penny wrote:If you have crossed to my side of the fence and agree that that mission would be worthy of risk. You shouldn't have a problem agreeing with what I have been saying all along. Submarines have been used for varying missions according to their importance. In fact, submarines were the only means of achieving certain At All Costs missions.
I haven't. There's a big conditional in my paragraph, which I even bolded.
LDs will be ordered to execute certain missions At All Costs. Especially in the end game and during the initial maiden voyage of a super-stealthy-by-surprise attack.
Let me start by saying that I think you're right and they
will be used for such all-costs missions. But as a result of desperation and imminent defeat, not as a well-thought-out strategy and doctrine. So not as the maiden voyage, at least by design.
In the beginning, that won't be the case. I am arguing that a) LDs are not like to submarines when it comes to cost and thus the necessary risk/reward and that b) the MAN will not start with At-All-Costs missions. If you try an AAC and you lose, you make your situation much worse. Taking the case of Operation Beatrice: if Haven had instead brought those 350 SD(P)s to the Haven system, Eighth Fleet would have had to pay a hefty price to win, meaning Haven stood a good chance of having favourable negotiating terms of surrender. But after it lost those ships and a million spacers, Honor could walk over the remainder of the Capital Fleet and impose any demands of surrender that the Alliance chose.
I have said and will repeat: LDs may be as stealthy as subs are to us, but they are as costly to build as a carrier (or a full carrier group, because it appears they aren't meant to have escort ships). Any mission they are supposed to undertake has to be one with a large reward. Any admiral who suggests using an LD to fight a mere CruRon and still have a chance of losing should be cashiered out.
What they will end up being used for is a different story. But that will depend on how poorly the situation is going for the MAlign.
I cannot see utilizing the prowess of an LD - certainly if it scales up to RFC's memo of the destructive firepower of a fort - to be ordered simply to sit out on the outskirts of town and chuck torpedoes. Squadrons of Ghosts can do that and probably all around much cheaper.
Ghosts should be able to carry at least two g-torps each in their holster.
Quite true. I agree with your assessment and conclusion.
All this means the LDs must have another purpose in mind and/or that we're ignorant of some detail of their capability. As described so far, those ships make no sense.
It's possible that they really do not make sense, because they were designed by megalomaniacal geneticists, not level-headed military strategists.
You can gut the enemy in the opening phase of a war with a surprise attack. The surprise itself is a force multiplier. See Honor at Cerberus. Surprise along with stealth, and you have the makings of a short victorious war. You don't want to assist the enemy by being coy.
Again agreed. But I don't see why you'd need an LD for this and I can use your arguments from above for why.