Terran Republic
Situation analysis:
The fallout from the long Succession War has drastically reshaped naval warfare as we knew it in the pre-war era. Even Stephan Amaris and the Rim World military were more restrained in the use of nuclear ordnance than any of the Successor States have been. Not that the Republic is entirely innocent in driving this development since the TRN was the force that introduced the rest of the Inner Sphere to the concept of modern gunboat warfare during the early dark days of the war. The mass deployment of nuclear armed missile dropships spelled doom for the conventional warship fleets and although they still dominated the battles of the early war the destruction of yards and industry combined with the ever increasing numbers of gunboats and nuclear armed fighters made the their demise inevitable. The only fleet surviving the Succession War with a solid warship combat group still operational was the TRN, and much of this force was wrecked in the civil war.
The once mighty warship fleets of the great houses are now reduced to a handful of battered veterans, mostly carriers and second or third line old corvettes and destroyers patched up and saved from the breakers by the war. There are some efforts to salvage some heavier units by the various house fleets, but without mobile space docks these efforts are usually more along the lines of scavenging expedition of the few wrecks located in stabile orbits in the contested systems. At least one large combatant has survived the carnage of the war other than the few heavy TRN ships still in service. The LCS Invincible is still spaceworthy although the CIB have reported that serious issues with her KF drive prevent her deployment from Tharkad except under extreme conditions and she might be stricken from the LCN list as more Jägers become available to defend the Lyran core systems. While it is certainly still possible to manufacture warships the current focus of all nations in the Inner Sphere is on getting basic spacelift capacity back up by producing the simpler and cheaper civilian jumpships but also larger dropships like the BLOB class to make the most of the jumpships that have survived the war.
For the Republic the situation regarding interstellar space lift is particularly alarming as the Terran Republic never managed to build up its jumpship capacity to a satisfactory level before the war and suffered heavy losses during the double invasions during the opening phase of the war as well. The real blow however was the Loyalist revolt which destroyed jumpships in numbers not equaled since the opening years of the Succession War. Making matters worse still was the defection of many Loyalist and Comstar ships to the Rim when the revolt was put down costing the Republic an estimated third of its space lift capacity as well as causing damage to the yards that might have been able to make good those losses.
The state of the Terran Royal Navy’s gunboat force following this crucible is at an all time low point. Not only did the civil war caused the destruction and defection of a substantial number of ships but the hard and bitter civil strife caused even more damage than just the ships lost and both the production and training infrastructure have been crippled as a result and will require many years to build back up to something close to normal operations. However it should be pointed out that the TRN gunboat force is still a very potent force despite its fall from an undisputed first place among the Inner Sphere gunboat forces to a contested third. The quality of the force and the compact volume of the Republic does not make this decline as catastrophic as might be suspected at first glance although combined with the devastation of the jumpship fleet the Terran gunboat flotillas have nowhere near the strategic mobility they enjoyed before the Civil War. The offensive capability of the TRN is seriously handicapped by this lack of interstellar space lift as well and effectively the only space lift reserve left in the Terran Republic at this point in time is the few surviving warships which no one wants to expose on the frontlines.
The situation for the Loyalists and their Comstar allies is more uncertain but despite their losses in the war the CIB estimates that the Terran Rim currently have the highest concentration of jumpship assets per-capita in either the Inner Sphere or Periphery and their ability to divert shipping for civilian use have done much to cement the allegiance of the population in the Terran Rim to the Loyalist cause. The Loyalist and their allies also easily have the most potent gunboat force in the periphery, probably the equal of the combined forces of all the other major periphery states and then some, but it remains to be seen if they will be able to restore enough infrastructure to maintain and expand this force over time.
The Crews:
One advantage that the Republic had throughout the Succession War was the quality of the gunboat crews. Unlike the various house navies that had to improvise crew training and recruitment the TRN had these structures set up before the war giving the Terran gunboat forces an unseen yet present quality advantage both in manpower and materiel.
The only force that came close to matching the TRN training program was the LCN who deliberately set up gunboat training in an orderly manner under the regular naval academies as part of their Jäger gunboat hunter program. But throughout the war the Lyran gunboat forces were hampered by the small scale of the gunboat training program and their insistence on long workup times for their ships. Only the relatively small size of their gunboat force allowed the training program to keep pace with losses.
The other houses used a motley collection of surplus warship crew, volunteer civilian spacers, green recruits straight off the street and fighter pilots unfit for fighter service for some reason. Not only did this produce a wildly uneven quality of gunboat crews what is worse it made tactical coordination between the green crews even more difficult than it had to be. An old freighter captain is naturally going to have a very different opinion on proper ship handling and tactics than a fighter jock eager to ride the edge of blackout to get into a dogfight. Unfortunately this problem has been identified by all the house navies and is in the process of being corrected in all of them now that hostilities have ground to a grudging halt even on the Combine borders.
In contrast to the improving house navies the civil war have gutted much of the TRN training program as senior cadets and instructors were forced to fight on the front lines resulting in losses that it will be hard for the TRN to compensate for in the immediate future. It is estimated that it will be several more years before the TRN gunboat training program is back up and running, and that is provided experienced officers and crew along with their ships is pulled from the depleted units on the front lines to replace the losses suffered by the academies during the war. Unfortunately the TRN can at the moment not count on having the same quality advantage it had during the Succession War should hostilities flare up again. Even when the damage done by the Loyalist has been repaired the TRN gunboat flotillas should expect to face a more competent and better organized foe regardless of who that might be.
The Ships:
The gunboats have made a long journey from the start of the Amaris Coup through the Succession War. At the start they were little more than oversized strike fighters sent to kill enemy capital ships. Then they became escorts and screening vessels against such strikes only to end up as the principal space combatants as the regular warship fleets were destroyed. As a result the gunboats have gone through a rapid evolution from the early Rim World iterations of fast missile strike boats followed by the early Succession War cheap escort and screening ships to the current heavily armored and armed gunboats designed primarily to fight other gunboats.
While the technology in the latest modern gunboat designs might not be as advanced as it would have been during the Star League the ships themselves are every bit as sophisticated fighting machines as any McKenna ever launched. In many cases the tech downgrades are more a matter of deliberate economics and the need to keep production volume as high as possible as material shortages as you can save substantial amounts as well as having fewer interruptions in production. The Dauntless, Warlord and Firebird down teched versions were all about 100 million cheaper than their higher tech originals. As an example few new designs are equipped with ferro-aluminium armor despite it still being relatively commonly available and still being used in many older designs. Warships and dropships can usually perform as well with simpler cheaper components as they could with more advanced equipment and it is quite common to see old fighters and mechs with freezers and extended ranged weaponry operating from newly built ships lacking both. For smaller units like fighters and mech high tech matters more so they usually get priority on whatever advanced gear is available.
The wide spread damage caused by the Civil War to the Terran yard facilities have made a serious restructuring of the gunboat production necessary. This will eventually result in the gradual phasing out of several designs in favor of other classes. The future of the various gunboat classes is covered under the individual class entries below.
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Bellerophon – Continued once the yard repairs completed:
Nicknamed “the Shadow†by the FWLN the sighting of a Bellerophon tailing a convoy was usually the first sign that things were not going according to plan. While not a traditional strike gunboat the Bellerophon excelled at shadowing and harassing enemy formations and though the Barracuda missiles lack the heavy ship killing power of the heavier nuclear capable Killer Whales they were adequate against fighters, transports and the early Freebooter class gunboats. Efforts to convert the Bellerophon to use heavier missiles have not been successful, the most spectacular failure being the DCA’s Achilles-M debacle. The decline of technology will hit this ship harder than usual with the squeeze effect of its massive drives limiting the mass available to keep up the capabilities otherwise provided by the more advanced material. Despite this the TRN is reluctant to discontinue or downgrade the class as it is the fleet’s primary scout and interceptor.
Casualties in this class during the Civil War were relatively light and few ships departed with the Loyalist to the Rim since they usually preferred larger ships and freighters. However nine ships of this class were scuttled to prevent their re-capture by the Republic forces when the war turned on the Loyalists.
Dauntless – Discontinued in the Republic:
The old Rim World Onslaught class is the long suffering workhorse of both the Rim Worlds and the Terran Republic gunboat forces. Being cheaper and more expendable than the more photogenic and headline grabbing Megalodon, or Firebird, the Dauntless has typically been tasked with all the grinding jobs in the fleet like convoy interdiction and breaking up screening formations; only for someone else to sweep in through the gap and claim all the glory. Despite this the Dauntless have one of the fiercest combat records of any gunboat class and the tonnage/loss ratio of this ship is unmatched by any other gunboat class and will likely never be equaled again. Despite this the Dauntless is showing its age and with the production lines in the Republic damaged there are no plans to resume production.
In the Terran Rim the CIB reports of intense activity around some old derelict yards that once used to produce the Onslaught class and the Loyalists might make an effort to restore production of this class.
Warlord – Limited production & downgraded:
The Warlord built a terrifying reputation during the opening invasions of the Terran Republic. However once the FWLN started deploying the Freebooter the happy days were over for the Warlords who now had to run the gauntlet of the Freebooter squadrons in order to get a firing solution on their real targets. Lacking the high thrust of other TRN gunboats the Warlord had a much harder time to avoid interception, even with fighter support. The Warlord is suffering similar issues as the larger Juggernaut in that the combination of low thrust, thin skin and a belly full of fighters mix badly with the primary role of a gunboat. Despite this production of the Warlord continues although more with an eye to the role of Q-ship escorts and providing orbital defense and an independent fighter carrier platform to ground units as well as being offered as contract replacements or outright sales to major Terran mercenary units.
The first impression made by the Warlord in the field did resonate through the Inner Sphere though and several of the Successor States that have active yards producing Overlords have experimented with their own version of the Warlord class. Although none of the Successor States have deployed it in large numbers either due to the same realization that the TRN have arrived at or because of a reluctance to give up such an important transport. As interstellar spacelift capacity is declining every year giving up the ability to lift an entire battalion on a single docking collar for a large but fragile gunboat seems like a much worse deal than it did even in the opening phase of the war.
The Loyalists are known to have brought two Warlords along to the Rim and both of them were traded to the Draconis Combine for an unspecified price.
Goliath – Continued once the yard repairs completed:
Although the Goliath is armed with capital grade missile weaponry it is obviously not intended to be used as a gunboat. This has not stopped many captains from following their fighter wing in on an attack run with mixed results. The missile armament of the Goliath have mainly been useful in making it a self escorting carrier that hostile warships have good reason to stay away from and it is often combined with the Dione class carriers to form small taskforces that don’t need to rely on gunboat escorts for protection against warships. While a useful feature it is questionable if the missile armament is worth the tonnage cost and experiments have been made reducing the missile armament or shifting it to Barracuda missiles or just conventional weaponry while increasing endurance and fighter capacity. The decision on whether or not for production of this class is to resume hasn’t made yet as there are arguments to outright discontinue the Goliath in favor of the simpler and cheaper Dione class carrier which is a pure carrier design rather than a gunboat-carrier hybrid.
In an interesting twist there are reports from CIB that the Terran Rim forces are going the other way with converting their Goliaths to increasing their heavy missile armament rather than reducing it, possibly as a result of a shortage of fighters and fighter pilots, many Loyalist carriers escaped the civil war battlefields with empty fighter bays making the Goliath more attractive as a gunboat than as a carrier.
Mastodon – Continued in limited production:
A highly specialized design the Mastodon was never built in great numbers and the indiscriminate use of nuclear ordnance practically eliminated the opportunity to engage in its intended mission of boarding and capture, the primary purpose of the Mastodon, during the Succession War. While the Mastodon saw some action in the opening engagements it saw relatively little action during the latter stages of that war. However they saw a great deal more action during the Terran Civil War serving on both sides in that fight as both sides attempted to capture facilities and ships intact. The relatively low casualty rate of the Mastodon during the latter half of the Succession War allowed the numbers to build up to the point where the Republic allowed sales of this armed tug to trusted private companies, a big mistake as it would turn out when those ships were used by the Loyalist and Comstar during the Civil war. The losses for the Mastodon in the civil war were heavy and, while the class remains in production, it is not as highly prioritized for production as other gunboat designs.
Alarmingly many surviving Mastodons have been spotted in escaping Loyalist forces heading for the periphery. Interestingly some have appeared to head for other regions of the Periphery than the Terran Rim. The infusion of a ship specialized for capture and boarding into a region rife with lawlessness and piracy can’t be good for the people inhabiting the worlds along the Rim of human space.
Firebird – Limited production & downgrade:
The Firebird has served for a long time and even today it is considered one of the prime strike ships in the Royal Navy. Despite this the Firebird does have issues putting its continued use in doubt. The huge aerodyne ship is very expensive to build and by modern standards lightly armored. This, combined with the solid punching power of the ship, has made the old Amaris sharks prime targets of all escorts ships everywhere resulting in massive losses throughout the Succession War. Even so the combat record and abilities of the Firebird have justified keeping up a high production volume of the Firebirds and it remains to this day the primary heavy strike craft of the TRN. Efforts have been made to improve survivability but improving the hull strength to the point where the Firebird can survive nuclear strikes proved to be impossible and the decreased availability of advanced materials have served to weaken the protection of the ship further. Refits mounting laser based anti-missile systems have been fielded in an effort to improve survivability of these ships but with limited success. Even the simplified variants of the Firebird remain some of the most expensive dropships ever built, beaten only by the Lyran Jäger gunboat and the huge Terran BLOB freighter.
It is uncertain if the Loyalist will try to resume production of the Firebird, it was originally a Rim design and remnants of the old yards are still there, although picked fairly clean during the Phoenix program. But hardly any of the industrial infrastructures required to build the Firebird remains in the Terran Rim and would have to be rebuilt from scratch and if the Loyalist undertake this it seems more likely they will pick a more modern design. Only a single Loyalist Firebird is known to exist, that being Collins personal flagship, it was the last Loyalist ship to escape from New Rhodes doing a 6g burn all the way to a waiting jumpship in deep space.
Juggernaut – Discontinued:
Despite its size and weapons load the Juggernaut is not a particularly expensive ship. The massed missile battery of the “Jugs†achieved a terrifying kill record in the early war and a casualty list to match - giving the old phrase “mutual assured destruction†fresh meaning. The high casualties were often made worse by the loss of the entire fighter wing. After an attack run against heavy opposition the surviving fighters would often be without a carrier to return to. The increased screening efforts of the DCA and FWLN soon ended up relegating the surviving Juggernauts to convoy and escort duty rather than heavy strike missions. The Juggernauts worked well as escorts until the enemies of the Republic also began deploying their gunboats as raiders rather than relying on warships. Packing so much firepower and fighters into such a fragile ship was an irresistible magnet to any attacker and the Juggernaut losses steadily increased leading to it being slowly phased out of front line duty or converted to a pure carrier design although the low thrust rating is not a good trait for a carrier.
Although a few Juggernauts served with the Loyalists none of them were believed to have survived until a Juggernaut was spotted in Comstar colors as backdrop in a propaganda broadcast from Apollo. The origin of this ship is uncertain since all Loyalist ships have been accounted for, it might be battlefield salvage or perhaps one of the three ships of the TRN listed as missing earlier during the Succession war.
Piranha – Continued, temporarily exclusively for the TRN:
The unloved ugly duckling of the TRN gunboat force, nicknamed “the Brickâ€. A private initiative by Dassault-Shimmone of New Earth the Piranha was never particularly popular in the higher echelons of the TRN but it was still used in relatively large numbers and is one of the few gunboat designs in the Terran Republic which is deliberately exported, primarily to “mercenary†units in the Lyran Commonwealth as well as some Terran employed mercenaries who have since changed employers. Unlike most of the Terran yards the Piranha production line at New Earth survived the civil war intact and has continued production at peak capacity, canceling or postponing its foreign contracts, as the Republic is attempting to fill the depleted ranks of the gunboat force.
The Piranha was the primary security gunship of Comstar and since it was available for sale several made their way into the shadow fleet that Collins amassed in the New Rhodes province. Most of these ships served extensively on the frontlines during the Civil War and they endured heavy losses and it is estimated that Comstar salvaged less than a squadron of Piranhas and the Loyalists none at all. In addition there were several defections from the Comstar fleet the CSS Gutenberg and CSS Marconi defected to AsNet and fought with distinction alongside the TRN in the Battle of Fletcher.
Gepard – Discontinued in favor of the Cheetah-A:
The gunboat version of the TRAS Cheetah combined arms transport dropship. While the Gepard have been rather popular with the TRN the constant fighting over production priorities at Capolla have caused a lot of bad blood between the army and navy. The decision to discontinue the Gepard was taken after the design for the Nike-II was finalized and approved by the Admiralty. The similar mission profile of the Nike and the Gepard made the less capable Gepard superfluous.
Very few ships of this class survived the civil war and none left with the Loyalist faction, although several Cheetahs did. As the Cheetah_A class transports enter service there are proposals to convert the remaining Gepards into Q-ship gunboats to take advantage of the outer similarities with the new Cheetah version.
Standard – Partly discontinued depending on access to Galax made spaceframes:
The Standard class gunboat is one of the victims of the Terran Civil War. Not in terms of battle losses which were rather light since most ships were stationed on the Combine border and remained there for the duration of the conflict. However the industrial damage done to the Standard production facilities were very serious and made worse by the raid targeting the plant manufacturing the fusiondrives. While the Standard excels at the heavy strike mission it is hardly the only ship in the TRN arsenal capable of fulfilling that mission. As a result restoring the Standard production lines to full capacity have not been a priority and with the new more versatile Nike class been given top priority the future of the Standard in the TRN seems uncertain, although production of the class will continue for as long as parts are made available from Galax yards.
It is estimated by CIB that at least a full squadron of Standards deserted during the Civil War and a few survived despite being in the thick of the fighting. There is some confusion regarding the loyalty of the surviving ships since Standards have been sighted in the Terran Rim with the Comstar rather than Loyalist colors.
Nike-II – entering production in several yards to replace discontinued classes:
The Nike is intended to become the mainline multipurpose gunboat of the TRN in the future. Originally the Standard was slated for this purpose but the TRN considered it over specialized on the heavy strike mission and under performing in escort and screening duties as well as the anti-fighter defense role. Production is scheduled to take place at the three yards in the Terran system as well as some final assembly and fitting out at the Federated Defense System’s Keid facility in order to further boost output. Neither Dassault-Shimmon, which are busy with boosting the Piranha production, nor the Federated Defense System’s Capolla yards, which is otherwise a prime dropship manufacturer in the Republic, will produce the Nike. The Terran yards all suffered damage to some extent requiring long shut down for repairs and rebuilding and it has been decided to take advantage of this down time to retool the production lines for the new gunboat as the yards are down anyway. While the plans for the Nike is for production on at least four high capacity lines at three yards with some time consuming final fitting being shifted to Keid the Nike would surpass even the production volume of the Ryerson, but it is uncertain that this ambitions target can be met.
The Loyalist has the plans for the Nike as well and if they manage to start gunboat manufacturing in the Terran Rim the Nike is undoubtedly a prime candidate to be put into production.
Impala – Loyalist prizes, not in production:
One of the big surprises sprung on the TRN by the Loyalist faction during the Civil War was the deployment of about two dozen Impala class gunboats traded from the Federated Suns in the months before the war by either Comstar or the Collins regime on New Rhodes. While half of these ships were destroyed in the fighting six of them were captured after being abandoned by their jumpships as they were covering the retreat from new Rhodes by the remnants of the Loyalist faction. Rather than fight to the end for a lost cause the crews of this squadron surrendered their crafts intact revealing full missile magazines of Capellan manufactured nukes. The Impala prizes will be assigned to training units once the TRN completes its post war reorganization but until then they will serve as a second line gunboat squadron.
At least a similar number of Impalas successfully escaped with the Loyalist to the Rim. While several Impalas have been reported destroyed in fighting in the Rim the Loyalist still seem able to field a full squadron of them indicating that either the CIB estimated numbers were too low or the Loyalists have managed to set up limited yard capacity to at least convert Impalas in the Terran Rim.
The Union style gunboats:
Although hardly ever mentioned the Union Gunboat is probably the most wide spread gunboat design in the Inner Sphere despite is not being actively produced in a single yard anywhere. All the Unions in service as gunboats are the result of wartime conversions of various Union variants. The rather simple conversion procedure and the rugged, reliable and universally available spaceframe and drive have spread out the Union Gunboat design to every fleet in the Inner Sphere and Periphery with the notable exception of the Outworlds Alliance.
One of the most common configurations replaces the mech bay with two side mounted missile launchers. While a horribly bad configuration for a gunboat it is not possible to mount the missile tubes in the bow due to the fighter bay being in the way and it is not possible to move the fighter bay to a lower deck without a serious redesign effort. This problem is usually resolved by removing the fighter bay entirely and mounting three missile tubes in the bow of the ship instead of two on the sides.
The mech-carrier version of the Union is the most common variant to use for conversion but that is mainly because it is the most common Union type but any Union variant will do just as well for conversion. The selling price for Danais and Trojans, cargo-Unions, climbed sharply during the war leading to several shipping lines being investigated by CIB for suspect shipping sales. While there were a few ships being bought by foreign governments through intermediaries, likely for convertions, most went to “legitimate†buyers such as Rio Shipping INC, New Rhodes Logistics and Comstar’s Interstellar Transport Division. Many of those ships would show up on the Loyalist Order of Battle during the civil war and other still participate in Comstar’s operations in the Rim.
