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Erewhon's 'betrayal' of the Manticoran Alliance Dec 2004
Misconceptions about Torch Jun 2008
Manpower's optimism in it's covert operations Jun 2005
Planning for Manpower & Mesa Jun 2005
Administrative and tactical organization of the RMN Dec 2002
Coast Guard equivalent Jun 2005
The Mesan Navy Jun 2005
Peep intelligence gathering Aug 2004
Andermani intelligence gathering Aug 2004
"Paintball"-style projectile weapons training Nov 2004

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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

Asymmetrical broadsides

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: October 22, 2002

Why Are Starships Symmetrical? The question of why ships aren't designed with separate broadsides optimized for different types of combat -- that is, missile-range combat as opposed to energy-range combat -- has emerged once again. Do you want to comment on this one at all?

 

Symmetrical Broadsides. No, I don't want to comment on this. I've done it before, and the statements I made then still apply. Indeed, they've become even more relevant in an era in which broadside missile tubes are becoming less and less significant for major combatants and the need for missile defenses has never been greater. Asymmetrical broadsides would be a bad idea.