UN Fleet "cutter" names, slightly OT

>The vast majority of UN ships should be cutters.

Coast Guard cutters (at least in the US) are currently named after (in
descending order of cutter size):

1). Secretaries of the Treasury or Transportation (depending on who had
oversight for the CG or its predecessor the Revenue Cutter Service at
the
time) aka "Hamilton Class."
2). Famous previous CG/RCS cutters, aka "Bear" class
3). Admirable qualities, aka "Vigilance" (?) class (A Coastie I know
quips
about the USCGC Punctuality...)
4). Islands
5). Coastal points
6). Fish

The Island/Point classes already match with the previous discussions of
naming UNSC vessels after geographic features of Earth, as is fitting
for a
pan-national organization.

As has already been proposed as well, a "Secretary" class of something
or
other named after previous UN Secretary Generals would be a good one,
and
who wouldn't want to be stationed on a "Punctuality" class resupply
ship?

Getting back to the "cutter" issue: at the high end, CG cutters are
roughly
Frigates, as are most nation's Offshore Patrol Vessels or similar things
used for sovreignty patrols or fishery enforcement.  Cutters/OPVs are
not
as combat-efficient as pure warships, since they're geared more for
constant peacetime mission use (looking for smugglers, boarding fishing
boats, aiding distressed mariners, etc) rather than constant training
for
infrequent wartime use.  The UNSC "cutters" would also be carrying
plenty
of gear aimed toward exploration/first contact/disaster relief/whatever.

So it's clear that the UNSC ships would have less firepower than a "real
navy" ship of the same mass.  However, it would have fancy sensors,
extra
boarding shuttles/landing craft, extra supplies/overflow berthing for
evacuating refugees, allowances for embarking scientists and their
equipment and the like.

And, like CG cutters, I'm sure the color scheme for our helpful UNSC
ships
will be peaceful pure white with friendly high-visibility orange
stripes...

(On another note, I'm one of those apostates who plays FT with counters.
 I
think it's a great game system and really enjoy playing it, but painting
minis just seems like too much effort.	However, the way-cool UNSC ships
may make me change my ways.  Terrific designs, Jon!)

Keep 'Em Flying,

Kent

Kent Nordstrom (knord@qi.ucsb.edu)
"War is unthinkable but not impossible.
Therefore we must think about it."
		-Bernard Brodie (1946)