Traveller Tuesday: Imperial Navy Fleet Standards

Just a short post inspired by my studies of Imperial ships and what "Fleet Standard" entails

To everyone expecting "Rum, sodomy, and the lash," my apologies.


Those are traditions, not standards.

My use of Traveller setting and dress falls under
fair use guidelines for both Mongoose and Far Future Enterprises.

The Imperial Navy requires capital ships to meet or exceed the following current expectations:

Jump-4: This gives excellent deep-strike capability for invasion, raid and maneuver, and makes all but the largest rifts passable.

4G Maneuver: There is simply no excuse to have a G-rating below that of the mandated power plant. Higher mobility, however, is always a good thing, and 6G is rapidly becoming the expected (if unmandated) standard.

Fuel: Enough for a jump at highest rating and 4 weeks of operation.

Fuel Processing: Minimum requirement is the ability to refine enough fuel for a Jump-2 in a day or less. Shortening this time is greatly preferred, and many ships can refine all fuel in 2 days.

Armor: 12 points of effective armor against lasers. While this will not protect against a capital ship barrage, it proofs it against smaller attacks by fighters and non-capital ships.

Screens: One meson screen and one nuclear damper.

Hulls: Radiation shielding and self-sealing hulls are standard.

Some ships do not meet this standard; in some cases, this is due to age of the design and those ships are either refit or moved to reserve status (such as Azhanti High Lightning-class cruisers). In other cases, this is done deliberately, and these ships are designated "local assets" for use within the subsector (example: Kinunir and Sydkai-class cruisers), typically for anti-piracy and anti-insurrection operations.

It is a point of curiosity that the 500k Tigress dreadnought does NOT meet fleet standards. yet is still part of the frontline order of battle. This is likely explained by "The Admiralty spent a lot of money on it and wants to see it used."

Interestingly, and depressingly, there is no Imperial minimum for escape pods. The informal formula seems to be  at least [(Total crew size) - (flight crew + frozen watch)]/2, which shows either a chilly disregard for the lives of the crew or an expectation that any event which require abandoning ship will result in 50% casualties.

http://carlosnct.deviantart.com/art/Traveller-Deneb-167059245