Solomani Confederation (Military)
- Thread starter Condottiere
- Start date
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Not if they're leisurely drifting down to their landing areas, which at that day and age, four hundred klicks per hour would be. And unarmoured.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Army: Composition
Much as I'd enjoy making them fairly useless, the ground forces that the Confederation employs can be roughly divided into three parts:
1. The Solomani Confederation Marine Corps, that acts as both as a very rapid reaction surgical strike force, and the iron fist of the Solomani Navy security contingent.
2. The Solomani Confederation Army, which concentrates more on the specialized aspects of a ground forces military, such as armour, artillery, combat engineering, and other support and combat support units that are force multipliers. Their infantry is either armoured (heavily protected transports), security orientated like military police, peacekeeping forces, security details, and information retrieval and analysis, or generally lightly equipped special forces, including jump troops and commandos.
3. The Solomani Home Guard, whose primary mission is territorial defence, but can be used to augment the Solomani Army commands when they need more boots on the ground, as mechanized or motorized units, besides the usual attempts to integrate, pass on, and homogenize doctrine, equipment and experience in general.
4. Private Military Contractors, probably are more often employed, though more likely by planetary governments and private corporations; they could consist of small groups of highly experienced ex-service personnel, to planetary governments renting out their units to either supplement the defence budget, or actually turn a profit.
Much as I'd enjoy making them fairly useless, the ground forces that the Confederation employs can be roughly divided into three parts:
1. The Solomani Confederation Marine Corps, that acts as both as a very rapid reaction surgical strike force, and the iron fist of the Solomani Navy security contingent.
2. The Solomani Confederation Army, which concentrates more on the specialized aspects of a ground forces military, such as armour, artillery, combat engineering, and other support and combat support units that are force multipliers. Their infantry is either armoured (heavily protected transports), security orientated like military police, peacekeeping forces, security details, and information retrieval and analysis, or generally lightly equipped special forces, including jump troops and commandos.
3. The Solomani Home Guard, whose primary mission is territorial defence, but can be used to augment the Solomani Army commands when they need more boots on the ground, as mechanized or motorized units, besides the usual attempts to integrate, pass on, and homogenize doctrine, equipment and experience in general.
4. Private Military Contractors, probably are more often employed, though more likely by planetary governments and private corporations; they could consist of small groups of highly experienced ex-service personnel, to planetary governments renting out their units to either supplement the defence budget, or actually turn a profit.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Carrier Aerospace Group
Going by Merchant and Cruisers, the complement of an escort carrier would be around ten/twelve to twenty ten-tonne fighters, with or without a launch tube.
The Solomani Navy would regard installing a launch tube for anything below forty or fifty smallcraft as being under utilized. The problem would be that you have only one launching facility, presumably per ten thousand tonnes, and that would create a bottleneck if you needed to scramble the fighters.
An alternative to a ship designated to carry a squadron or two of fighters would be to have each freighter accommodate onboard one or two fighters and their support staff, reminiscent of the Catapult Aircraft Merchant ship, the difference being that there's nothing to stop recovery of the fighter. The problem being decentralization which would effect maintenance efficiency and coordination.
An escort carrier group could be a combination of both CAM, or whatever the high tech term will be, and a squadron of fighters on a dedicated smallcraft platform, but without a launch tube. In a way, that should ease conversion or construction in war, since you don't have to build the ship, or tear out it's guts, to have it installed.
The other issue is that you'd have to have a launch tube that can accommodate most common fighters, which a fleet or assault carrier could, considering their large numbers of smallcraft, but could be too large or small on a ship with a much smaller group. Which is where the rather vaguely defined launch facility comes in, since it could take any size.
Deck parking, or in this case, being grappled to the hull, allows a rapid launch
Going by Merchant and Cruisers, the complement of an escort carrier would be around ten/twelve to twenty ten-tonne fighters, with or without a launch tube.
The Solomani Navy would regard installing a launch tube for anything below forty or fifty smallcraft as being under utilized. The problem would be that you have only one launching facility, presumably per ten thousand tonnes, and that would create a bottleneck if you needed to scramble the fighters.
An alternative to a ship designated to carry a squadron or two of fighters would be to have each freighter accommodate onboard one or two fighters and their support staff, reminiscent of the Catapult Aircraft Merchant ship, the difference being that there's nothing to stop recovery of the fighter. The problem being decentralization which would effect maintenance efficiency and coordination.
An escort carrier group could be a combination of both CAM, or whatever the high tech term will be, and a squadron of fighters on a dedicated smallcraft platform, but without a launch tube. In a way, that should ease conversion or construction in war, since you don't have to build the ship, or tear out it's guts, to have it installed.
The other issue is that you'd have to have a launch tube that can accommodate most common fighters, which a fleet or assault carrier could, considering their large numbers of smallcraft, but could be too large or small on a ship with a much smaller group. Which is where the rather vaguely defined launch facility comes in, since it could take any size.
Deck parking, or in this case, being grappled to the hull, allows a rapid launch
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Engineering
One reason I like sticking the aB power plant/aB grav manoeuvre drive on anything that flies is due to it's inherent efficiency.
Actually, it's less efficient if you have multiple modules, since the exact factored engine for any specific hull would be a couple of tonnes less, but you can' beat it if the objective is across the board standardization, so that any small ship can just pop out the engineering module in question, and have it replaced in hours, which has both military and commercial implication, as the ship can be put back into service almost as soon as it docks at a repair facility.
Also, in terms of repair, the mechanics would be very familiar with it, and you only need to stock parts for it.
At the same time, you could place it in a forty tonne heavy fighter and have a factor ten performance; as regards to weapon system slotting compatibilities, that one would be up in the air, since in theory you could install any non-energy intensive bay into a smallcraft, if the issue is only a matter of energizing it. Well, particle accelerators and fusions bays should be installable if you calculate on a hundred tonne hull as base.
Install two on a fifty nine tonne shuttle, and it goes thirteen and a half gees, which makes it a really fast VIP transport, or a really fast way to get that assault platoon on the surface.
Grav drives need matching power plant factors, so they fit in a module. I don't see much merit in small ship reaction drives. High burn thrusters probably need a factor one power plant, so an efficient arrangement would need a smallcraft power plant, though they could be produced locally.
Jump drives just require the requisite energy within a tight window, so multiple modules, or even separate aB power plants should work in combination, Tee Five indicating a series of upto nine. Having a single large power plant or manoeuvre drive is more efficient than nine puttering around, but militarily it allows redundancy, and commercially, probably easier to handle and monitor.
I wouldn't do that for Jump Drives,since the physics involved tend to be too blurry for me to really get a grip on them. More importantly, that five tonne overhead would make multiple copies just too inefficient and a space hog. That's one reason I'd allow a greater range of Jump Drives, that would allow the user to pick the one most suitable to their needs and hull, though for the military, specifically for the Solomani Navy, it would be mostly for their two hundred and four hundred hulls to achieve jump factor four, some at jump factor five. The Army would be satisfied at jump factor three. The exception would be the hundred tonne rescue catamaran at jump factor one.
The sweet point would at six hundred tonnes, when there is a general switch to capital class machinery.
Another oddball would be a factored one thousand tonne jump barge.
One reason I like sticking the aB power plant/aB grav manoeuvre drive on anything that flies is due to it's inherent efficiency.
Actually, it's less efficient if you have multiple modules, since the exact factored engine for any specific hull would be a couple of tonnes less, but you can' beat it if the objective is across the board standardization, so that any small ship can just pop out the engineering module in question, and have it replaced in hours, which has both military and commercial implication, as the ship can be put back into service almost as soon as it docks at a repair facility.
Also, in terms of repair, the mechanics would be very familiar with it, and you only need to stock parts for it.
At the same time, you could place it in a forty tonne heavy fighter and have a factor ten performance; as regards to weapon system slotting compatibilities, that one would be up in the air, since in theory you could install any non-energy intensive bay into a smallcraft, if the issue is only a matter of energizing it. Well, particle accelerators and fusions bays should be installable if you calculate on a hundred tonne hull as base.
Install two on a fifty nine tonne shuttle, and it goes thirteen and a half gees, which makes it a really fast VIP transport, or a really fast way to get that assault platoon on the surface.
Grav drives need matching power plant factors, so they fit in a module. I don't see much merit in small ship reaction drives. High burn thrusters probably need a factor one power plant, so an efficient arrangement would need a smallcraft power plant, though they could be produced locally.
Jump drives just require the requisite energy within a tight window, so multiple modules, or even separate aB power plants should work in combination, Tee Five indicating a series of upto nine. Having a single large power plant or manoeuvre drive is more efficient than nine puttering around, but militarily it allows redundancy, and commercially, probably easier to handle and monitor.
I wouldn't do that for Jump Drives,since the physics involved tend to be too blurry for me to really get a grip on them. More importantly, that five tonne overhead would make multiple copies just too inefficient and a space hog. That's one reason I'd allow a greater range of Jump Drives, that would allow the user to pick the one most suitable to their needs and hull, though for the military, specifically for the Solomani Navy, it would be mostly for their two hundred and four hundred hulls to achieve jump factor four, some at jump factor five. The Army would be satisfied at jump factor three. The exception would be the hundred tonne rescue catamaran at jump factor one.
The sweet point would at six hundred tonnes, when there is a general switch to capital class machinery.
Another oddball would be a factored one thousand tonne jump barge.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Military Districts
Still wondering where their naval depots are located, since even if they had to be relocated or lost, the Solomani had a hundred years to rebuild them. It could be that one was in or near the Sol system, but was systemically and completely destroyed by the Imperium.
If there's no canon answer, here's mine.
The Solomani Confederation is divided into three military districts:
1. Spinward
2. Rimward
3. Trailing
Each has it's own naval depot; each has a responsibility in two basic directions.
Rimward is in the centre, facing coreward towards Sol; since there is no serious military threat expected from the other direction, it's forces can concentrate towards the Imperium, though in wartime it would split in two, with the majority of it's assets poised to move coreward, and the split off military district concentrating on rear area security.
Spinward would be facing the Aslan to their left, and the Imperium more or less to their right. In the event of a war with the Aslan, the district will split facing east and west, with the majority of fleet assets committed to the west, while the eastern half gets reinforced from the Rimward military district.
If the Solomani go to war with the Imperium, the eastern half concentrate the fleet assets, while the western half remaining task groups are heavily reinforced by local naval Home Guard units.
In the Trailing military district, you have the Imperium front and left, and the Hivers and neutrals to the right. You might expect piracy from the neutrals, plus getting them on your side, so active patrolling there; Hivers are probably considered unpredictable, so preparations to move major units to a split eastern military district, while reinforcing the western half from the Rimward district. Same as with the Spinward district, in the event of hostilities with the Imperium, move the majority of fleet units towards that front, while activating naval Home Guard units in the east to keep an eye on the Hivers.
Still wondering where their naval depots are located, since even if they had to be relocated or lost, the Solomani had a hundred years to rebuild them. It could be that one was in or near the Sol system, but was systemically and completely destroyed by the Imperium.
If there's no canon answer, here's mine.
The Solomani Confederation is divided into three military districts:
1. Spinward
2. Rimward
3. Trailing
Each has it's own naval depot; each has a responsibility in two basic directions.
Rimward is in the centre, facing coreward towards Sol; since there is no serious military threat expected from the other direction, it's forces can concentrate towards the Imperium, though in wartime it would split in two, with the majority of it's assets poised to move coreward, and the split off military district concentrating on rear area security.
Spinward would be facing the Aslan to their left, and the Imperium more or less to their right. In the event of a war with the Aslan, the district will split facing east and west, with the majority of fleet assets committed to the west, while the eastern half gets reinforced from the Rimward military district.
If the Solomani go to war with the Imperium, the eastern half concentrate the fleet assets, while the western half remaining task groups are heavily reinforced by local naval Home Guard units.
In the Trailing military district, you have the Imperium front and left, and the Hivers and neutrals to the right. You might expect piracy from the neutrals, plus getting them on your side, so active patrolling there; Hivers are probably considered unpredictable, so preparations to move major units to a split eastern military district, while reinforcing the western half from the Rimward district. Same as with the Spinward district, in the event of hostilities with the Imperium, move the majority of fleet units towards that front, while activating naval Home Guard units in the east to keep an eye on the Hivers.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Aslan Frontier
For the Solomani, they can view most Aslan activity as illegal immigration, so the Navy's primary mission is to patrol the border, locate intruders, and turn away the kitty caravans.
Patrolling and detecting intrusions can be left to small ships, as can the possible tracking of intruders that slipped through the net, and then have them intersect with something that should sufficiently impress the miscreants, a tech level thirteen capital ship.
Cruisers should be optimized for long deployments into Aslan claimed space to carry out exploration, survey, trade and diplomatic missions, since they should be too big to be considered easy prey.
For the Solomani, they can view most Aslan activity as illegal immigration, so the Navy's primary mission is to patrol the border, locate intruders, and turn away the kitty caravans.
Patrolling and detecting intrusions can be left to small ships, as can the possible tracking of intruders that slipped through the net, and then have them intersect with something that should sufficiently impress the miscreants, a tech level thirteen capital ship.
Cruisers should be optimized for long deployments into Aslan claimed space to carry out exploration, survey, trade and diplomatic missions, since they should be too big to be considered easy prey.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Subsector Task Forces
Going by Sector Fleet, Imperium Navy subsector fleets have a cruiser as the flag ship, around seventeen destroyers and twenty three escorts, not counting auxiliaries, scouts and support vessels.
The flag ship would be an assault carrier, with nine escort task groups consisting of one two thousand tonne frigates and four six hundred tonne corvettes, ten underway replenishment ships. Half the escort task groups tend to be broken up and the units patrol individually.
Going by Sector Fleet, Imperium Navy subsector fleets have a cruiser as the flag ship, around seventeen destroyers and twenty three escorts, not counting auxiliaries, scouts and support vessels.
The flag ship would be an assault carrier, with nine escort task groups consisting of one two thousand tonne frigates and four six hundred tonne corvettes, ten underway replenishment ships. Half the escort task groups tend to be broken up and the units patrol individually.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Cruiser distribution
Again, going by Sector Fleet, the Imperium Navay has about one hundred sixteen cruiser equivalent units per sector; if you dive the Solomani Confederation into three military districts, that's about one and two third sectors, which makes its about two hundred cruiser equivalent units.
Half that because of the resources diverted to capital ship construction, and half that again because SolSec is using intermediate and medium sized vessels for clandestine purposes, and you get fifty cruiser equivalent units per military district.
You could divide that up to about ten heavyish cruisers and thirty lightish cruisers, for a grand total of around thirty heavy cruisers and ninety light cruisers.
Again, going by Sector Fleet, the Imperium Navay has about one hundred sixteen cruiser equivalent units per sector; if you dive the Solomani Confederation into three military districts, that's about one and two third sectors, which makes its about two hundred cruiser equivalent units.
Half that because of the resources diverted to capital ship construction, and half that again because SolSec is using intermediate and medium sized vessels for clandestine purposes, and you get fifty cruiser equivalent units per military district.
You could divide that up to about ten heavyish cruisers and thirty lightish cruisers, for a grand total of around thirty heavy cruisers and ninety light cruisers.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Strategic Reserves
One problem that the Confederation has, is that it has no strategic depth, and can't really trade space for time, one of the reasons it needs to regain the territories it lost to the Imperium.
Another interesting question is if and where the Solomani Navy has it's naval depots; I'm assuming that there would be at least three based on likely geographical state of the Confederation and likely threats it has to face.
While cruisers tend to be most active in peace time showing the flag and exerting presence, but you build capital ships before a conflict, not during it, which may be another reason that Solomani Naval Staff prefers to use it's resources to build up and maintain larger than usual numbers of battleships, battlecruisers and fleet carriers.
Strategic reserves for the Solomani would consist of separate assets from those assigned to the military districts and is likely to consist of equal numbers of battle rider squadrons and modern battleships. Alas, Sector Fleet doesn't cover what the Imperium Navy considers a strategic reserve at either domain or Imperial level.
I'll say that the strategic reserve consists of the equivalent of another military district's worth of capital ships and battle rider squadrons, located in the central military district, but there being a constant redeployment of squadrons relieving capital ships in all military districts, who'd cycle back to the strategic reserve.
So I calculate that a military district has about one hundred and thirty one battleship equivalents, fifteen fleet carriers, sixteen battle riders and three battle tenders.
One problem that the Confederation has, is that it has no strategic depth, and can't really trade space for time, one of the reasons it needs to regain the territories it lost to the Imperium.
Another interesting question is if and where the Solomani Navy has it's naval depots; I'm assuming that there would be at least three based on likely geographical state of the Confederation and likely threats it has to face.
While cruisers tend to be most active in peace time showing the flag and exerting presence, but you build capital ships before a conflict, not during it, which may be another reason that Solomani Naval Staff prefers to use it's resources to build up and maintain larger than usual numbers of battleships, battlecruisers and fleet carriers.
Strategic reserves for the Solomani would consist of separate assets from those assigned to the military districts and is likely to consist of equal numbers of battle rider squadrons and modern battleships. Alas, Sector Fleet doesn't cover what the Imperium Navy considers a strategic reserve at either domain or Imperial level.
I'll say that the strategic reserve consists of the equivalent of another military district's worth of capital ships and battle rider squadrons, located in the central military district, but there being a constant redeployment of squadrons relieving capital ships in all military districts, who'd cycle back to the strategic reserve.
So I calculate that a military district has about one hundred and thirty one battleship equivalents, fifteen fleet carriers, sixteen battle riders and three battle tenders.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Capital Ship distribution
At best, an Imperium sector has about sixty four battleship equivalent units, ten battle riders and eight fleet carrier equivalents.
At one and two thirds, a Solomani military district should have seventeen battle riders and fourteen fleet carrier equivalents, plus battleships, which would be one hundred and five battleship equivalents, plus fifty cruiser equivalents turned into battleship equivalents, which at maybe one to four ratio would twenty five, with a total of one hundred and thirty battleship equivalents.
Battle tenders would have two roles, transporting battle riders, and capital ships whose jump drives are crippled.
Battleships are organized into Battle Squadrons, consisting of four dreadnoughts, if possible, and a fleet carrier. That would mean fourteen full strength Battle Squadrons. Dreadnoughts are considered two battleship equivalents.
The remaining more or less eighteen battleship equivalents would be battlecruisers and refurbished tech level thirteen battleships.
Three Battle Squadrons would each be paired with a Battle Rider Squadron.
At best, an Imperium sector has about sixty four battleship equivalent units, ten battle riders and eight fleet carrier equivalents.
At one and two thirds, a Solomani military district should have seventeen battle riders and fourteen fleet carrier equivalents, plus battleships, which would be one hundred and five battleship equivalents, plus fifty cruiser equivalents turned into battleship equivalents, which at maybe one to four ratio would twenty five, with a total of one hundred and thirty battleship equivalents.
Battle tenders would have two roles, transporting battle riders, and capital ships whose jump drives are crippled.
Battleships are organized into Battle Squadrons, consisting of four dreadnoughts, if possible, and a fleet carrier. That would mean fourteen full strength Battle Squadrons. Dreadnoughts are considered two battleship equivalents.
The remaining more or less eighteen battleship equivalents would be battlecruisers and refurbished tech level thirteen battleships.
Three Battle Squadrons would each be paired with a Battle Rider Squadron.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Minor Combatants distribution
By Sector Fleet, you should have about two hundred and eighty four corvette equivalents, and two hundred and twenty frigate equivalents.
It should be noted that I took the maximum option when counting, in all cases.
For a military district, that would be five hundred and fourteen corvette equivalents, and around three hundred and eight five frigate equivalents.
It hard to figure out if the Solomani would bother keeping any as part of their strategic reserve, beyond active escort duty and patrolling, since the idea is to pass them on to their members naval Home Guard units, and if they needed new ones, the local yards are happily manufacturing hulls that they hope the Navy will acquire and outfit.
Four corvettes and four frigates would be assigned to each Battle Squadron, for a total of fifty six each.
An Escort Squadron would be one frigate and four corvettes; you'd have the remaining ships organized into about one hundred and fourteen squadrons, with an odd two corvettes.
That leaves two hundred and fifteen frigates to wander around by themselves.
By Sector Fleet, you should have about two hundred and eighty four corvette equivalents, and two hundred and twenty frigate equivalents.
It should be noted that I took the maximum option when counting, in all cases.
For a military district, that would be five hundred and fourteen corvette equivalents, and around three hundred and eight five frigate equivalents.
It hard to figure out if the Solomani would bother keeping any as part of their strategic reserve, beyond active escort duty and patrolling, since the idea is to pass them on to their members naval Home Guard units, and if they needed new ones, the local yards are happily manufacturing hulls that they hope the Navy will acquire and outfit.
Four corvettes and four frigates would be assigned to each Battle Squadron, for a total of fifty six each.
An Escort Squadron would be one frigate and four corvettes; you'd have the remaining ships organized into about one hundred and fourteen squadrons, with an odd two corvettes.
That leaves two hundred and fifteen frigates to wander around by themselves.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Auxiliaries, Military Transport, Logistics and Scouting distribution
In addition to the roles played by most navies, the Solomani Navy is tasked with:
1. Supporting the Solomani Army, in transporting it's troops, equipment and supplies
2. Providing planetary ortillery and CAS strikecraft
3. Supporting SolSec in carrying out it's duties
4. Carrying out what would normally be tasks given to what might have been described as the Coast Guard or Space Patrol:
a. StarPort & planetary approaches security
b. Illegal substances interstellar interdiction
c. Aids to navigation
d. Search & Rescue
e.Living interstellar resources
f. Interstellar Safety
g. Interstellar terrorism
h. Migrant interdiction (looking at you, kittykat)
i. Interstellar environmental protection
j. Law enforcement
5. Support Solomani Confederation Ministries in carrying out their missions, which includes contacting human, near human and alien cultures, and liaising with them in the context of the Confederation's interests primarily, and that of the contacted society or culture, secondarily, including assisting them in relations with other cultures and societies and disseminating information and technical assistance.
6. Planetary and interstellar explorations and surveys:
a. Monitoring and observing planetary systems with instruments and data collection networks
b. Understanding and describing planetary systems through research and analysis of that data
c. Assessing and predicting the changes of these systems over time
d. Engaging, advising, and informing the public and partner organizations with important information
e. Managing resources for the betterment of society, economy and environment
f. Maintaining maps and charts of both Confederation space and areas outside of the Confederation
7. Confederation wide communications, responsible for interstellar message and data transmission within the Solomani Confederation, as it were a postal service, connected by an express boat network, that can also deliver important packages and transfer VIPs and personnel. They can extend that service beyond the Confederation's borders, or hire private contractors.
8. The Navy also supports the Solomani Diplomatic Service in operating diplomatic courier ships.
9. Research and development The Research & Development Branch is responsible for scientific inquiry into data obtained by the Scout Service, and is responsible for the development of equipment needed by the Service to accomplish its mission. This R&D Branch is also responsible for the design of specialized scout vessels used by the IISS.
10. Keeping track of reservists, retired personnel, detached personnel, private military contractors, private contractors, and persons of interest, so that they can be swiftly contacted and (re-)activated if their particular set of skills are required by the Navy, as well as keeping track of where any of their mobile assets (ships and boats), commissioned, decommissioned, paid-off, lent, lost, sold, under construction, planned and possibly requisitionable, are.
Essentially, the Solomani Navy could be operating five to ten times as many ships as a run of the mill interstellar navy would, from a similarly sized political entity.
In addition to the roles played by most navies, the Solomani Navy is tasked with:
1. Supporting the Solomani Army, in transporting it's troops, equipment and supplies
2. Providing planetary ortillery and CAS strikecraft
3. Supporting SolSec in carrying out it's duties
4. Carrying out what would normally be tasks given to what might have been described as the Coast Guard or Space Patrol:
a. StarPort & planetary approaches security
b. Illegal substances interstellar interdiction
c. Aids to navigation
d. Search & Rescue
e.Living interstellar resources
f. Interstellar Safety
g. Interstellar terrorism
h. Migrant interdiction (looking at you, kittykat)
i. Interstellar environmental protection
j. Law enforcement
5. Support Solomani Confederation Ministries in carrying out their missions, which includes contacting human, near human and alien cultures, and liaising with them in the context of the Confederation's interests primarily, and that of the contacted society or culture, secondarily, including assisting them in relations with other cultures and societies and disseminating information and technical assistance.
6. Planetary and interstellar explorations and surveys:
a. Monitoring and observing planetary systems with instruments and data collection networks
b. Understanding and describing planetary systems through research and analysis of that data
c. Assessing and predicting the changes of these systems over time
d. Engaging, advising, and informing the public and partner organizations with important information
e. Managing resources for the betterment of society, economy and environment
f. Maintaining maps and charts of both Confederation space and areas outside of the Confederation
7. Confederation wide communications, responsible for interstellar message and data transmission within the Solomani Confederation, as it were a postal service, connected by an express boat network, that can also deliver important packages and transfer VIPs and personnel. They can extend that service beyond the Confederation's borders, or hire private contractors.
8. The Navy also supports the Solomani Diplomatic Service in operating diplomatic courier ships.
9. Research and development The Research & Development Branch is responsible for scientific inquiry into data obtained by the Scout Service, and is responsible for the development of equipment needed by the Service to accomplish its mission. This R&D Branch is also responsible for the design of specialized scout vessels used by the IISS.
10. Keeping track of reservists, retired personnel, detached personnel, private military contractors, private contractors, and persons of interest, so that they can be swiftly contacted and (re-)activated if their particular set of skills are required by the Navy, as well as keeping track of where any of their mobile assets (ships and boats), commissioned, decommissioned, paid-off, lent, lost, sold, under construction, planned and possibly requisitionable, are.
Essentially, the Solomani Navy could be operating five to ten times as many ships as a run of the mill interstellar navy would, from a similarly sized political entity.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Why are you writing this (monologue) thread?
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
I find the Solomani endlessly fascinating, and I'd like them to win the next round.
The Vargr are tougher to figure out how to organize, the Imperium's done, and I couldn't care about the rest of them.
The Vargr are tougher to figure out how to organize, the Imperium's done, and I couldn't care about the rest of them.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Cruiser distribution
Or, if you take another tack.
There are no mothballed cruisers, because the Imperium Navy systematically hunted them down and destroyed most of them towards the end of the War of Imperial Aggression.
The decimation made the Solomani Naval Staff rethink their doctrines regarding medium ships, and they may have had their Fisher moment, when all previous doctrines were re-examined and ruthlessly discarded if they didn't fit into the vision of a lean, mean, fighting machine.
Fisher famously got rid of all the obsolete and underpowered warships in the Royal Navy, then remade the Royal Navy in his image. Fisher believed that in order to protect the Imperial lines of communications, the Royal Navy needed to blockade the opposing battlefleet, which meant concentrating the battle squadrons, while leaving the protection of the trade routes to an evolved armoured cruiser that was the hybrid between it and a battleship.
Battlecruisers have an unfortunate reputation, but that's mostly due to their commanders taking chances that they shouldn't have, and misemploying them. They really can outshoot anything they come across, which acting in a trade protection role, you're most likely come across cruisers looking to get lucky, and discovering they aren't.
With just a slightly greater investment in personnel, and a slightly more of one in tonnage, the Solomani now would tend to enjoy tactical superiority on all encounters short of one with a capital ship, despite being a tech level lower.
Heavy and light cruisers are the result of treaty obligations from attempts to prevent a naval arms race; there are no arms limitations agreements between the Imperium and the Solomani Confederation, so only yard capacity and budget constrain the Solomani Navy. The Solomani don't need heavy cruisers as ersatz battleships, and if they keep their fleet carriers with battle squadrons, don't need to assign a cruiser to them.
The Solomani have no strategic depth, so they need to mobilize their battle fleets immediately, and if they have the time and space, probably will start producing cruiser designs that are cheap and fast to launch.
Fisher also wanted destroyers, and promoted submarines and naval aviation.
Technically, destroyers are in the intermediate range of tonnage, so iffy, unless you use the cruiser tonnage allocation. You don't need a spinal mount for commerce raiding, because, the merchantmen won't be able to match the raiders, and if you can tie down naval assets away from the battle front. Infiltrating stealth ships to hunt the merchant ships might not make the opponent detach capital ships to hunt you down, but that's a losing strategy anyway since it's just a variant on defeat in detail.
So the Solomani task the battlecruiser with the usual cruiser duties, and don't bother building heavy cruisers, anything still commissioned is a legacy from the Rim War or before.
Light cruiser tonnage allocation is actually used to build large destroyers.
Or, if you take another tack.
There are no mothballed cruisers, because the Imperium Navy systematically hunted them down and destroyed most of them towards the end of the War of Imperial Aggression.
The decimation made the Solomani Naval Staff rethink their doctrines regarding medium ships, and they may have had their Fisher moment, when all previous doctrines were re-examined and ruthlessly discarded if they didn't fit into the vision of a lean, mean, fighting machine.
Fisher famously got rid of all the obsolete and underpowered warships in the Royal Navy, then remade the Royal Navy in his image. Fisher believed that in order to protect the Imperial lines of communications, the Royal Navy needed to blockade the opposing battlefleet, which meant concentrating the battle squadrons, while leaving the protection of the trade routes to an evolved armoured cruiser that was the hybrid between it and a battleship.
Battlecruisers have an unfortunate reputation, but that's mostly due to their commanders taking chances that they shouldn't have, and misemploying them. They really can outshoot anything they come across, which acting in a trade protection role, you're most likely come across cruisers looking to get lucky, and discovering they aren't.
With just a slightly greater investment in personnel, and a slightly more of one in tonnage, the Solomani now would tend to enjoy tactical superiority on all encounters short of one with a capital ship, despite being a tech level lower.
Heavy and light cruisers are the result of treaty obligations from attempts to prevent a naval arms race; there are no arms limitations agreements between the Imperium and the Solomani Confederation, so only yard capacity and budget constrain the Solomani Navy. The Solomani don't need heavy cruisers as ersatz battleships, and if they keep their fleet carriers with battle squadrons, don't need to assign a cruiser to them.
The Solomani have no strategic depth, so they need to mobilize their battle fleets immediately, and if they have the time and space, probably will start producing cruiser designs that are cheap and fast to launch.
Fisher also wanted destroyers, and promoted submarines and naval aviation.
Technically, destroyers are in the intermediate range of tonnage, so iffy, unless you use the cruiser tonnage allocation. You don't need a spinal mount for commerce raiding, because, the merchantmen won't be able to match the raiders, and if you can tie down naval assets away from the battle front. Infiltrating stealth ships to hunt the merchant ships might not make the opponent detach capital ships to hunt you down, but that's a losing strategy anyway since it's just a variant on defeat in detail.
So the Solomani task the battlecruiser with the usual cruiser duties, and don't bother building heavy cruisers, anything still commissioned is a legacy from the Rim War or before.
Light cruiser tonnage allocation is actually used to build large destroyers.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Capital Ship distribution
I'll have to get around to counting the mothballed assets in Sector Fleet.
I think the Solomani Naval Staff have come to the conclusion that in lieu of a technical level, any encounter with the Imperium would have to be compensated for with more armament or greater numbers, hence the replacement of major medium units with battlecruiers.
That also made me think that outside of the battle squadrons, Solomani ships would prefer to go around in pairs, essentially divisions, since two against one is actually more like three times the force; and the Solomani are going to run out of fleet carriers before they run out of battle squadrons.
So I consulted Fighting Ships, and noted that the author described them as Fleet Squadrons, being made up of two to four capital ships, whether battlecruisers or dreadnoughts. It seems a nice modern term, and gives a certain flexibility in application and deployment, with those that have a a fleet carrier attached at full strength.
The Solomani probably decided not to bother with anything smaller than a fleet carrier, in the sense that being, if not quite part of the battle line, just behind it, it would be very unlikely that the enemy would ever catch one either by surprise or away from a powerful enough escort detail.
Fleetrons not accompanied by a fleet carrier, would be pairs forming the nucleus of space action group (which I know sounds corny) that tries to overwhelm their opponents with sheer fire power, as compared to battle groups, that combines firepower with very large numbers of fighters and strikecraft. Since the best they can do would be their organic fighter squadrons and any escort carrier or smallcraft tenders.
Battlecruisers would be the preferred command ship, in lieu of an assault carrier, to control and coordinate elements of member worlds' Home Guard navies with currently assigned and present regular units; with an assault carrier present, shifting C3 there would free the battlecruiser to take a more active role in combat.
I'll have to get around to counting the mothballed assets in Sector Fleet.
I think the Solomani Naval Staff have come to the conclusion that in lieu of a technical level, any encounter with the Imperium would have to be compensated for with more armament or greater numbers, hence the replacement of major medium units with battlecruiers.
That also made me think that outside of the battle squadrons, Solomani ships would prefer to go around in pairs, essentially divisions, since two against one is actually more like three times the force; and the Solomani are going to run out of fleet carriers before they run out of battle squadrons.
So I consulted Fighting Ships, and noted that the author described them as Fleet Squadrons, being made up of two to four capital ships, whether battlecruisers or dreadnoughts. It seems a nice modern term, and gives a certain flexibility in application and deployment, with those that have a a fleet carrier attached at full strength.
The Solomani probably decided not to bother with anything smaller than a fleet carrier, in the sense that being, if not quite part of the battle line, just behind it, it would be very unlikely that the enemy would ever catch one either by surprise or away from a powerful enough escort detail.
Fleetrons not accompanied by a fleet carrier, would be pairs forming the nucleus of space action group (which I know sounds corny) that tries to overwhelm their opponents with sheer fire power, as compared to battle groups, that combines firepower with very large numbers of fighters and strikecraft. Since the best they can do would be their organic fighter squadrons and any escort carrier or smallcraft tenders.
Battlecruisers would be the preferred command ship, in lieu of an assault carrier, to control and coordinate elements of member worlds' Home Guard navies with currently assigned and present regular units; with an assault carrier present, shifting C3 there would free the battlecruiser to take a more active role in combat.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Solomani Navy: Mothballed Fleet distribution
So I counted up the mothballed ships in Sector Fleet, and came up with eighty battleships, eighty cruisers, and two hundred and four destroyers, though I did use the largest figures.
Given that a military district is about one and two thirds a sector, and the Spinward Marches only covers eleven subsectors, I'd double those figures, which means the Solomani should have one hundred and sixty battleships, one hundred and sixty cruisers and four hundred and eight destroyers in mothballs, per district, not counting how many they'd have in reserve at the strategic reserve.
The Solomani have just managed to secure a ceasefire in the face of (to them) an existential war, and going by the narrative detailing the expansion of the Third Imperium, you get the impression that the Solomani Sphere is mostly a backward region, industrially speaking.
Once the Solomani Sphere gained autonomy, it's also unlikely that the Imperium Navy handed over any of their warships, other than the very oldest that they had marked for disposal.
That means, the Solomani have had only two centuries to build up their Navy, most of it was likely destroyed a century ago.
Added to this is that the Confederation relies a lot more on member worlds building up their local naval assets, which means less allocation for the Solomani Navy.
So since you have about sixty four battleship equivalents against about eighty mothballed capital ships, that's slightly more than one to one ratio, per sector.
Going by Fighting Ships, the War of Imperial Aggression saw the Solomani Navy just having achieved tech level fourteen, possibly by one or two decades. That means that any battleship constructed at tech level fourteen would still seem relevant in today's fleet, the clincher being the bonded superdense hull. Crystaliron hulled ships would have to be relegated as second class at minimum, third class or mothballed otherwise.
Hard to believe that one hundred and thirty battleships and battlecruisers would manage to survive per equivalent military district as the Solomani agreed to a ceasefire, because if they had that available, you'd have a couple of more large space battles in and around Terra. That number is important, because from that stems the number of mothballed battleships.
Let's half that, and assume that over the past century, the Solomanis have managed to replace their tech level thirteen battleships with tech level fourteen dreadnoughts, those that aren't used in, and haven't been downgraded to, the cruiser role. The mothball fleet would therefore consist of refurbished tech level twelve capital ships.
Taking an extreme position, that most of the Solomani cruisers were wiped out during the war, and the Navy barely bothers to construct any, any that do exist are in use, haven't been mothballed, and their numbers are supplemented by reroled tech level thirteen battleships.
Destroyers seems a little vague, but the implication is that they are larger than two thousand tonnes, and their numbers probably got severely decimated a century ago, and considering their size, a candidate to be gifted to a member world to augment their navy.
So maybe sixty five battleships per district, that are continuously taken out of reserve and used as cruisers and training ships, no cruisers in mothballs, and maybe two hundred destroyers mothballed.
So I counted up the mothballed ships in Sector Fleet, and came up with eighty battleships, eighty cruisers, and two hundred and four destroyers, though I did use the largest figures.
Given that a military district is about one and two thirds a sector, and the Spinward Marches only covers eleven subsectors, I'd double those figures, which means the Solomani should have one hundred and sixty battleships, one hundred and sixty cruisers and four hundred and eight destroyers in mothballs, per district, not counting how many they'd have in reserve at the strategic reserve.
The Solomani have just managed to secure a ceasefire in the face of (to them) an existential war, and going by the narrative detailing the expansion of the Third Imperium, you get the impression that the Solomani Sphere is mostly a backward region, industrially speaking.
Once the Solomani Sphere gained autonomy, it's also unlikely that the Imperium Navy handed over any of their warships, other than the very oldest that they had marked for disposal.
That means, the Solomani have had only two centuries to build up their Navy, most of it was likely destroyed a century ago.
Added to this is that the Confederation relies a lot more on member worlds building up their local naval assets, which means less allocation for the Solomani Navy.
So since you have about sixty four battleship equivalents against about eighty mothballed capital ships, that's slightly more than one to one ratio, per sector.
Going by Fighting Ships, the War of Imperial Aggression saw the Solomani Navy just having achieved tech level fourteen, possibly by one or two decades. That means that any battleship constructed at tech level fourteen would still seem relevant in today's fleet, the clincher being the bonded superdense hull. Crystaliron hulled ships would have to be relegated as second class at minimum, third class or mothballed otherwise.
Hard to believe that one hundred and thirty battleships and battlecruisers would manage to survive per equivalent military district as the Solomani agreed to a ceasefire, because if they had that available, you'd have a couple of more large space battles in and around Terra. That number is important, because from that stems the number of mothballed battleships.
Let's half that, and assume that over the past century, the Solomanis have managed to replace their tech level thirteen battleships with tech level fourteen dreadnoughts, those that aren't used in, and haven't been downgraded to, the cruiser role. The mothball fleet would therefore consist of refurbished tech level twelve capital ships.
Taking an extreme position, that most of the Solomani cruisers were wiped out during the war, and the Navy barely bothers to construct any, any that do exist are in use, haven't been mothballed, and their numbers are supplemented by reroled tech level thirteen battleships.
Destroyers seems a little vague, but the implication is that they are larger than two thousand tonnes, and their numbers probably got severely decimated a century ago, and considering their size, a candidate to be gifted to a member world to augment their navy.
So maybe sixty five battleships per district, that are continuously taken out of reserve and used as cruisers and training ships, no cruisers in mothballs, and maybe two hundred destroyers mothballed.
I've always wondered why the Solomani are behind the Imperium in technology. It was the Terrans who quickly overtook the Vilani in technology and went on to overrun the Ziru Sirka. Given that the 3I is substantially Vilani descended now (culturally) and the Solomani should be encouraging the go ahead Terran inventiveness (out of necessity if nothing else) then how have they stayed behind technologically?
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I doubt there is a good in-game reason. I would think that they wanted to keep the 3I as the primary setting and if you had the Solomani with higher TL, then you have a situation where all the PLAYERS want to be in Solomani space.
They DID eventually have a race with (slightly) higher TL than the 3I, the Hivers, but they made them far away and so alien that Players couldn't really play them the way they wanted to.
If you need an in-game reason, how about the Solomani Party. They control everything, even basic research, so they tend to spend more time trying to steal 3I tech than developing it on their own.
I would also suggest that the Solomani ARE TL15 in some areas. Also, since they are much more divided than the 3I, it is likely that there is a lot more variation within their Naval forces than you see in the Sector Fleets of the 3I. So even if they were TL15, only some of the ships within the fleet would actually be TL15 and it would be harder to maintain them given the overall lower TL base.
They DID eventually have a race with (slightly) higher TL than the 3I, the Hivers, but they made them far away and so alien that Players couldn't really play them the way they wanted to.
If you need an in-game reason, how about the Solomani Party. They control everything, even basic research, so they tend to spend more time trying to steal 3I tech than developing it on their own.
I would also suggest that the Solomani ARE TL15 in some areas. Also, since they are much more divided than the 3I, it is likely that there is a lot more variation within their Naval forces than you see in the Sector Fleets of the 3I. So even if they were TL15, only some of the ships within the fleet would actually be TL15 and it would be harder to maintain them given the overall lower TL base.
