Theemile wrote:
Most importantly, there hasn't been a NEED for a large self defense force for 100s of years. The last SLN fleet battle was over 350 years ago, and that was Frontier Fleet. With Frontier Fleet patroling the spaceways, and Battle Fleet's Mailed Gauntlet poised to strike, why would every individual star need their own navy? As David once said, how many Arleigh Burke's does St. Louis own? It doesn't need them, thanks to the US military, and the local taxpayers arn't just going to pony up for one unless there is a real need. Beowulf's commitment to securing the wormhole, and it's independant daughter colonies is the reason it has such a large force, and is probably paid for by revenue from said sources. What reasons do the other 1782 known members have for fielding multiple wallers?
I would argue that the league is more like the Commonwealth than the US.
While St. Louis doesn't own any Burkes, The Royal Australian Navy has two LHDs and a DDG. They waffle on whether they'll put F-35Bs (up to 12) on the Canberra's but either way, they kept the ski jump so they are in the major combatant/capital ship category. That's in the same ballpark as the US LHAs and we don't have a ski jump so F35s flying off the HMAS Canberra will be better off than ones flying off The USS America.
The RAN had a couple CVs (Majestics) until the 70s and one until the 80s.
As far as why the other 1782 members would have wallers...why does the Royal Thai Navy have a carrier? Because they could afford a status symbol at that point in time. A rich star system could afford a division or two just for kicks. Kinda like the French having the Charles de Gaulle and three Mistrals...why? Because they can.
Even if the EU had the same fleet as the USN wanna bet France and UK would still have their own navies? Arguably, as part of NATO, the French would be just as well off with their Triomphant and Rubis subs and your typical frigate surface fleet because of the mailed gauntlet of the USN. The Triomphants are sufficient as deterrent to anyone sane and the Rubis as good or better for sea denial.
NEED has bupkis to do with whether some star systems will own as big a SDF as Beowulf...because hell, if they have them, so will we. No comment on what their operational readiness will be but for sure there will be wallers in various SDFs across the league because of human nature.