Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

Q. Alternatively, you could podularize, instead of junkerize.

R. The advantage would be that the final result would not automatically default to dispersed hull configuration.

S. Though, logic indicates that the more correct comparison would be to breakaway hull, in regard to actual cost and hull armour, of each welded together component.

T. Pods, while it would take a while, are removable and changeable.

U. And, you probably could manufacture them as primitive hulls.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

V. Outside the rather artificial labelling of dispersed configuration, podification costs the same as junkerification.

W. The question that podification fails to answer, is how long it takes to attach (and detach) pods from the primary hull.

X. Or, how much labour and yard time costs.

Y. Compared to picking up some hull parts from a scrapyard, at likely scrap value.

Z. Repairing it, and then welding onto whatever is designated as the primary hull.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

1. Basically, you can't install gravitationally motivated drives on a primitive hull.

2. What you can install, can't accelerate more than factor/three.

3. We don't know what happens when you exceed this acceleration.

4. In fact, we don't know if there is a cap for acceleration for default hulls.

5. Come to think of it, while there is a limitation on what sort of propulsion we can install on spacecstations, I don't think it's mentioned there is an acceleration limit for that type of hull, itself.

6. Therefore, if acceleration isn't organic, but via an outside force, we can exceed factor/three.

7. Since I don't think we need a heat shield for most of outer space.

8. And if we're shedding acceleration in excess of factor/three through atmospheric resistance, the primitive hull is certainly exceeding it.

9. As well as the fact that primitive planetoids do not sacrifice any structural strength or integrity, when compared to default planetoids.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

A. The Prometheus class has been categorized as fast dreadnoughts.

B. I think they were designed to be competitive with expected technological level fifteen Imperium battleships.

C. Hence, the greater production cost.

D. Likely, the Confederation Navy had intended to keep launching them, until they had the industrial capacity to produce actual technological level fifteen ships of the line.

E. The War of Imperium Aggression interrupted their planned ship building programmes.

F. The need to fill gaps in the line of battle created a the wartime emergency crash shipbuilding programme of slow dreadnoughts.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

G. Again, ambiguous phrasing makes it unclear as to whether a primitive can withstand above factor/three on organic acceleration.

H. But, let's assume that was the writer's intent.

I. At a minimum, a slow dreadnought would imply a range less than four parsecs.

J. And since the Russian fleet did make it to Tsushima, coastal battleships can have a range of two parsecs.

K. So a slow dreadnought would have a range of three parsecs.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

G. For the Confederation Navy, fleet speed is acceleration factor/five, and has been since it's inception.

H. Auxiliaries have a minimum requirement of acceleration factor/three.

I. Slow dreadnoughts won't be deployed in an encounter where there's an expectation of much manoeuvring required, but rather where there is a strategic objective that either has to be defended or attacked.

J. And what is required is volume of fire, in a rather short window of time.

K. Since halved hull points don't exactly predict longevity.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

L. In Traveller, cost translates into construction time.

M. Modularization can reduce that by upto ninety percent, usually for above fifty kilotonnes.

N. Technological level fourteen space yards can reduce that by another thirty percent.

O. Hundred kilotonne plus hulls reduce crew size by two thirds.

P. Hence, the preference for hundred kilotonne hulls.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

Q. I guess at this level, ten percent discount on a standardized design would make somewhat of a difference.

R. Unlike almost everything else designed and built antebellum, we won't need streamlining.

S. Armour plating is going to be a major consideration, since the third leg of the starwarship paradigm is handicapped, with acceleration factor/three mobility.

T. Planetoid at four kilostarbux per tonne would require sacrificing twenty percent of volume, but default would allow greater acceleration than factor/three.

U. Not sure is primitivation of the planetoid at two kilostarbux per tonne would be worth the loss of mobility, and artificial gravity.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

V. If spherical configuration is chosen, it's not going to look like a zeppelin, but more like a hot air balloon.

W. And, if we weld on a separate manoeuvre and jump drive module, it will be called the nipple.

X. For optimum manoeuvre, it would have to placed right in the back.

Y. That would make the entire configuration called the reverse breast.

Z. One advantage would be that the nipple would be protected from frontal enemy fire.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Hulls and Primitivation

1. While the evolution and development of Confederation line of battle ships is pretty simple and straightforward, carriers seem caught somewhere between modern and Great Patriotic War perceptions.

2. At the upper end you have super carriers, categorized as fighter carriers, with fifteen hundred smallcraft.

3. At the other end, pocket carriers, with forty to fifty smallcraft.

4. Currently, light carrier with forty eight light fighters.

5. Feels sort of Japanese.

6. The pocket carriers were meant to keep up with the fleet, so they had an acceleration factor of five, and three parsec range.

7. The super/fleet/fighter carrier paddled along at acceleration factor/two.

8. The light carrier at acceleration factor/four.

9. It tends to become important as to how, where, and when you intend to deploy them.