?

tlb wrote:[
White Haven announces that he and Kuzak have developed a plan to capture Trevor's Star early in Honor Among Enemies, but we do not hear of it happening in that book. The next book, In Enemy Hands, begins with a prologue of Pierre, Ransom and Saint-Just discussing how to improve the Navy now that Trevor's Star has been lost.

Then in chapter 2 is the discussion between Harrington and White Haven about the Weapons Development Board's recommendations. So the discussion is before her capture and after the capture of Trevor's Star.

Thanks for the reminder. I’d gotten the timeline mixed up in my head and forgot that White Haven at Yeltsin trying to scape up units for the new 8th fleet; because his 3rd fleet, which he’d already captured Trevor’s Star with, was being kept there to defend it. So a new fleet was needed to cary out future offensives.

For some reason I’d misremembered him as being there to get the units to finish the attack on Trevor’s Star (leading me to misstate a few posts back about where Honor was when that happened). So again; thanks for the reminder/correction.

I believe that the FTL communication system (first revealed in _The Honor of the Queen_) was a product of Project Gram.

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:I believe that the FTL communication system (first revealed in _The Honor of the Queen_) was a product of Project Gram.

Possible - though that would contradict the (fairly contrived) apparent origin of them from the short story 'With One Stone'. And the HoS novella 'I Will Build My House of Steel' which tells us of Project Gram doesn't seem to hint at them working on that.

But as there's no way to prove a negative I can't say definitely that it's not a result of Project Gram. (And even if FTL comms wasn't directly a project within Gram, some of the underlying technology it was built atop might have come out of Gram before the FTL comms project started)

Jonathan_S wrote:

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:I believe that the FTL communication system (first revealed in _The Honor of the Queen_) was a product of Project Gram.

Possible - though that would contradict the (fairly contrived) apparent origin of them from the short story 'With One Stone'. And the HoS novella 'I Will Build My House of Steel' which tells us of Project Gram doesn't seem to hint at them working on that.

But as there's no way to prove a negative I can't say definitely that it's not a result of Project Gram. (And even if FTL comms wasn't directly a project within Gram, some of the underlying technology it was built atop might have come out of Gram before the FTL comms project started)

But shan't we assume that Gram is always putting out? The project is never dormant. It is inconceivable that there has been a lull in Gram's output for the war. Shannon could produce tech for the war in what seemed like a weekend in her garage.

Something has always bugged me about everyone's assessment of the LD's possible tactics.

If an LD's mission is to never enter a home system and is simply built to launch g-torps from the edge of the system, then doesn't that simply make the LD a glorified freighter?

And about launching g-torps that will brake-n-loiter. If launched from the edge of the system, considering the MA does not have full-up FTL, how will the g-torps be controlled?

penny wrote:If an LD's mission is to never enter a home system and is simply built to launch g-torps from the edge of the system, then doesn't that simply make the LD a glorified freighter?

Yes. Which I agree doesn't make any sense. There's no need to make a warship with extremely thick armour if this is all you're going to do. A huge freighter, with military grade sensors, particle shield would do.

With this absurdity, it means there has to be more to them than this.

And about launching g-torps that will brake-n-loiter. If launched from the edge of the system, considering the MA does not have full-up FTL, how will the g-torps be controlled?

They won't. They weren't controlled during Oyster Bay either; they received last-minute telemetry... maybe. There was some last-minute telemetry from the Ghosts, but those may have been necessary only for the missile pods, not the torpedoes.

And the Silver Bullets were definitely autonomous.

penny wrote:But shan't we assume that Gram is always putting out? The project is never dormant. It is inconceivable that there has been a lull in Gram's output for the war. Shannon could produce tech for the war in what seemed like a weekend in her garage.

Yes - but we shouldn't assume just because the Project (or its successors) is always active that every bit of advanced Manticoran tech resulted directly from it.

Much would come from the many not quite so "black" research programs -- who, as far as they know, are the ones totally responsible for inventing the tech that will given the RMN its much needed edge.

And even the stuff that comes out of Project Gram doesn't go from Gram directly into the fleet -- once proved out enough it's very carefully slipped over to those less secret R&D programs where even most of the researchers don't know initial research came out of an even more "black" Mantie R&D program. And while in the hands of those still very, very capable researchers the things from Gram would end up merging with other threads they'd been pursuing -- or inspiring spin-offs that the Gram researchers never dug into. So it's no knock of the capabilities or how much it might help the RMN if a given bit of kit didn't happen to have any Gram in its development DNA.

penny wrote:And about launching g-torps that will brake-n-loiter. If launched from the edge of the system, considering the MA does not have full-up FTL, how will the g-torps be controlled?

That's why (I assume) the Ghosts, which had gone deeper in-system, deployed guidance platforms.

Mission of Honor - Ch. 3 wrote:The guidance platforms were even stealthier than his ships. Someone would have to almost literally collide with one of them to spot them, and they’d be positioned well above the system ecliptic, where there was no traffic to do the colliding. He would have been happier if the platforms had been a little smaller—he admitted that to himself, as well—but delivering targeting information to that many individual missiles in a time window as short as the Oyster Bay ops plan demanded required a prodigious amount of bandwidth. And, despite everything, it was highly likely the Manties were going to hear something when they started transmitting all that data.

Though those might have been more for all the Cataphracts used in Oyster Bay. The Graser Torps had really good "AI" not quite up to an Apollo Control Missile -- but at lot closer than any other weapons system. Between that, the fact that they were targeting orbiting stations, and their onboard sensors they probably didn't need much guidance for the OB strike.

I suspect if getting used against more dynamic targets that the Lenny Det would have its accompanying Ghosts further in-system and able to act as a forward fire controller. (After all, it's said that the Sharks weren't intended to be used operationally; but it never says the same about the Ghosts)

Jonathan_S wrote:

Robert_A_Woodward wrote:I believe that the FTL communication system (first revealed in _The Honor of the Queen_) was a product of Project Gram.

Possible - though that would contradict the (fairly contrived) apparent origin of them from the short story 'With One Stone'. And the HoS novella 'I Will Build My House of Steel' which tells us of Project Gram doesn't seem to hint at them working on that.

But as there's no way to prove a negative I can't say definitely that it's not a result of Project Gram. (And even if FTL comms wasn't directly a project within Gram, some of the underlying technology it was built atop might have come out of Gram before the FTL comms project started)

I have my doubts on how important "With One Stone" was. However, the recon drones introduced in _The Honor of the Queen_ needed a fusion bottle with greatly increased power density to work. I will point out the June 1852 PD section of "I Will Build My House of Steel" (in _House of Steel_), where then Crown Prince Roger is discussing an article about fusion bottle density (from Beowulf). This is, of course, set years before Project Gram was established. But that certainly looks like a seed for a future project.

Could a bubblewall encompass an LD? I am not certain whether a bubblewall restricts acceleration, but why should acceleration be as important for something that can not be detected?

An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. That fact is used ruthlessly in the HV in the manner of ballistic missiles. If a bubble wall can be activated and deactivated quickly, then an LD should be able to tactically operate under those constraints. Certainly considering that it is hidden and the enemy does not know of this drawback.

And can we assume a bubblewall affects the spider drive anyway?