Hi pappilion, Maldorian;
The problem with Laser PDC's is the very limited range of 70-80,000 km; which depending on the missile's incoming velocity has only 0.5 to 0.3 seconds total engagement time.
So its not something you want to load up your nominal defense LAC with.
Then there's the problem of being nearly inline with the target SD in order to engage them, ie a high probability of losing lots of LAC's to defend a lousy Scientist SD.
These defense LAC's are not going to have RMN automation, ie the crews will be much larger despite having half the tonnage or so with several times the GA's LAC crew size, for vastly higher casualties.
They are not going to be faster, especially if all the CM's and fire control are plugged in.
Current SLN CM's are lousy, a maximum range of 1.5 M km in ~60 seconds.
Even if you double the CM mass and produce CM's of 25-30 tons that have a 20-25% longer burn time, you'll still have only one shot per launcher before the MDM penetrates the entire engagement range, making on-board CM magazines almost useless.
Switching the offensive box missile launcher that all LAC's notoriously carried for centuries to CM's, might help some especially if it carry 3-4 times as many CM's or 36-48 instead of 12-16.
But the fire-control problem rears its head, especially if the LDC [Light Defense Craft] can only control 12-16 CM's at a time and will only last 1-2 volleys if that, because nothing has been done to mitigate the GA/RMN ECM/ECCM advantages that reduce SLN CM's to pathetic uselessness.
If pressed, I wouldn't be too surprised if RMN MDM's couldn't home in on CM fire control emission links or broadcasts, picked up and passed along by the RD's.
Then there's the cost; a long time ago at the bar the ballpark figure of M$5000/ton was assigned for RMN hyper warships, somewhere between M$2500-5000 for LAC's IIRC, as M$100 M each seemed a bit high for the numbers being built, while RFC mentioned the RMN's SD's unit cost had dropped to ~M$31 B because so many had been produced in the first war; however SLN SD's were/are being built for around M$50 B due to all the graft built into the contracts etc.
I suspect the first SD's built in a core world's new shipyard will cost twice that given all the development costs.
If the LDC's cost M$50 million each for the same reasons, and 1000 per obsolete Scientist class SD are built, then the combined crews might outnumber the SD's by 9 or 10 to one, their total mass exceed the SD by 50%, and their cost would equal a far better brand new SD.
I suspect such figures would encourage another plan.
The defense effort Sigs is talking about will cost trillions, which will be far more than most core worlds will be willing to pay, given they didn't pay for the SLN, the protectorates and interstellar commerce did.
While the core worlds are considered rich by our and the rest of the galaxy's standard, their per capita average is a small fraction of the SKM's according to WoH etc, so the margin available to invest is much more limited and volatile.
The same counter argument goes for the defensive frigate and destroyer versions, ie they're just scaled up failures, which may last for a decade or two simply because they aren't tested against the GA, which for a democracy is a very long time, as George C. Marshall noted, 5-6 years is about the limit before they get frustrated if there's not enough improvement and shift to something else.
I don't think that will have changed much in 2000 years, given our own irrational recent national and world history, or even further back but this isn't intended as a political history rant, merely noting it as it pertains to the ex-SL members.
One would like to think prolong would mean people kept better track of what worked and what didn't politically, but being human we have no evidence of such rationality or any sign of any such wisdom developing.
There may be a Themistocles ~2000 years from now who weathers the political storms long enough to similarly accomplish his goals of building up the defenses of his star system, but he also might be dismissed and exiled much sooner and wind up working for the GA, as they recognize genius when they see it.
There's much more, but time to go.
L
pappilon wrote:Maldorian wrote: Laser Cluster are another thematic! They need only energy, so, if you have enough energy reserves there would be no problem to add some extra laser cluster.
They require physical space IIRC they are powered by capacitors. and Aaren't SL SDs fairly under-powered with only 2 reactors while RMN ones have 3? They tend to produce large quantities of heat which needs dispersal. They might even need more sophisticated targeting and fire control.
