Solomani Confederation (Military)

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

10. Speaking of which, two to three fleet couriers and one to two fleet scouts are assigned to each Fleet Squadron, presumably double that to the elite units.

11. Presumably, the other support ships are also doubled.

12. With only two capital ships, seems more of a division.

13. Principally being two battlecruisers of technological level twelve or thirteen, I suspect the idea would be to corner one of the larger technological level fourteen Imperium battleship, and overwhelm it.

14. Alternatively, gather maybe three Fleet Squadrons, and strike at a four ship battle squadron from differing angles, and try and wear them down.

15. It was probably a mistake only to assign two fast dreadnoughts to a fleet squadron.

16. In a way, fast dreadnoughts would represent a Tiger option for the Confederation Navy, allowing them to concentrate four of them, manned by veteran crews, in a single squadron, allowing them to breakthrough or assault the opposing battle line.

17. Rather than handing them out piecemeal.

18. Once you have fast dreadnoughts, the rationale for concentrating four battle cruisers is no longer there, so keeping them as two unit formations introduces flexibility, tactically and strategically.

19. Mixing vessel classes is probably a very bad idea, unless necessitated by casualties, as the squadron performance would be limited by the lowest common denominator.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

20. A century later, we see that the Fleet Squadron has evolved into a formation with six fast dreadnoughts, twelve escorts, two tankers, two tenders an six fleet couriers.

21. Described as typical.

22. The Confederation has a lot of fast dreadnoughts, that it's worthwhile to formally organize them into six ships of the line per Fleet Squadron, obviously to more easily command, coordinate and control them when it's time for that decisive battle, so that they can cross the Imperium Navy's tee.

23. Considering their rarity, fleet commanders are likely to set up shop in one of the accompanying fighter carriers.

24. Going by the Great War Royal Navy, flagships would be the most suitable ship of the line available, with a battle squadron attached, rather than the other way around.

25. Why I think that the fleet commander would choose a fighter carrier for his flagship, instead of a fast dreadnought, is because it's more roomy, you're not targetted directly, you a better oversight, and communication from behind the battle line is not likely to be jammed.

26. At the Fleet Squadron level, it would depend on how the (sub)groups are organized, and I was reminded of a minimal (Axis) division.

27. That's about six principal combat manoeuvre units, plus varying support.

28. With the Italian binary division, you had two regiments with three battalions each.

29. With the Germans, you had three regiments with two battalions each.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

30. Both had their reasons, doctrine and organization dictated by operational realities, and maybe some wishful thinking.

31. One general opinion was that the real reason was that the Germans had a lot of competent and experienced commanders and staff officers, which is why they could afford to parcel them out, while the Italians suffered a shortage of the same, so dividing them out would have watered down considerably the combat effectiveness of the regiments.

32. Also, the Italians discovered that binary divisions worked great on less organized, non mechanized, less technologically advanced opponents.

33. The Germans felt their lack of manpower acutely, and tried to supplement that with lots of supporting units.

34. The Italians had planned to reinforce their binary divisions with a Blackshirt militia Legion, competence substituted by enthusiasm.

35. It's not mentioned, but I would suppose that the Fleet Squadrons have three principal subunits of two fast dreadnoughts each.

36. The reason for that would be that it would allow the subunit to likely outgun any single Imperium Navy battleship it comes across, much like a Fleet Squadron should be able to outgun an Imperium Navy battle squadron despite their technological edge.

37. In theory, there should be a seventh fast dreadnought to act as the Fleet Squadron flagship; in practice, you could install three command bridges on each fast dreadnought, allowing anyone of them to act as both divisional leader and squadron flagship, with two different command staffs onboard.

38. While I wouldn't with a divisional command, you could have used a command cruiser as the squadron flagship, if it wan't for the fact that at this point, cruisers themselves are a rare commodity.

39. Alternatively, a multirole mothership with the same performance as a fast dreadnought, that would be slightly behind the deployed fast dreadnoughts.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

40. Going by Fighting Ships, it would appear that one tanker would be assigned per capital ship and it's accompanying escorts and support ships.

41. The only example given is the fifty kay tonne Washington class.

42. Assuming it was designed specifically for the Victory class battlecruiser, which at one hundred thirty kilotonnes would require forty kay plus fuel, not accounting for the rest of the entourage.

43. All Jump-3 capable CarrierRon, HSRon and AssaultRons are to jump to a prepositioned fuel point in deep space 3 parsecs from Depot along with the fleet of tankers, refuel in deep space, and Jump-3 into Depot to assist in the assault along with the Jump-4 units. Working to a tight timetable, the Jump-3 units will only have 48 hours to refuel in deep space before having to jump again to Depot. These Jump-4 squadrons are to wait nine days at Layne refueling and are to Jump at the same pre-designated time into Depot. The tankers will jump to Veejay to join Task Force Onjou once their task is complete.

44. Forty eight hours would indicate direct refuelling from the tankers, which would mean a lot of them, considering most of Task Force Wolfe had a range less than four parsecs.

45. If you think about it, if the fleet tankers assigned to the Promethii based Fleet Squadrons were Washington class, they wouldn't be able to keep up with them.

46. Since it tends to be an issue of numbers, the Confederation Navy will need tankers about equal in size of the capital ships they support.

47. Their primary use should be as fuel shuttle tenders, allowing the harvesting of fuel from local sources, without either diverting the primary starwarships from the swift execution of their insystem missions, or unnecessarily risking them refuelling.

48. Four plus four does appear to be the practical limit of internal fuel volume, if you take the risk of stranding the tankers in the middle of nowhere.

49. It would appear that two plus two plus two seems more practical, or maybe three plus three plus three, with the help of drop tanks and/or external fuel bladders.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

50. A century later, it looks like only two tankers (and two tenders) are assigned to each Fleet Squadron.

51. This makes it look like the split would be the more traditional two battle divisions per battle squadron.

52. It's not that I'm against three ship divisions, if you're a Klingon, it's that I think it lacks tactical flexibility that the Confederation would need against a more technologically advanced and larger near peer.

53. Also, a two ship division lacks continuity from their antebellum Fleet Squadron, which arguably, would be a doubling down from reinforced elite, presumably strategic reserve, formations.

54. Yet, with two ship divisions, would allow splitting up into three component parts, or the more easier fusing of two decimated Fleet Squadrons, or switching out one division for refit or repair.

55. That doesn't mean that you couldn't occasionally reorganize temporarily into a three ship division, if the increased firepower outweighed the flexibility of having two distinct formations in the field, that might force the opposition more problems due to needing to cover more angles.

56. And having arrived at this point, it shouldn't be a surprise that I've come to the conclusion, that a modern Fleet Squadron need at least one fleet tanker, and a really large one at that, to support each Fleet Division.

57. In fact, they should be large enough to be at least capable to take over the role of the tender, which would give each Fleet Squadron four dromedaries as principal support ships.

58. The fourth dromedary wouldn't directly support and particular Fleet Division as such, but more the Fleet Squadron overall, especially other attached units.

59. This certainly would justify the fleet dromedaries to be in excess of a hundred thousand tonnes in volume.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

60. Logistics tends to be an unseen and underappreciated service.

61. Undoubtedly, there's going to be a greater network outside of the primary combat formations that supports their operations that's implied, but can't really be detailed.

62. To simplify direct support for the Confederation Navy's primary combat formations, you could attach a very large fast fleet dromedary that has the same performance and thereby could keep up tactically and strategically with the primary combat units, [roviding both refuelling capability and a safe storage for drier goods and ammunition.

63. While this looks like you now have an unreasonably large target to shoot at, it could also sport a rather large range of defensive systems and some minor offensive ones, to diminish it's apparent vulnerability.

64. The large size makes it a desirable target, but it also allows greater investment in defences that a smaller ship might not warrant.

65. You could also enlarge the hangar and launch facilities, inherent with fuel harvesting capabilities of the fuel shuttle contingent gives the dromedary, allowing a wider range of spacecraft and their possible additional capabilities.

66. You could enlarge the onboard troop contingent, to now establish an assault capability beyond that necessitated for shipboard security and boarding defence.

67. Furthermore, you can establish rest and recuperation facilities for personnel on long deployments, as well as extensive medical ones for long term care, as well as the usual combat emergency ones.

68. Having repair and manufacturing facilities is not a given on any fleet support ship, but would be in this case.

69. Then you could add in command and control facilities, for either space or dirtside combat missions.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

70. So that runaround gets us to not a new type of supply ship, but a large support ship that can take on most roles except that of being in the battle line and reconnaissance.

71. This would be a multirole multimission mothership.

72. Individually, they could look after themselves, but arranged in a defensive formation behind the battle line, their combined firepower would make them quite lethal to most warships that manage to slip by the line of battle.

73. They would also provide a large screen of fighters to act as general combat aerospace patrol.

74. A smaller number of strike craft, who'd have a go at the opposing supply ships.

75. A squadron of reconnaissance craft, for easier coordination of acquired intelligence data.

76. A large number of fuel shuttles, which could be reconfigured as transport craft.

77. Assault shuttles, both for planetary assault and hostile boarding actions.

78. A range of more dedicated transportation craft.

79. And lots of drones.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

80. The point of fleet couriers is for fast interstellar communications between dispersed units of the same command, between fleet commands, and centralized headquarters, you know, really important people who need to know what's going on, and send instructions.

81. That would make any collection of fleet couriers more of an administrative formation, with temporarily assigned couriers rather than permanent ones.

82. I would suppose permanent ones would have shorter legs, while fleet couriers with longer range would be more efficiently utilized for the next priority message, to whatever recipient that happened to be.

83. Since you could squeeze in a factor five jump drive into two hundred tonnes, most Confederation Navy fleet couriers would be that size.

84. The next size up would, and should, be a kilotonne, and meant for true priority, extended range, transmissions.

85. Or a very fast and comfortable ride for a very important personage.

86. As regards to the short legged variety, it would revolve around minimum tonnage for a stable transition, so the classic hundred tonner.

87. Capital sized ships would have one or more onboard, usually permanently assigned, prepared for operations as required.

88. Six fleet couriers are nominally assigned to each Fleet Squadron.

89. The commander of the Fleet Squadron's fleet courier flotilla should be the Fleet Squadron's chief Signals Officer.

 

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Confederation Navy: Fleet Squadron and Organization

90. Twelve escort type starwarships are assigned to each Fleet Squadron.

91. Presumably, they'd make up a flotilla.

92. Traditionally, such a flotilla would rate a light cruiser as flagship.

93. However, their principal role is that of advance scouts, as their average tonnage is below that of their Imperium Navy counterparts, and general acknowledgement that they won't contribute much during combat.

94. Fast dreadnoughts, and presumably motherships, would be pretty self sufficient in self defence.

95. So they would most likely be utilized on picket duty and jumping in advance of the Fleet Squadron, covertly surveying the destination before the arrival of the primary force.

96. And perhaps one left behind to keep an eye on their immediate line of communications.

97. Essentially, like the fleet couriers, the escorts are more organized in a pool than a flotilla, and therefore assigned to the Fleet Squadron flagship.

98. One or more fleet courier and escort would be assigned to a Fleet Division if it's detached.

99. They can also be used as fast transports for important missions.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

1. During the War of Imperium Aggression, the Confederation Navy appears to have built up a large number of Fighter Carriers, and organized a squadron specifically around them.

2. Why the designator fighter is applied seems unclear, since fleet or super would be more traditional, though fleet might have implied something along a hundred kilotonnes compared to the resulting quarter megatonne, and super somewhat overused.

3. It might be that the Confederation Navy uses the classification carrier instead of tender for the interstellar transportation of battle riders, so to make it clear what's it's role is.

4. Doctrine might be more of a defensive nature, instead of emphasizing the strike potential and role of it's smallcraft.

5. It's accompanied by a heavy cruiser or equivalent, what seems a destroyer division led by a light cruiser, supported by a fleet tanker, a fleet tender, four frigate escorts, two to three fleet couriers and one to two fleet scouts.

6. This looks a lot like the current United States Navy carrier strike group.

7. Going by the given orders of battle, Confederation Navy task forces appear to be centred around their respective Fighter Carriers.

8. The four frigates seem specifically dedicated to protecting the support elements, though if it's a given (and probably logical) that a Fleet Squadron would always accompany a Carrier Squadron, you probably could have dispensed with the fleet scouts.

9. It's likely that all fleet couriers assigned to the Task Force would congregate either around the Task Force flagship or the Fighter Carrier, since it's like to have onboard facilities for their crews and more maintenance personnel.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

10. Pocket carriers are assigned to other squadrons, and don't form one of their own.

11. This is to provide an aerospace capacity to their assigned units, which I'll guess lack of internal capacity was to be largely blamed.

12. Technically speaking, Promethii fast dreadnoughts are carriers, but with an organic aerospace group of twenty fighters each, two can provide the equivalent numbers of that of a pocket carrier.

13. Not surprising, as pocket carriers only have the performance of that other major and capital warships, basically three parsec range and factor five manoeuvre.

14. It probably would have been a better, if unrealistic, solution to establish a common platform, and outfit it to the prevailing technological level and mission, in this case, either as a pocket carrier or light troop carrier.

15. Having that organic contingent across the board probably explains why this type of carrier disappeared from Confederation Navy orders of battle a century later.

16. The Confederation Navy may have discovered the issue in having smaller carriers that that of fleet category, besides efficiency and capacity.

17. You either compromise capacity, performance or safety, specifically crew.

18. The primary weapon system of an aerospace carrier is it's complement of craft, strike, fighter, bomber or otherwise.

19. My personal view on this is that the safety of the crew is paramount upto a point, followed by a cost benefit analysis of power projected versus investment.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

20. A typical modern Carrier Squadron consists of two fighter carriers with a total of four to eight hundred fighters, accompanied by six escort ships, four fleet couriers, one fleet tanker, and one fleet tender.

21. Compare that to the fifteen hundred fighter bombers contingent onboard the two hundred kay tonne wartime Midway class.

22. Having that kind of contrast and choice, I'd opt for two Fighter Carriers with four hundred fighter craft each.

23. Interwar doctrine had more or less come up with two carrier divisions, if you had the carriers to spare, which the Americans and Japanese did, ironically, considering the large collection that the British had accumulated over the years.

24. It's been pointed out that Pearl Harbour was a one off, since, all things being equal, it was not possible to concentrate that amount of carriers after hostilities started, an example being Taranto; this being true until the Essexes started coming online.

25. Peacetime deployment likely splits up the two fighter carriers, but wartime would concentrate them into the two carrier squadron, that the squadron wasn't just an administrative formation.

26. Most likely function during peacetime was to employ it's aerospace group to screen an Assault Squadron during peacekeeping missions.

27. While I agree during wartime, the Carrier Squadron, or part thereof, would be tasked with a strategic strike, I rather doubt it would be wasted on commerce raiding, which would probably be tasked to what I'll assume would be escort carriers and starships with a small aerospace fighter contingent.

28. Soft industrial targets, orbital facilities, and highports sounds like strategic bombing, and large number of strike craft could be hosted on a large number of small carriers, allowing the fighter carriers to accompany the main fleet elements.

29. While the fighter carriers would keep a healthy distance apart from each other, the six escort ships would be totally dedicated to their protection, especially if you switch the fleet tanker and fleet tender for two motherships.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

30. While fifteen hundred fighters might be a challenge to completely command, coordinate and control, the Confederation Navy may have found four hundred per carrier an easier mouthful to swallow.

31. While I'm not sure about the Essexes, the Midways certainly could have taken onboard of then current one hundred and fifty planes, but the inability to coordinate them all at the same time made it rather pointless.

32. It's not just a question of launching them swiftly, but also recovery, repair, maintenance and replenishment.

33. And the ability to run away, if the situation calls for it.

34. Attack and strike designators in the Traveller sense means some form of hybrid cruiser carrier, usually a combination of a light carrier and a light cruiser, with differing optimizations.

35. The fleet carrier is one that can keep up with the Battle Squadrons, which means pretty much manoeuvre drive factor sixish, and relying on a more robust hull, therefore hundred kay tonnes minimum.

36. Manoeuvre factor two is rather more space stationish.

37. You could classify by weight, but of the three basic varieties, light, medium and heavy, only light appears to have been viable enough to construct.

38. Light carriers take advantage of the twenty five kay tonne hull bonus, but are essentially miniaturized fleet carriers with about a hundred aerospace craft group, and in comparison rather inefficient.

39. That inefficiency comes about due to having appropriate facilities and protection, built to military standards.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

40. If the issue is the total number of warships operable, you can certainly see the push towards hybridization.

41. Treaty restrictions and budgetary constraints seems to have inclined navies to stuff everything onboard, especially on cruisers, since if they blew up due to additional torpedoes and aviation fuel, it mattered a lot less than if that happened to a battleship.

42. During wartime, ships became rather more specialized, outside some rather desperate measures due to lack of available resources and/or hulls.

43. Postwar, back to squeezing every possible system on a hull, which certainly had to inflate to accommodate them.

44. This differs from giving fast dreadnoughts an inhouse small aerospace group, in terms of hull volume percentage devoted to launch facilities and hangars.

45. The model for this is quite obviously the Imperial class Star Destroyer, that would include a battalion of Confederation Marines, and include assault shuttles.

46. It's usually inefficient to make a cruiser more than eighty kilotonnes, because at that point, you might as well go for the full monty.

47. The happy median probably is around fifty kilotonnes, large enough to make a difference, and could accommodate the systems of a twenty five tonne light carrier and a twenty five tonne light cruiser, including a factor one spinal mount.

48. Arguably, a factor zero point five meson gun should have been possible, basically by design being double that of the other spinal mounts, and automatically marks the cruiser out as heavy, which would push out tonnage towards eighty kay tonnes.

49. Since the Confederation has lesser expectations of it's light cruisers, primary armament would be a bunch of bays.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

50. So we now we end up with my favourite type of aerospace carriers, the escort.

51. There are good reasons why you don't build them in peacetime, outside of establishing doctrine and getting operational experience; my suspicion would be that the Admiralty doesn't want to give politicians ideas that they could save money by ordering aircraft carriers built to commercial standards.

52. First question would be size, and it's here where Taffy Three comes in.

53. Spinal weapon systems can't target two kay hulls, but that's too low, and suffer a minus four penalty for hulls sized ten kay tonnes, which establishes a maximum tonnage.

54. At five kay tonnes, the penalty increases to minus eight, so an escort carrier should either be five or ten thousand tonnes.

55. I identify about four combat missions for escort carriers: convoy protection, dirtside support, combat aerospace patrol, and commerce raider hunting.

56. Factor three acceleration would be sufficient for convoy protection, dirtside support, and arguably as part of a hunter killer group tracking down commerce raiders.

57. Combat aerospace patrol, in this specific case, would be to screen rather more tardy fleet units, like old battleships, which would indicate factor five acceleration.

58. In which case we're back to pocket carrier territory.

59. Or the fleet units would power back to factor three.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

60. Strategic range would be some where between two to four parsecs, dependent upon general fleet range.

61. Two should be enough for commerce protection, and Fleet Squadrons have organic fighter screens, so four might not be necessary.

62. Factor two jump drives have the advantage at technological level fourteen in that they can be maximally tweaked, assuming the Confederation Navy figured that's the optimal solution based on the cost performance they were looking for, since it's not really clear that either sourcing, maintaining and/or repairing lower technology levels brings any benefits in Traveller, unless there's some form of industrial capacity scarcity, which, ironically, we may be currently experiencing.

63. The primary weapon system of any aerospace carrier would be it's aerospace group.

64. The aerospace group differs from that of a light or fleet carrier, in that it's utility and resource investment should match how much the platform it's based on can optimize that.

65. Escort carriers are pretty much pared to the bone in terms of onboard facilities, to the point that the British had the preinstalled American washing machines and ice cream maker removed, and onboard protection, trusting in luck and speed, such as either were available, to keep them safe.

66. It's one reason only two postwar aircraft carriers are identified as being equivalent to escort carriers, because if the platform gets destroyed or disabled, you tend to lose temporarily or permanently, the aerospace group and it's crews, that was the point of constructing and commissioning it.

67. And once the enemy has the range, it's usually not too difficult to accomplish that, compared to light and fleet carriers.

68. There might be a pair of five inch sternchasers, which would be the equivalent of a small bay, to discourage pursuit.

69. The rest, the best bang for buck would be beam lasers.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

70. The tonnage of an escort carrier isn't set in stone, and depending on circumstances, could range from two to ten kay tonnes, after which you really have to figure out if you might not be better off with a light (fleet) carrier, or a hybrid.

71. It's just that five kilotonnes is one of those specific tonnage points where you can leverage some advantages, without compromising performance.

72. First off, more difficult to target with spinal mounts.

73. Two thirds off the crew requirement, in most cases.

74. Optionally better sensors, and a command bridge, but considering the cut rate nature of the design, unlikely.

75. In what we would consider the default flight deck type of escort carrier, at a minimum you'd have to include one recovery deck, considering operational tempo.

76. Larger escort carriers, or those earmarked for specializing in maintaining fighter screens, would need a launch tube.

77. Optionally, you can launch or recover smallcraft with docking clamps, but you're looking at eighteen minutes of fiddling around at either coming or going, which seems unrealistic, especially when release can probably be achieved in seconds.

78. Commerce protection will have a mixed or composite aerospace group, and will maintain constant patrols, so they can schedule a drawn out launch and recovery routine, with maybe one or two smallcraft on alert.

79. Maximum listed pocket carrier composition was fifty thirty tonne fighter bombers, and as with tonnage, any more and you should start thinking about either lights or hydrids.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

80. In most cases, if a capital class warship, whether a battle cruiser or battleship, penetrates the frontline and evades the major fleet units that are supposed to seal that or intercept them, the convoy is screwed, unless it's accompanied by a dreadnought, old or otherwise.

81. The customary method by slipping through a major or minor combatant, and hoping not to meet up with a battle cruiser and/or a search and destroy task group is survivable, while the accompanying escorts and the aerospace group of the escort carrier try to delay it, or hopefully, mission kill it, while the convoy scatters.

82. Anything smaller is likely to try and rely on stealth to sneak in and and covertly sink one or more freighters, sometimes in wolf packs; this would be the primary mission of the escort carrier's aerospace group, to detect and attack them.

83. The composition of an escort carrier's aerospace group tasked with convoy protection is likely to be ad hoc, assembled from available spacecraft and pilots.

84. Two composite squadron of fighter and strike craft, alternating shifts to provide coverage and immediate reaction to detection.

85. Now while I wail on about how escort carriers the cheapest hulls with maximum load, I'm going to go a little off tangent by saying that the five kilotonne hull that the Confederation Navy uses for the escort carrier is basically more of a blank slate, that they then configure for the various roles and missions they had envisioned for that particular vessel, which is rather presumptive of me.

86. One issue with launch facilities is that the largest tonnage they are to be used by has to be predetermined, and because of the large extent of the Confederation Navy, standardized across the board.

87. All smallcraft launch facilities in the Confederation Navy are configured for thirty five tonnes, the optimum size in terms for firepower per tonnage onboard a host ship with limited volume, which also includes force multipliers such as sensors and armour, which would be difficult to justify for anything smaller.

88. But easily reconfigured as expeditionary mobile base for a company to a battalion of troops.

89. Or as a more basic support vessel, such as a tanker or tender.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

90. Integral to the escort carrier design has got be a fast escape shuttle, able to take on the entire the crew, aerospace group, and passengers.

91. If you accept that you're basically screwed if the enemy catches up with you, than you need a Plan Bee.

92. In the worst case, it's probably easier to surrender the escape shuttle, without either the enemy first taking pot shots at it, or the temptation to not give up the ship.

93. At the middling performance of jump factor three and manoeuvre factor three, doesn't really make cents to utilize a planetoid configuration, unless you needed a hull in a hurry.

94. Modularization and podularization of the spherical kind, would allow a relatively quick reconfiguration of the interior.

95. Saucer separation, or a breakaway hull, would incur a cost of two hundred extra megastarbux, and lose a hundred tonnes.

96. So a rather expensive exit strategy.

97. The problem with podularization is it's not clear the maximum hull percentage that can allocated, though twenty point eight is elementary, what soon can be proved by simple division.

98. Modularization is seventy five percent maximum.

99. Cost is an additional percentage point per percentage point modularized.

 

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Confederation Navy: Carrier Squadron and Organization

100. Podularization doesn't appear to incur additional costs, though like modularization, I suspect labour isn't accounted for.

101. Essentially, it's the recreation of the Littoral Combat Ship.

102. What you would have is the basic framework of the superstructure.

103. Plus ship systems that you can't modularize and/or podularize.

104. So modularization excludes the bridge, engineering, or structural or armour options.

105. Podularization includes power plant and armour options.

106. Cheapest and most pragmatic weapon system would a triple turret beam laser, with thirteen power points, two megastarbux and a tonne each.

107. At technological level thirteen you could tweak them to be either more energy efficient or more destructive, at around a fifty percent premium.

108. Since an escort carrier is likely carrying ordnance meant for it's aerospace group, you could have a missile and/or torpedo sternchaser, also neatly resolving the armory issue.

109. This could take the form of either a bunch of turrets, or one or two small bay(s).