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On Tue, 10/21/14, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

 >Surely the existing Scout Bases aren't
> limited to only 100dT vessels?

 Not at all.

 Not limited, but if you want to replace the
 J2/M2 100 dton scout ship
 with a direct
 replacement, you need to keep the external hull
 dimensions the same (or very close to the same)
 so that all the
 various existing add-ons and
 all the various existing hull mounts,
 cradles, etc. on other ships that were designed
 for the J2/M2 hulls
 will still work with the
 new ships.

 Crewing, and
 maintenance requirements, etc should also stay about the
 same.  If you have to double the number of
 people to operate the ship,
 that is a huge
 ongoing expense.  (And remember, the crew of a
 scout/courier is ONE.  Any increase will at
 least double the crew
 requirement, if not
 more.)

 If you have to
 increase the number of mechanics necessary to support
 the fleet, or increase the time it takes to
 cycle ships through annual
 maintenance,
 you're going to have some substantial logicical
 bottlenecks.
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Most of the stories,etc. that I've read have the 100dT scout w/ a two-man crew.
That would seem to make more sense to me.
(I'm not counting the ex-scouts that received a scout ship when they mustered out & are now on 'detached duty')
Btw, what's the crew size on those naval J6 couriers?

Anyway, all the logistical problems would be ones that must constantly arise when you have a 1,000 year-old polity which has gone from tech-max of TL12 to TL15 in that period of time.

Sure there could be alot of the old original 'workhorses' still around but I'd always imagined that there were a lot of other, newer, more-modern desgns also.

Now, they might not pass those out as mustering-out benefits but still,..
Perhaps that's why the Scout Service is giving them away to retiree's?
It's way of getting rid of the 'olde' ones?

"Out with the old, in with the new".