Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

1. One dice is one to six thousand points of damage.

2. Meson large bay is half a kilotonne, one hundred twenty power points, a quarter of a gigastarbux, and one to six hundred points of damage.

3. Divide the factor one by fifteen, and you have sixty six two thirds to twenty four hundred points of damage, one hundred sixty six two thirds power points, and one hundred thirty three one third megastarbux.

4. As long as you have large enough hulls, you probably will opt for the actual spinal mount.

5. Particle accelerator divides by seven.

6. One hundred forty three power points, arguably one full dice of damage (one to six kilopoints), and one hundred forty three megastarbux.

7. Particle accelerator large bay, coincidentally also half a kilotonne, is eighty power points, ten to sixty hundred points, and sixty megastarbux.

8. Almost linear scaling, plus one range band further.

9. Comparatively great for shooting at any sized target, at any particular range.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

A. Astropolitically, without mass driver and railguns, it would imply that the Confederation Navy starwarships might not actually threaten civilian population.

B. The meson gun explicitly being aimed at Imperium battlewagons, though it has an implicit ground bombardment capability.

C. You can't use the particle accelerator against an atmosphered world.

D. The explicit threat would be if they dragged a mass driver or railgun monitor into the system.

E. We could name them the Trebuchet class.

F. Though since bays are modular, it wouldn't require much effort to exchange weapon systems to mass drivers.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

G. Railgun factor one gets divided by seven.

H. Seventy two power points versus twenty five; one to six hundred damage points versus one hundred forty two to five hundred seventy one; seventy versus seventy one megastarbux.

I. Range and technological level are the same, but armour piercing is half at ten versus twenty.

J. Ammunition is five tonnes at seventy five kilostarbux, versus twenty tonnes at two hundred kilostarbux.

K. I think people would still be annoyed if you dropped a seventy cubic metre bowling ball on them.

 

[RaskTril]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

1. One dice is one to six thousand points of damage.

2. Meson large bay is half a kilotonne, one hundred twenty power points, a quarter of a gigastarbux, and one to six hundred points of damage.

3. Divide the factor one by fifteen, and you have sixty six two thirds to twenty four hundred points of damage, one hundred sixty six two thirds power points, and one hundred thirty three one third megastarbux.

4. As long as you have large enough hulls, you probably will opt for the actual spinal mount.

5. Particle accelerator divides by seven.

6. One hundred forty three power points, arguably one full dice of damage (one to six kilopoints), and one hundred forty three megastarbux.

7. Particle accelerator large bay, coincidentally also half a kilotonne, is eighty power points, ten to sixty hundred points, and sixty megastarbux.

8. Almost linear scaling, plus one range band further.

9. Comparatively great for shooting at any sized target, at any particular range.

.9 "great for shooting at any sized target". Have we've seen battleship guns shooting down torpedoes planes?

 

[Condottiere]

1. The 46 cm (18.1 in) Sanshiki Model 13 round weighed 1,360 kg (2,998 lb) and was filled with 900 incendiary tubes and 600 steel stays. The round was equipped with a delay fuze set before firing that detonated the shell at the set altitude; on explosion, the steel stays and the incendiary tubes were ejected in a 20-degree cone forward, with the shell fragments from the explosion itself further increasing the amount of debris. The incendiary tubes ignited about a half-second later and burned for five seconds with five-metre (16 ft) long flames.[1] Each of the incendiary tubes was a 90 millimetres (3.5 in) long, 25 millimetres (0.98 in) diameter hollow steel cylinder, filled with rubber thermite (phosphorus, vulcanized rubber, natural rubber, stearic acid, sulphur and barium nitrate) and ignited through holes on both sides. The rounds were similar to conventional shells, except for their wood-filled ogive and several layers of assembled fragments.

2. All spinal weapons suffer DM-4 when attacking targets of 10,000 tons or less and DM-8 when attacking targets of 5,000 tons or less. Spinal weapons cannot attack targets of less than 2,000 tons unless they are stationary or are caught in the blast by accident.

3. Deploy five tonne stealthed probe and preposition it.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

L. Mass driver factor one gets divided by ten.

M. Twenty five versus thirty five; one hundred to six hundred damage points versus six hundred to thirty six hundred; one hundred fifty versus eighty megastarbux.

I. Range is short versus medium and technological levels are ten and eight.

J. Ammunition is fifty tonnes at five hundred kilostarbux, versus twenty tonnes at two hundred kilostarbux.

K. I would think it's the stand off range that would be the deciding factor.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

L. So far, the fifty kilotonne Yamamoto class strike cruiser is the only major combatant with a particle accelerator spinal mount.

M. This weapon is gaining favor amongst the Solomani Navy due to its better accuracy over Meson spinal weapons.

N. The PA spinal mount may not be as devastating to enemy ships, but the nature of Solomani
tactics dictate that the first strike is all important, so ensuring a hit first time is more important.

O. This has been demonstrated many times in the first three years of the Rim War.

P. And then they got ground down.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

Q. The Yamamoto is technological level thirteen.

R. Likely, it's a factor two particle accelerator, similar to the Azhantis, not the Ghalalk.

S. Fifty nine and a half hundred tonnes at two and two fifths gigastarbux.

T. Particle accelerator spinal mounts cap at technological level fourteen, so not in competition for technological level fifteen resources.

U. On the other hand, the only Confederation Navy starwarships using spinal mounts would be heavyish cruisers and above, as well as battle riders.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

V. We sort of arrived at the point where the Confederation Navy Staff had to decide what types of spinal mounts to develop and manufacture.

W. While accuracy might be a desired feature, what they need would be a calibre that can knock out Imperium battlewagons.

X. Once the line of battle is destroyed or dispersed, they can then hunt down less protected capital or major starwarships.

Y. Given the choice, mesons bypass physical armour, while particle accelerators ignore meson screens.

Z. Armour take up permanent space, while screens just need temporary energy.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

1. What you're going to end up with is a limited number of manufacturing slots chasing a limited number of suitable hulls.

2. I think at one point I just said that there are a hundred Fleet Squadrons, and six hundred fast dreadnoughts.

3. Maybe another fifty battle rider squadrons of six each.

4. Even if it's that simplistic, you have about a thousand line of battle spinal mounts, plus any that were set up for planetary defence and installed in large monitors.

5. And likely a limited number made for heavyish cruisers and intermediate planetary defence.

6. And any that member navies and worlds did for local defence.

7. How many, and what type, of spinal mounts were manufactured per annum.

8. However you look at it, it doesn't look like mass production, especially when you start factoring in legacy equipment.

9. And I'm going to assume there is some form of equilibrium with the other major interstellar polities, so that there isn't an out of control arms race.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

A. Assuming my assumptions are accurate, let's say there are a thousand capital sized spinal mounts floating around the Confederation.

B. Let's give each a nominal lifespan of forty years.

C. That would mean that the Confederation Navy orders about twenty five per year.

D. A technological level fifteen factor ten meson would cost twenty six gigastarbux, and take seventy one years, and about sixty five days to manufacture, factoring in leap years.

E. Technological level fifteen manufacturing reduces that to forty two years, and about two hundred twenty eight days, with leap years.

F. If modularization in manufacture of spinal mounts applies, and you apply ninety percent for over fifty kilotonnes, that's four years and a hundred days, well ninety nine, because there would be a leap year.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

G. Then there's the question if a shipyard is an all in one production facility, or if separate components need to be manufactured in specialized factories.

H. If so, that would be an advanced manufacturing plant, available at technological level ten.

I. In our case, twenty four hundred tonne plant, built at technological level, requiring forty eight hundred power points, and twelve hundred workers, at nine hundred sixty megastarbux.

J. You'll need ten of them to get that ninety percent time reduction.

K. And two hundred fifty in total, times another four and a third, to hit that twenty five factor ten meson gun annual production rate.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

L. If an amount of yard space equal to twice the ship’s tonnage is allocated to the vessel’s construction then construction occurs in 75% of the time.

M. Paying extra for additional material and workers can speed up the construction. For every additional 10% of the cost paid per week, decrease construction time by 10%.

N. As shown on the construction time table in Book 2: High Guard, any ship constructed after the first of the class has a reduced construction time.

O. It is possible to build a ship at a maximum of twice the speed given in Book 2: High Guard.

P. The cost of building a ship is broken down into a week-by-week basis and, as such, is paid for out of each annual budget in which is it being built. To find the unmodified weekly cost, divide the total cost of building the ship by the construction time given by the table in Book 2: High Guard. Any modifiers from speeding up construction should be added to this cost when they are applied.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

Q. Smallest, lowest, and cheapest spinal mount is the technological level ten factor one railgun.

R. Thirty five hundred tonnes, five hundred power points, five round magazine, at a semigigastarbux.

S. Medium range (and five round magazine) implies a death ride, for a down the throat shot.

T. One hundred forty tonne manufacturing plant, two hundred eighty power points, seventy workers, at fifty six megastarbux.

U. In theory, five hundred days.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Spinal Mounts

V. Of course, I could be reading this wrong.

W. That twenty five tonnes could be additive, and/or transformative.

X. If additive, sixty kilotonnes could be finished in six years and about thirty weeks.

Y. If transformative, I assume the weapon system would be simultaneously worked on.

Z. I think I'm missing out on labour and materials, not to mention depreciation, taxes, and interest payments.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Organization

1. I think that the modern Fleet Squadrons of six fast dreadnoughts, nominally, are still optimal to overwhelm an Imperium First Class Battle Squadron.

2. Which means they should be able to deal with a Dreadnought (new term) Squadron on somewhat equal terms, plus Fighter Carrier Division, assuming Tigressii.

3. You usually associate close escort with the four hundred tonne Gazelle class.

4. And fleet escort with the five kilotonne Sloan class.

5. I'm guessing the close escorts still number between three and four per battle squadron, with full complement for the premier ones.

6. Confederation Navy Fleet Squadrons include twelve escorts, two tankers, two tenders, and six fleet couriers.

7. While interpreting that as twelve strike destroyers would be preferable, I'll go with twelve (mono)kilotonne (general purpose) patrol ships.

8. Their purpose isn't to engage with the enemy, more as sensor platforms, reconnaissance, pickets, and guarding the baggage train.

9. The fleet couriers are there to keep networked with the rest of the fleet.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Organization

A. At least in the Flag Fleet, you have a mix of heavy, light, armoured, bombardment, and missile cruisers, organized into mostly homogenous squadrons consisting of three to four each, accompanied by escorts.

B. The Confederation Navy have a collection of legacy cruisers, which would be organized into Strike Squadrons, divided singularly into Strike Divisions, usually three each.

C. Certainly not in the numbers that the Imperium Navy would have, so they tend to be overused in deployments.

D. I'm going to say in actual numbers, about a third, including recent builds.

E. Recent builds would be uniformly either fifty or a hundred kilotonnes, though their internal ship components might vary.

F. On the whole, since recent publications are pushing the concept, the Confederation Navy has built battlecruisers in order to hunt down and eliminate opposing cruisers, so basically economy in force.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Organization

G. If we assume twenty four to forty four commissioned heavyish cruisers per sector, whether armoured, bombardment, frontier, heavy, interdiction, missile, rift, strike, and so on, you'd be looking at between eight to fifteen on the Confederation side (not counting member navies).

H. Common sense says that at those numbers, new builds should be the same class, and general purpose.

I. At most, there less than a hundred commissioned heavyish cruisers in the Confederation Navy, and widely spread out.

J. I imagine a great deal of self sufficiency and three dee printers.

K. So probably a lot are assigned to independent cruises.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Organization

L. There seems little point in massing heavyish cruisers during peacetime, at least for the Confederation.

M. Whereas I assume the Imperium will follow the Honorverse model of deploying entire cruiser squadrons, whether to support Battle Squadrons, or as deterrence forces in their own right.

N. While in theory, starwarships would be organized in homogenous squadrons for administrative purposes, I kinda suspect that the Imperium would keep them in tact to deploy them as combat units.

O. For the Confederation, heavyish cruisers would be automatically be their own Strike Divisions.

P. You'd probably only see them placed into Strike Divisions with two or three vessels, if the Confederation felt compelled to gather their assets for Combined, Battle, or even a Grand Fleet, and then to guard the flanks.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Organization

Q. If you assume a forty year lifespan, replacement rate would be one to three heavyish cruisers per year.

R. Minus candidates for life extension programmes, you could be down to one heavyish cruiser ordered per year.

S. Primary armament would be a technological level twelve factor one meson spinal mount.

T. Which if the Confederation never bothered to develop this gun further, maintenance would be simplified, also for planetary defence.

U. So the question would be if the new builds were either fifty or hundred kilotonnes.