runsforcelery wrote:
First, only junctions — and critically important ones, at that — are normally protected by fortresses. There are some exceptions to this, such as the Lynx Terminus, but they are special cases.
Second, one major reason for using fortresses is that they can't go anywhere else....
Third, for their function, and for the firepower they pack, fortresses are more economical than hyper-capable starships and one hell of a lot tougher than LACs.
(1) There aren't so very many locations even for someone like the Star Empire of Manticore where fortresses are going to be required. Where they are required, the targets being defended are of supremely critical strategic and operational importance, justifying major, dedicated defensive outlays. Moreover, for the degree of defensive firepower provided, fortresses designed with current technology are almost always more economical in terms of manpower and long-term capital expenses than mobile units would be. It is far wiser strategically to invest in the heaviest, most effective defenses for a limited number of absolutely essential points like junctions and critical wormholes, than it is to be penny wise and pound foolish, and that's been the traditional Manticoran viewpoint since the day the Manticoran Wormhole Junction was first discovered.
Point 1 makes a lot of sense when you say "the targets defended are of supremely critical strategic and operational importance, justifying major dedicated defensive outlays..." That is the traditional role of any major fixed defensive system, cover something very important with very heavy defenses. Your point about the economics of fixed defenses versus equivilently powerful mobile defenses is historically very true as well.
However, in the Manticoran case, the first general point "only junctions, and only critically important ones at that are normally protected by fortresses...." does not follow either logic or text-ev.
Reinforcements for the Battle of Manticore:
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... gton/108/0 The rebuilt and revamped fortresses covering the terminus itself are much more powerful than they were at the time of Operation Icarus, and the Star Kingdom took the unusual (for it) decision under the High Ridge Government to build forts in Medusa orbit, as well.
Since they were already committed to completing the construction of the terminus forts, which were shipped through from Manticore as components and assembled in place, and since building those forts tied in so well with their economic/industrial/political objectives, they simply ordered five more forts to cover Medusa.
From AAC, e-ARC p. 537 of the .doc format:
In fact, Manticore-B's forts and space station were already refitting with Keyhole II and would begin deploying the first of the system-defense Apollo pods within the next three weeks, on the theory that it would need them worse since it couldn't call as readily on Home Fleet's protection.
Manticore-B has modern fortresses. Medusa orbit has modern fortresses. Basilak Terminus has modern fortresses. The Junction has modern fortresses. Lynx has enough modern fortresses to destroy all of active Battle Fleet without running out of ammo first. Trevors Star Terminus most likely has modern fortresses.
All of these with the potential exception of Medusa orbit qualify as "supremely critical strategic and operational targets".
As RFC states elsewhere in this very useful info dump, the newly designed RMN fortresses are amazingly efficient on the manpower per podnought firepower equivilent. And we know that the RMN is both podnought and manpower constrained.
So why, in interest of re-re-refighting the first Battle of Manticore, were there no mention of Sphinx's forts? With the possible exception of the Junction itself and potentially Trevors' Star Terminus as of AAC, Sphinx's near orbitals easily outpaces the strategic and operational importance of any other location that had modern forts. And if they were there, why were they anchored so tightly to the planet that any 2nd Fleet misses were dinosaur killers? At 50 Gs for an hour, that would give any near orbital fortresses at Sphinx roughly 1.5 million kilometers of seperation, and 50Gs for 75 minutes, roughly the same time as Home Fleet had to move, would have given roughly 2.3 million kilometers of separation. A course of maximum angular separation instead of optimal firing position would impact any forts' effectiveness, but not by that much.
The RMN uses forts to trade mobility for firepower in order to free up mobile units and manpower to cover contigencies and offensive operations. So why weren't the Sphinx near orbitals covered by modern forts?
I understand and agree with the decision not to use the missile pods against the remnants of 2nd Fleet as the battle played out, but Sphinx's importance compared to other locations that received numerous modern forts argues that it too should have received modern forts AND those forts could have taken an angle with 75 minutes of response time to get clear lanes of fire against 2nd Fleet without endangering Sphinx or Manticore from strays.
