Hans:
>Yes, that's what I meant. Sorry if I was unclear. That means we need to
>reduce the part of the fleet that is not protecting the high-population
>worlds to les than 24 ships per system (mainworld and gas giant).
Less than 24 ships per system. For the Spinward Marches, that comes to
less than 6528 ships. Trin/Mora/Glisten/Rhylanor can support (by
themselves) a force of 15000 Sloan class ships, ignoring system defense
squadrons. BTW, all my assertions about Imperial Fleet size have
assmued the discussion was ONLY the Imperial fleet, at 0.63% of the
GWP. System squadrons should be based on 1.26% of GWP, and so should be
twice as big as the Imperial Navy. Getting the defensive forces down to
24 ships per system will be PRETTY TRICKY. (I also seem to recall from
FFW, that many systems had system squadrons of 120+ ships. Efate and
Louzy and Rhylanor and Porozlo had thousands apiece. So the Navy can
let the population 8+ systems patrol themselves, and just worry about
the frontiers. Yet another obstacle... (*sigh*)
>>And it is hard to disguise a ship as an
>>"innocent merchant" that carries a fusion plant big enough to fight
>>off a Sloan. These things are noticable by Customs inspectors, as
>>well as System Defense Squadrons.
>
>Unless the Imperium makes fusion plants above a certain size illegal,
>there's not much the custom inspectors can do about it, is there?
Sure, they can call the Navy and tell them, and the Navy can send a
cruiser around to escort them while in system. They can check the black
box for tampering, and arrest them if the black box sn't clean. They
can use all those obscure regulations that no one ever pays attention to
to harass them, and look for any escuse possible to put them away.
Remember that Al Capone was busted for tax-evasion. They can find
SOMETHING to get these guys on.
>Oh, I can give you an example from US history too :-).
So can I. Look at the US Navy after the Civil War, and the US army
after WW1, and ...
Unfortunately, no-one has a monopoly on stupidity.
Later...
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I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution.
--W. von Braun