Great speech Mr. Fox, although I'm surprised a bit that you met your end with such peace. Unfortunately nobody got to hear it, as there is no 'camera' or advanced communications equipment in the lifepods, only automated beacons.
2058 Annual Report(conclusion)
It is one thing to make a fine speech, and another to back it up. Looking at the research picture, there was one decidedly inconvenient fact: the next generation of engines is in fact still coming, but not for almost three years. In other circumstances, that time might have been somewhat shortened by adding a few more labs, and building any new classes of ships delayed long enough to wait a couple of years for it. The present political environment demanded action, and there was too much else going on to just yank the rug out from under all of the other research projects in order to rush the engine tech. This meant there was really only one choice: get moving on designs that would cease to be state-of-the-art before their maiden tour was even completed. Wasteful, yet unavoidable. Given the growing size of the navy, SPACE was now on a path where refitting will be a constant process for at least the next decade, and perhaps indefinitely. Currently nearly six million are employed at the shipyards, more than 20% of those in the planet-based construction sector and more than any other industrial concern -- they will be quite busy, and those numbers will only grow.
Another result of the growing and more military-oriented navy is the establishment of contracts with a number of firms to provide the necessary components. SPACE turned to GEI (Gradient Electronics, Inc.) for another first: a line of active sensors for use in the new buoys which would be stationed at jump points. A good amount of debate went into how large the buoys should be, how much to invest in each one, but in the end the Sentinel 275 was chosen. This suite is capable of detecting the smallest of missiles almost 150k km away and more importantly a ship of any size 1.37 km out, the maximum range of the suite. Of course a design with a higher resolution could increase the range of ship detection without the missile capability, but this should be more than enough distance to find anything entering the jump point and some missile capability was also desired in a small package.
Secondly, JPS(Johnson Propulsion Systems) is favored for work on manuevering thrusters needed to maintain position relative to the jump point for the buoys. The JPS NT-15 will thankfully not require much development effort as it is by far the smallest and least powerful engine to be put into space to date.
HISS(Hyabushi International Sensor Systems) was contracted for a trio of projects, the small declassified active, thermal, and electromagnetic systems for use on commercial ships such as the shuttles and freighters.
Each of these needed laboratory space and a project lead, and several lesser-known scientists found themselves switched over to a new project or out of work for the time being. Among them was Joe Tycho, whose work on increasing turret tracking speed was among the deprioritization casualties. Most of the space, however, came from taking resources away from existing projects. This slowed down needed economic research in most cases, but there simply was no easy choice. Most of the new projects would not take long(two to three months) to prototype, with available space shunted into the more involved Sentinel 275 when possible.
Earth's industrial priorities also changed immediately. Work on a new academy for the leaders that would be needed for the new responsibilities(mostly ships) and deep space tracking stations began at once, with economic investment dropping from a third to a fifth to allow for this requirement. Shipyard priorities changed as well, with expansions required to the larger commercial yards to allow for the refits which would make all vessels somewhat larger. In the case of the Perry fuel harvesters, it was also clear that they simply weren't big enough for the growing needs of the navy. Much higher-capacity harvesters would be required before long, so the P&A Group began an indefinite expansion immediately upon completing it's third slipway.
In mid-November, the new commercial sensors were all ready and the yards began retooling for the three primary classes of refits: Fletcher III-class freighters, Lexington III-class shuttle transports, and Perry II-class fuel harvesters. The shuttles will begin their refits before the end of the year, while the others will take longer to prepare the shipyards for that to begin. The Perrys are the lowest priority, as once a deep space scanner is deployed on Titan, their sensors will become merely a redundancy. In terms of cost, the shuttles are now a third more expensive, with the freighters seeing a much smaller comparative increase(about 6%). Speed impacts are largely marginal, with the shuttles again seeing the biggest reduction(down to just under 1400 km/s).
Later in the month, the Sentinel 275 is finished, and the new sensor buoy design finalized and dubbed the Forestal.
Size: 288 tons
Max. Speed: 347 km/s
Maintenance Life: 28+ years
Crew: 10
It is just a fraction of shuttle size, a little faster than the Perry harvesters but well short of the freighters. The first few will be able to make their assignments on their own, but for effective deployment another class will need to be designed to ferry them around. That will probably wait until the next generation of engines, however. The fighter factories on Earth are sufficient to produce about three per year, so it will take five years to build enough to man all of the jump points. Technically, this is SPACE's first 'fighter' class ship, though it is of course anything but a fighter.
By the end of the year, only one of the basic weapons techs remains to be finished. Completion of that is expected late next year, with lab space juggled to ensure it will roughly coincide with the finalizing of the theoretical work on the nuclear pulse engine. Work has begun on a weapons review that will be presented to the Director at that time, and there will be some critical decisions to be made. Meanwhile, it appears that the aliens in Epsilon Eridani have no intention of entering Sol yet. Humanity can only hope that we continue to be irrelevant to them at least until the point where we have the capability to confront them ...
Research & Development** September 8 -- Fighter Production Rate(Dr. Curtis Gloster)
** September 30 -- Gauss Cannon Launch Velocity(Dr. Harlan Welle)
** October 8th -- JPS NT-15(Rosemary Urenda). The engine is now ready, but the sensors are still two months away.
** October 10th -- HISS thermal commercial sensors completed(Dr. Delmer Ytuarte)
** November 8th -- Late as usual,
Dr. Elwood Tousant's team has finished the report on the HISS commercial gravitational sensor array.
** November 10th -- HISS Thermal sensor array(Dr. Billie Allington) is the final piece of the puzzle for the commercial refits.
** November 23 -- Sentinel 275(Dr. Bessie Wallander) is completed. With this, the new sensor buoy design can be finalized. The lab space is reassigned, split fairly evenly between the remaining basic weapons techs and accelerating other critical projects.
** December 1 -- December 1st -- 10cm Railgun(Eva Vadnais)
** December 1 -- Gauss Cannon Rate of Fire(Karabishi Juishao)
Commissioned OfficersLate September --
Dr. Karabishi Juishao increases expertise to 20% in Missiles & Kinetic Weapons.
Early October --
Herbert Duling's political reliability increases to 35%. As has happened every time so far in his career, he has successfully navigated the Epsilon Eridani crisis in the minds of humanity.
Early November --
Jay Cin IV is commissioned.
Fleet Movement Initiative: 155
Bonuses: 15% Terraforming, 10% Operations
Personality: Arrogant, Calm, follows orders without question
Outlook: He's definitely not what HQ is looking for right now(despite his respect for the chain of command), and debuts at the very bottom of the officers list. The one positive is he's joining at a good time, with naval opportunities expected to continue to grow.
Mid-November -- As
India Rakes continues to improve her skills in the wake of the year's revelations,
Derek Latch(governor of Mercury) demonstrates that SPACE was indeed right to limit his appointments in the wake of failing health. Not yet 40 years old, Latch is found dead of natural causes.
Salvador Loving is dispatched to replace him.
The big-picture takeaway here is that Duling and Rakes continue to tighten their grip on the SPACE administrative beauracracy. It's really hard to imagine anyone challenging them in the near future.
EarthOctober 4th -- A fourth commercial shipyard completed, to be known as ENDM(Estalerios Navais do Montego). There is no construction currently planned, but it immediately expands with a goal of 20kt capacity, filling a middle ground between the smaller Vickers-Armstrong yard and the two larger yards(P&A Group, Tod & MacGregor)
November 6th -- The first of the now-obsolete Belknap-class command ships is finished. It will now be not only the first, but the only. Fleet HQ didn't even bother assigning a CO this close to new tour assignments in a couple of months.
December 15 -- The
Custer refit is completed, and retooling begins for the Fletcher III, the freighter class redesign with sensors included. It is estimated that the Tod & MacGregor will be ready for the first refit late next summer.
December 19 -- The first pair of Lexingtons begin the process of getting refitted with their new sensors. Each is expected to take a little under three months.
