Jonathan_S wrote:They basically have plans for really crappy old-style lacs (as you acknowledged in a later post)
And, as of yet, the SLN doesn't have the impetus that Haven did to blunt the RMN/GSN LACs.
Haven was worried about they because they'd only seen them as "super-LACs" tearing up (carefully selected) targets during Buttercup with scary powerful grazers and really good stealth.
Well, to be clear, Haven's LACophobia came in two stages. First, after Second Hancock, there were the reports from Diamato about the Minotaur's LAC's and what they did. But the data were sketchy and political winds made going on about a big jump in Manticoran technical superiority that way impossible to do in public. Second, during and after Buttercup, super-LAC denialism became impossible but just what these things were and could do became clear. They demanded recognition and response, yes, but not throwing up your hands and saying game over.
That role was played by MDM's, particularly from podlayers. (MDM's from external pods would probably have been quite bad enough.)
The key thing that Theisman realized about the LAC's at least was that they were most devastating as a surprise. Once you knew about them, they "only" mean that the enemy has an ability to put out remarkably fast, hard-to-hit subwaller screening units in-system in CLAC-wing lots for far less crew and cash commitment than before. But like the podlayer and unlike the MDM, that's the sort of thing that you can make up for with a massive quantitative advantage.
In a lot of ways Haven over-estimated the LAC threat; at least to wallers. But because of that they were pretty desperate to build a counter against them; to prevent those offensive super-LACs for popping up and wrecking havoc within their fleet.
But to the extent the SLN has seen LACs they've been anti-missile platforms; and only in the Manticoran home system. So they've never seen them act offensively; never seen them be part of a system raid; and basically haven't yet learned that in some situations they are opponents to be feared.
Now they may play with copying that idea of LACs along purely as additional anti-missile units; and even experiment with bringing them along (finally notice intel on the existence of CLACs). And even old-style LAC tech could make a passable, if slow, anti-missile platform (remember that prior to the RMN, and later Haven, breakthroughs in node design LACs had lower acceleration than most SDs)
Until they do get those better nodes for them though, they may be better served by using a lot of DD's and CL's in that role instead, in a variation on classic fleet screening tactics. (The variation being putting them forward, above and below the missile threat axis, instead of extending from the edges of the wall.) It takes far more tonnage and crew than the LAC response does, and they are slower and easier to hit than Manticoran or Havenite LAC's, but far faster than Solarian LAC's are or will be for some time - and they already have DD's and CL's, in large numbers.
They're almost all with Frontier Fleet, mind you, spread out all over, and with even less fleet maneuvering experience than Battle Fleet. But it's probably BF's least bad potential response, tactically.
But it'd take a hell of a lot of foresight to build a Cimeterre-style LAC denial hardware/tactics when you don't even know LACs can hurt you (because old-style ones couldn't have)
Eh - a LAC good against missiles is going to be pretty good against other LAC's anyway, whether they take that as a mission or not. Take the Katana, for instance. Or the Cimeterre itself. CM missile bodies sufficient for anti-LAC work too won't be any big technical hurdle or something a half-awake SLN R&D branch wouldn't appreciate. They'll be a lot easier to do than adequately zippy LAC's, for that matter.
