Designing an early/mid-game (late 2060s) mobile fleet

[ryuga81 (OP)]

So, I realized my main fleets are bulky and slow (2.5-3k km/s), and moving a whole fleet (carriers, cruisers, escorts, PD...) costs a lot of fuel and takes a lot of time, but rather than reworking my existing class designs into something faster, I figured out I'd start from scratch and design a faster (in the 5k range) quick response fleet, with few ship classes, that is still capable of dealing with an average sized threat, operating alone a few jumps from the nearest base if need arises (operating at the edge of the controlled space, fuel might be a concern), with a decent chance to disengage and regroup with main fleet in face of overwhelming odds.

Active sensors here are intended as a backup, I already have some fast scout ships that can keep up with the fleet.


This is the primary "hitter", other classes are designed around this one:

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Mospeada class Light Cruiser    8,000 tons     189 Crew     1240 BP      TCS 160  TH 800  EM 0
5000 km/s     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 30
Maint Life 1.85 Years     MSP 291    AFR 170%    IFR 2.4%    1YR 108    5YR 1621    Max Repair 80 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 4 months    Spare Berths 3   
Magazine 630   

Gentili Research Inc 160 EP "Scout" Magneto-plasma Drive (5)    Power 160    Fuel Use 54%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 550,000 Litres    Range 22.9 billion km   (53 days at full power)

Norton Aerospace Size 5 Missile Launcher (6)    Missile Size 5    Rate of Fire 40
Parkes-Davis Incorporated Missile Fire Control FC31-R20 (70%) (1)     Range 31.5m km    Resolution 20
Caldera Size 5 Anti-ship Missile (126)  Speed: 28,800 km/s   End: 19.6m    Range: 33.8m km   WH: 9    Size: 5    TH: 134/80/40

Parkes-Davis Incorporated Active Search Sensor MR22-R20 (70%) (1)     GPS 1260     Range 22.5m km    Resolution 20

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This one provides mid-range defense, with some fighter capability (fighters are old-tech, to be replaced soon with something better, as soon as I unlock better engine speed multipliers):

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Harmony class Flight-deck Cruiser    8,000 tons     191 Crew     1438 BP      TCS 160  TH 800  EM 0
5000 km/s     Armour 4-35     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 28.56
Maint Life 1.72 Years     MSP 337    AFR 170%    IFR 2.4%    1YR 138    5YR 2071    Max Repair 240 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Flight Crew Berths 20   
Hangar Deck Capacity 2000 tons     

Gentili Research Inc 160 EP "Scout" Magneto-plasma Drive (5)    Power 160    Fuel Use 54%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres    Range 16.7 billion km   (38 days at full power)

Twin Marinelli Systems 15cm C3 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (3x2)    Range 256,000km     TS: 10000 km/s     Power 12-6     RM 5    ROF 10        6 6 6 6 6 5 4 3 3 3
Martínez-Cruz Electronic Systems Fire Control S04 128-10000 H70 (1)    Max Range: 256,000 km   TS: 10000 km/s     96 92 88 84 80 77 73 69 65 61
Herbert Aerospace Stellarator Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (3)     Total Power Output 18    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Strike Group
4x Vengeance MkVI Fighter   Speed: 9600 km/s    Size: 10

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

This one is a smaller, cheaper ship that provides close-range defense and anti-missile/anti-fighter PD:

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Invid class Destroyer    4,000 tons     138 Crew     812 BP      TCS 80  TH 480  EM 0
6000 km/s     Armour 4-22     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 20.56
Maint Life 1.48 Years     MSP 127    AFR 128%    IFR 1.8%    1YR 64    5YR 967    Max Repair 180 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 4 months    Spare Berths 0   

Gentili Research Inc 160 EP "Scout" Magneto-plasma Drive (3)    Power 160    Fuel Use 54%    Signature 160    Exp 10%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 25.0 billion km   (48 days at full power)

Twin Hurst Heavy Industries R8/C4 Meson Cannon Turret (2x2)    Range 80,000km     TS: 15000 km/s     Power 8-8     RM 8    ROF 5        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0
Lazarev-Maximov Limited Fire Control S03 64-15000 H70 (1)    Max Range: 128,000 km   TS: 15000 km/s     92 84 77 69 61 53 45 37 30 22
Herbert Aerospace Stellarator Fusion Reactor Technology PB-1 (3)     Total Power Output 18    Armour 0    Exp 5%

Daly Research Inc Active Search Sensor MR4-R1 (70%) (1)     GPS 56     Range 4.5m km    MCR 488k km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
Any suggestions/design errors/weaknesses?

Thanks!

[Zincat]

A few things that come to mind at a quick check

Intended deployment time is superlow. Morale will drop like crazy in any extended operation. Usually, 1-3 years is considered "standard" around here, depending on situation, intended role etc. Still, 3-4 months means morale will drop very fast in just about any situation. Most people try to match intended deployment time and maintenance life, more or less.

Range is not much, but I suppose you have tankers following the fleet to refuel as need arises

Harmony class doen't have active sensors. You might have done it willingly, or by mistake At any rate, it cannot do anything with those lasers without another ship in the task force

Fighters, yeah you already said those need to be substituted. Try to aim for at LEAST 20000km/sec for magneto plasma era. More if you can.

Asides from that seems pretty decent. Those missiles on Mospeada are not that fast though. When you have better engine speed multipliers, swap them with something faster.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

The lethal flaw of this battlegroup is mediocre anti missile defense combined with poor attack range.  Most enemy missile combatants outrange all of your weapons, so you will be forced to close under fire until you can reply in kind. I don't believe your battlegroup will survive those hits in a remotely even fight.  You need 3 of your destroyers or flight-deck cruisers to repel the firepower of a single one of your own missile cruisers (not counting fighters), and its firepower isn't anything spectacular.   Anything with box launchers will completely overwhelm your defenses,

Strategically, we're also talking about a minimum of 4 designs for your fast response battlegroup, which is a lot of work for your shipyards.  You also don't list a jump-capable flagship, which may be of necessity for far flung outposts beyond the gate network or for jump point assaults. 

I would suggest taking one of two deliberate strategies: long range harassment or fast assault. For long range harassment, reduce your design quota to just the scout and missile cruiser and make the missile cruiser extremely long ranged.  (Alternatively do a carrier-centric long range harass strategy).   The ideal here is never entering enemy missile range.  For fast assault, focus on strong antimissile defenses and capable close range firepower.  The idea here is to soak everything the enemy can throw at you and engage them at close range.   A virtue of concentrating on a doctrine for your fast battlegroup is that it can then have a place in a larger fleet strategy without just being 'the same, but faster and weaker'.

[ryuga81 (OP)]

Thanks for all the advices, I'll rework my destroyers a bit to improve their anti-missile defense (lower caliber and more tracking should do the trick, also I'll see if I can make them cheaper, so I can build more and faster), as long-range engagement would require a lot more work to implement (new FC, new missiles, new active sensors and so on).

Morale so far has never been an issue (campaigns against spoiler races didn't last more than a couple months, i've never engaged a NPR so far, in any case I've built a fast jump-capable colony ship that can turn any rock with enough gravity into a morale-boosting colony), so I see no need to up it that much right now, but i'll try to squeeze in a few extra months.