Terran Naval Strength

Terran "Shovelhead" Destroyer

Guns or Butter

To patrol an empire of over 97 million starsystems, a significant but not colossal empire in a galaxy of 200 billion stars, millions of naval vessels of all classes were required. The Terran Empire emerged from the Consular Wars with a powerful but unbalanced fleet. The imbalance resulted from the Terran legislature’s desire to fund cruiser but not capital ship construction. An estimated 300,000 heavy cruisers and 180,000 light cruisers were constructed in the five years of the Second Consular War, and another 120,000 heavy cruisers and 100,000 light cruisers were produced in the years between the defeat of the Northern Alliance and the Naplian invasion. In contrast, only 50,000 battleships and 18,000 battlecruisers were built. Indeed, the capital ship shortage had been so great before the Naplian War that heavy cruisers were frequently used in the role of capital ships; a job for which they were not suited.

The general shortage of destroyers in the Consular Wars brought forth a series of war production programs which produced a uniform class of “shovelhead” destroyers and destroyer escorts. To promote production on a massive scale, destroyer and destroyer hull design were “frozen.” The main differences in Terran destroyers built in the late 2600s were internal. The hull shape and dimensions of most destroyer and destroyer escorts remained static.

For the decade following the Consular Wars, the Terran Navy relied on task forces of heavy cruisers and a generic class of destroyers to represent the Republic throughout its territories, while the main battlefleets kept closer to Sol starsystem. New destroyer construction did not start in earnest until 2690, with the Falmouth classes. Aircraft carriers* had a vital role in the fleet but over half of them had been mothballed at the end of the Consular Wars.

Catching Up

At the beginning of the 2690s, the Republic and its allies were so obviously outnumbered by the Naplians, that the frightened Terran Assembly began to appropriate vast amounts for new ship builds. Massive new programs were authorized for capital ships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers, smaller escorts, and auxiliaries, New aircraft programs were approved, and conscription programs for ground forces and star fleet personnel were quickly voted into being.

One crucial element of Terran naval power was a large force of patrol aircraft* which, based in deep space, were supposed to provide a mobile naval aircraft force to supplement carrier operations of the battlefleets. Before the Naplian invasion, it was assumed that deep space bases would be challenging to build so that a naval force in a distant theater of operations could rely on supplementary patrol and attack forces. The Terran navy developed big search and rescue patrol craft that could second as torpedo attack craft. They were based on tender ships posted to isolated sectors.

From 2678 onwards, the focus of the Terran navy was directed primarily at Naplia. Before the Naplian invasion, the main strength of the Terran Republic was in the east and south. From the Terran Navy’s point of view, the most probable war scenario was a Reittian attempt to seize bases in the north, an eventuality code-named Case White.

* These terms were holdovers from terrestrial naval nomenclature. "Aircraft Carrier" was used for starships equipped to launch and recover whole squadrons of starfighters and attack craft.  The term "aircraft" included all spacegoing and atmosphere capable fighters, bombers and support craft too small to be designated as starships.

Next...Northwestern Frontier

Ship Design by David Snodgrass
Artwork by Dmitry Borodin

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