Fox2! wrote:zuluwiz wrote:So what are they going to do with them? Here's my idea: give them back to the Sollies. Imagine the effect on Sollie public opinion. "We don't need or want this trash, ours are way better." Do this very publicly, then sit back and laugh. Would the ISLN dare to not recommission them? How much trained manpower and resources would that suck up?
Just announce that you are towing them into orbit around some planetless K-type star and leave them there. Maybe leave a couple of stealthed CAs to make sure some ne'er-do-well doesn't come along and try to make off with them.
I've got a nagging suspicion that this notion falls under the heading of a very bad idea. It conjures up flashbacks of the predicament Alfredo Yu found himself in while at the helm of Saladin. After you make the exchange of all of those captured ships (possibly with as many warm bodies needed to more than just steer the darn things), what is stopping them from turning around at some point and attacking you again with those same ships -- refueled, restocked and repaired, with reinforecements that have benefit of upgrades and the fact that they now have the tactical knowledge born of experience and a do over?
I'll assume that the missiles have been removed, but if you're going through the trouble of returning the ships I'll imagine you didn't trash them. Bit of a problem tearing into them anyways. But what is stopping them from planning for the entire ordeal and bringing several fleet trains and a fleet of repair ships and stashing them somewhere awaiting a rendezvous?
Recall any one of the old movies where there is this type of an exchange and the touchy hair-trigger moments that are dangerous and nerve-racking where each party backs away from each other keeping an eye on any sudden movements. How long to replace PDLCs or whatever innards the RMN may rip out -- still leaving the ships "operable?"
Unless there is something that can be done to disable the ships until further notice.
What am I missing?