Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Armaments and Spinal Mounts

. Particle Accelerators
.. long range
.. barrage value damage d6 against spacecraft
.. armour damage reduced by thirty points per armour factor
.. radiation damage
.. residual damage 10% single section standard barrage hit
.. rapid fire option
... can be fired twice in one round due to capacitors and redundant reaction chambers
... must skip the following round to recharge
... tonnage and the cost of the weapon increased by 10%

. 10 SK/C 5000
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 12
.. 1'200-tonnes
.. MCr 840
.. 120
.. armour 4
.. one de-militarized example, currently on display at Smithsonian on Home
. 10 SK/C 5540
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 13
.. 1'080-tonnes
.. MCr 756
.. 126
.. armour 4
.. two experimental models developed, one tested to destruction, the second installed in an existing light cruiser to acquire operational experience
. 10 SK/C 5550
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 14
.. 960-tonnes
.. MCr 672
.. 132
.. armour 4
.. four pre-production models, installed in existing light cruisers, subsequently upgraded to 10RF SK/C 5555 model
. 10RF SK/C 5555
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 14
.. 1'056-tonnes
.. MCr 739.2
.. 132
.. rapid fire
.. armour 4
.. current production model

Notes
1. While relocating their corporate headquarters to within Confederation territory following the Solomani Rim War, Thyssen Krupp archivists came across mention of a forgotten experimental light weigh particle accelerator spinal mount weapon system developed as an alternate primary gun for light cruisers, though results were disappointing when compared to existing weapon systems, and an archaeological team managed to locate the experimental model in a buried Thyssen Krupp facility.
2. The gun was mothballed in a remote warehouse that had been submerged during a landslide, and thus discovered in an undamaged condition, together with full technical data.
3. While first interested in finding a counterweight to the Imperium's new light meson spinal mounts, Solomani Naval Staff realized it was not capable of matching up to any light cruiser so equipped.
4. Naval Staff had been refining their deep intrusion doctrine, and were looking for a self sustaining weapon system powerful enough to deal with fleet escorts, and efficiently despatch commercial shipping, but fitted on an intermediate ship hull, rather than on one of their diminishing stocks of cruiser hulls, which implied that it was cheap enough to be disposable.

 

[JBRocky]

I have a question about how people see part of the Solomani Military. There are many powerful worlds and groups of worlds inside the Confederation so how do you think they work with the over all Solomani Military?

 

[Condottiere]

That's two questions, and it should be remembered a lot that I come up with concerning the Solomani military is speculation, and mileage certainly varies.

As regards the general view of the military, most citizens wouldn't interact with the Solomani Navy on any regular basis, and the media may very well portray them as the modern incarnation of Starfleet, since they pretty much do almost everything concerning space stuff. The Navy might come across as quite heroic.

Solsec may be quite happy with the arrangement, since they only have to keep an eye on one truly interstellar wide military organization.

The Solomani Navy may try really hard to be politically neutral, since they don't want to be distracted from the wide range of duties they have to perform. The same would apply to the Solomani Marines.

Solomani mega and interstellar corporations may have a more ambivalent relationship with the Navy, since the Navy is the source of very lucrative procurement contracts, and a resentful attitude from either side can easily sabotage that, besides the presence of Solomani Navy warships ensures the security of a fairly free trade system, whether from raiders, pirates or business rivals. It also restrains any inclination to raid their competitors' commerce outside recognized planetary boundaries.

Since they are stuck with the usual Scouting service responsibilities, the Navy would also interdict any areas or planet their experts felt would be worth keeping in a virginally pristine state, from commercial exploitation. Reversal of such policies would invoke really heavy political (and financial)costs.

The price of political neutrality and obedience to civilian leadership would have to be minimal interference from Solsec in the day to day naval operations. Solsec would not be included at any point of the command chain, but commanding officers would be willing to consult with or listen to any suggestions with Solsec operatives and agents.

There would be protocols for operations under the direction of or in cooperation with Solsec.

Citizens are more familiar with their planetary or system military forces, of widely varying quality, tech level and equipment. There relationships will vary, depending if they've been used to suppress them, or how the last conflict went. Or corruption, patriotism, hatred of conscription, the usual stuff.

I'm pretty sure that the Solomani Navy will hoover the more trained and better equipped Home Guard fleet assets to help make up the numbers, while organizing the others for rear area security, patrolling and and convoy escort. The Navy probably maintain very good relations with the regional space forces (my term to differentiate between them), and subsidize their budgets by passing on older equipment and providing access to advanced training facilities}, while headhunting the more promising candidates.

I don't have a feel for the Solomani Army, who seem to be primarily garrison troops, military policemen and specialist troops. Their primary function would be to overwhelm a planet's ground troops in a contained conflict and become an occupation force, and act as a cadre to stiffen levies in a general war.

Citizens may have a more cynical view of the Army, regarding them as the direct jackbooted arm of the Confederation, depending on the interaction they or their planet has had with them in the past.

On planet, Navy and Army interaction would be minimal; off planet, the Army would be dependant on naval assault and support ships to carry out their missions, or possibly, may have non-jump capable transports and ortillery platforms and fighters for primarily CAS.

In a way, this very much smells of the CoDominium.

Groups of worlds would have quasi-joint navies or naval operations, which would break the monopoly the Navy has for jump capable military ships. Likely this would be dealt with greater integration in regional defence with the Navy and secondment and cross attachment of officers and men to facilitate operational experience and better communications.

Powerful system alliances might be fairly immune from a direct military intervention, especially a planetary assault. Individual weak link members might be singled out for a very carefully handled naval blockade.

Overall, cooperation between various space forces and the Navy might be excellent, as each knows precisely what the other expects and is prepared to offer.

Cooperation between the Army and Navy might be distantly polite, in that they'll get the Army to their targets, but outside of heavy naval gunfire support, it's up to the army to carry out their mission.

The Army may view the Home Guard ground forces as potential cannon fodder or insurgents.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Armaments and Spinal Mounts

. Particle Accelerators
.. long range
.. barrage value damage d6 against spacecraft
.. armour damage reduced by thirty points per armour factor
.. radiation damage
.. residual damage 10% single section standard barrage hit
.. rapid fire option
... can be fired twice in one round due to capacitors and redundant reaction chambers
... must skip the following round to recharge
... tonnage and the cost of the weapon increased by 10%

. 60 SK/C 5600
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 12
.. 6'000-tonnes
.. MCr 4'200
.. 600
.. armour 20
.. prototype still used at Naval Gun range to test armour plating
. 60 SK/C 5610
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 13
.. 5'400-tonnes
.. MCr 3'780
.. 630
.. armour 21
.. one experimental model manufactured and installed in an existing battlecruiser to acquire operational experience
. 60 SK/C 5620
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 14
.. 4'800-tonnes
.. MCr 3'360
.. 660
.. armour 22
.. three experimental models manufactured and installed in three existing battleship to iron out any remaining bugs
. 60RF SK/C 5625
.. Thyssen Krupp Stahl AG
.. TL 14
.. 5'280-tonnes
.. MCr 3'696
.. 660
.. rapid fire
.. armour 22
.. current production model

Notes
1. Solomani Naval analysts came to the conclusion that Imperium major units over rely on meson screens as their primary protection in engagements.
2. Solomani Naval Staff came up with a requirement for a primary weapon system for their line of battle that bypassed meson screens and could punch through any armour.
3. This fit in with a new doctrine of shooting first, and shooting accurately.
4. Standard calibres inherited from the Imperium were deemed insufficient, so Thyssen Krupp were commissioned to come up with a suitable PAWS that could devastate any opposing dreadnought.
5. Thyssen Krupp decided that instead of developing a new gun, they'd obtain a more efficient weapon system and much less technical problems if they evolved it from a tech level twelve base.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Bases

Linate is a high-tech Solomani Confederation vacuum world, located near the Confederation's border in Akuusir Subsector of Dark Nebula Sector. At TL 14 Linate has the highest Tech Level in the subsector.

The system has been issued an Amber Zone travel advisory and planetfall should be considered dangerous.

Classic Era (1115)
A200544-E
Primary G1 V M2 V
Planetoid Belts 0
Gas Giants 4

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Linate_%28world%29

It doesn't say so, but I would pick Linate as a major logistics and repair base, as well as set up industries to supply high tech equipment.

Anyone know where the Solomani Naval Depots are located?

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Bases

Uston is an important, high-population and high-tech industrial vacuum world located in Gaalorn Subsector in Daibei Sector.

At 90 billion, it is the highest population world in the subsector.

Uston/Gaalorn (Daibei 0139)
Classic Era (1115)
A100A98-E
Primary F4 V
Planetoid Belts 0
Gas Giants 2

During the Long Night, the Wuans began a genetic experiment. They studied, modified, and standardized human genotypes, creating a variant human race also known, confusingly, as Wuans. Now, specialized humans can be produced, suited for any task or environment. A visitor to Wuan factories will see long rows of identical Workers performing the same industrial task.

The Wuan Technology Association is a Federation characterized by a low degree of governmental centralization and a weak bureaucracy that gives a high degree of sovereignty (freedom) to local (planetary) governments and sometimes suffers from a poor ability to create unified policy. The Wuan Technology Association government is usually classified as an Association, a type of Federation.

Wuan political power rests with the Executives who administer the Association's various corporations.

A loose, commercial grouping based out of Wu (Magyar 0203), the Wuan worlds owe their colonization to Asian corporate interests. Well supported by Korean and Japanese funds on Terra, the wuans specialized in manufacturing high-tech products for export. They survived the Long Night by continuing this practice, and while raiders collected tribute, they chose not to loot the Association wholesale.

They maintain a fleet of trading ships that travel to Daibei, Dark Nebula, and Reaver's Deep, and they own many smaller companies throughout Magyar.

Argent Mining is a prominent member of the Association.

Lacking a standing navy, the Wuans recognize the need for the Confederation military, but they do little more than tolerate the Cause and the central government.

Uston looks like the most strategic system in the Magyar arm, or at least one of them. Their high population and tech level make it the perfect place to establish a naval arsenal and depot there, if it wasn't the fact that it's geographical position literally puts it out on a limb.

The Association seems to have enough power to prevent the basing of any Solomani military installations in their systems, though that could explain that the two neighbouring ssytems, Aston/Thread and Avalon have them, and I'd at least put an outpost in Elk.

The Association's wealth and industrial capacity probably does allow it to maintain large numbers of system defence forces and planetary defences, crewed by specially cloned troopers.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Significant capital ship tonnages

Tonnes

. 2'000
.. largest unisectional hull
.. available clamp
. 5'000
.. maximum clamp size
.. sensor platform
. 7'500
.. largest bisectional hull
.. not necessarily the largest destroyer
. 30'000
.. larest trisectional hull
.. largest light cruiser
.. light carrier, doesn't exist
.. battle rider
. 100'000
.. largest quadsectional hull
.. battlecruiser
.. fleet carrier
.. assault carrier
. 200'000
.. battleship
.. super-carrier, unlikely
. 300'000
.. dreadnought
. 600'000
.. largest quinsectional hull
.. possible superdreadnought, but really unlikely
.. battle tender

Notes
1. There's a gap in capabilities normally associated with destroyers, cruisers and support ships ranging between two thousand and a hundred thousand tonnes.
2. I chose hundred thousand, since half a percent point is five hundred tonnes.
3. Besides, no real idea what the Solomani Navy might have in the cruiser range, and it seems like a fun idea to let differing one off designs flit about without trying to impose any particular vision.
4. One problem that presents itself is that canonically, that wold include the intermediate size ships, basically, anything short of a light cruiser and more than a frigate. if the assumption is made that a frigate is a largish small ship.
5. I need capable, fairly multi-purpose destroyers, rather like the Arleigh Burkes, to take over most of the missions of the rapidly decreasing numbers of cruisers.
6. Anything that needs a spinal mount to negotiate with, gets assigned an available cruiser, or a forward deployed tech level thirteen base battleship.
7. Anything serious, finds itself looking up at the spinal mount of an orbiting tech level fourteen battlecruiser, who are usually roaming around, and looking for trouble.
8. All tech level thirteen cruisers have been scrapped or passed onto client states or member systems.
9. Tech level thirteen battleships are forward deployed, and may have been renovated; they serve as regional command and training ships.
10. Unscheduled arrival of an assault carrier near a planet with a guilty conscious indicates the Confederation is prepared to launch a planetary assault and contemplate collateral damage.
11. Battle rider squadrons are the strategic reserve, and would be deployed en mass in wartime.
12. Super carriers and super dreadnoughts would be considered a waste of resources, and lack operational flexibility.
13. Fleet carriers are designed to keep up with the capital ship units, and provide strikecraft screening forces.
14. My favourite loophole would be using catamarans made up two thousand tonne hulls.
15. The problem with thousand tonnes at tech level fourteen, is that you can't stuff in anything critical into that volume, and even sensors need five thousand tonnes.
16. Capital ships, including battle riders will be built to a standard template, one reason I felt it important to allow such great leeway in the cruiser sphere.
17. Destroyers need to look like they mean business, without stuffing everything possible into their hulls; they're meant to be a pointed but polite reminder of the power of the Confederation to it's members, flotilla leaders, and scouts and screening forces for the capital ships; elegantly deadly, destructively luxurious, diplomatically daunting, belying their tincan reputations
18. Cruisers get sent on diplomatic and exploratory missions, as well as patrolling the frontiers.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Solomani Navy Corvette Littoral Class Design

The Littoral class corvette is the most common patrol ship that is encountered within the Solomani Confederation or along it's borders. It's not considered a true catamaran, as the modules aren't considered an integral part of the ship, but attached depending on mission and need, the maximum being two two-hundred tonne modules which allows a three parsec transition, the minimum required as and in a naval auxiliary/role.

It's second configuration is as a fleet escort with a single two-hundred tonne module, which determines it's primary mission within a task force.

It's third configuration, is basically naked or with a sixty tonne external payload, can be as a large courier or reconnaissance ship.

There are rumours that there is a prototype with a jump drive tweaked to achieve a six parsec transition, with some parts chopped off.


Tonnes

. 7
.. Solomani customized docking clamp
.. 10-200 tonnes
.. MCr 1.5
. 30
.. pod
... cargo
... weapons
.. smallcraft
. 59/60
.. pod
... cargo
... weapons
.. smallcraft
. 200
.. standard Solomani naval module
... weapon systems
... weapon systems/hangar
... cargo
... scientific
... minesweeper/hunter
... troop transport
... planetary assault
. 571
.. factor six tech level fourteen prototype jump drive
. 600
.. factor six power plant
.. corvette
. 615
.. factor six manoeuvre drive
. 666
.. factor five jump drive
.. corvette plus two thirty tonne pods or one sixty tonne pod
. 750
.. factor five power plant
. 800
.. factor four jump drive
.. factor four manoeuvre drive
.. corvette plus two hundred tonne module
. 1'000
.. largest unisectional space station
.. factor three jump drive
.. power plant factor four
.. corvette plus two times two hundred tonne modules
. 1'200
.. factor three power plant
. 1'333
.. factor two jump drive
. 1'500
.. factor two power plant
. 2'000
.. largest unisectional hull
.. available clamp
.. frigate

Notes
1. Uses minimal capital class control/engineering set up.
2. There doesn't appear there's much I can do with a three-hundred tonne module, so I downscaled it.
3. Too lazy at the moment to list out the precise specifications of either the corvette or the modules.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Gunboat Diplomacy

While the destroyer remains the dynamic face of the friendly and reassuring omnipresence of the Solomani Navy, the unscheduled arrival of a battlecruiser the polite reminder of it's capability to rapidly power project power, and the presence of an assault carrier, the pointed statement of the military means to enforce the political will of the Confederation at a very up close and personal level.

These are usually deployed within the interior of the Confederation, and along the fringes, the frontier worlds. and neighbouring states, their roles would be taken over by respectively, the corvette, any available cruiser and a tech level thirteen battleship.

Getting a cruiser or a tech level thirteen battleship to the erring system in question might take more time and effort than the window of opportunity exists or that strategic necessity dictates.

The Solomani Navy, either because someone who wrote the doctrine had a sense of humour, or unconscious irony, prescribes the despatch of a corvette with a railgun ortillery weapons module to the prodigal world.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Deceptive Practices and Low Berths

1. Solomani practices discourages the use of a frozen watch, and prefer to overcrew.

2. The reputation for overcrowding on Solomani vessels comes from their tendency to surge crew on what would have been otherwise quite comfortably roomy ships, not just with naval personnel, but also army personnel and equipment, which allows quick reaction and rapid deployment of forces to deal with unexpected events.

3. There's a general suspicion on the fatality rate, let alone on the potential health risks, of being popsiclized, so that they tend to be only used in circumstances defined as emergencies.

4. While research is continuously carried out to decrease the risks of low berthing, this is mostly done by private research groups and corporations, sometimes with grants from the Solomani Navy.

5. Actually, while it's true that the Solomani Navy has an institutional dislike of low berthing, it's meant to distract from the use of it on their long term covert operation(s) to infiltrate and secretly park naval units within Imperium space.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Deceptive Practices and Planetoid Ships

1. Outside of some experimental cruisers, local security monitors, and space stations, the Solomani Navy doesn't maintain planetoid starships.

2. They maintain it's much more efficient in terms of training, maintenance and operations to run standardized vessels, with the obvious exception of their test bed cruisers.

3. The planetoid ships that are used to infiltrate Imperium space are Solsec assets.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Army: Spacetroopers

All Solomani Army combat units are trained for protected forces, but fighting in zero gee environments requires an additional skill set.

While one would assume this would be the preserve of the Solomani Marines and the Solomani Navy Security Branch, the separation of responsibilities, meant to ensure that a military coup would be nigh to impossible, means that not only isn't the Navy equipped to garrison a system, they institutionally disinclined to even try outside of exceptional circumstances.

That leaves the Army the responsibility to do so, even on asteroids and planetoids. That meant the creation of a new MOS that could cope with this environment, and the result was the Spacetrooper Corps.

Spacetroopers consider themselves, and have been portrayed by the Solomani media as, an elite force, whose swashbuckling adventures include putting down insurgentious belters, pilfering pirates, sneaky smugglers, and infiltrating Imperium intelligence agents.

One reason Solomani Navy standardized shuttles at fifty nine tonnes was that they only needed to second one pilot to crew them, the weapons console rather enthusiastically occupied by a Spacetrooper. Spacetrooper operations are usually supported by a Pony, a Mobile Landing Platform that has a minimal Navy crew.

Spacetroopers have a fetish for wearing the heaviest battle dress that they can acquire, and are almost fanatically devoted to the Solomani Cause, with the most common battlecry being, "For the Secretary-General!".

While capable of boarding actions, and clearing out spaceships and eerily beehived planetoids, these events happen a lot less frequently than popular culture tends to portray.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Cruiser Gap

The cruiser gap is canonical, and much as I would like to fill the existing vacuum with destroyers, you probably can't, so the intermediate joins the medium category in the design and manufacture of one off ships, though successful designs would have an evolved successor, that incorporates the desired and/or successful features, not always the same thing, of the previous ship.

At the upper end, I don't see much point in building anything below a hundred thousand tonnes. In fact, I'd like to replace the ubiquitous present of the destroyer, with the actual star destroyer. Or not so actual star destroyer, but a battlecruiser, which would be more manoeuvrable than a star destroyer, but lacking some of it's armour.

Which leaves us with the frigate, since the Solomani Navy isn't permitted to build a starship hull between two thousand and a hundred thousand tonnes without explicit permission and senatorial oversight, exception being Battleriders.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Deceptive Practices and Moles

The Solomani Navy doesn't tolerate infiltration of it's ranks by anyone.

If discovered, agents from within the Solomani Confederation intelligence, commercial, military and political communities find themselves assigned to long lasting deep space exploration missions, where their reports will have little effect on Solomani Navy operations.

Those from entities outside the Confederation will find themselves turned over to the more enthusiastic interrogators of Solsec, despite objections of counter intelligence as regards to keeping such agents under observation to see if they can lead them to co-conspirators and contacts.

This tends to make the exact goings on within the Navy opaque to both friend and foe, though observers are tolerated, as long as their exact allegiance has been established.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Bases

Vantage/Capella (Solomani Rim 1538)
A8DA88A-E
Primary M2 V
Planetoid Belts 3
Gas Giants 4

Vantage is part of the Near Boötes Cluster and located within Capella Subsector of the Solomani Rim.

It is a member of the Solomani Confederation in the Capella Subsector of Solomani Rim Sector.
The system contains Yamato Naval Base, which acts as Solomani Rim Fleet Headquarters.
This world has a nearby Military Base, usually associated with ground forces.
Vantage is also the capital of the Boötean League.

Primary hub of the Ryanastra starliner megacorporation.

Ryanastra was formed after the hostile takeover by Ryanair of Virgin Galactic.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Bases

Cthonia/Orichalc (Alpha Crucis 0515)
A555ACB-E
Primary M0 V
Planetoid Belts 0
Gas Giants 1

Cthonia is a high-population border world located in Orichalc Subsector of Alpha Crucis Sector. Wih a population of 70 billion, it has the highest population in the subsector. The system belongs to the Solomani Confederation and is a founding member of the Orichalc Regional Defense Association (ORDA).

Cthonia is famed for its educational system, which uses neuro-psychological techniques to meticulously channel children into those fields they are most likely to excel in. Candidates for leadership tend to be selected before they even reach adolescence, and similar techniques are used in many other aspects of Cthonian society. Cthonia also manufactures cybernetic augments.

Cthonia was one of the earliest Terran Confederation colonies. During the late Rule of Man Cthonia grew to prominence as a trading hub and industrial center and retained this influence even during the Long Night, when it established a protectorate over nearby worlds. The Protectorate of Cthonia was an important pocket empire during this period, and its legacy continues to echo in the contemporary ORDA.

Cthonia was an early adherent to the Solomani Movement, sending a large delegation to the first Movement meeting on Terra (Solomani Rim 1827) in 685.

In 1014 Cthonia founded ORDA, a mutual defense alliance consisting of 13 Confederation border worlds. Cthonia leads ORDA and has also used this position to gain economic and political advantages over its neighboring worlds. ORDA maintains a large, sophisticated fleet against the Imperial threat, independent of Confederation control. Although legally entitled to such a navy by the Charter, Confederation officials are concerned about the size of the ORDA armada. However, the potential expansion of Cthonian neuro-psychological techniques to other Solomani worlds has so far impelled the Confederation to leave Cthonia in peace.

The Solomani Navy has no permanent bases in this region, but lease space at the local starports, which allows them a greater freedom of movement than co-location with system Home Guards.

Cthonia is the primary hub of easyJump transportation megacorporation.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Significant small ship tonnages

. Configurations
.. Wedge
.. Cylinder
.. Disc
.. Sphere
. Tonnage
.. 200
.. 400
.. 600
.. 1'000
.. 2'000
. Jump Drives
.. A
.. B
.. C
.. D
.. E
.. F
.. J
. Power Plants
.. A
.. B
. Manoeuvre Drives
.. A
.. B

Notes
1. The above are available off the shelf commercially.
2. Power plants and manoeuvre drives are installed as modules, making maintenance and replacement easy, and in sets in order to achieve any particular performance for a given tonnage.
3. Other configurations or tonnages are bespoke, since the military doesn't order them.
4. It does make docking much more efficient.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Standardized Engines and Economies of Scale

One reason that the Solomani Navy steered manufacture of spaceship engine components to a limited range is to allow factories to mass produce them at a lower production cost.

Of course, there's not much guidance in the main rules, though Classic Mercenary seems to feel that lots of one thousand can get a sixty percent discount.

 

[Condottiere]

Solomani Navy: Armaments and Pop-Up Torpedo Barbettes

Double the tonnage, I doubt that they'd cost double, but maybe an extra two million schmuckers?

Besides the surprise factor, it could also help in reloading the torpedoes, whether manually or mechanically, since I don't see anyone really popping a cargo hatch and dragging the torpedoes across the hull to reload the barbettes.

 

[AndrewW]

Solomani Navy: Armaments and Pop-Up Torpedo Barbettes

Double the tonnage, I doubt that they'd cost double, but maybe an extra two million schmuckers?

Besides the surprise factor, it could also help in reloading the torpedoes, whether manually or mechanically, since I don't see anyone really popping a cargo hatch and dragging the torpedoes across the hull to reload the barbettes.

Don't see why they could be fed from below directly into the barbette, no need for an EVA.