Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

1. At thirty five tonnes, you have a firmpoint per seventeen and a half tonnes.

2. At seventy tonnes, you have a firmpoint per twenty three and one third tonnes, plus are less manoeuvrable, and in accordance to High Guard two point five, need a semimegabux bridge, compared to a ten kilobux cockpit for sub fifty tonne smallcraft.

3. If you use pods or breakaway to exceed fifty tonnes, logic dictates that you'd need to bridgidize it.

4. A curious feature of the Tenzing [two kilotonne exploration vessel] is the emergency conning position, in the form of a two-seat cockpit protruding from the front face of the upper deck.

5. Unless the default reverts back to at least two kilotonnes.

6. You have a firmpoint in a five tonne hull, but it's vulnerable, and there's not much space for other stuff, like sensors and engineering.

7. Presumably, the minimum size for pods would also be five tonnes.

8. At this microscale, it probably takes hours or days, rather than weeks, for assemble.

9. You can only have a single single turret, so I guess two pods each with a single single turret is out.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

A. If the fighter needs armour, the logical jump off point becomes twenty six tonnes.

B. At sixteen tonnes, fifty percent greater volume actually requires more tonnage than the same factor at twenty six tonnes.

C. So, a highly armoured fighter would need twenty six tonnes, and since we're looking at thirty five and forty nine tonnes, that's a leeway of nine and twenty three tonnes.

D. With all the essential components in the primary hull, the attached pod could hold missiles and/or torpedoes, or utility and/or transportation roles.

E. If the breakaway option was used, exchanging it is very much faster than trying to do it with a pod.

F. This would allow a long range engagement, compared to having a fusion gun and batteries, and the need to come uncomfortably close to the target in order to discharge.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

G. At technological level ten, maximum thrust is three, though you could supplement that with a factor three reactionary rocket, or mythical high thrust burner, since that's maximum customization, and probably about as far as you want uncompensated sustained acceleration; potentially, you could go upto plus factor twelve. for that extra edge in dogfighting.

H. At technological level eleven, maximum thrust is five, and reactionary rockets reach factor fifteen, with maximum customization factor six.

I. Technological level twelve maximum thrust is seven, which is a pretty decent acceleration, and maximum customization for rockets would be factor nine, though I suspect we're already into unmanned territory.

J. Technological level thirteen maximum thrust is nine, which is now maxed out, and you can probably take or leave the afterburner option; you have missiles for that beyond visual range engagement, dogfighting now more of a last resort.

K. Technological level fourteen still has the same maximum thrust, but advanced missiles are now available, so you could equip your lower teched smallcraft with them.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

L. And at technological level fifteen, only the elite fighter squadrons would be equipped with fightercraft built from the ground up at that technological level, since it would be considered cutting edge.

M. Individual components, manufactured at technological level fifteen could be used to upgrade performance of lower teched 'craft.

N. The vast majority of Confederation Navy fightercraft would be technological level fourteen, with technological level fifteen component upgrade where it made sense/cents.

O. Components that are consumable might be lower teched, both because of cost, and if it turns out that they need to supply them to client states, or even fill up the stores of member states military.

P. Considering the cost of interstellar transportation, sometimes it's not worth saving on equipment costs.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

Q. We know the reason for the performance of the modular cutter.

R. It's basically taking an alphabet manoeuvre drive of a Scoutship, and placing it into a hull half the size.

S. Going by the current rule set, logic would indicate technological level ten default, with manoeuvre factor three propulsion, since the idea are short distance hops.

T. Attaching a factor three reactionary rocket afterburner transforms a technological level ten cutter into a decent interceptor.

U. You could amp up the afterburner to factor twelve, but you're hitting the limits of human endurance, which means unmanned might be preferable, or a last ditch effort to outrun missiles.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

V. With no module installed, the modular cutter is unstreamlined and capable of Thrust 6.

W. I'm not sure how this jives with modularization being a totally internal issue, and thus no tonnage is actually altered.

X. Unless, you leave the modul bay hatches open, exposing the interior of the cutter to the cold vacuum of space.

Y. A fighter could do an emergency ejection of the warp core dumping of the module, to increase acceleration potential.

Z. Outside of making a run for it, the opposite is also true, the fighter becomes more maneuverable during a dogfight.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

1. I was running out of space in trying to cram everything into a twenty six tonne primary hull.

2. So sadly, I'm going to discard the dual cockpit for a single one, to liberate a tonne.

3. I had sort of stubbornly held on to the dual cockpit, since until recently, it could control at least a two kilotonne hull.

4. Familiarity with the same interface would have made it easier for pilots to fly a fighter or a frigate.

5. Without the sensor/weapons officer, the pilot could always lock the laser mounted turret forward, equivalent to a mounted fixture, for all intents and purposes.

6. Space could be found in the attached nine tonne plus pod for additional crew stations, including more cockpits.

7. The turret could be part of a module, that could be popped out, allowing a double missile/torpedo launcher in the pod, turning the medium fighter into a torpedo bomber or light bomber.

8. Single launcher, and retaining the turret in the primary hull, would make it into a fighter bomber.

9. Nine tonnes is probably too small to transform it into an assault transport, though leaving it unarmoured does make it a fast shuttle.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

A. Technological level ten armour factor ten, crystaliron, streamlined, three and nine tenths of a tonne, nine hundred thirty six kilobux.

B. Technological level eleven armour factor eleven, crystaliron, streamlined, four point two nine tonnes, one mega twenty nine kilo six hundred bux.

C. Technological level twelve armour factor twelve, crystaliron, streamlined, four point six eight tonnes, one mega one hundred twenty three kilo two hundred bux.

D. Technological level thirteen armour factor thirteen, crystaliron, streamlined, five point oh seven tonnes, one mega two hundred sixteen kilo eight hundred bux.

E. Technological level fourteen armour factor fourteen, bonded superdense, streamlined, three point four nine four four tonnes, two mega ninety six kilo six hundred forty bux.

F. Technological level fifteen armour factor fifteen, bonded superdense, streamlined, three point seven four four tonnes, two mega two hundred forty six kilo four hundred bux.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Standardized Medium Fighters

G. Technological level ten hulls are likely the standard for most interstellar civilizations, as presumably both the interior bulkheads and the exterior shell are constructed of crystaliron.

H. Though technological level nine makes the hull self sealing by default.

I. And I'm not sure that titanium steel can be mated with crystaliron armour plating.

J. Technological level seven armour factor seven, titanium steel, streamlined, five point four six tonnes, three hundred twenty seven kilo six hundred bux.

K. Technological level nine armour factor nine, titanium steel, streamlined, seven point oh two tonnes, four hundred twenty one kilo two hundred bux.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Common Cutter Commonality

1. Ours happen to be fifty tonnes.

2. Why the original designers wanted to designate it a cutter, it could be a callback to Space Viking, being torpedo hull configuration.

3. Modern cutters, specifically Coastguard, are more akin to frigates.

4. Even in the Age of Sail, bluewater capability.

5. Space Vikings' had the capability of interstellar travel.

6. My biggest impression was from Space Viking, and that means fifty tonnes is insufficient, considering implied capacity and the fact that minimum size for jumping is a hundred tonnes.

7. So, in the Confederation, cutters weigh in at two hundred tonnes, which does take advantage of the ten tonne bridge.

8. Instead of a module, it could carry one or more pods.

9. And make the pods modular.

 

[k0k0pelli]

Cutter is an interesting designation when you are discussing the age of sail. A cutter was used to designate both fast patrol vessels and a ship's boat.

So if you are using the term as used in modern navy then the choice is odd for a 50 ton ship. If you consider the terms use in the 18th and 19th century to designate a ship's boat however it makes sense.

 

[Condottiere]

I'm not eliminating the fifty tonne utility craft, just redefining the term.

It's not too hard to enlarge the pinnace to fit into that now empty slot.

The way I interpret the current rule set, there's little point in having a spacecraft between fifty to one hundred ninety eight tonnes, arguably one hundred seventy; likewise thirty six to forty eight.

 

[k0k0pelli]

I'm not eliminating the fifty tonne utility craft, just redefining the term.

It's not too hard to enlarge the pinnace to fit into that now empty slot.

The way I interpret the current rule set, there's little point in having a spacecraft between fifty to one hundred ninety eight tonnes, arguably one hundred seventy; likewise thirty six to forty eight.

ok, not sure I agree but its your thread.

 

[Condottiere]

Military and commercial priorities tend to diverge, but not always.

There's not much difference between a three tonne bridge and a cockpit in terms of volume, but certainly in terms of cost, and commercial entities tend to be more sensitive to price.

Each rule set tends to have differences, but as the current two point five stands, fifty tonnes is the maximum for a commercial smallcraft, and even the original designers recognized that two hundred tonnes is about optimum for a small commercial interstellar craft.

For the military, protection tends to be, but not always, important, and that really starts at twenty six tonnes, but since you tend to have investments in electronics, one firmpoint probably isn't worth a heavy investment, which means that a minimum of thirty five tonnes with two firmpoints can only justify that; it could be I missed this with the two point oh rules set, but I doubt any fightercraft designer would created a fifty tonne heavy fighter, though as a lot of things in Traveller, legacy lags.

Three firmpoints at seventy tonnes is probably not worth it, even if you get a barbette in exchange for more expense and less manoeuverability.

Hundred tonnes gives you optimal armour ratio, but only a single hardpoint; one hundred five tonnes would in theory give you one additional firmpoint, which you can always find a use for.

At the other end of the scale, armour protection becomes somewhat of a sceptical asset, below twenty six tonnes, and that would be the borderline between light and medium fighters.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Fleet Division

I went with a default of two, preferably homogenous line of battle ships, with attached escorts and fleet train being the basis for a task group.

That's because I like the six vessel Fleet Squadron, with three subunits of two each.

For a variety of reasons, it might be more convenient to have three line of battle ships in one division, exchanging flexibility for better concentration and fire control.

Single vessel divisions might be more of a question of non performance conformality with the other vessels.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Navy: Fleet Division

I rather doubt that the Confederation Navy would leave their fast dreadnoughts isolated, and would prefer to cluster them into homogenous Fleet Squadrons and Fleet Divisions.

It also simplifies logistics and organizations, since you could attach fleet train and escorts directly to the primary unit and subunits, and fundamentally understand their role, which would sort of reflect more what should have actually occurred during two famous Royal navy actions, Denmark Straits and Malaya, where a battlecruiser and a battleship pairing without escorts, got hammered.

Battle tenders [and shuttles] would be in Carrier Squadrons, but if the rider has mounted capital sized armaments, they would be organized as Fleet Divisions, since they are meant for the line of battle, whereas with battlecruisers that's somewhat controversial.

 

[Condottiere]

I rechecked the Battle of(f) Malaya, they had four destroyers; their problem was lack of air cover.

 

[Condottiere]

Confederation Authorized Volunteer Armed Long Range Yeomanry: Organization

Omnis pugnat, quis renuntiare potest.

Egeo tela et equitare.


The scoot/air would be the principal vehicle of the CAVALRY, allowing deployment of troopers from altitude, instead of assault pods.

Primary approach would be by ground travel, once the scoot/airs had landed, on the organic wheels.

 

[ColinD]

Do you know of any SolSec ships? The kind devoted to Intelligence gathering?

 

[Condottiere]

Offhand, I think two; the scout/courier variant I would have to hunt down.


PURITY CLASS SOLSEC RECON FRIGATE – TL-13

Solsec, the Solomani Secret Police, maintains its own army and navy. Its vessels do not engage the enemy in battle, rather they collect enemy intelligence as well as spying on the Solomani Navy.

Purity class Recon Frigates bristle with communications and sensor arrays as well as ECM and ECCM systems. With Jump-3 and 5-g acceleration they are capable of keeping up most Solomani squadrons and also have a reasonable weapons suite for self defense. Typically one Purity class Recon Frigate will tail a Solomani Naval Squadron in peacetime, engaging in SIGINT (signals intel) gathering, spying on all squadron communications and squadron movements. Shore leave is also monitored.

In wartime Recon Frigates perform their usual duties but also engage in long range reconnaissance missions into enemy territory, utilizing their extensive sensors to maximum advantage.

The Purity class Recon Frigate can power down selected systems.