Re: Merchant Hulls and Amphibious Vessesls

On Fri, 7 Feb 1997 AEsir@aol.com wrote:

> I suggest that you read on in my description to the sections that
cover the
> troop carrying capacity etc.	Using the More Thrust section on troops
carried
> we can see that a standard warship can devote about 10% of its mass to
carry
> shore parties.  This means a standard warship can carry its Mass X 5/4
worth
> of troops.

To be accurate, 8% and Mass X 1, if 'worth of troops' means 'number of
marine soldiers' (from MT, page 18. The other FT/ground interface uses
completely different scales...). Troopships with no other equipment can
carry Mass X 25/4, or roughly Mass X 6, infantry soldiers (unless
they're
frozen down, of course). Not that it matters much.

>   Amphibious ships, particulary today, conduct their battles close to
enemy
> shores.  I see not difference in space.

I do. How sea-worthy are today's landing craft? Will they survive a 
storm on their own?

OTOH, in space the roughest part of the trip - excepting enemy fire, of
course - is the insertion into the atmosphere. Thus the landing, not the
long-distance transport, requires the most structural integrity (or
'seaworthyness'). 

>  The USS Tripoli survived a mine hit,
> because of her DC and structural integrity, meanwhile many converted
> merchants have not done so well...

Mines are far, far easier to hide in water than in space, though. 

The entire point is 'Must the transport get close enough to the enemy to
be fired upon while disembarking troops'? 

You think it has to, so you think military hulls are mandatory; I don't
think it has to - I think assault shuttles have long enough range to
launch quite far from the planet - so my troop transports don't need
military hulls... as long as the enemy is prevented from firing upon
them.
In addition, if my transports are 'container ships', they can change
roles
- for example to bulk haulers, or tankers (something you _can't_ do with
wet-naval ships) - far easier than purpose-built troop carriers... and
they'll probably be quite a bit cheaper. 

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson

"Father, what is wrong?"
"My shoes are too tight. But it does not matter, because
 I have forgotten how to dance."
- Londo Mollari