RE: IJN Tugs

We were desperate all right...the tugs were heavier escorts, we were
also
using armed trawlers!!!

Personally I do agree with you in regards to:

>Well, those ships dispersed would individually be subject to being
jumped,
>and in my view, a tender with carried boat would be far more vulnerable
>than a warship alone,

I was just trying to envisage the Battle riders concept and apply it to
the
tuffleyverse. :-)

I suppose FTL tugs are force multipliers in modern military terminology,
thus targeting and destroying them would have much more long term effect
than destroying the vessels they tow.

However, for myself, I would prefer standard ftl warships, much more
flexible!

Regards, Matt Tope.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
[mailto:owner-gzg-l@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU]On Behalf Of Doug Evans
Sent: 28 August 2003 14:32
To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
Subject: RE: IJN Tugs

>During the Battle of the Atlantic, especially in the early days, the
Royal
>Navy was so short of dedicated escort craft that Ocean going tugs were
>frequently used on the convoy runs.

While this is an example of desperation and not planned fleet design,
I'll
accept it.

>I suppose it would be nice to have large, armed tugs for the job in
hand,
>but how likely is it that a space faring power would put resources into
such
>a design when they could build a conventional warship instead? Why not
just
>send in a bare-bones conventional tug with a light escort?

I imagine the first would be my point, and the second would indicate my
'strategic defense', save you'd need a lot less than one tender/carrier
for
each ship in the fleet. To run an attack fleet with less transport than
you
have fighting craft seems to invite defeat in detail.

>that is to say the ships they tow would unhitch from the tugs and make
way
>to the redevouze point independently, leaving the tugs safely out of
>harms way.

Well, those ships dispersed would individually be subject to being
jumped,
and in my view, a tender with carried boat would be far more vulnerable
than a warship alone, but I see we probably disagree on that point.

Otherwise, all in all, we seem to agree.

The_Beast