ThinksMarkedly wrote:
Agreed, perfect is the enemy of the good. I think it's likely that the RMN will have repair yards and local component sourcing in both Talbot and Silesia within a few years. We discussed in the dispersed yards thread about Talbott that it didn't make sense for the RMN to build the big ships anywhere but in Manticore, but smaller ships and LACs may make sense in both.
But that's a few years out. The question here is whether Silesia has anything to contribute to the immediate needs post-Yawata Strike. And I think the answer is no: first, the Protectorate is still not a full member of the Star Empire, so technology sharing mustn't be happening, even the shipyards are now in Manticoran hands. Second, though he may have brought investment from the cartels and the government, I doubt any of it included expanding the existing shipyards to handle mil-spec HW or that it was in sufficient quantity before the strike to be an asset in rebuilding. As someone posted up-thread, the conversion required in those yards is going to be damn close to rebuilding from scratch in Manticore, where fewer personnel hurdles can be found.
As I posted in the other thread, I think Talbott and Silesian entrepreneurs with sufficient long-term view will be investing in local production of civilian ships, taking advantage of tax incentives and technology transfer. They should keep an eye out to making military hardware if the RMN changes its mind, but they shouldn't count on it.
One advantage Silesia has over Talbott is that it actually has warship designs of its own. The SCN designs were crappy and out of date, but with a little bit of Manticore updates, they can make effective export versions that wouldn't threaten the GA, yet be effective units for everyone else (besides the League). I don't think there's anything stopping them from building like Carlucci Industries in Erewhon. They probably won't be building wallers because there is no Maya Sector nearby to buy them, but DDs like the Sharpshooter class, CLs and CAs? Sure.
BTW, one advantage Talbott has over Silesia is its proximity to Verge nations that will want to follow Maya's path, found a regional entity for mutual defence and build a decent navy. The newly-liberated Madras Sector, under the leadership of the Kingdom of Meyers comes to mind. But distance or even travel time might not mean much. If Silesian shipyards can get their act together sooner, they can start competing with Carlucci and out-competing Technodyne.
At the moment, Silesia's status as a protectorate is a stumbling block to them building military hardware. The entire SCN was shut down and every planetary SDF lost their navy once the Andermani and Manticore took over. I would think all the current orders of warships in shipyards were ordered to be suspended and broken up. Given the timeline I doubt the SCN ships were broken up, but are all sitting at a fleet ankerage somewhere, awaiting their fate under the watchful eye of several LAC squadrons.
Talbotters are Manty Citizens, Silesians are not - yet. Everything is under military control, no one is doing anything in shipyards that is not approved by the manty govt.
If anything, the smart, major Silesian shipyards and building modules or sub assemblies for Manticore's stations, while smaller yards are picking up smaller contracts the bigger yards normally would do. Ships still need to be maintained, and Manticore isn't there to do it anymore, so Silesian yards are probably busy picking up maintenance duties for passing freighters.
With Manticorian yards being out of the picture, and being rebuilt, i doubt any shipyard in the Havenite quadrant has spare capacity right now. If they do, they are fools.
