[ooc]I will probably fold in the logistics with the next one as this update is more about the outcomes of the last battles for the emerging story.[/ooc]
AD 2277 December
Sidestepping the Freight TrainThe political crissis started by the loss of Hudson and Ericson had been put on slow boil during Operation Poet. The ships docked at Earth on the 28th of November and the various power blocs took stock of their position. The three trapped ships had been lost, but the Navy had not lost any ships in the attempt to recover them. This was for the Government bad but not as bad as it could be. Polls showed the, not unexpected, drops in both the popularity of the Government but also the Navy. Due to strong market performance the NCC was relatively speaking untouched by this. The UN, BuSurvey and the NCC negotiations got tougher due to yet more university losses and the UNs view hardened on what it considered sufficient improvement to allow its people to rejoin survey efforts.
The Right Honorable PM Ron Getti had learned something from the last time and made his announcement of the results of Operation Poet as soon as possible on the 27th. He also "accentuated the positive, such as there was, and downplayed to a cautious extent the negative"...the speach was not particularily well recieved due to the nature of the news it contained. The Government had two years on its mandate but a non-confidence vote was voted by the members conscience and Getti knew there were back benchers in his party that were still upset over Beauchamp's resignation. He could legally call an election...and thus define the timing.
The Official Opposition was also somewhat at odds with the fringe parties, due to the fact that on mature deliberation they realized that they had to be very careful about essentially shooting themselves in the foot should they win. They could; however, call for a vote of confidence and, if enough of the government back benchers could be swayed over, they might bring down the government and trigger elections. They just needed an issue that would carry them through the campaign. Operation Poet had failed, but the review boards were not producing tractionable material. The economy of Sol was booming, and worse the latest shipment of TN materials from Faewald had caused a ripple in the markets. Shipyards were in full production as well. Accountability made good news, but the fact was FTL communication was impossible. Keeping tabs on things going outside of Sol was, well, not easy. Making a big deal about this would give any opposition they faced as the Government, should they win, basically a free cheap shot. Worse the diversion of construction capacity to fort refits and new fort pre-fabrications was slowing down things like terraformers for Mars. Mars had a population of 10% of Earth, and the Opposition had supported the re-priortization. The Navy was no ones favorite organization at the moment but it also was clearly doing things. It was hard to find a subject they could claim to be able to improve things on, outside of the removal of Frasier...and with the possibiltiy of either Morgenrot (considered politically a loose cannon) or worse Nimm (who was a noted orator) taking over; leaving well enough alone was a self evident winning strategy.
To put it mildly the top levels of the Government and Opposition were both unhappy, if for different reasons. To the surprise of his advisors the PM wanted to call an election; he was talked out of it to the general relief of his cabinet. The Opposition was upset to discover that they would probably have to vote
for the government should one of the fringe parties start demanding a vote of no confidence. This was something that went down not-at-all-well. The Government hoped that time would smooth things over and that in 2 years they would face the election with a vastly different situation. The Opposition, while it could find no issue to build a winnable election on, had a lot of general dissastifaction it didn't want to let go to waste. Biding their time and hoping for a crisis that they could pounce on directly was, at least for the Official Opposition, seen as their best option. This lent the fringe parties ammunition against both major power groups but that seemed unavoidable and nothing to worry about. [ooc]If anyone has a suggestion for how the opposition should exploit this situation I'm all ears...but while the numbers in the Polls are low they didn't drop that much when the news was announced so both sides realize the situation has hit bottom. The Government thinks they can only improve in poll results from this point and they can lay a lot of blame on previous administrations while claiming to have been ontop of this crisis. But the opposition, and more to the point a good fraction of the more radical elements, are basically circling watching for blood.[/ooc]
The Naval Inquest over the HIP 51317 Incident
The Navy due to a lack of staff packs all incidents together into one and reviews it publically. The fact that Cpt. Wells did not survive lends the part focussing on the loss of the Ericson a sense of anti-climax. The true shocking part of the inquest was the analysis by a Lt. T.D. Shoe who discovered most likely "why" for the loss of the Sentinal Flottila. His findings though caused a surge in popular discontent against the Navy and allowed the typical Raff and Riff of the interweb to speculate wildly on the Navy senior brasses parentage. When Cpt. Morgenrot revealed that, had they found the Sentinal Flottila still in system, he would have ordered in all available ships, including the 3 Guardian's in the support groups, there was, putting it mildly: an inteweb stir. This alone fixed his "loose cannon" reputaton in the eyes of most politicans. The surprise for most; however, was both that the inquest moved relatively quickly and what its findings were.
Finding 1: The board finds that Cpt. M. Wells battle plan was based on an incorrect assumption the Hiyru class was a short range combat vessel but finds nothing to indicate it was not a reasonable assumption to make given his knowledge at the time. It is clear that he felt he could withdraw safely from the position he adpoted. His disposition was also clearly intended to protect his jump tender.
Finding 2: The board finds that Cpt. M. Wells mishandled parts of the battle by not detaching his escort and by sending his EW pinnance too far forward to effectively screen his force.
Finding 3: The board finds that the tactical intellegence gathered by Cpt. M. Wells was of invaluable help to the Navy.
Finding 4: The board finds that his order to the support group to jump from HIP 51317 was in the highest tradition of any military service.
Finding 5: The board finds that there was a computer error in the evaluation of Wolver sensor ranges. This error would result in a factor 2 to 3 underestimate in the range of their sensors. The board agrees with the conclusion put forth by Lt. T.D. Shoe that this was the most probable cause for the loss of the Sentinal Flotilla.
Finding 6: The board finds that it has insufficient evidence to hold Lt. Cmdr. B. Byran responsible for the loss of the Sentinal, Copernicous or Kepler. Based on the location of the wreckage the board finds the argument compelling that he would have believed himself outside the Wolver sensor reach. Once localized his force would not have been able to stop a Wolver attack.
Finding 7: The board finds that it supports Cpt. Morgenrot and Cpt. Nimm in their contention that the only chance to have recovered the Sentinal Flottila was for no Wolver ships to be present at the jump point. Their contention that the Wolvers could have incercepted the inbound ships, was also supported by the increased sensor range they would have had. The ships of Task Group 1 could not have prevented the Wolvers from intercepting the Sentinal Flotilla. The board also finds compelling the contention by both Captains that the survival of Task Group 1 on the jump point for 30-60 hours was, even if they faced only the two Tama's, realistically unlikely.
Finding 8: The board finds that it is in agreement with the assesment of the battle re-creation report that credits the Vigilant Plus CM sensor with the improved performance of the task group in combat.
Recommendation 1: The board recommends that the highest priority be given to developing an anti-ship missile capable of catching a Wolver ship. It also agrees with the assesment of both Captains Morgenrot and Nimm that such a system be field tested as soon as possible. The improvement to the Hawk series of Counter Missiles can not be accomplished with existing technology and the board endorses the recommendation that a true upgrade to the Hawk series requires both the development of implosion warhead technology but also more advanced engines.
Recommendation 2: That a specific probe ship be developed that mounts a EM array capable of detecting the Wolver sensors outside the range where the sensor can detect the ship. The current EM arrays can not guarrentee this to be the case. This means that even the George Vancouver class is incapable of being used as a probe ship.
Recommendation 3: A clear priority in research be set that emphises improvements to the current offensive systems over the existing defences. The development of the implosion fission warhead, improvements in turret tracking speed, longer ranged and faster firing lasers should be the short term research priorities of the Navy for new research effort. Long term the board also endorses the previous findings that enhancing the Navy's sensor technology is a critical a branch of research. The board recommends that the current emphisis on propulsion technology must not be hindered.
Recommendation 4: That the Navy proceed with development of the Heavy Frigate and Destroyer classes based on current technologies.
Recommendation 5: That further exploration efforts be concentrated where we know that no Wolver threat exists.
Cpt. Wells was both critized for his handling of the battlegroup and previous decisions but also lauded for his courage in battle. Ensign Standish and the crew of the Überwachter became legendary on the interweb. The Navy was stuck with the existing demand to update the forts of Earth and provide more point defence bases for Luna and Mars. This put on hold their plans to expand their training facilities and most importantly the construcition of a Naval yard of two slips and the capacity to build ships of 3000 tons or less in size. The NCC was persuaded to turn over lab space to the Javelin IIIA development and negotiations are ongoing over the development of enhanced passive EM sensors for the probe ship. Given that without it the chances of loosing an exploration flottila has not decreased; it is unlikely the approval will not be given. The overall public reception of this inquest was mixed, and if the polls for the Navy as an organization dropped people increasingly felt positive about Cpts. Morgenrot and Nimm. If nothing else it gave the newsies much to comment on at the time when the Government and Opposition were relatively un-news worthy; both were eyeing the other to see which way the wind was blowing.
NCC Fuel Board
The NCC Fuel Board was pretty much unknown to anyone who wasn't a procurment officer in BIC or the NC Navy. While the public "oohed and awed" over the newest Navy ship designs [ooc]or in the case of the Aurora Board public wondered what drugs I was on when designing them
[/ooc] the response of the NCCFB was vastly different. The mildest thing said when they first saw the Navy's proposals was: "Do they think we have a bloody fuel fairy hidden somewhere?" The NCCFB had managed the fuel crisis and if from time to time in the past years fuel levels in Earth's farm had gotten low, at least they had avoided a total system collapse. The yearly production at the moment was 3m l on Earth and ~1 m l outsystem in Alpha Centauri and AD Leonis. A further ~2m l of fuel per year would be available from exisiting civillian harvesters. BIC used 1.5m l per year for support of Faewald, that value would drop as around ~0.5m would be available in Alpha Centauri. Doubling the number of harvesters in Alpha Centauri would cut the fuel demand on Earth's farm down to 0.8m l per year. A new colony in Giesse 408 should be able to be sustained at the same cost if 2 FHGs were stationed at its minable gas giant. Survey operations use about 0.6m l per year, leaving the military with 0.6 m l plus a further 1.2m l from AD Leonis. In general for low tempo operations fuel was almost always an issue but it could be found. Operation Poet had consumed well over 2 m l of fuel and had left the system struggling to cope but by defering fueling of the support groups the NCCFB had met the immediate needs without flat lining the farm.
Currently a squadron of frigates require 1.1m l of fuel to bunker completely. A squadron of heavy frigates would require 3.3m l of fuel to bunker completely. Each destroyer takes 0.6m l of fuel to bunker, which is the yearly output of a fuel harvester group. Clearly to sustain operations of the new ships more FH Groups would be needed plus expansion of the existing system and most importantly increasing the output of refineries and enhancing fuel efficiency. For this reason the NCCFB resisted the attempts of the Navy to raid its research labs. They felt there was little value to warship that didn't have the fuel to leave the orbit of earth no matter how high tech its weapons. A Navy fights on its fuel tank was their view.
