pirate zone, that damn few merchies had any weapons.
clearly the merchant companies preferred to send unamred mechines with as much as they could carry, rather then arm them despite the expected saving on insurance you would a expect a ship able to defend itself would offer.
the ex SL places like the verge, while undoubtedly going to be be somewhat chaotic will likely be deemed as less of a threat zone then silesa was, as up until recently FF stomped on any pirates (when they weren't pretending to be the pirates). Silesa only worked as a pirate haven because of how corrupt damn near everyone in power was. undoutably there will be some trouble but I doubt it will be enough to get lots of merchies arming ships when they accepted losses in silesa for over half a century and rarely armed ships there.
1) Silesia didn't allow armed merchies in their ports or space by law.
2) Ships like Pirates Bane were armed auxiliaries for a national navy - in this case for the Silesian Navy.
3) In order to make money, the Pirate's Bane needed to charge a significant upcharge for it's services. It was a Brinks or Well's Fargo as compared to a Fed EX or UPS, and could not make money offering normal cargo services.
4) RFC has stated that all RMN controlled systems will inaugurate a system where the volume of the hyper limit closest to the system's habitable planet will be heavily patrolled with LACs and light combatants, and a lane to and from the planet will also be patrolled by LACs and covered with sensors. As long as merchants approach the planet from this hyper locus, it will be in a protected umbrella that would require a concerted effort that only a concerted commerce raider squadron could punch out.
