27th June 2382 All Destroyer components have been delivered to proper Commune research sites and disassembled, but there weren't enough of them for any breakthroughs. Even so they provided some insight into various fields like electronics, space drives, power plants, magazines, shields and more which will make it a little easier for the Commune to develop next generation of hardware.
There is some talk about salvaging all the various wrecks of ADS, the Commune and the Hegemony that litter space, but the salvage ships and their accompanying freighters are old and slow, making it more important for the government to keep them in reserve and use for special tasks, such as researching the Destroyer. A new generation of ships could be designed, but while it is true the Commune is barely producing enough gallicite for their needs, salvaging would provide only temporary and slight boost and construction of new ships would take a long time, long enough for the government to finally deal with the issue, as they already have much healthier stockpiles than few years before. Overall there is very little need to salvage all those ships destroyed in combat few years ago.
29th July 2382 The Hegemony's gallicite situation is steadily improving. Despite continuously building commercial tankers, colony ships, freighters and fuel harvesters from three yards with a total of thirteen slipways, each of one hundred and twenty thousand tonnes, they've managed to build a modest stockpile of twenty thousand tonnes and the annual production has just exceeded forty thousand tonnes. The majority of this extraction comes from San Francisco-C II where a large government and civilian operation is present, although Delawere will soon begin to catch up as the colonization and development is accelerating. While this is not enough to make the government comfortable to begin construction of new warships, they want to use this opportunity to begin production of new ammunition and small craft.
The Falcon class fighter-bomber have served the Hegemony well. While they failed against the Commune, so did the rest of the Navy and they performed superbly against the ADS and the Specters despite technological disadvantage. Unfortunately they did not mount any ECCM which means they would be useless against the Destroyer and had reduced range against pretty much every other power encountered so far. A modification was needed.
So far the Hegemony R&D sector managed to produce three different devices. The first one is one hundred and fifty tonnes but is the most capable. A more compact version, massing only fifty tonnes is also available, but it has reduced capability. And last but not least there is a “small craft' version that masses twenty five tonnes.
Even the smallest one is quite heavy considering the small size of the Falcon, but more importantly it will never be as capable as a full version would be. In fact it is estimated that at any generation the smallest device would be only half as capable as the largest one. On the other hand the medium version would usually be only a generation behind and could one day catch up to the full sized devices. Overall the naval designers are in agreement that the medium sized ECCM is the way to go for the next generations small craft.
Unfortunately the Falcon is simply to small to mount it and carry worthwhile amounts of missiles, even with recent improvements. As an alternative two new bomber designs were introduced, both massing five hundred tonnes. And while they will be easier to detect and target, they will also be much more efficient in their role.
The first design is X-224 Hawk which can be best described as 'two Falcons put together'. It has twin engines, eight missile launchers for Tomahawk and improved fire control system that can target Commune corvettes from over a hundred million kilometers away. While this is more than the range of its missiles, the designers want to combine ECCM and larger, over designed fire controls to be able to get through enemy electronic warfare systems more easily.
X-224 Hawk class Bomber 500 tons 9 Crew 153.6 BP TCS 10 TH 100 EM 0
10000 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 4.8
Maint Life 4.56 Years MSP 19 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 1 5YR 22 Max Repair 30 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 32
Wendler-Moes Aeronautical Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (2) Power 50 Fuel Use 489.16% Signature 50 Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 35 000 Litres Range 2.6 billion km (71 hours at full power)
Eshleman-Burrell Design Bureau Box Launcher (8) Missile Size 4 Hangar Reload 30 minutes MF Reload 5 hours
Rivenbark Techsystems Bomber Fire Control (1) Range 103.1m km Resolution 95
Compact ECCM-2 (1) This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes The second presented design is the X-225 Peregrine. It is basically the same as Hawk but replaces eight Tomahawk launchers with ten smaller one intended for new Spacebolt missile and has greater operational range which should be fully utilized when next generation carriers with improved sensors are designed. As for the Spacebolt, it is three quarters as big as Tomahawk, has the same speed and very similar range, allowing the two designs to be fired in unison and has better on board sensor, but the warhead is only sixty percent as powerful. The new missile has been designed due to the sheer difficulty of overcoming the Commune point defense and is being favored by the naval officers. The government is a little less confident in the new design, as it is much more expensive for the damage it does, but they also agree that no matter how powerful a shipkiller is, it is useless if it cannot reach the target. After considerable evaluation the Hegemon agreed that the X-225 should become the next generation strike craft. At the very least Unyielding and Vigilant will have their groups replaced although Dragon, the third and last of the surviving carriers, may also have her group modernized, despite using the newest Falcons available. The former two will of course take priority as they still use craft with low powered ion engines, making them too slow to engage Commune targets effectively.
X-225 Peregrine class Bomber 500 tons 9 Crew 160 BP TCS 10 TH 100 EM 0
10000 km/s Armour 1-5 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 4.5
Maint Life 5.07 Years MSP 20 AFR 20% IFR 0.3% 1YR 1 5YR 19 Max Repair 30 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 1 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 30
Wendler-Moes Aeronautical Fighter Internal Fusion Drive (2) Power 50 Fuel Use 489.16% Signature 50 Exp 25%
Fuel Capacity 50 000 Litres Range 3.7 billion km (4 days at full power)
Lee International Bomber Bay (10) Missile Size 3 Hangar Reload 22.5 minutes MF Reload 3.7 hours
Rivenbark Techsystems Bomber Fire Control (1) Range 103.1m km Resolution 95
Spacebolt (10) Speed: 50 000 km/s End: 25.1m Range: 75.4m km WH: 9 Size: 3 TH: 166/100/50
Compact ECCM-2 (1) 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 Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes The Hegemony also designs new versions of their missiles. Thanks to improved technology those should be almost on the same technological level as the Commune ones, with the one major difference being engines, as those are still a generation behind. Even so they have much more powerful warheads, better but smaller sensors and ranges at least as good as the previous generation of ammunition.
Patriot C
Missile Size: 1 MSP (0.05 HS) Warhead: 1 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 33
Speed: 65000 km/s Engine Endurance: 2 minutes Range: 6.4m km
Cost Per Missile: 1.5225
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 2145% 3k km/s 693% 5k km/s 429% 10k km/s 214.5%
Materials Required: 0.25x Tritanium 1.2725x Gallicite Fuel x50Tomahawk C
Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 15 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 50000 km/s Engine Endurance: 24 minutes Range: 71.5m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.07 Sensitivity Modifier: 180%
Resolution: 200 Maximum Range vs 10000 ton object (or larger): 170 000 km
Cost Per Missile: 6.362
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 500% 3k km/s 160% 5k km/s 100% 10k km/s 50%
Materials Required: 3.75x Tritanium 0.042x Boronide 0.07x Uridium 2.5x Gallicite Fuel x1037.5Harpoon C
Missile Size: 4 MSP (0.2 HS) Warhead: 10 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 50000 km/s Engine Endurance: 55 minutes Range: 165.0m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.035 Sensitivity Modifier: 180%
Resolution: 200 Maximum Range vs 10000 ton object (or larger): 80 000 km
Cost Per Missile: 5.0554
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 500% 3k km/s 160% 5k km/s 100% 10k km/s 50%
Materials Required: 2.5x Tritanium 0.0204x Boronide 0.035x Uridium 2.5x Gallicite Fuel x2395Spacebolt
Missile Size: 3 MSP (0.15 HS) Warhead: 9 Armour: 0 Manoeuvre Rating: 10
Speed: 50000 km/s Engine Endurance: 25 minutes Range: 75.5m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.1652 Sensitivity Modifier: 180%
Resolution: 100 Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 290 000 km
Cost Per Missile: 4.3886
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 500% 3k km/s 160% 5k km/s 100% 10k km/s 50%
Materials Required: 2.25x Tritanium 0.0984x Boronide 0.1652x Uridium 1.875x Gallicite Fuel x10002nd August 2382 Fortification of Knossos is proceeding slowly but steadily. New gunboat flotillas has recently arrived and a total of five ground missile bases have been constructed, not counting the sensor outpost. However the naval officers responsible for preparing the planet for the next attack of the Destroyer noticed that the existing designs are not really that good for this specific task.
There are currently three missile base designs. The first one is pure anti-missile platform, the second one is quite small and cheap, equipped with anti-missiles and gunboat munitions to discourage enemy from closing in and the third one is a massive fortification that can protect from incoming ordnance while striking enemies from afar.
What all of those have in common is significant mass dedicated to anti-missiles, their storage and fire controls. However the Destroyer never used missiles except for orbital bombardment from point blank range, which would make anti-missiles unable to engage. In short the defensive ability is simply wasted. And while other potential enemies, like the Hegemony, have to be considered, the existing installations should be more than enough to protect Knossos from other factions, especially when supported by mobile element. What the planet needs right now is the ability to destroy the incoming Destroyer before it can fire.
As the gunboats performed reasonably well, the Force quickly designs a new missile base armed exclusively with Arrows using existing components. A single one can fire as many shipkillers as two and a half flotillas of Piranhas, and if need be those launchers can be used to fire Mistletoes as well, as the new base possesses sensors and fire controls good enough to accommodate them. Overall ten such bases would fire as many missiles as were needed to deal with the Destroyer and as those will be more modern and powerful ones, probably only six or seven would be needed, not counting orbiting warships and already existing installations. Ten such bases are planned.
Werewolf class Missile Base 15 900 tons 29 Crew 2752.9999 BP TCS 318 TH 0 EM 0
Armour 5-56 Sensors 1/96 Damage Control Rating 0 PPV 300
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 5
Magazine 2000
Pangratiu Systems Small Box Launcher (1000) Missile Size 2 Hangar Reload 15 minutes MF Reload 2.5 hours
Valdes Incorporated Missile Fire Control (10) Range 218.6m km Resolution 40
Djody Electronic Systems Small Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 15360 Range 291.4m km Resolution 160
This design is classed as a Planetary Defence Centre and can be pre-fabricated in 7 sections 26th September 2382 With the Hegemony forces expanding once again, however slowly, the government begins to ponder the question of Des Moines and Baton Rouge systems the latter of which is home to a Spectre Behemoth. However from the data the Commune made available on their civilian networks is appears that thing will require significant number of missiles to bring down and the Navy cannot spare multiple carrier groups, as they only have three of them left.
But the Des Moines system is different. It was discovered in 2370 and three wrecks were present. Unfortunately the inability of carriers to enter jump points once again proved to be a problem as there were no construction ship available and survey ships were too slow to risk them on scouting missions. The system, possessing a good candidate for settlement, was left alone and future commitments, shortages and wars have conspired to keep it unexplored despite being located only three jumps from Sanctuary. Now however a jump gate leading into the system is complete and a construction ship is standing by. The only question is whether or not a carrier group should be sent.
A significant portion of Hegemony officials want to keep all assets in New Earth's orbit fearing an attack by the Destroyer or the Commune, but as the Navy points out they can't defend against the former and the latter never ventured into territory of another nation. Meanwhile the Dragon carrier group stands ready, fully armed with their next to best munitions.
In the end the Hegemon agrees to release the Dragon and her escorts for operations. The area beyond Washington is poorly explored as all known chains there except one lead to Spectre, ADS and Commune space or nebulae which slow ships down to unacceptable levels. Having another expansion route in this area would be very useful.
5th October 2382 The Commune designs their last two components of their new fleet, the Apollo class jump cruiser and the Odin class jump battlecruiser. Both are command ships with excellent sensors and no armament, both can escort up to seven other ships through a jump point in a simultaneous transit and both use new, very powerful, high resolution active search sensor that can detect anything from gunboats to battleships from nearly two billion kilometers away.
Apollo class Jump Cruiser 25 000 tons 673 Crew 8015.25 BP TCS 500 TH 4312 EM 0
8624 km/s JR 8-500 Armour 10-76 Shields 0-0 Sensors 240/240/0/0 Damage Control Rating 33 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.74 Years MSP 6713 AFR 149% IFR 2.1% 1YR 750 5YR 11245 Max Repair 2400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 0
Yulianto Engineering Company Cruiser Jump Drive Max Ship Size 25000 tons Distance 500k km Squadron Size 8
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (10) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 2 750 000 Litres Range 32.9 billion km (44 days at full power)
Muniz-Arellano Missile Detection System (1) GPS 288 Range 69.1m km MCR 7.5m km Resolution 1
Daratista -Laksono Heavy Industries Battle Managment System (1) GPS 24000 Range 1 821.5m km Resolution 10
Laksono & Suyanto Large Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 240 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 240m km
Laksono & Suyanto Large EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 240 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 240m km
ECM 40
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposesOdin class Jump Battlecruiser 45 000 tons 1162 Crew 13455.25 BP TCS 900 TH 7762 EM 6300
8624 km/s JR 8-500 Armour 12-112 Shields 210-300 Sensors 240/240/0/0 Damage Control Rating 62 PPV 0
Maint Life 3.23 Years MSP 11680 AFR 259% IFR 3.6% 1YR 1690 5YR 25347 Max Repair 2400 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 0
Yulianto Engineering Company Battlecruiser Jump Drive Max Ship Size 45000 tons Distance 500k km Squadron Size 8
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (18) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 4 750 000 Litres Range 31.5 billion km (42 days at full power)
Epsilon Shields (70) Total Fuel Cost 1 050 Litres per hour (25 200 per day)
Muniz-Arellano Missile Detection System (1) GPS 288 Range 69.1m km MCR 7.5m km Resolution 1
Daratista -Laksono Heavy Industries Battle Managment System (1) GPS 24000 Range 1 821.5m km Resolution 10
Laksono & Suyanto Large Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 240 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 240m km
Laksono & Suyanto Large EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 240 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 240m km
ECM 40
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes6th November 2382 The Hegemony carrier Dragon, her escorts and a jump gate construction ship enter the Des Moines system. The active sensors show nothing for the moment but neither the three wrecks present nor the reasonable candidate for settlement are in range. However the humans know full well that if the ADS is operating in the system, they'll have tracking stations that should detect them so if there are any warships available, they will be sent to deal with the incursion. As such the Hegemony force simply waits on the jump point, although if no one tries to approach them they may change their tactics.
30th November 2382 So far no alien warships tried to approach the Hegemony force in Des Moines. While it would be possible for the carrier group to perform a flyby of the wrecks and planets right away, the humans decide to play it safe and wait for the jump gate to be completed first.
7th March 2383 The Dragon Carrrier Group arrives in orbit of Des Moines II, the only candidate for settlement in the system without finding any sign of ADS activity. The entire inner system and the three wrecks present are all within sensor range, but nothing is detected. Just in case the carrier and her escorts will check a couple of other bodies but it is very likely the system is secure and can be opened for survey, colonization and development. While officially the government is very happy about this, in reality they are somewhat disappointed.
Officially the Hegemony is a very standard, run of the mill liberal democracy, but that is not entirely true, as many laws have been modified to 'better prepare the nation for the return of the Destroyer'. Because of that the leader is chosen for life, so that a long term strategy is possible without the government changing policies every few years due to elections. Coupled with longevity treatments it means Xiao Butch, the current Hegemon, has been ruling for nearly seventy years now and he's still going strong.
Another change from what the rest of humanity considered to be an average liberal democracy is abandonment of any and all forms of social support, even if said support is little more than help with finding a job. Instead as humanity needs to put their utmost into preparing for the coming war, each and every person must contribute to the society. Those without jobs, no matter the reason, are forced to perform government assigned tasks, often hard, lengthy and unpleasant and while they aren't slaves and are free to find a normal work at any point, the number of hours demanded by the government and the distance of labor sites from major cities makes it very difficult for anyone to get out of the camps once assigned there.
Similarly retirement age is very high and pensions do not exist. Once retired a person can continue to work, live off his or her savings or be supported by his or her family but that is it. Currently less than ten percent of the population lives long enough to reach such age, prompting the government to consider some changes in order to make sure the population can work longer. Last but not least all debts have to be paid with temporary slavery if need be.
Despite that the nation remained stable for three reasons. First the standard of living is reasonable high and the number of people truly impacted by those policies at any given time is rather low, usually less than twenty percent. Second the threat of the Destroyer is being played heavily by the government and media, making sure everyone understands the stakes and making population afraid that complaints, however reasonable, may weaken humanity and kill them all. Last but not least while the Hegemony have free speech, the government has the right to censor any information that could endanger or weaken humanity, As large scale civil unrest could weaken humanity due to infighting and disorganization, it allows the government to censor any news of large scale public protests or demonstrations, making it impossible for those who want change to organize or plead their case to the nation at large.
Even so, ever since the first contact with the Commune, the unrest in the Hegemony has been somewhat increasing, although not nearly to the point where it may change something. But the fact remains that a nation which does not force undue hardships on its population in the name of survival not only exists but defeated the Destroyer and the Hegemony in short order, making more an more people question the need for some of the current practices. Which made the government eager to show its superiority once again.
For now however they have no way of accomplishing that. It remains to be seen whether or not the civil unrest, so far small, ineffective and little more than annoyance, will continue to gain momentum or if the government can reverse the trend.
8th March 2383 The Republic has almost completed their refit programme. Only two old Berlin class destroyers await yard space, the last Dreadnought class battleship is already in the yard and another one has been laid down to bring the total number of the class to twenty four, which will allow the government to form Battle Group Six. In addition the population of Gniezno, where the yards are located has grown to nearly ninety five million people, allowing their primary yards to finally expand in size. Coupled with technological improvements the government has decided to build a new class of battleships rather than continue production of Dreadnoughts.
The result is the New Atlantis class. Massing eighty seven thousand and fire hundred tonnes, she carries twenty five percent more missiles, has fifty percent thicker armor belt, better sensors with additional suite to detect alien gunboats and the combination of very long range fire controls and improved ECCM will allow the ship to target the Destroyer from a range of over a billion kilometers, more than twice the range of the Catapults. In addition the vessel has ten smaller fire controls to deal with gunboats from ranges in excess of one hundred and fifty million kilometers.
New Atlantis class Battleship 87 500 tons 1125 Crew 19685.9501 BP TCS 1750 TH 7875 EM 0
4500 km/s Armour 6-175 Shields 0-0 Sensors 72/72/0/0 Damage Control Rating 53 PPV 900
Maint Life 2.12 Years MSP 7452 AFR 1155% IFR 16.1% 1YR 2226 5YR 33385 Max Repair 1080 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months Spare Berths 1
Magazine 6000
Giarelli Techsystems Magnetic Fusion Drive (7) Power 1125 Fuel Use 11.53% Signature 1125 Exp 9%
Fuel Capacity 4 000 000 Litres Range 71.4 billion km (183 days at full power)
van den Berg Manufacturing Catapult Box Launcher (1000) Missile Size 6 Hangar Reload 45 minutes MF Reload 7.5 hours
Croce Space & Security High Resolution Missile Fire Control (10) Range 150.6m km Resolution 15
Croce Space & Security Long Range Missile Fire Control (10) Range 2 916.0m km Resolution 100
Croce Space & Security Long Range Active Search Sensor (1) GPS 108000 Range 1 944.0m km Resolution 100
Croce Space & Security Gunboat Detection System (1) GPS 4860 Range 225.9m km Resolution 15
Fimmen International Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 72 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 72m km
Fimmen International EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 72 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 72m km
ECCM-4 (10) ECM 40
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes18th March 2383 The Hegemony develops new anti-missile launchers capable of firing every five seconds, twice as fast as the previous ones. They knew this breakthrough was coming and they intended to use them in their future warships, believing the original escorts to be too ineffective to be worth upgrading. However while the current gallicite production allows manufacturing of new missiles and bombers, its not large enough to allow laying down new warships. As such until that changes the existing ones will have their anti-missile tubes replaced with the new model, with the Hammurabi class frigates and the Ra class destroyers having priority.
1st June 2383 An ADS ship is detected in Dallas. While only three jumps away from Sanctuary it's beyond the Philadelphia system, a large and expansive red giant. In addition due to relocation of the harvesters to the Houston system, refining was off line for nearly a year, creating shortages. And last but not least there is no jump gate yet. Overall it will be some time before the system can be cleared.
14th July 2383 Exploring the only jump point found in Cincinnati the Hegemony discovers a new connection to the already explored Honolulu system. From economic point of view this is good news, but not exceptionally so. From a strategic perspective those may very well be the worst news received recently.
As the Sanctuary system had four jump points, up until now the Hegemony territory was simply divided into four chains. The Philadelphia chain seemed to be the most secure one, but also the most inconvenient one as the system in question was a red giant with considerable distances between planets and jump points. The New York chain on the other hand was the shortest as the system connected only to the capital and the Denver system, known to the Commune as Pacific which belongs to the latter nation. The Washington chain was the most problematic one as it led to systems belonging to the Commune, ADS, Specters and dense nebulae which made it next to impossible to explore them. The San Francisco chain was the last and most promising one with numerous candidates for colonization, reasonable mineral deposits and no present threats. Now however it is connected directly to the Washington chain which means the Specters and the Commune can potentially threaten the fuel harvesters in Houston and the primary Hegemony mining site in San Francisco without ever having to move through the capital and main naval base of Sanctuary. Which leaves only Philadelphia as a secure chain for development.
The government considers classifying the information but they realize there is no point. If the Commune ever moves into Hegemony territory and decides to work on systems outside the capital, they'll have to survey Honolulu for themselves and now that the jump point is active, they would have found it.
22nd November 2383 The First Destroyer Squadron of the Commune Defense Force is formed above Courland, being the first modern formation established. However while those warships could be used for operations they are not considered combat ready as they need a period of working up.
29th December 2383 The Commune missile situation continues to improve, albeit slowly, with the biggest shortages being anti-missiles. Trebuchets are in ample supply and there is even a reasonable stockpile, Mistletoes for Shark class gunboats are produced in large enough numbers to arm new formations but little more than that and there is enough Arrows IV to fight a major battle but there are still shortages.
Even so the government once again sends numerous formations into motion. Nine gunboat flotillas made of Sharks are deployed to Atlantic and Pacific to reinforce the frontier bases and the Fourth Fleet is finally established on Falsterbo in the Phoenicia sector, comprising two cruiser divisions, two frigate squadrons and three gunboat flotillas. One of those squadrons is deployed to ES – 104 GH4 a system with a secret jump point to the Hegemony system of Minneapolis. This heats the debate about what to do with the system.
The secret connection is of potentially enormous strategic significance as it connects to Honolulu which currently connects to what was once Washington and San Francisco chains. Overall more than half of the enemy nation is accessible without the need to move through their capital system of Sanctuary and potentially without the need to engage whatever they have in boarder systems. Because of this some people want to create a full scale naval base in the system, reinforce the Fourth Fleet heavily and dispatch most of it to ES – 104 so that in the event of a new war they could start an offensive into enemy territory.
However the significance of the connection is deceptive. First and foremost the Hegemony has their forces concentrated in their home system, with only scraps deployed everywhere else, which means it's impossible to destroy a large part of enemy fleet with a surprise attack. In addition while the Hegemony is not very forthcoming about their positioning of strategically important industries, their heavy development of Philadelphia and San Francisco systems argues they are doing all they can to keep it in their secure areas and while the latter can now be accessed without going through the capital, the alternative route is very long, allowing for easy reinforcement. And of course the Intelligence firmly believes that sooner or later the Hegemony will take new steps move their assets beyond Philadelphia, which is currently their most secure area.
Overall the strategic advantage of the connection is very minuscule, but if the other nation doesn't know about it, that's at least one less system for the Commune to protect. In addition if anything changes, the Fourth Fleet, which will be reinforced in the future, at least to some extent, can be used for offensive operations.
9th February 2384 As the gallicite problem has been for all instances and purposes solved in the Commune with current stockpiles exceeding one hundred and fifty thousand tonnes, an old discussion has been once again gaining attention, namely the fate of the existing frigate squadrons. Currently there are fifteen of them totaling ninety Vistuala IV class corvettes, sixty Stockholm IV class frigates and fifteen Maasvlakte III class frigate leaders. The power of those formations has been shown to everyone during the Battle of ES – 09 where ten such formations supported by a single cruiser division have annihilated more than half of the Hegemony Navy. Even so the plan has been to simply scrap all those warships.
While it is true they performed admirably during the after mentioned battle, the warships are obsolete, the frigates performed poorly in their intended role in every other engagement and the speed of those formations is lower than that of the future ones. As new destroyer squadrons came online they were supposed to replace rather then reinforce the existing frigate formations. The opponents of this decision give three arguments.
First and foremost while the frigates have performed poorly, the corvettes turned out to be a very good piece of engineering. They are cheap, numerous and effective in their intended role, despite having minor issues like lack of additional fire controls. Throwing them away would be a waste, which is admitted by even those who favor scrapping those ships, but the corvettes are ultimately very specialized and designed to be a part of larger formation, so they cannot operate without the frigates and adding them to the new destroyer squadrons is impossible due to their low speed. Worse upgrading them would cost sixty percent as much as a construction of a new warship would, although admittedly such an upgrade would include new armor and extended endurance, so a new warship wouldn't really be superior, which proves just how good the design is.
Second the frigate squadrons have been designed specifically to work together with gunboat flotillas, supporting them with anti-missile and short ranged fire-power. The new formations will be better at this thanks to their higher speed, but they are also self-sufficient, comprising long and short range armament, both offensive and defensive in nature. Because of that the currently rather well balanced Commune Defense Force will be very offensive minded which doesn't sit well with some people.
Third the Force currently operates five cruiser divisions with the top speed of seventy seven hundred kilometers per second, which is equal to the speed of the frigate squadrons. However there are no plans to replace those which means the CDF will end up with slower units anyway. This however is not exactly true, as while the government plans to retain the current Elathas for a long time, once sufficient numbers of new ships are available and most of the frigate squadrons have been retired, the older cruisers would be retired as well.
Tied into this discussion is Eden, a planet where more than twenty percent of the Commune citizens live, but is very poorly defended. The current picket consist of locally build missile bases, few obsolete orbital weapons platforms and a single frigate squadron. As reinforcements are unlikely at this point due to the need to secure the Knossos sector and finally establish proper fleet in the Ayathuya sector, the local government has been lobbying hard to become a new shipbuilding site. As new warships would train and await assignments there, they would serve as an ad-hoc but reasonable additional defense as well. They point out that if the government wants to retain the frigate squadrons, Eden would be the best place to build shipyards supporting them. They propose to upgrade the existing corvettes, which would be expensive but not especially so while replacing the exiting frigates with new designs and destroyer leaders for sensor coverage and jump capability. They even prepared a new frigate design, shown below.
Talca class Frigate 10 000 tons 282 Crew 3485 BP TCS 200 TH 1725 EM 0
8625 km/s Armour 8-41 Shields 0-0 Sensors 24/24/0/0 Damage Control Rating 7 PPV 55.76
Maint Life 3.88 Years MSP 1525 AFR 114% IFR 1.6% 1YR 160 5YR 2406 Max Repair 432 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 36 months Spare Berths 1
Holmberg-Vikstrom High Power Naval Magnetic Fusion Drive (4) Power 431.25 Fuel Use 60.27% Signature 431.25 Exp 11%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres Range 29.9 billion km (40 days at full power)
Ragar-Lazarovici Ordnance 300mm Soft X-Ray Laser (2) Range 480 000km TS: 8625 km/s Power 24-6 RM 6 ROF 20 24 24 24 24 24 24 20 18 16 14
Ragar-Lazarovici Ordnance 450mm Spinal Mounted Soft XR Laser (1) Range 480 000km TS: 8625 km/s Power 53-6 RM 6 ROF 45 53 53 53 53 53 53 45 39 35 31
Single Warda Manufacturing Gauss Cannon Mk2 Turret (3x5) Range 40 000km TS: 32000 km/s Power 0-0 RM 4 ROF 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Hansson Dynamics Point Defence Fire Control (1) Max Range: 120 000 km TS: 32000 km/s 92 83 75 67 58 50 42 33 25 17
Hansson Dynamics Long Range Railgun Fire Control (1) Max Range: 480 000 km TS: 12000 km/s 98 96 94 92 90 88 85 83 81 79
Persson-Felldin Fusion Reactor Mk2 (2) Total Power Output 21 Armour 0 Exp 7%
Godoy-Medina Small Missile Detection System (1) GPS 48 Range 11.5m km MCR 1.3m km Resolution 1
Yulianto Limited Small Thermal Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 24m km
Yulianto Limited Small EM Detection Sensor (1) Sensitivity 24 Detect Sig Strength 1000: 24m km
Compact ECCM-4 (2) ECM 40
This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes It is faster and has better protection and endurance than the Stockholm class frigate but also a completely different armament consisting of long range and powerful lasers supported by three modern gauss cannons. While the previous generation warships could produce much higher volume of fire, which could be useful for point defense, this ships should be much more effective in short range ship to ship combat while having very high chance of stopping fifteen incoming shipkillers. And of course the thick armor belt will provide good protection when taking hits.
The government likes the idea in principle but they point out that whatever spin the supporters of the idea and Eden officials put, this basically amounts to creating a modern and new force of frigate squadrons. The Stockholms must be replaced in any event and upgrades will cost sixty percent as much as new vessels. Overall a per formation cost will be almost as high as producing all ships from scratch. To make matters worse the current shipbuilding is going so well the budget is actually in deficit, although a large stockpile of wealth remains.
Admittedly however the Force and the Administrator admit they need more anti-missile defenses to support their gunboats and with the ammunition situation still unresolved they would welcome improved beam fire power. They also admit that Eden needs better protect as right now everyone basically relies on the planet being located in a safe area of space, an assumption that may have disastrous consequences considering the existence of dormant jump points. The debacle with the first contact with Hegemony still lingers in the memories and minds of many people.
In the end a compromise is reached. Three naval yards will be constructed in Eden. One will have a single slipway and build destroyer leaders, one will have three slipways and will build new frigates and the last one will also have three slipways but will be used to upgrade the corvettes. In the future frigate formations will comprise one destroyer leader, six Talca class frigates and six Vistuala class corvettes. However the entire thing is dependent on the assumption that the Commune financial situation will improve thanks to population increase and new financial institutions being built. Should that prove to not be the case the upgrade program will be the first one to be suspended to improve the budgetary situation.
