Building Your Interstellar Navy | Ship Types, Naming Conventions, & Fleet Doctrines

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unusually big episode. will this mean season two of invicta will feature ships using a naming convention that fits this video?

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/BronzeComponents 📅︎︎ Aug 28 2020 đź—«︎ replies

Really enjoyed this!
I'm all for more worldbuilding episodes!

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/LucianoSK 📅︎︎ Aug 30 2020 đź—«︎ replies

Navy should be called "John paul Jones" after the greatest naval man of all time

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/ASU16run 📅︎︎ Sep 04 2020 đź—«︎ replies

I know it's unlikely I'll find an answer here but does anyone know who the speaker is in this episode? I'd like to name a shuttle after him in a story I'm writing.

👍︎︎ 1 👤︎︎ u/Dr_Iodite 📅︎︎ Nov 05 2020 đź—«︎ replies
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“The history of Sea Power is largely, though by no means solely, a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war. The profound influence of sea commerce upon the wealth and strength of countries was clearly seen long before the true principles which governed its growth and prosperity were detected. To secure to one's own people a disproportionate share of such benefits, every effort was made to exclude others, either by the peaceful legislative methods of monopoly or prohibitory regulations, or, when these failed, by direct violence.” So begins the pages of “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History”, a history of naval warfare published in 1890 by Alfred Thayer Mahan. Such was the impact of this book that it is widely credited with sparking the naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Imperial Germany, transforming the doctrine of the Japanese Navy and spurring the United States to become a great power across the Pacific and the World. The core of Mahan’s argument was relatively simple and familiar to anyone has studied the UNSC’s struggle, against the Covenant, the Dominion War, or the Clone Wars, : a great navy is essential for national prosperity. To expand into new markets, you need to look overseas, to protect access to those markets and deter foreign rivals, you need a powerful fleet. While Mahan could not predict every development in Naval Warfare, what was true in the late 19th century holds true in the 21st and will likely still hold true in 24th and beyond. The success of any great power not bound to a single planet but instead spread across multiple star systems will depend upon its ability to maintain its access to those planets and develop its relationships with any foreign interstellar nations, deterring foreign aggression, if necessary So, if we agree that an interstellar navy is critical to any spacefaring civilization, what kind of ships should it include? How should it be organized? What doctrine should it follow? These are the questions we’ll be discussing on this episode of “Incoming”. And buckle up folks, grab some stroganoff and vanilla coke, cause this is a long one. But before we begin, it’s important to note that space seems to work quite a bit different depending upon which alternate reality you find yourself in. Sometimes space seems to be a lot like the one we know and love, there’s gravity and you need to worry about annoying things like physics and mass. Other times space is kinda like an ocean. There’s an up and a down, and everyone just seems to know which is which. Ships can fly wherever they like and it’s no big deal. Sometimes space really is an ocean, there’s treasure galleons and pirates and you need to worry about your points of sail, so you don’t luff your space spinnaker when your ship is tacking against solar winds. With that in mind, this guide might not be relevant to every interstellar navy, but hopefully this can be at least something of a starting point. And the most interesting place to start it seems to me is ship type, now this usually refers to a ships’ size and intended use and should not be confused with a ship’s class. For example, in the case of a Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser, heavy cruiser would the ship type, and Constitution the ship’s class. Now, while most interstellar navies across alternate worlds have adopted maritime terminology in describing their various ship types, these designations are always evolving. Even on our own world, Destroyers and Cruisers used in the 19th century are very different from Destroyers and Cruisers in 21st century and their transition into interstellar use would certainly bring about even greater changes. There can even be a bit of overlap between ship classes and they’re not always mutually exclusive. With that in mind, when discussing ship types, they should be considered starting points, and not rigid constraints on warship design. We’ll be starting with the smallest ship type’s, FACs, Corvettes, Frigates, all the way up to Battleships and Aircraft Carriers and then close with some more unusual designs. Okay so, FACs Patrol Boats, Patrol Craft, Patrol Vessels, whatever you call them whatever is being patrolled, these are generally the smallest ships you’ll see in any navy, but they might also operate in a nation’s coast guard, police force or even customs office. These aren’t typically designed to engage enemy warships, but rather, as the name suggests, patrol their area of responsibility and undertake various border protection roles. You’d find ships like these involved in anti-smuggling, anti-piracy, and immigration law enforcement; they might also be called upon to participate in rescue operations. In an interstellar navy, I would except ships like these to operate from terrestrial or orbital facilities and rarely be included in any major battle fleet. They might not even be equipped with whatever technology allows for travel between star systems, and instead be confined to either a planet’s orbit or its star system. In wartime, they likely wouldn’t be used in any direct battles, but instead intended to defend important stations, or maybe ambush larger vessels in groups, attempting to sward their countermeasures with lots of expendable, cheap munitions. An example of a Patrol Craft would be the Lewis & Clark, a Search and Rescue vessel operated by United States Aerospace Command and made famous by its investigation of the Event Horizon. However, as with most ship types, Patrol Craft is a rather broad classification and can include vessels that might be designated fast attack craft, torpedo boats or missile boats. These can be outfitted with faster engines to accommodate high speed interdiction, an increased armament through which many smaller Patrol Craft could more effectively overwhelm larger warships, or even be designed with a small hanger meant to accommodate a shuttle or starfighter. Some of these vessels are large enough that they might be considered the next largest ship type, Corvettes. A corvette is traditionally the smallest class of vessels considered to be a proper or “rated” warship as determined by the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail. They are fast, maneuverable, and easily produced, but unlike the smaller Patrol Craft, are generally equipped to operate further from friendly ports. Their main duty is protecting convoys, although specific variants can be designed for minesweeping, mine laying, anti-aircraft, or anti-ship duties. Multi-role corvettes which incorporate all these applications are increasingly popular both here on Earth, and you’d expect across alternate worlds as well. The Polaris Class operated by the United Empire of Earth would be a good example of an interstellar multi-role corvette. It’s fast, versatile, and suited to both military operations, orbital security patrols or search and rescue. The Raider Class used by the Galactic Empire and later the First Order is another good example. This class in particular was outfitted for anti-starfighter duties and at times, assigned as a dedicated transport to special forces units. I do have to question that later usage though, a warship the size of a corvette with dozens, even hundreds of crew seems oversized and overpowered to allocate to a unit like “Inferno Squad” which is comprised of only half a dozen soldiers. It seems to me to be more efficient to centralize multiple Inferno Squad sized units on a larger warship and have them deploy via shuttle. Which brings us to Frigates. Now, this might be the most ill-defined ship type fielded within any navy. Ship classes designated as frigates have at times, more closely resembled, corvettes, destroyers, cruisers, or even battleships. There have been heavy frigates, super heavy frigates, armored frigates, guided missile frigates, anti submarine frigates, air defense frigates, escort frigates, patrol frigates, stealth frigates, 1st class frigates, 2nd, class frigates, and probably at least one laundry frigate. Basically, whatever you need to achieve with your navy, somebody has built a ship to do it, and then called it a frigate. And you might forgive them for that, frigates are generally the most widespread ship type in any navy and for good reason. They’re large enough to be able to perform a wide variety of roles, yet not so large that upgrading them to specialize in a specific area is not prohibitively expensive. They’re typically easier and less expensive to build and maintain, and don’t require an excessively large crew to operate. They can be deployed independently, in groups, or serve as effective escorts for larger ships. In my estimation, frigates are the best bang for your buck. On their own, a multi-role frigate can accomplish pretty much anything you could reasonably expect, although maybe not as effectively or quickly as a purpose-built design. In a fleet however, frigates are best used as escort ships. They would be deployed in a wide perimeter around the larger and more expensive capital ships, intercepting enemy fighters or munitions before they can hit a target that might be harder to replace. In a major conflict, you might not want to be assigned to a frigate if you have the option. No Admiral of any worth would ever describe a ship as “expendable”, at least not publicly, but if faced with the choice of losing a frigate or an aircraft carrier, or a frigate or a transport ship loaded with material, the choice is pretty clear. The Stalwart-class, in service with the UNSC is a good example of an interstellar frigates, serving primarily as a fleet escort, but also capable of acting independently. I do take issue with its secondary use as a troop transport though, but we’ll be that addressing that a little later. The Nebulon-B Escort Frigates used primarily by the Rebel Alliance are another good example, but their role within the Alliance fleet was slightly problematic. At least one Nebulon-B within the Rebellion was described as a “Medical Frigate” and there’s some issues here too. While I previously stated that frigates could be used in almost any capacity, a dedicated hospital ship is a bit of an exception. In our own world, there are extremely specific restrictions under international law related to hospital ships. They need to be clearly marked, not be used for any military purpose, and not interfere with enemy combatants. Whether or not the Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance have their own version of the Hague Convention, arming a hospital ships with guns and then flying it into an enemy fleet is a bad look. That’s an easy propaganda victory for the Empire if they can prove the Rebels were taking cover behind the sick and wounded. Next in line are Destroyers. The difference in both size and use between frigates and destroyers is increasingly blurred and some navies don’t make the distinction at all. In theory, Destroyers are simply a more capable frigate, with greater armament, protection, speed and endurance. While originally intended as specialized vessels, they’ve mostly evolved into multi-purpose warships. They’re also the largest warships you’re likely to see in service outside of major naval powers. The Algos Class, in service with the Gallente Federation would be an appropriate example of a destroyer. Distinct enough from the smaller frigates used by the Federation’s Navy yet not rivalling the size or capabilities of larger cruisers. The same cannot be said of the Omega Class Destroyer used by the Earth Alliance. By our current definitions, the Omega Class resembles more so a battleship than a destroyer, and was even designed to replace one, so its designation is questionable. Were it not for the presence of cruisers and larger ship types in the Earth Alliance fleet, I would have guessed that the definition of Destroyer had expanded, or it had come to encompass a wider variety of designs, but there is no such easy explanation. So now we arrive at cruisers. It should not surprise you that cruisers too have been built to serve in a variety of roles, but at their basic level, most are designed to balance speed, protection, and firepower. Specialized variants exist across different classes and navies, but often include, air defense, surface bombardment, and anti-ship roles. They were initially intended to operate in distant territories, participate in commerce raiding, or scouting for the main battle fleet. Modern designs are more jack of all trades. Where modern cruisers differ from smaller ship types is that they usually the smallest type of ship to include some sort of flag facilities suitable for an admiral and his staff. This allows a cruiser to serve as a flagship for a flotilla or even replace a larger carrier as the center of a battlegroup. The Galaxy Class, while perhaps not technically designated a cruiser by Starfleet, is nevertheless a great example of an interstellar cruiser. Their blend of speed, firepower and protection made them suitable for long range exploration missions during peacetime, while during major conflicts they transitioned into command ships and were deployed in immensely powerful “Galaxy Wings”. Hopefully, they evacuated all the civilians on board before then. The UNSC’s Marathon Class would be an example of a more traditional cruiser. The ship is mostly balanced in its characteristics and sometimes formed the center of smaller battlegroups while larger fleets would include entire Marathon groups. Now, as we move past cruisers, things get a bit tricky. In our own world, cruisers tend to represent the largest warships outside of Aircraft Carriers, with everything larger and more powerful rendered obsolete, by changing tactics and technology. However, there have been times in naval history where larger ships have been useful and necessary, and who can promise that in an interstellar capacity, these types of ships might not be needed once more. Straddling the line between cruisers and battleships, we have the aptly named battlecruiser. While cruisers were a balance of speed, protection and firepower, a battlecruiser emphasizes speed and firepower at the cost of protection. The theory behind these warships was that they would chase down any ship with an inferior armament and outrun anything that outgunned them. Battlecruisers are glass cannons, not really meant to take a hit, but rather dish them out and then quickly escape if necessary. Yet, the battlecruisers in service in interstellar setting don’t often reflect this. The Battlecruiser used by the Hiigaran Empire isn’t one of the fastest ships in the fleet, but rather one of the slowest, meant to brawl with other capital ships instead of chasing down weaker targets. The Resurgence Class Star Destroyer used by the First Order has also been designated a Battlecruiser but doesn’t appear to operate like one. Ironically, the First Order’s pursuit of the Resistance is the exact situation that battlecruisers were designed for, hunting down slower, older cruisers. And yet, these ships were unable to close the gap. And I think the misappropriation of the battlecruiser name has a lot to do with a type of stigma related to the next ship type on our list, the Battleship. On our own world, battleships were the queens of the sea, slow moving but immensely armoured and unrivaled firepower. They were to be the deciding factor in any major fleet action and a major asset in surface bombardment. Ultimately however, as air power advanced, and other technologies changed the nature of naval warfare, battleships were rendered obsolete. Even when upgraded with better engines that gave them the speed previously reserved for battlecruisers, without the sacrifices to armor, these “fast battleships” were just no longer cost-effective. I think the designation of “battleship” has become so associated with antiquated and obsolete technologies that nobody wants to call their new modern ship a battleship. Even if it has all the qualities of one, like the Resurgence or the Higarrian Battlecruiser. The Imperium of Man doesn’t care though, the Retribution Class is the quintessential battleship design. Slow, cumbersome, but absolutely enormous with overwhelming firepower based around plenty of heavy guns. The Retribution is something of an outlier though, instead, many interstellar navies seem to have invented or adopted new terms to describe their super-heavy warships. Dreadnought is the most popular of these but I’m not entirely sure if that makes sense. The namesake of this ship-type was the HMS Dreadnought, a battleship with a revolutionary design that made all others obsolete overnight. Every battleship was thereafter known as either pre-dreadnaught or post-dreadnaught, until eventually every battleship in service shared the characteristics of the HMS Dreadnaught and there was no longer any point to distinguishing them. So, does it make sense for the Executor Class Super Star Destroyers of the Galactic Empire to be officially designated as “Star Dreadnoughts”. Well, the term doesn’t fit perfectly, but that’s true of any ship type, so I don’t really have a problem with it. I’m not sure how the Galactic Empire came to be influenced by the Royal Navy, but that’s a question for another time. It makes a bit more sense when the Systems Alliance has ships called Dreadnoughts though. While their role within the Alliance Navy is remarkably similar to that of a Battleship or even Battlecruiser, I can understand not wanting to have those terms associated with it. Ulike the Empire, they do exist in a universe where the HMS Dreadnought influenced ship names and design. So, moving on from the battleship and the battleship by any other name, we come to the ship type that made them obsolete. The carrier. On Earth, these are the largest warships ever to have been built, and are typically designed to fulfill a single role, that of a seagoing airbase. A modern fleet carrier is not meant to attack enemy ships directly, or even be fired upon. Rather, it is the armament of its aircraft that forms its striking power, and this has become so devastating over the decades that the role of most ships in any fleet will just be to protect the carrier. In an interstellar navy, you would expect carriers to be used the same way. They would carry a host of starfighters, but generally not be found in the thick of the fighting. But building a ship for an interstellar navy isn’t quite the same as building a ship for a maritime navy, and it allows for some interesting innovations. The concept of a battleship-aircraft carrier hybrid, or “battle carrier” has been around for a long time but never really gained much traction. When you take all the ship infrastructure needed to support batteries of heavy guns, and all the ammunition needed to keep them firing, and then combine that with all the infrastructure needed to host an air wing, hanger decks, jet fuel, a flight deck, you’d probably end up with a giant mess. A battleship that can’t take a hit, and an aircraft carrier that can’t launch fighters very efficiently. In space though, a few of these problems have solutions. The first is that in space, you can make your warship as big as you want, with as much armor as you can slap on without worrying if the thing is just going to sink. And depending on the technology used by the navy operating it, you might not even need a full flight deck. Your Tie Fighter, Star Fury, F-302 or whatever, doesn’t need to worry about achieving enough lift to make it into the air. Which brings up a whole host of possibilities. By their traditional definitions, of all the ship types I’ve talked about, only the carrier can host a dedicated air wing. But with advanced technology, might come the opportunity to add air-wings to battleships, cruisers, or maybe even frigates and destroyers without impacting their primary role. It could be that having a squadron or two on board a warship becomes as ubiquitous as making a ship out of metal instead of wood, to the point where you don’t even need a special designation for it. I don’t see any reason why an interstellar fleet couldn’t have almost every warship carry varying amounts of starfighters, and then maybe a few dedicated, traditional carriers. The Galactic Empire seems to at least party agree with me. Imperial Star Destroyers carry heavy turbolaser batteries alongside wings of Tie Fighters. Same with the Battlestars used by the United Colonies of Kobol. Even smaller ships within those two navies, and many others, have demonstrated the ability to carry starfighters. Even on our own world, we’re beginning to see these types of hybrid warships enter active service. Assault ships are a combination of aircraft carrier and troopship. While they can usually only deploy helicopters or VTOL aircraft, and can’t carry as many troops, tanks and supplies as a dedicated transport, they can be especially effective during amphibious landings and a great part of a rapid reaction force. Additionally, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union followed a different type of naval doctrine entirely which we’ll discuss in detail later on. Rather than building dedicated Fleet Carriers like the United States, it built our worlds equivalent of a star destroyer, or what they termed a Heavy Aircraft Carrying Missile Cruiser. Not only could it carry fixed wing aircraft, but it also had 12 long range anti-ship missiles. Okay, so if the idea of putting a bunch of starfighters on every ship type might make a bit of sense, and carrier troopship hybrids exist in our own world, would it make sense to stick a marine brigade or company on every interstellar warship just in case ya need them? A destroyer that for example could jump into an enemy star system, shoot at some ships and then land its troops. Well, I don’t think this is a great idea. Adding fighters to ship designs make sense, because regardless of ship type, those fighters supplement its capabilities. But troops and tanks don’t. In space combat, they’re not useful at all and just going to be sitting around. Let’s look at the Pillar of Autumn. When it crashed on Installation 04, it was loaded up with a ton of marines and tanks and all terrain vehicles, and those came in really handy. In that instance, it was beneficial. But the Pillar of Autumn was a light cruiser, if it had been performing the role for which it had been designed, all those tanks and troops would have just been a burden. It was only a minor miracle that they were useful at all. I don’t think it makes sense for the UNSC to include an infantry brigade hope that when they’re shot down they’ll find a planet or something to land on and then continue fighting the Covenant. What might make sense instead is to include giant hanger or cargo facilities on warships that are able to carry Marine or Army units when necessary. They’re only used during operations that would involve a planetary assault. And for all I know, the marine units aboard the Autumn we’re not a permanent garrison aboard the ship, but maybe just being ferried off Reach. But the best solution in my mind is something like the Acclamator class. This is a troopship first and foremost. It has enough guns to not leave it totally defenseless, but it’s not pretending to be a cruiser or battleship. But some Navies ignore this idea and put everything imaginable into one giant ship. These have no real point of comparison in maritime history here on Earth. They are sometimes called, Titans, Juggernauts, Colossus, but the general idea is that it’s just a really big ship. They can’t be built in large numbers, but will always be the flagship of even the largest battlegroup and sometimes even a type of mobile capital. I’m not sure I understand the point of these. While certainly capable of destroying any other ship in the galaxy, the idea of concentrating so much firepower in a single ship seems inefficient. No matter how powerful the ship, it can still only be in once place at a time. Which is really more useful, a single First Order Mega-Class with I dunno, 150,000 turbolasers, or 100 Resurgence Class with 1500 turbolasers. And with crew compliments running into the millions, what they’ve really built here isn’t so much a warship, as a mobile city. Unless it’s somehow entirely self sufficient, you probably wouldn’t even need to destroy it, just intercept all the food, supplies, and whatever else it needs to operate. The idea might make sense if it was used as a kind of mobile fleet base and headquarters, intended to support the rest of the fleet, but in that case, you wouldn’t want it anywhere near combat, and it wouldn’t need such overwhelming firepower. So with that, we’ve covered the basic ship types you’re likely to see in any interstellar navy, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible. There’s still all the various transports, and auxiliary ships, hospital ships, depot ships, replenishment ships, ammunition ships, amenities ships, which were just loaded up with movie theaters and beer, and I haven’t even touched on submarines and what their counterpart might look like in space. But before I move on, there’s one last type of ship I think could make a lot of sense in space, the Arsenal ship. The idea behind an arsenal ship is really simple, it doesn’t need to go very fast or have a lot of armor, it’s only job is to carry as many missiles as possible. It might not even have a crew, instead being controlled remotely by an accompanying cruiser or even an AWACS aircraft. In my mind, this is the perfect counter to the giant Juggernauts so loved by the First Order and others. When the Supremacy shows up, it’s not met by an enemy fleet intending to duke it out, but just a few drone ships each packing a few thousand proton torpedos. For an organization like the Rebel Alliance that can’t afford to fight a giant war of attrition, that seems like a great solution. Hopefully, I’ve made the point that ship types can be nebulous and vague and the differences between them can be subtle at times or even non-existent. What’s interesting to me though, is in the way that politics can sometimes interfere with how ship types are designated. For example, let’s say your country lost a major conflict, and as a result of that, forever renounced war as a sovereign right of the nation. Instead, it agreed to maintain only a small and limited Self Defense Force. It would be hard to argue that its navy would be allowed to have an aircraft carrier for example. But what if the years go by, the international situation starts to look a little different, and you decide you really, really, want an aircraft carrier. Well the solution is simple, build one but don’t call it that. If anyone complains, all you have to say is “well that’s not an aircraft carrier, you can clearly see it is a helicopter destroyer, completely different”. Or what if a foreign power controls an especially important navigational route that your country really wants to use. And what if they’ve imposed some kind of convention on the use of that route, say, prohibiting the transit of warships larger than a certain size, and locked it off to aircraft carriers altogether. Well the solution is easy, throw a few cruiser missiles onto your aircraft carrier, and if anyone complains, all you have to say is “well that’s not an aircraft carrier, you can clearly see it is an aircraft-carrying cruiser, completely different.” I find the politics surrounding how ships are designated to be really interesting and yet I can’t find many examples of this in Interstellar Navies. One I did find however was in the rearmament of the New Republic. When their navy began building warships comparable in size, power and role to the Star Destroyers used by the Galactic Empire, many in the Republic were understandably concerned. And Navy’s solution was actually pretty great, all they had to say is “well that’s not a Star Destroyer, you can clearly see it is a Star Defender, completely different”. I love those kind of details, so if you’re aware of any others, let me know. Okay, but even though ship types are kinda nebulous, and politics can interfere with them, that shouldn’t give interstellar navies license to call ships anything they want. If some navy built a battleship and called it a corvette, there should be a really good reason as to why. Likewise, navies need to avoid the temptation to just throw on a bunch of verbs or adjectives to make things sound cooler. On our world, the word “Assault” typically indicates an aircraft carrier geared towards amphibious landings. Yet I feel like some Interstellar Navies that shall remain nameless have taken this as evidence you can just throw the word “Assault” on any ship to make it sound like its better at attacking stuff. The same goes for terms like “strategic”, “tactical”, “support”, “advanced” and “command”. Any navy with an Advanced Ultra-Heavy Tactical Assault Dreadnought has gone too far. Okay, enough about ship types. Let’s talk about how they’re organized and what doctrines they can follow. Now the purpose of naval doctrine is to enhance the operational effectiveness of naval forces, it guides the actions of naval branches in supporting national objectives. Depending on those national objectives, those doctrines can vary wildly. The national objectives of the United States and its naval policy seem the most applicable to interstellar warfare. The American Navy’s main purpose is that of power projection. It can operate huge fleets basically anywhere in the world. The most powerful of its Task Forces are known as Carrier Battle Groups. These fleets are centered around one or more aircraft carriers and then escorted by cruisers, destroyers, frigates, submarines etc. The primary offensive element is not necessarily the ships themselves, but rather the air wing stationed aboard the carrier. This should sound very familiar as it’s also how most Interstellar Navies seem to be organized and operate. There is a core group of capital ships hosting hundreds if not thousands of fighters, escorted by smaller, support vessels. They screen the capital ships from fire, allowing the fighters to do most of the offensive action. And this makes nothing but sense. If your nation is spread across various planets and star systems, having a navy with the ability to project power across that territory is a necessity. The American doctrine of power projection and fleets organized around carrier groups, in my opinion, should be the default, standard organizational structure of most interstellar navies. But there are other options, and some might even make more sense for specific organizations. The main counterpoint to American power projection during the Cold War was the Soviet strategy of area denial. Unlike the United States, the Soviet Union was largely self sufficient. During wartime, it wouldn’t need to protect trade convoys at the same scale as NATO, nor would it need to ship tens of millions of troops and all the associated supplies and equipment across an ocean, their major targets were just a tank ride away. Because of this, enormous fleets of warships projecting power across the globe weren’t a huge priority for the Soviet Navy. That’s not to say they totally abandoned the idea, Soviet carrier groups did exist and were deployed to ports across the world, but there was little chance they would pose a credible threat to their American counterparts during wartime. Instead, Soviet naval strategy and doctrine was centered around a primarily defense force. It’s ships and aircraft wouldn’t engage enemy fleets in direct face to face attacks, but rather lure them into range of friendly ground based airfields and bases. American carriers could then be attacked by a swarm of cruise missiles launched from warships, ground silos, and aircraft launched from both Soviet carriers and Soviet air bases. So could this work in an Interstellar setting? I think so. Imagine a nation that exists only in a single star system or planet, or maybe in a really well centralized cluster of stars. If it didn’t intend to project power somewhere far across the universe, only operating a smaller collection of ships supported by surface installations could make a ton of sense. It’s mentioned that the Systems Alliance Navy rarely engages in battles situated in open space because either side can almost always just retreat. In that case, if a nation can’t compete with the Alliance Navy directly, I think adopting that Soviet style of interstellar warfare is a great solution. The final Doctrine distinct enough from the American and Soviet approaches, is probably that used by the Kriegsmarine in WWII. Unable to compete directly with the British, French or American navies, the Germans instead found the most success in using groups of submarines organized into wolfpacks to target enemy supply convoys. While the Kriegsmarine did operate larger surface warships, these were more often than not a drain on the overall war effort, and not of any major consideration to the Allies. Ironically enough, the Rebel Alliance could learn a lot from the Kriegsmarine. Capital ships really have no place in the Rebellion. They are expensive to build expensive to maintain, and expensive to keep fully crewed. The Rebellion is far too limited in both manpower and resources to justify putting so much of both into a giant target. When the Galactic Empire is capable of always fielding greater numbers and greater firepower, being able to hit your targets and get the hell out is much more important than the associated prestige of operating a Capital Ship. The Romulans might also take a few notes from the Kriegsmarine. A cloaked ship is essentially the U-Boat of space, why engage the Dominion or Federation directly when you can fire some torpedoes and then literally disappear into space? As we near the end of this mammoth look at Interstellar Navies, we finally reach the most important part. What do you name your ships? I am a sucker for clearly defined naming convention. Not every Navy uses them, but why wouldn’t you. And as with most things, a lot more thought goes into what to name a warship than you might think. So let’s start with the Americans. Their naming conventions have changed a bit over time and like everything there’s plenty of exceptions, but traditionally it goes something like this. Aircraft Carriers are named for historical events, mainly battles, or increasingly for US Presidents. Battleships are named for US States. Cruisers were named for cities. Destroyers and Frigates are named for Navy and Marine corps heroes. Next, the Imperial Russian Navy. They had no carriers, but Battleships were named after Russian Royalty, Saints, Generals, and Battles. Cruisers were named for Mythical figures, Admirals, or Gemstones. Destroyed were named after adjectives, like Valiant. Frigates were named after birds, or animals. Now that Imperial Russian Navy makes for a great example because you can see how these conventions changed when the Soviets took over. The new regime was a bit more eclectic with their naming over their history, but it ended up looking something like this. Aircraft Carriers were named after cities. Battleships and battlecruisers named or revolutionary heroes. Cruisers were named after admirals, generals, or cities. Destroyers were named after adjectives. And frigates named for animals and weather phenomena. Now onto the Japanese Carriers, I’m sorry, I mean helicopter destroyers, are named for traditional provinces and mountains. Destroyers are named for mountains and weather terms, like hurricane. And frigates and named for rivers. Now, it’s unfortunately very difficult to find naming conventions used in Interstellar Navies. Most ships in the Imperial Navy of the Galactic Empire, and the United Federation of Planet’s Starfleet, seem to follow no protocol whatsoever. But there are two great exceptions to this. The UNSC fleet is the first. It’s fleet Carriers are named for provinces on Earth. Its light carriers, for predatory aquatic animals. Battleships are named for historical wartime leaders. Cruisers are named after adjectives. Destroyers are named after famous aircraft and mythical warriors. Frigates are named after lines from famous poems or songs, and typically limited to just three words. Next we come to the second great example, the Systems Alliance navy. Here, dreadnoughts are named for mountains. Cruisers named for cities. Frigates named for battles. And carriers named for famous scientists. Now I don’t think there’s any wrong way to do this, but as with everything, sometimes politics gets in the way. There have been stories that ships have been named for people or ideas favored by the current government administration and maybe showing a little bias. There’s also been a few cases where Naval ships have been named for people in different branch, which can sometimes piss off both, or for people who were vocal in their dislike of the navy. You have to wonder what Albert Eintstein, a lifelong pacifist, would feel about a fleet carrier being named for him by the Systems Alliance. Sometimes ships are named before they’ve even been built or approved, as a way to shore up support. I don’t know if any examples of this exist within Interstellar Navies, but I get the sense it might be a lot easier in the Galactic Empire to win support for your new ship class if you name it after Palpatine or somebody important. But that’s where I differ from the Galactic Empire. In my opinion, Capital ships, aircraft carriers, the most prestigious warships in the fleet, shouldn’t be named for people. I think it’s almost an act of vanity, to name something that requires the skill of thousands of sailors to operate, after a single person. But that’s really my only thought on the subject, aside from that, anything goes. Oh, except never give a ship a name that might be seen as a challenge to the sea, or space, that’s bad luck. Ship naming conventions might seem less important in the grand scheme of things, and I won’t argue against that. But pride in one’s ship and fleet can be an important part in maintaining the morale of any navy. In 1988, the USS Samuel B. Roberts, an American frigate, hit a mine in the Persian Gulf. In one of the ship’s passageways, was a Plaque dedicated to the ship’s namesake, a destroyer that fought bravely and was sunk during the Battle off Samar in 1944, that was itself named for Samuel Booker Roberts, Jr, a US Navy sailor killed a year earlier in the Guadalcanal campaign. It is said that in 1988, even as sailors raced to save their vessel, any who raced by that plaque would touch it to honor the memory and legacy of their ship. A ship's name should give embattared crews that level of inspiration. So, that I hope, covers the basics on how to build your Interstellar Navy. If you are an up and coming despot looking to take over a slice of the galaxy, or an established lord of the admiralty brushing up on the basics, I hope you found it useful. And if you did, name a ship after me, one of the smaller ones. And even though I am this generation's Alfred Thayer Mahan and all my opinions and explanations are flawless, and certain to influence interstellar naval doctrine for the next few centuries, I’d like to hear your thoughts. Is there a type of ship that you think might transition to use in an interstellar navy differently from how I described it? Should the Rebel Alliance have embraced capital ships simply because they look cool? And was the Mega Class Star Destroyer just a giant waste of material? Let me know in the comments below, and until next time, this has been incoming.
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Channel: The Templin Institute
Views: 780,172
Rating: 4.9434338 out of 5
Keywords: Templin, Institute, interstellar navy, sci fi warship, ship types, destroyer, frigate, cruiser, battleship, battlecruiser, carrier, dreadnought, spaceships, starships, science fiction ships, sci fi ship types, types of science fiction warship, ship classes, types of sci fi warships, Types of Sci-Fi Warship, spacedock, stardock, templin institute incoming
Id: aj6COIw8vOc
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 41min 54sec (2514 seconds)
Published: Thu Aug 27 2020
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