Brigade XO wrote:The suggestion is similar to sending a WW II escort carrier out to hunt for U-boats. That did work, both from the stand point of killing at least some U-boats and for keeping said U-boats a combination of too far away from convoys to attack them and constantly having to manuver to keep from getting killed.
While sinking (and in one case capturing) a U-boat was a goal of the tactic, the primary mission really was to keep the subs away from the convoys. Killing them was a bonus if you could just keep them from sinking you cargo ships.
The use of LAC equivalent vessels or smaller (think YP or "converted" fishing boats or yacht type vessels) worked close to land (or the system edge) where the small vessels major weapon is the communication system to call for something to come kill the intruder or at least beat at it and drive it out of striking range of you shipping. The coastal patrol ships might have mounted .50cal machine guns but that really wasn't a major concern for a sub which- since they weren't going to waste a torpeado on a 60' boat- could use it's deck gun to smash the boat from distance. The problem for the sub was the 1st aircraft with depth charges or just bombs and then something like a DE or a DD running out with active sonar and attempting beathing the snot out of the sub if not killing it. Either way, you keep the sub away from your shipping.
LACs, if they can find the Spider Drive ship, could engage it. How are you going to find it? If you manage to transport 8 LACs out to where the System Sensor Net said the footprint happened, what do you use for a search pattern? Do you pair up the LACs and then sweep some sort of pattern in FOUR seperate directions? There are a lot more than 4 and you have to presume your nominal target is trying to move away from that point of emergence from hyperspace. If one of you LACs find a target, they have to call for help and the target can always jump away into hyperspace- where the LACs can't follow.
You end up better served with what was shown in the initial search for the Oyster Bay strike force. Several Destroyers which can search, move around in hyper of one makes a contact and calls for assistance (and it would), and engage with weapons of longer reach and more power.
As your analogy hints at the LACs are more like coastal patrol boats than aircraft.
Plus with submarines simply forcing them to dive (to avoid being seen by aircraft) made them much slower, shorter ranges, and sharply cut their circle of observation - so even causing a sub you never saw to dive made it much less likely to intercept, or even see, the shipping you're protecting.
The same doesn't appear to apply to Spider Drive ships. Even if they cut acceleration and coast they're still going just as fast as they were and still have the same sensor range. So simply having a searcher in the area doesn't hamper them as much as it would a WWI / WWII sub.