Steve Bonneville ([email removed],micro.umn.edu) has an interesting
idea in his rapid-fire anti-missile laser. He suggested that this weapon
system would be an ideal system to mount on a Battleship to defaeat huge
clouds of missiles launched by escorts.
About a week ago, there was a small TML furor over what role (if any) a
frigate class ship would have in an Imperial Fleet. In the US Navy, a
Frigate is a screening vessel, used for anti-missile, anti-air and anti-sub
defense. Perhaps Frigates would play a similar role in an Imperial Fleet.
A Frigate would be a small (5,000 to 10,000 tons displacement) ship,
equipped with long-range sensors and defensive laser batteries. To aid
in its anti-missile role, it would also be equipped with the anti-missile
lasers. It would also carry a large number of EMS jamming suites, either
on the ship or in the form of remote drones.
In this configuration, a Frigate would also make an admirable space
minesweeper. Its small size might allow it to avoid sensor lock from the
mines, and its weapons would already be configured for targeting and
destroying large numbers of missiles/mines quickly.
(Of course, this assumes everybody else enjoys laying fields of independent
ship's missiles as mines, like I do to my PCs from time to time).
This still leaves the question about what escorts do in a fleet. I think
anything smaller than a destroyer is going to be of very limited usefulness
in a fleet action. I think the 'scrubbing' of surface features would be
a fighter mission, not a escort mission. Escorts could launch clouds of
missiles, but I think this would be better served with a purpose-built
design (something like the Brilliant Lances Missile Corvette, but with
more launchers).
In reality, destroyer escorts would certainly be of use in small
ship actions and actions against civilian or paramilitary ships, but in actual
fleet actions escorts would be relegated to acting as security elements on
the edges of fleet formations, and acting as sensor platforms and
communications links. They would still be very useful for chasing nosy
PCs away from fleet formations.
This does not reflect the views of my employers. They are so heavily
armored as to be impenetrable to all but the Death Star main gun.