Somtaaw wrote:I think they might just copy from Haven for that. For an Assault CLAC that specifically stays with the SDs and provides underway replenishment with a battle fleet, the Havenites already have the Astra and Aviary-classes that were based on SD's, and therefore carried a third-again more LACs than Manticore. The Assault carriers wouldn't need Keyhole-II because they'll only ever be nearby podnoughts, a CLAC won't notably add to how many missiles a podnought alone can throw. Keyhole-I is also more defensive in nature, and notably lighter than KH2, so you'd displace less LACs without reducing how many counter-missiles and PDLCs the Keyhole platform has.
I agree that there's little point to putting a Keyhole II on a CLAC -- they carry only a handful of tubes (all as chase armorment) and can't fire the ACMs that you want KHII to best control. But there's also little point to mounting a full up Keyhole I -- a fair amount of its size is devoted to long range lightspeed fire control relay links for handling mass missile fire; something a CLAC can't produce.
Though now that I think about it a Nike-class BC(L) can't produce anything like the volume of missiles per salvo, even with quad stacking both broadsides, a BC(P), much less an SD(P) can -- I wonder if its KHI is somewhat scaled down due to needing fewer control links. Or is it oversized to better handled towed pods or the missiles of any accompanying Sag-Cs or Rolands?
Anyway.
I assume you're right that the Astra class (mentioned only in 2 sentences of Woh Ch10) as also SD sized. Though I'm not sure why Haven would have had 30 Astra class CLACs working up at that point but already have switched to Aviary class before the war restarted in Ch 55.
But I don't see anything that says that they're build
like SDs; just that they're the size of SDs. And given how many more LACs they crammed into a hull that is, after all, likely no more than 39% larger I don't think they could be.
We know a 6.1 mton Hydra can carry 112 LACs, and an "SD sized" CLAC probably can't be more that 8.5 mtons yet the Aviarys are noted as carrying "well over two hundred" [WoH] and and pair of them launched "almost six hundred light attack craft" [AAC]. So likely a bit over twice the LACs on less than 40% more displacement. That doesn't seem to leave a lot of room for SD type defenses.
Yes, WoH does say the Republic's "CLACs were visualized as primarily defensive platforms, mobile bases for the LACs intended to protect the wall of battle from long-range Manty LAC strikes. As such, there was no reason to make them any faster than the superdreadnoughts they would be protecting, and all of that lovely tonnage advantage could be put into additional LAC bays." But I'm left with the impression that despite being make no faster than the SDs their LACs are intended to screen that these are even less survivable, on a ton for ton basis, than Minotaurs or Hydras. If I'm right then they'd probably make a pretty poor basis for an "Assault" CLAC that is supposed to trade off LAC capacity for increased survivability -- as they seem to have used their extra size almost entirely to instead squeeze in extra LACs.
