On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 4:57 PM, Ian Whitchurch <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A basic tech-12  jump-3 Scout/Courier - and its not easy to build better
> than jump-3 ships that go in the line of battle in Trav - costs about the
> same 1 MCr per dton every other military ship roughly costs, coming in at a
> base MCr96 for 100 dtons.
>
> A squadron of these can travel with the battlewagon, meaning it doesnt need
> to piss several percent of it's total volume up against a wall in carrying
> fighters that are equally unimportant in battle and cannot run messages back
> and forth to the fleet's other detatchments.
>

I've often wondered why it seemed the IN got ship upgrades every
decade or three, but the IISS was using basically the same ship for
the last thousand years.

I've had this mental image now and then of a poker game amoung the
3I's Joint Chiefs, where the Admiral complains about having to detach
escorts to carry mail at Jump-4 so they have any chance of catching up
with the fleet, since the Type-S's are only Jump-2.

The IISS Administrator replies,"Well , if the Navy didn't suck up all
the credits, maybe we'd get an upgraded design..."

The Admiral responds,"I know the commanders on scene hate losing the
firepower of the escort in an anti-missile role, and it'd almost be
worth it for the IN to fund a new 100 ton design..."

The Marine General adds,"If it had some way to deploy commando troops,
for behind the lines raids, we'd kick in on the funding"

The Army General nods, "And the ability to carry the mail quicker for
us would be a good thing..."

The IISS Admin ponders it, and then says,"The sensible thing would be
to accept that it's going to be _another_ thousand years before I hear
something like this, and design something really cutting edge under
the idea that in 250-500 years it'll be the common place technology. I
mean, Jump-2 was cutting edge when the Type-S first was thought up."

The others agree,and the research project begins...

.... So, if you were doing a ground-up redesign, what would you do ?