SOS - Control Links and Salvos

Jonathan_S wrote:

Theemile wrote:
In the Honorverse, a SD/DN/CLAC command has to be boring in comparison to that of a CA or BC Captain. Absolutely nothing to do in peace time for the heavy metal, wher the BC and CA are constantly patroling and showing the flag when they are not called to swat a pirate. Even in wartime, a CA and BC would still be used in continual small ship operations (convoy duty, raids, fleet escort, pounce the picket, recon in force, etc), whee ras a Capital ship would have the rare day of terror, followed by months of boredom.

At least CLACs sometimes get sent off to augment cruiser forces. That might happen some in peacetime too. But yes, SD(P)s are just going to sit in fleet and drill; maybe occasionally breaking up the monotony some with a 'show the flag' visit; but those are mostly done by BCs.

Though in wartime you could get unlucky with your DD flotilla assignment and spend the whole war attached to Home Fleet to provide close escort for the heavies. Some DDs and cruisers get interesting assignments; but those assignments don't always rotate; so not every small ships get interesting assignments. Still, your odds are vastly better there.

I always wondered if they used DNs in the role of BCs and CAs when they were pretty much fazed out. Or was her accel too limiting?

cthia wrote:Then no need to be ashamed for missing something like that. So I'm not late to the party, good. I was thinking about Henke, who started in a Heavy Cruiser? Her rank was high, but still.

And, as far as we know, Young's first command is Warlock?

Will Megan be promoted?

Henke didn't start in a CA, we just saw when she got her first one.

In RMN service, you don't usually go from ship command to ship command. Between captaining of her first LAC and her DD command,the Hawkwing , Honor was the exec on 3 different ships, and finally TAC officer on an SD. It's not uncommon for officers to get more seasoning before they move up to captain bigger ships; they will usually get an exec position, planning position, staff position, or a large department lead, before they are given a CA or larger. Honor actually is probably the oddball given that after the Fearless CL, she only ever had command positions.

Theemile wrote:In RMN service, you don't usually go from ship command to ship command. Between captaining of her first LAC and her DD command,the Hawkwing , Honor was the exec on 3 different ships, and finally TAC officer on an SD. It's not uncommon for officers to get more seasoning before they move up to captain bigger ships; they will usually get an exec position, planning position, staff position, or a large department lead, before they are given a CA or larger. Honor actually is probably the oddball given that after the Fearless CL, she only ever had command positions.

Yes, it was definitely unusual to have missed all those staff assignment. Though She did have a stint as an Admiral in an allied navy kind of broke up her run as captain between Nike and Wayfarer. (Not to mention her year of medical and recover between Fearless and Nike)


Then after Wayfarer she was commanding formations of ships, no longer commanding individual ones; and there were some breaks from the command track there. Maternity leave (for Samantha) assigned to the Weapons Development board. Then back, promoted to commodore and assigned to command 18th cruiser squadron. Then the whole POW and escape interlude. And then bumped up to RMN Admiral and a stint running Saganami Island and the ATC while getting her replacement arm. Then the war's over and she's put on half-pay by the new administration. And then finally pulled back in just before the ceasefire failed.

I guess the WDB and Saganami Island commandant were the closest she came to a normal non-command rotation. And both of those were working around rehabilitation after major injury.

Theemile wrote:Honor actually is probably the oddball given that after the Fearless CL, she only ever had command positions.

Well, she had the spot on the Weapons Development Board between Honor Among Enemies and In Enemy Hands, but that's it.

cthia wrote:I always wondered if they used DNs in the role of BCs and CAs when they were pretty much fazed out. Or was her accel too limiting?

DNs were way too big to be used as BC (6-7x). They were so slow and used so many sailors, they just wern't worth keeping around. For every old style DN.. you could crew 2+ BCs , and the hardware cost was probably 6-7x to maintain.

Theemile wrote:

cthia wrote:I always wondered if they used DNs in the role of BCs and CAs when they were pretty much fazed out. Or was her accel too limiting?

DNs were way too big to be used as BC (6-7x). They were so slow and used so many sailors, they just wern't worth keeping around. For every old style DN.. you could crew 2+ BCs , and the hardware cost was probably 6-7x to maintain.

Woe! Even SDs don't appear to be that much larger that BCs. Well, I didn't notice it anyway. Point taken. I just thought, since they were being fazed out, fill in some holes until. But then, where could they have been used outside the MBS anyway?

Hmm, does textev list King Roger's first command?

cthia wrote:
Hmm, does textev list King Roger's first command?

In August, 1850, Roger, a Lieutenant Commander, is in command of a destroyer, and had undertaken two successful cruises in Silesia, where "[t]hree pirates, one 'privateer', and two slave ships would do no more harm, thanks to Captain Winton and HMS Daimyo." Daimyo, a new destroyer, is specified as his first command, "instead of one of the RMN's more elderly frigates". ("House of Steel", paperback, page 26).

Fox2! wrote:

cthia wrote:
Hmm, does textev list King Roger's first command?

In August, 1850, Roger, a Lieutenant Commander, is in command of a destroyer, and had undertaken two successful cruises in Silesia, where "[t]hree pirates, one 'privateer', and two slave ships would do no more harm, thanks to Captain Winton and HMS Daimyo." Daimyo, a new destroyer, is specified as his first command, "instead of one of the RMN's more elderly frigates". ("House of Steel", paperback, page 26).

Was that his first command? Did he assume that ship and rank right out of the gate?

Did the Crown start out as a snotty?

Jonathan_S wrote:

Loren Pechtel wrote:You direct your efforts to the missiles that will get the most benefit from shipboard guidance. Cut the links of the missiles that have good enough data to engage on their own, direct your efforts to the missiles that need a bit more help.

And at some point the salvo is so close to the targets than your next update would take longer to reach them than their remaining flight time. Firing on a target 45 lightseconds away (a fairly close 13.5 million km) if the Mk16s are within about 4.5 million km of their target they'll reach attack range and detonate before the next update can crawl the 45ish seconds out to them. (Those numbers would change somewhat depending on the relative velocities of the ships at that range; but they provide an idea)

No point in transmitting commands or update that a missile can only receive if it fails to reach attack range and sails past the enemy; unable to return.

(So once past that point any later salvo missile is more useful to talk to; the most extreme version of what you were saying)

That would always be the case and thus not noteworthy. This was specifically about cutting links to birds that could still receive updates.

Theemile wrote:Correct, but every ship captain's first hyper command was a Destroyer (or a Frigate). Nobody rolls an SD on the first trip out.

Or a CL, if your previous post was important enough. We know that Mike Henke got one (HMS Agni) after being Honor's XO aboard a battlecruiser and she told Honor she wanted that when they met again aboard Nike. She was already a commander.

Now, it's possible she commanded a DD for some time before coming to Nike, but I figure going from a ship's CO to another's XO even if a bigger ship would at best be a lateral move, more likely downwards. So I don't think she did.