Solomani Confederation (Military)

[baithammer]

That is a job done by the battle fleet with the assault fleet entering system once the battle fleet is in control and requires troops to be landed.

 

[Condottiere]

Peanuts and Peeing on a Bus: The Traditions of Going to Space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-xe90NLETE

Although you’d expect people tasked with going to space to be a fairly rational lot, astronauts and cosmonauts are noted as being an exceptionally superstitious group, many of whom conform to a number of seemingly arbitrary and often unusual rituals before each flight. While there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for most, if not all, of these traditions and customs, usually dating back to the early days of the space race, many of them can seem quite peculiar without context.

 

[Condottiere]

Industrializing the Moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGcvv3683Os

We return to the Moon to explore ways to go beyond simple Lunar Bases to a full-fledged productive colony that can help us travel to other worlds and expand our own.


It's likely that the Moon will be a warren of industrial zones with space elevators taking advantage of the low gravity.

It's also likely that the Confederation Navy had a substantial military reservation and presence, possibly a quasi Naval Depot.

Inhabited areas would have some form of stripped down artificial gravity, sufficient for about Terra normal, which would cost a lot less than five thousand bucks per four and a half square metres.

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Venture Class Jump Drive

. default
.. technological level nine
.. two hundred parsec tonnes
.. twenty scotts
.. fifteen megaschmuckers
.. ten tonnes
... overhead
.... five tonnes
..... casing
...... four tonnes
...... four and a half megaschmuckers
..... capacitors
...... one tonne
...... fifty energy points
...... three megaschmuckers
... core
.... five tonnes
..... nucleus
...... four tonnes
...... four and a half megaschmuckers
..... capacitors
...... one tonne
...... fifty energy points
...... three megaschmuckers
. budget
.. enlarged
.. technological level nine
.. two hundred parsec tonnes
.. twenty scotts
.. eleven and a quarter megaschmuckers
.. twelve and a half tonnes
... overhead
.... six and a quarter tonnes
..... casing
...... five tonnes
...... three and three eighths megaschmuckers
..... capacitors
...... one and a quarter tonne
...... fifty energy points
...... two and a quarter megaschmucker
... core
.... six and a quarter tonnes
..... nucleus
...... five tonnes
...... three and three eighths megaschmuckers
..... capacitors
...... one and a quarter tonne
...... fifty energy points
...... two and a quarter megaschmucker

Venture
. budget
.. enlarged
.. technological level nine
.. two hundred parsec tonnes
.. twenty scotts
.. 8.38 megaschmuckers
.. eleven and a quarter tonnes
... overhead
.... five tonnes
..... casing
...... five tonnes
...... three and three eighths megaschmuckers
... core
.... five tonnes
..... nucleus
...... five tonnes
...... three and three eighths megaschmuckers
... capacitor subsystem
.... one and a quarter tonnes
.... 1.63 megaschmuckers
.... capacitors
..... budget
..... twenty two energy points
..... 0.7 tonnes
..... 1.575 megaschmuckers
.... batteries
..... high efficiency
..... technological level ten
..... 0.55 tonnes
..... 0.055 megaschmuckers
. comments
.. it's not the smallest possible, which would scale down to about one hundred sixty parsec tonnes and cost a tad above seven and a half megaschmuckers
.. the energy is funnelled and stored in the batteries
.. this is to prevent overloading the capacitors since they are charged by the batteries, and even if there was an energy surge, it would have a twenty one percent leeway
.. the reason for the odd numbers is to account for some capacity degradation before they need to be replaced, assuming this happens in Traveller with regular maintenance
.. I think the reason I didn't push it to one sixty parsec tonnes despite the attraction of uniqueness, is that the ten tonne tonne bridge permits two hundred tonnes, and I've identified that tonnage as optimal

 

[Condottiere]

Starships: Venture Class Jump Drive

. prototype
... enlarged
.. budget
... enlarged
.. technological level eight
.. two hundred parsec tonnes
.. twenty scotts
.. fifty six and a quarter megaschmuckers
.. fifteen tonnes
... overhead
.... seven and a half tonnes
..... casing
...... six tonnes
...... sixteen and seven eighths megaschmuckers
..... capacitors
...... one and a quarter tonne
...... fifty energy points
...... eleven and a quarter megaschmucker
... core
.... seven and a half tonnes
..... nucleus
...... six tonnes
...... sixteen and seven eighths megaschmuckers
..... capacitors
...... one and a half tonne
...... fifty energy points
...... eleven and a quarter megaschmucker

Venture
. prototype
... enlarged
.. budget
... enlarged
.. technological level eight
.. one hundred fifteen parsec tonnes
.. eleven and a half scotts
.. 31.234375 megaschmuckers
.. ten tonnes
... overhead
.... six tonnes
..... casing
...... six tonnes
...... sixteen and seven eighths megaschmuckers
... core
.... three point four five tonnes
..... nucleus
...... three point four five tonnes
...... 8.859375 megaschmuckers
... capacitor subsystem
.... point five five tonnes
.... five and a half megaschmuckers
.... capacitors
..... budget
..... prototype
..... eighteen and one third energy points
..... point five five tonnes
..... five and a half megaschmuckers
. comments
.. no batteries, unless there some lithium ones large enough; probably just use a separate power plant with the exact required amount of energy to avoid overloading

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Solomani Rim Sector Fleet

So I was working on the Hilfskreuzers concept to bridge the gap between heavy cruisers and frigates, which was basically a commercial hull and a surplus/used twenty five hundred tonne jump module, and then I recalled you still have tenders and tankers, that in theory you'd use as a starting point.

I couldn't find any examples of tankers or tenders in the Imperium Navy, though the twenty thousand tonne Servant and fifty kay tonne Washington classes were described for the Solomani from the Rim War.

It's not something you usually pay attention to when constructing the order of battle, but they tend to get a prominent mention when detailing navy squadrons, without really describing them.

What is the appropriate size and how would you employ them?

Performance would be a given at seven gravities and four parsecs, since a mobile strategy would require the vulnerable auxiliaries to remain behind the battle line and keep up with the fleet, instead of being sitting ducks that the fleet commander would be forced to detach and keep far away.

That would make them fast fleet tankers and fast fleet tenders, which would be specifically constructed to navy requirements, and would be manned by Confederation Navy personnel, compared to slower and probably much smaller auxiliaries.

And of course, you might as well construct as hundred thousand tonne light spheres, since you only get one or two of them at a time per squadron.

There is no mention of camels or dromedaries, so I''ll go with the fact that both are highly specialized, at least in the case of the fast fleet tanker, whose primary mission is to secure hydrogen and has it's own fleet of fuel shuttles; in an emergency, can go and skim a gas giant. While never unescorted, would have extensive armament deadly to fighters and smallcraft.

The tender would pick up the slack for everything else, stores, ammunition, spare parts, repairs, hospitalization, entertainment, spare crew, command ship, communications relay, some intelligence gathering, ad hoc (Marine) assault platform and escort carrier.

 

[baithammer]

Sector Fleet has listings for tankers.

 

[Condottiere]

I'm going to need a page number with a specific example.

The reason most modern auxiliaries tend to be slower is mostly cost and performance optimization, which when descriptively you limit the tail like that, you might as well squeeze in as large a ship as possible with matching performance.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Solomani Rim Sector Fleet

I'm not sure how large a small troop carrier is in an Assault Squadron, but I think it would be safe to make the large one a hundred thousand tone vessel, a variant of the above tanker and tender light spheres.

The Zhukov class is mentioned in Fighting Ships, a hundred kay tonne dispersed structure that was the base for a eight thousandish Confederation Marine jump division, but currently, these seem to have been superseded by a Confederation Army Division. I'll speculate it's partially political, so that the Navy didn't mass large numbers of ground forces under their direct control.

I get the impression that even the Imperium has problems shifting around Army Corps and all their equipment on an interstellar scale, so it wouldn't be a surprise that my take on a Com federation Army division would default at armoured, reinforced and over twenty thousand troops. I wouldn't try squeezing the entire division onboard the large troop carrier, rather that since each Assault Squadron is associated with a specific Confederation Army Division, a reinforced ready expeditionary brigade is cycled through each deployment, and if the balloon goes up, the remainder are mobilized and sent as reinforcements, and/or staging area. On smaller, possibly requisitioned, transports.

The four commando transports? Company sized special forces attached to the armoured division.

 

[RogerMc]

Also putting an entire division on one ship which if it is full of troops and tanks and their supplies won't be particularly well armoured or defended against attack seems a pretty surefire way to lose an entire division without it even getting on planet.

Plus what is it going to do all those years of peace when there are no divisions to deploy?

Other than as landing craft our own wet navies did not build many if any specialised troop ships in WW1 or WW2 but just requisitioned civilian cruise ships and freighters and this seems to me what would happen in Traveller as well.

All those high pop and high tech planets must be served by huge numbers of passenger liners and freighters that can be mobilised to move troops.

The ship subsidy scheme in Classic Traveller also I am sure has a proviso in every contract that will militarise the ship in case of war.

And even a type R converted into a troopship could carry a company and those 5000 ton freighters in the Traveller Adventure could accommodate a battalion and its gear.

 

[RogerMc]

Incidentally GURPS Traveller Ground Forces has the Keith-class 30,000 ton troop transport which can carry an entire Imperial infantry brigade, its integral armour and artillery and six 1,200 ton Landing Craft to get them on planet.

Given that it is also Jump-4 I rather doubt that design would work in High Guard though...

 

[Condottiere]

The Solomani do have the intent to liberate the Occupied Territories, which would require large masses of ground forces to take ground and impose their will.

Also, since they can't build walls in space, to dig out illegal Aslan immigrant settlements.

The assault transport will act as a platform for the assault landers and shuttles; supposedly, on a mjor operation, they'd hook up with a carrier squadron to provide orbital air superiority low orbit aerospace support.

Since they would be a variant of the fast fleet tanker, at seven gravities they'd be able to outrun most capital ships, while a proliferation of turreted weapon systems would make a trench run rather suicidal for fighters.

The onboard reinforced armoured brigade allows rapid deployment, perhaps in a hot landing zone secured by a preliminary Marine assault, if the commander on the scene determines he has sufficient force to secure his objectives and carry out his mission.

If not, you wait for the rest of the division to make it's way to the system.

 

[baithammer]

Given star ships by convention do not exceed 6g at the most, would be a major break in designs. ( Much like the 25g fighter)

Also putting tanker and assault ship in the same package is counter productive as the end design will be way larger than two dedicate ship designs.

Assault ships are used once system control has been established so you don't end up with ground forces cut off from the rest of the fleet if the in system battle goes against them.

You could instead of tanker function dedicate some space to integrated fighter support.

 

[Condottiere]

Those conventions are based on legacy editions; hence that deliberate ambiguity with legacy warships and their weapon loads. Seven gravities permit the Confederation commander to keep initiative, assuming the Imperium doesn't start making their ships faster. Give gees is the standard for the colonial contingents, which can and would be used as meatshields.

As everyone has probably figured out by now, my take on the Confederation Navy is pretty much fantasy league, within the confines of what's plausible.

For the larger ships, there would be a programme of homogeneity, meaning that a hundred kay tonne lightly constructed sphere would be used for auxiliaries, tanker, tender and assault carrier, especially since they only seem to be mentioned in the singular, or perhaps with a buddy. The deep strike cruiser would be an enlarged hundred kay wedged Azhanti, though to be fair, that's my take on the evolution of Solomani cruisers, which are probably lone wolves attached to fleet headquarters by now.

Everything would be based on the three current production variants of twenty five hundredish tonne jump drive modules: the standard reduced variant capped at factor four, the factor five variant for the deep strike cruiser, and a black budget factor three stealth variant.

For the Confederation Navy, the assault carriers act more as a platform for the space to ground connector spacecraft; for orbital assault they'd drill a hole in an asteroid, and fit that out. Assteroidalt, assaultroid?

 

[Condottiere]

. Victory
.. battlecruiser
.. 133'333 tonnes
... four modules
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... four hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Prometheus
.. fast battleships
.. 250'000 tonnes
... nine modules
.... technological level fourteen
..... reduced size
.... four parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... one million parsec tonnes
.... 4'133.25 megacredits
. Tribal/Aztec
.. deep strike cruiser
.. 100'000 tonnes
... five modules
.... technological level fourteen
.... five parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... half a million parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits

 

[Condottiere]

. Normandy
.. heavy cruiser
.. 83'333 tonnes
... three modules
.... technological level fourteen
..... reduced size
.... four parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... three hundred thirty three thousand three hundred thirty three parsec tonnes
.... 4'133.25 megacredits
. Minsk
.. heavy cruiser
.. 66'666 tonnes
... two modules
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... two hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Beijing
.. deep strike cruiser
.. 40'000 tonnes
... two modules
.... technological level fourteen
.... five parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... two hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Comments
.. the Confederation skipped technological level thirteen Victory jump drive module variants, and researched and developed technological level fourteen ones

 

[Condottiere]

. Washington
.. fleet tanker
.. 66'666 tonnes
... two modules
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... two hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Servant
.. fleet tender
.. 33'333 tonnes
... one module
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... one hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Yamamotos
.. strike cruiser
.. 50'000 tonnes
... two modules
.... technological level twelve
..... prototype
..... energy inefficient
.... four parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... two hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 18'787.5 megacredits
. Yamamotos
.. strike cruiser
.. 50'000 tonnes
... two modules
.... technological level fourteen
..... reduced size
.... four parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... two hundred twenty two thousand two hundred twenty parsec tonnes
.... 4'133.25 megacredits
. Comments
.. with the auxiliaries it doesn't matter if the tonnage is increased, or decreased, to fit their performance within a specific window
.. the Yamamoto class is an odd duck, because it's tagged as a strike cruiser, and I don't see much difference between it and the Minsk heavy cruiser class
.. deep strike is a five parsec range, so I'll go with strike cruisers being parsec four range, except it messes up with my paradigm of Victory module development
.. so, the Yamamotos were an early attempt by the Confederation Navy to build a heavy raider and were built in small numbers, one reason they tend not to be rarely grouped in squadrons and deployed forward, apparently, mostly as flag ships
.. the engines were swapped out later to reduce maintenance costs

 

[Condottiere]

. Zeus
.. battlecruiser
.. 166'666 tonnes
... five modules
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... five hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Midway
.. fighter carrier
.. 200'000 tonnes
... six modules
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... six hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Zhukov
.. troop carrier
.. 100'000 tonnes
... three modules
.... technological level twelve
.... three parsecs
.... 2'505 tonnes
.... three hundred thousand parsec tonnes
.... 3'757.5 megacredits
. Comments
.. the Zeus is slightly larger
.. technological level thirteen built ships with a three parsec range requirement would continue to use the reliable technological level twelve default Victory jump module

 

[Condottiere]

. Purity
.. reconnaissance frigate
.. 1'000 tonnes
... one module
.... technological level thirteen
.... four parsecs
.... 105 tonnes
.... four thousand parsec tonnes
.... 157.5 megacredits
. Kormoran
.. commerce raider
.. 2'000 tonnes
... two modules
.... technological level thirteen
.... four parsecs
.... 105 tonnes
.... eight thousand parsec tonnes
.... 157.5 megacredits
. Dingir
.. deep strike destroyer
.. 5'600 tonnes
... five modules
.... technological level fourteen
.... five parsecs
.... 105 tonnes
.... twenty eight thousand parsec tonnes
.... 157.5 megacredits

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standard Jump Drives

. Victory
.. 2' 505 tonnes
.. 100' 000 parsec tonnes
.. eight engineering specialists constant supervision during operation
. wassup
.. 315 tonnes
.. 12'400 parsec tonnes
.. one engineering specialist constant supervision during operation
. Purity
.. 105 tonnes
.. 4'000 parsec tonnes
.. one engineer constant supervision during operation
. Courier
.. 35 tonnes
.. 1'200 parsec tonnes
.. an engineer keeping an eye on it during operation