In Condemnation of the Frigate
- Location
- madison
In Condemnation of the Frigate
Once more, the trusts navy has carried the day, sweeping aside numerically superior foes in a series of clashes, and once more we find the vast majority of or frigates and raiders reduced to blasted hulks and space dust. Yet another generation of our Voidsmen dead and dust. While it indeed the lot of the Voidsmen to die for the good of others, it is their duty to see that their lives are spent at the best possible exchange. Something that present frigate designs do not appear to be achieving. Worse, the extreme rate of fatalities among our escorts has greatly reduced the abilities of the trusts fleet to foster a core of veteran voidesmen. Not only does the constant slaughter and replacement of our lighter assets mean far too many careers are cut tragically short, but it has gotten to the point where each wave of escorts will need a core of veterans drawn from more durable ships, further sapping our store of experience and greening our crews.
A more aggressive design for a less desperate age.
At the core of it the issue is two-fold, first, the escort heavy fleets of most powers in this age have resulted in fleets largely optimized to destroy escort weight vessels. Thus when we face foes they are most often focused heavily on the destruction of mass numbers of thin-skinned vessels. While our own frigates are a good deal more sturdy than is typical, this is largely overcome by the greater numbers of our foes. The second is a somewhat more strategic reality, the soldier and page frigates are at their weakest when defending against a planetary assault, as the enemy cannot be harassed overlong as they make their way to the planet. In brighter ages, this was a tolerable fault, but in a modern context, our low strategic speed in comparison to most other powers means we are forced into a far more defensive posture, thus a designs ability to deal with a planetary invasion is of critical importance.
A possible alternative.
The 2 primary purposes of escorts in a planetary assault situation is to provide a screen for heavier ships, as well as providing the bulk of the overall point defense capacity of the fleet while keeping pace with most fleet elements. Frigates are if nothing else, extraordinarily cost-effective at their duties, thus the question is not what other class could fulfill these roles, but what other vessels could fulfill them with an equal efficiency in yard time. The closest comparisons being the escort cruisers, who take 21 slip years to the frigates 5, a ratio of 4.2 to 1.
Speed wise, both escort cruisers are comparable to frigates. In their ability to act as a screen is somewhat more complex. Post-battle analysis shows that the majority of our escorts are falling to escort and cruiser scale macro cannon fire. Thus we can get a rough idea of how much better a theoretical force of escort cruisers would fare against such an attack. However, this is somewhat complicated by the lack of uniformity among chaotic policies.
The most recent force seemed to benefit from approximately a full 40% increase in armor penetration over the imperial standard, The highest yet encountered. As such it can be used to establish an upper range for what we can expect from a chaotic polity, whereas the old imperial standard can be used as a lower bound. Against cruiser scale macro cannons, each escort cruiser will take as many shots as 2.95 to 3.40 frigates to disable, against escort scale macro cannon each escort cruiser will take as many shots as 6.12 to 9.34 frigates to disable. Given most chaos policies will trend closer to the lower end, and the strong emphasize on escorts by most local powers, it can be assumed that in most cases 4.2 frigates will have far less survivability than a single escort cruiser.
The last point that must be considered is point defense. In this regard, the Youxia escort cruiser is deeply inadequate. Providing less half the point defense coverage than the equivalent frigates. The monk, however, not only matches but dramatically exceeds the AA potential of the equivalent frigates. While the monk's AA suite is no better than the Youxia's, it carries six wings of strike fighters. While equating of AA provided by interceptors with AA provided by escorts is not quite 1 to 1, a monk with 3 interceptor wings provides almost twice* as much total AA coverage than the equivalent number of frigates.
Secondary concerns.
While the primary use of frigates is to screen, they are not actually unarmed. Our theoretical 4.2 frigate squadron has either 25.2 medium range escort macro cannon batteries or 12.6 medium range escort macro cannon batteries and 4.2 medium range escort lance depending on if it is made up of Squire or pages respectively. This must be weighed against 3 bomber wings and 2 medium range cruiser lances. This is not nearly as uneven a trade as the numbers would suggest. Medium ran escort patters are of little use against most targets, lacking the penetration to threaten anything more heavily armored than a Cobra class destroyer. Once accuracy and low penetration are accounted for, the bombers alone are at least equivalent in most situations. Thus there is at least a slight increase in the offensive power of the fleet.
Another secondary advantage is a slight net increase in the effectiveness of the initial torpedo volley. An escort curser is able to mount six cruiserweight torpedoes, a significantly more deadly spread than the 12.6 mounted by the equivalent frigates due to cruiser torpedos increased payload and penetration.
With the above facts in mind, it is my professional opinion that the trust should not replaces it's lost frigate flotillas with yet more soldiers and pages, but with a wave of the far more useful, and survivable, monk escort cruisers. We have fed enough generations of our best to the void between the stars. There simply is no pressing need to continue to send out our brave men and women in such flimsy ships. Not when more study vessels can fulfill its intended role at least as well.
*1.984 times as much to be precise.
I thought too hard about the frigate V escort cursier thing, and an in verse paper popped out. @Durin a thing.
Once more, the trusts navy has carried the day, sweeping aside numerically superior foes in a series of clashes, and once more we find the vast majority of or frigates and raiders reduced to blasted hulks and space dust. Yet another generation of our Voidsmen dead and dust. While it indeed the lot of the Voidsmen to die for the good of others, it is their duty to see that their lives are spent at the best possible exchange. Something that present frigate designs do not appear to be achieving. Worse, the extreme rate of fatalities among our escorts has greatly reduced the abilities of the trusts fleet to foster a core of veteran voidesmen. Not only does the constant slaughter and replacement of our lighter assets mean far too many careers are cut tragically short, but it has gotten to the point where each wave of escorts will need a core of veterans drawn from more durable ships, further sapping our store of experience and greening our crews.
A more aggressive design for a less desperate age.
At the core of it the issue is two-fold, first, the escort heavy fleets of most powers in this age have resulted in fleets largely optimized to destroy escort weight vessels. Thus when we face foes they are most often focused heavily on the destruction of mass numbers of thin-skinned vessels. While our own frigates are a good deal more sturdy than is typical, this is largely overcome by the greater numbers of our foes. The second is a somewhat more strategic reality, the soldier and page frigates are at their weakest when defending against a planetary assault, as the enemy cannot be harassed overlong as they make their way to the planet. In brighter ages, this was a tolerable fault, but in a modern context, our low strategic speed in comparison to most other powers means we are forced into a far more defensive posture, thus a designs ability to deal with a planetary invasion is of critical importance.
A possible alternative.
The 2 primary purposes of escorts in a planetary assault situation is to provide a screen for heavier ships, as well as providing the bulk of the overall point defense capacity of the fleet while keeping pace with most fleet elements. Frigates are if nothing else, extraordinarily cost-effective at their duties, thus the question is not what other class could fulfill these roles, but what other vessels could fulfill them with an equal efficiency in yard time. The closest comparisons being the escort cruisers, who take 21 slip years to the frigates 5, a ratio of 4.2 to 1.
Speed wise, both escort cruisers are comparable to frigates. In their ability to act as a screen is somewhat more complex. Post-battle analysis shows that the majority of our escorts are falling to escort and cruiser scale macro cannon fire. Thus we can get a rough idea of how much better a theoretical force of escort cruisers would fare against such an attack. However, this is somewhat complicated by the lack of uniformity among chaotic policies.
The most recent force seemed to benefit from approximately a full 40% increase in armor penetration over the imperial standard, The highest yet encountered. As such it can be used to establish an upper range for what we can expect from a chaotic polity, whereas the old imperial standard can be used as a lower bound. Against cruiser scale macro cannons, each escort cruiser will take as many shots as 2.95 to 3.40 frigates to disable, against escort scale macro cannon each escort cruiser will take as many shots as 6.12 to 9.34 frigates to disable. Given most chaos policies will trend closer to the lower end, and the strong emphasize on escorts by most local powers, it can be assumed that in most cases 4.2 frigates will have far less survivability than a single escort cruiser.
The last point that must be considered is point defense. In this regard, the Youxia escort cruiser is deeply inadequate. Providing less half the point defense coverage than the equivalent frigates. The monk, however, not only matches but dramatically exceeds the AA potential of the equivalent frigates. While the monk's AA suite is no better than the Youxia's, it carries six wings of strike fighters. While equating of AA provided by interceptors with AA provided by escorts is not quite 1 to 1, a monk with 3 interceptor wings provides almost twice* as much total AA coverage than the equivalent number of frigates.
Secondary concerns.
While the primary use of frigates is to screen, they are not actually unarmed. Our theoretical 4.2 frigate squadron has either 25.2 medium range escort macro cannon batteries or 12.6 medium range escort macro cannon batteries and 4.2 medium range escort lance depending on if it is made up of Squire or pages respectively. This must be weighed against 3 bomber wings and 2 medium range cruiser lances. This is not nearly as uneven a trade as the numbers would suggest. Medium ran escort patters are of little use against most targets, lacking the penetration to threaten anything more heavily armored than a Cobra class destroyer. Once accuracy and low penetration are accounted for, the bombers alone are at least equivalent in most situations. Thus there is at least a slight increase in the offensive power of the fleet.
Another secondary advantage is a slight net increase in the effectiveness of the initial torpedo volley. An escort curser is able to mount six cruiserweight torpedoes, a significantly more deadly spread than the 12.6 mounted by the equivalent frigates due to cruiser torpedos increased payload and penetration.
With the above facts in mind, it is my professional opinion that the trust should not replaces it's lost frigate flotillas with yet more soldiers and pages, but with a wave of the far more useful, and survivable, monk escort cruisers. We have fed enough generations of our best to the void between the stars. There simply is no pressing need to continue to send out our brave men and women in such flimsy ships. Not when more study vessels can fulfill its intended role at least as well.
*1.984 times as much to be precise.
I thought too hard about the frigate V escort cursier thing, and an in verse paper popped out. @Durin a thing.
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