Jonathan_S wrote:I suspect the Beowulfan SDs were more than comparable with the Scientist-class of the SLN. True they don't have any of the tech toys that Manticore rolled out during the course of the 1st or 2nd war. But Beowulf worked quite closely with Manticore for years so I'd be surprised if their SDs weren't at least the equivalent of a 1905-PD fit of a Sphinx-class SD, if not Manticore's final pre-war design the Gryphon-class. Better optimized for laserhead combat: heavier emphasis on CMs over PDLCs, faster cycle times on both missile & CM tubes, etc.
That, and the small size of SLN SDs, would likely put the Beowulf SD at around 1.5x as capable as an SLN Scientist. And if Beowulf had done some domestic upgrades based on feedback about missile combat during even the 1st war they might be capable of taking on 2:1 odds against Scientists. But probably not 3:1 even if everybody was using SDMs.
However this SLN detachment presumably also carried Cataphract-Bs in their tubes, which outrange anything Beowulf should have.
(Unless Manticore had turned over towed pods of DDM/MDM at the last minute) The other last minute question would be whether Manticore had shared the SLN EMC/HALO data they had captured in the confrontations in Talbott; that info would make Beowulfan missiles and defenses significantly more effective with just software changes.
We have no texts, but I would agree - for some of the ships. SDs are usually designed to last 100 years (or more). No one has said anything about a recent push to update the Beowulfian SDs prior to 1921 - quite the opposite in fact. So While I wouldn't be surprised if the newest squadron was comparable with a late flight Sphinx / early Gryphon from 1900, the oldest probably were closer to King Williams or Sammthraces with 1900 upgrades.
So still better than a Scientist, by a good margin, and better maintained to boot.
