cthia wrote:runsforcelery wrote: “Estimate one hundred twenty thousand inbound,
Bill Woods wrote:Wow. All of them? For a change, the Sollies are crippled by underconfidence.
But is "underconfident" fair? They've been bitten by arrogance every single time. Not once have they ever gotten through Manty defenses, and they certainly can't risk a wasted launch.
Bill Woods wrote:Firing 13k missiles per target seems like a lot. I don't know if you've read the long excerpt, but in a previous section, another Barracuda TF commander declined to use even half that many.
“We have two options, Ma’am, either of which has pros and cons,” Rosiak replied. “One is to simply fire the biggest damned missile salvo the galaxy’s ever seen. I don’t care how good their defenses are on a ship-for-ship basis. Hit them with enough birds to completely saturate their counter-missiles and point defense, and something’s getting through. Assuming we’re right about the blind fire hit probabilities, my people estimate that a thirty thousand-missile launch should produce a minimum of four hundred hits, despite their defensive capabilities.”
...
“I realize we have deep pockets where missile pods are concerned,” she said then. “I’d really prefer not to use them up at the rate of five or six thousand per heavy cruiser, though,” she added in a desert-dry tone,
Though, in that situation, there was little chance of getting
any hits, because the Manties had the option of going into hyperspace.
Granted. It's an awful lot of missiles to sling at so few targets. But the Admiral's sentiment is ripe with lots of frustration and bad memories of dead comrades who had already passed the plateau of firing what they thought was
a lot. You're in a missile duel with the enemy and you sling a few hundred missiles at them per your doctrine and they beat them back. Then someone else slings a few thousand at them and they easily beat them back too. Then the enemy easily shrugs off the hellish number of missiles slung about in the Second Battle of Manticore. You come to a point where you're frustrated, frightened, anxious and more than a bit annoyed, as well as totally unsure about
exactly how many missiles
are needed to do the trick. This Admiral needs a win for the SLN, and in not knowing exactly how many missiles are needed to swamp their defenses he errs on the frustrated side of caution. Remember, the insane amount of missiles used in a launch has long been eclipsed in the eyes of the League. They're still reeling over several thousand being useless.
Let's be realistic, the Manties have been holding back the full extent of their tech's capabilities. And they are still doing so. The Manties have beaten back everything but the kitchen sink, so you hurl the sink at 'em too. Because 120k missiles is sure a sink of missiles.
This Admiral's sentiment matches Byng's, IMO, giving much respect. Byng fired on Chatterly's 3 Destroyers with their wedges down. Say what you will about Byng, but he had absolutely no problem appreciating Manty tech. Truth of the matter be told, Byng didn't harbor
any misconceptions about Manty capabilities. And neither did Admiral Hadju. Heck, as far as Hadju knew, 120k missiles wouldn't do any thing but cripple the opponent leaving them battle capable. He needed to mission kill them! F**king pesky Manties.
The way things have panned out for the gorilla, Rosiak could have been spouting more arrogance in the previous engagement. Heck, the Manties are destroying ships of the wall with heavy cruisers. Which means they already requisition their hardware from God, or Tester.
Not saying I agree with his decision to fire the farm, I'm the one who wishes the SLN would send someone still not coloring by the numbers. I'm just saying I can understand the human frustration behind "See how they like
that."Edit: Hadju for Kotouc error caught by Louis R.
.
