Sigs wrote:cthia wrote:
At what point would the SLN's quantity overcome Manticore's quality? Would a gorilla who can make big babies as fast as the SL even need LACs?
The League wont be restricted to the same budget as the GA, so building LAC's thickens their defensive power but does not take away from their offensive power or other projects. But ultimately if they decide not to build the LAC's they can use the tonnage and manpower to build escorts instead of carriers and LAC's. Basically each carrier and its wing could be replaced by 45 escorts in the 250k range.
If the SLN design warships with an insane throw weight in missiles and CMs, why would they need LACs to thicken defense when warships will do just fine?
I would think that since they can afford it they would thicken their defenses in any way they can. Weather LAC's or just specialized escorts for missile protection, bringing ridiculously overwhelming force to a battle means your main offensive arm is very well protected. The GA has to choose between Missile defense platforms and SD(P) so they have to balance it out to provide the best defensive fire without compromising their offensive capabilities.
The RMN needed LACs as screens because they couldn't build traditional screening elements and other ships fast enough. Plus, the RMN has a serious limitation of warm bodies.
I don't see how the LAC's help with the warm bodies limitations. There is a carrier with a crew of at least 1,000 people and 120 LAC's with a crew of 10 each. That right there is 2,200 people. Building a destroyer that is exclusively anti missile unit with maximum automation can save a lot on the manpower.
You are looking at it incompletely. LACs prevented the RMN from putting too many eggs in one basket. Lose one LAC and you lose a lot less personnel than you do with a traditional screening element. Finding the bodies to man them is just one aspect of it.
A polity the size of the SL naturally inherits and adopts vastly different doctrines than the rest of the Galaxy. And rightly so. Not only can it afford to do so, it makes good sense for them to use the overabundant resources they have been given as a weapon. They simply do not have the same limitations as other combatants. I simply cannot see how it makes sense for the SL to build LACs when it does not need to. Traditional screening elements custom-built to meet the needs of the current battlefield will do just fine... in enormous numbers.
As a matter of fact, if the SL foregoes the adoption of LACs in favor of escorts, and they manage to produce enormous numbers of them, then Manty doctrine which utilizes LACs will begin to show its weakness. Little wonder they are considering a CLAC that can stay with the fray.
The SL is a huge entity, and it knows it is a huge entity. It knows full-well how much it greatly outweighs and dwarfs its opponents. Their size has always fueled and explained their arrogance.
Profiling is an art form that can be applied to many areas. I can't see the SL adopting the mindset of much smaller opponents, who were desperate and under the gun when they adopted much of their doctrine. The SL must fight their own fight, but with less arrogance, complacence and a bit more strategy. Adopting the mindset of much smaller opponents would ignore their advantages and infer a psychological defeat in itself, and a loss of faith in its overwhelming size. I really don't think their mindset will allow them to build LACs, when they can achieve the same return with more survivable, technologically advanced screens. Which they are already familiar with.
Besides, I think trying to parrot the GA and build LACs will slow them down, because of the many technological advances they would have to overcome first. Quantity is its own quality. That has been at the center of their doctrine for centuries. It also prevents them from having to spread themselves thin protecting their huge periphery. Overwhelming size makes a very effective deterrent. I like the idea of huge numbers of traditional escorts, that is more in keeping with the SLN's speed. And current capability.
And yes, it may take five years for the SL to roll out the first designs from concept to contrails. But that includes R&D and ironing out the kinks. But once they hit their stride, they'll be shitting them out like they got diarrhea.
Plus, consider the GA's LACs. They got three different designs to accomplish three different tactics, something an escort can do naturally. And there is no need to build transports for escorts. You also have to expect that SL ECM will get significantly better, augmenting that enormous missile defense, afforded by huge numbers of escorts supported by new technologies, and newly adopted supporting doctrine and tactics. At any rate, I would imagine that even the RMN would have elected to seed the Galaxy like flies with an enormous number of escorts instead of LACs if it had the choice.
And let us not forget the most obvious advantage the SL has that neither Manticore or Haven rarely ever had. They are not at war with enemy forces chewing up their arms and legs with threats of imminent invasion. They have all the time in the galaxy.
And, like all great quarterbacks, you simply cannot give an enemy of that size and
capability all the time in the galaxy.
