House of Steel: The Honorverse Companion (64 page)

Benjamin the Great-class command superdreadnought

Mass: 8,517,750 tons

Dimensions: 1381 × 200 × 186 m

Acceleration: 468.3 G (4.592 kps²)

80% Accel: 374.6 G (3.674 kps²)

Broadside: 38M, 32G, 30CM, 34PD

Chase: 9M, 8G, 10CM, 10PD

Number Built: 3

Service Life: 1911–present

This class was originally designed as an advanced variant of the
Denevski
class, but with the secret SD(P) program already starting up, the ships were modified after laydown into dedicated command ships. The hull was extended an additional nine meters, and two grasers were removed from the broadsides to accommodate an advanced command deck, room for flag staff, larger and more sensitive sensor arrays, more extensive communication equipment, and a significant increase in active defense.

While they have, arguably, the finest flag deck of any ship in commission anywhere and are still highly sought after in the GSN, they are beginning to show their age, and dedicated command variants of Harrington-class pod superdreadnoughts have begun to supplant them.

Protector-class superdreadnought

(for specification, see RMN Victory-class SD)

Total Purchased: 34

Service Life: 1917–present

This class consists of all of the remaining RMN
Victory
-class ships scheduled for disposal after the First Manticore-Havenite War. Protector Benjamin took a personal interest in the acquisition of these units because he was convinced that the RMN under the Janacek administration would find itself critically short of capital ships if hostilities resumed. As with the Havenite superdreadnoughts in Manticoran service, Janacek was convinced that maintaining these ships was a waste and was more than happy to sell them to Grayson for their material reclamation value.

The original intention was to place the ships immediately in mothballs as a ready reserve for both Navies, since the GSN lacked sufficient crews to man them at the time. However, when the war resumed and the Janacek Admiralty collapsed, instead of transferring any back to the RMN, the Office of Personnel and BuPers arranged to loan Manticoran crews as they came back from civilian life to supplement the GSN crews who were themselves returning to active duty. While all of these ships officially fall under the GSN, operationally they are part of the Alliance fleet and serve under RMN and GSN command as necessary.

POD SUPERDREADNOUGHTS (SD(P))

While the Grayson Space Navy was the first fleet to place pod-laying superdreadnoughts in commission, the SD(P) actually originated as a top-secret project of the Royal Manticoran Navy.

The GSN, lacking a huge long-term investment in a traditional wall of battle and already engaged in a revolutionary rethinking of established tactical doctrine, were more able and more willing than even the RMN to quickly adopt a technology that would radically challenge current practices. In short, the GSN had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Moreover, their procedures for authorizing new construction were more flexible and adaptive than Manticore’s because they had so recently created a modern fleet effectively out of nothing. The combination of those factors allowed the GSN to lay down the very first “podnoughts” and to complete its first units a full year ahead of Manticore. This speed in turn pushed the pace of Manticoran construction of its own
Medusa
class.

The essential technological elements enabling viable podnoughts are the laser head, the multi-drive missile, and the missile pod itself. Operationally, the pod superdreadnought fulfills much the same role as the superdreadnought. It simply relies on a different main battery weapon to control the space around it.

Some theorists regard the retention of energy weapon batteries as wasteful, given the primacy of missile warfare. In the Alliance’s eyes, however, it provides a degree of security in the admittedly unlikely event of an enemy attaining energy-range in an “ambush” scenario, as well as providing at least limited ship-to-ship combat capability once the SD(P)’s ammunition has been exhausted. In addition, it is seen as providing a highly useful anti-infrastructure and space-to-ground capability. Expenditures of missiles against infrastructure targets are wasteful, less precise, and carry more risk of collateral damage than energy weapon fire. Additionally, the frequency and power of a graser beam give it substantial through-atmosphere capability against ground targets once a ship controls the high orbitals. Kinetic strike weapons are, of course, preferred because high-power space-to-ground beams require direct line of sight to the target. The ability to select the yield of a graser strike, however, has proven useful.

Harrington-class pod superdreadnought

Mass: 8,629,250 tons

Dimensions: 1387 × 201 × 187 m

Acceleration: 498.5 G (4.889 kps²)

80% Accel: 398.8 G (3.911 kps²)

Broadside: 32M, 22G, 54CM, 52PD

Fore: 10M, 8G, 18CM, 22PD

Aft: 6MP, 6G, 18CM, 22PD

Pods: 492 Mk11/798 Mk17

Number Built: 104

Service Life: 1913–present

The
Harrington
class is the Grayson counterpart of the RMN’s
Medusa
class. In addition to a huge increase in offensive firepower, it is far more automated than pre-pod superdreadnoughts, requiring smaller crews. The chassis and pod rails are identical to those of the
Medusa
class, but the broadside and chase armament reflect the GSN preference. While the RMN still includes a mix of lasers and grasers, the GSN accepts fewer, but more powerful, grasers and more missile launchers. This power actually improves the utility of the broadside batteries in their secondary space-to-ground role, in addition to the anti-shipping role. The benefits of this arrangement were not lost on the RMN, which subsequently adopted it for its follow-on
Invictus
-class pod-layers.

As with LAC carriers, the professional difference of opinion between Manticoran and Grayson designers is largely limited to offensive armament, with the defensive armament of the
Harrington
class being identical to the
Medusa’s
.

GNS
Honor Harrington
, the lead ship in this class, had the distinction of being the galaxy’s first warship designed from the keel out as a pod-layer, commissioned one year to the day after the reported death of Admiral Harrington. The GSN’s Office of Shipbuilding actually has a policy forbidding the naming of ships after living persons, which produced some consternation after Harrington’s return from Cerberus. An official exception was adopted and the class retained the name, much to the her reported embarrassment.

During the interwar years, while the Janacek Admiralty was rapidly cutting back on the RMN’s own SD(P) construction, the GSN was accelerating its program, a fact that proved prescient after the Haven sneak attack when the Alliance’s “junior” member had more of these ships in service than Manticore.

Harrington II-class pod superdreadnought

Mass: 8,779,250 tons

Dimensions: 1395 × 202 × 188 m

Acceleration: 561.9 G (5.511 kps²)

80% Accel: 449.5 G (4.408 kps²)

Broadside: 24M, 24G, 64CM, 62PD

Fore: 12M, 6G, 16CM, 24PD

Aft: 6MP, 6G, 16CM, 24PD

Pods: 984 Mk17

Number Built: 61+

Service Life: 1919–present

This design is similar to the
Invictus
class and, like the
Invictus
, it carries a Keyhole II platform and can launch Apollo missiles. Unlike the
Invictus
class, however, this design sacrifices some pod-core volume in order to retain internal missile tubes on the broadside. The RMN built the
Invictus
with only beam mounts and no integral missile launchers at all, but the GSN was concerned by the potential for catastrophic loss of combat capability if a single attacking missile successfully completed a stern-aspect attack that breached and crippled the pod core. Internal armored doors in the pod core were considered but were found to slow down pod deployment, consume mass, and complicate the arrangement of engineering systems in the after taper to an unacceptable degree. Hence, the GSN gave the second flight Harringtons internal tubes and modest ammunition storage for them.

The Grayson Army

The Grayson Army can trace its roots back to 1337 PD, the date young Benjamin Mayhew rallied the shattered remnants of the other Steadholders’ Guards in Mackenzie Steading and forged them into the army that defeated the Faithful. When the Constitution was ratified after the war was over, those units formed the core of the Grayson Army, operating under the direct command of the Protector.

Prior to the fourteenth century, each Steadholder’s Guard had owed personal and direct allegiance to its own Steadholder, answering to no higher authority and hence representing a perpetual and serious check to any Protector’s power. Benjamin’s creation of a unified Grayson Army was thus also intended as part of a comprehensive package of reductions in the Steadholders’ collective power vis-à-vis the Sword. The next reduction in their power was to limit a Steadholder to a maximum of fifty personal armsmen, referred to as the Steadholder’s Own. The older Steadholders’ Guards continued to exist, at least in theory, but now consisted of those fifty armsmen plus all members of the Steading’s police and emergency services and included no regular military units at all. The Steadholder’s Own, despite its small size, remains extraordinarily powerful, as its members are exempt from the legal consequences of any act performed at their Steadholder’s order; the other members of the Steadholder’s Guard, however, are not. In addition, all member of the Steadholder’s Guard other than the Steadholder’s Own hold regular commissions or enlisted ranks in the Grayson Army as well, allowing the Protector to summon all of them to active Army service in the event of a conflict.

In addition, while a Steadholder remains in direct command of any other Army units based in his Steading, by longstanding policy the Army has made an effort to rotate units, and avoid situations where the majority of personnel in a given Army unit come from the Steading in which the unit is based. This assures that, even with the possible defection of the Steadholder’s Guard, the Protector will still be able to take control of the garrisoned troops. In addition, the oaths of all members of the Grayson Army and Navy are directly to the Protector, whose military authority is supreme and overrides that of any Steadholder. Thus Steadholders act as the Protector’s deputies and their orders may be countermanded by him at any time.

The primary mission of the Grayson Army has always been planetary defense, with secondary focus on the traditional roles of emergency services, disaster relief and occasional police duties. Prior to the Manticoran Alliance, few Army units served aboard regular Navy ships, though some specialized units were trained for boarding actions and were carried on specialized transports.

When Manticore began providing the GSN with warships, the Navy realized that it was unable to provide the troops necessary to fill the traditional role of the RMMC onboard a Manticoran warship. Instead, they revised the berthing arrangements and duty stations to split apart the traditional roles. On-mount crew, corpsmen and damage control teams traditionally filled by Manticoran Marines were assigned to naval crew, while a much smaller core of Army troops were embarked purely as shipboard security and boarding parties. The Grayson Navy has always taken an active role in boarding parties, and the expectation was that naval troops would fill any gaps where necessary. This transition has not been without its rough spots, but overall the process has been a success.

The Army has never been tasked with force projection, heavy planetary combat or occupation duties, as until recently Grayson’s only foreign policy related to Masada, and no military planner had ever seriously suggested occupation of Masada as a viable post-war policy.

Organization

The Army is primarily a light infantry force, with a large Corps of Engineers and a much smaller mechanized force. Its heavy armored cavalry units have been drawn down in the centuries since the civil war, though they have been slowly building up that capability in the last few years. In the Grayson Army, the term “mechanized” is used for any vehicle-embarked infantry, while the archaic term “cavalry” is still used for tanks. “Armored” infantry now refers to battle-armored infantry units. These differences in terminology and usage have caused some confusion with other Alliance ground forces, who typically adopt Manticoran customs, but the Grayson Army still has refused to change in this respect.

A standard Army rifle squad consists of thirteen men: sergeant, three corporals, six riflemen, one grenadier, one plasma gunner, and one tribarrel gunner. The squad is divided into three fireteams, which serve as independent maneuver units. Each fireteam is led by a corporal and carries one of the three heavy weapons. The sergeant is in overall command. A heavy weapons section consists of nine to twelve men armed with heavy crew-served tribarrels, plasma cannon, mortars or man-portable SAMs.

Three rifle squads and a command section combine to form a rifle platoon. A rifle company consists of a command element, three rifle platoons, a heavy tribarrel section and a number of additional mission-specific heavy weapons sections. The most common configuration adds a mortar section attached to the command element but antiair or antiarmor sections are added when required, all cross-attached from the battalion’s heavy weapons company.

An armored infantry company is equipped with battle armor and is organized like a standard rifle company. A mechanized infantry company retains the same basic organization, but each squad is carried in two lightweight counter-grav-equipped infantry fighting vehicles.

From the battalion level on up, the organization follows Alliance standards. A command element, three rifle companies, and a heavy weapons company make up a battalion; three battalions plus a headquarters unit form a regiment. Most of the cavalry units are organized into companies of thirteen tanks and cross-assigned much like their heavy weapons companies on the battalion level where needed. Air units are likewise considered to be cavalry units and are organized accordingly.

Equipment

The Grayson Army, like the Grayson Navy, uses Manticoran equipment almost exclusively, a state of affairs that lasted up until the High Ridge cease-fire. During the interwar years, development was started on a new pulse rifle, compatible with Alliance magazines and power cells but of Grayson design. The PR-18 is a conventional design similar to the Army’s pre-Alliance rifle and has seen limited service in some ground units since 1918 PD, but widespread rollout was delayed indefinitely with the resumption of hostilities. The majority of the Army’s weaponry, battle dress, skinsuits and battle armor are all current Manticoran issue, with the exception of the M136 light tribarrel (no longer in service with the Royal Manticoran Army) and the Grayon Army’s standard sidearm, a locally produced variant of a Manticoran civilian-designed pulser.

The M136 is a man-portable light tribarrel firing the standard 4 x 37 mm darts used by the PR-18 and M32 pulse rifles. Capable of a sustained rate of fire of up to two thousand rounds per minute while the ammunition in the backpack-worn ammo tank holds out, it is a devastating light support weapon. Given the weight of the weapon, it is designed to be fired from the hip with a stabilized harness, the weapon’s range-finding and sighting system feeding directly into the operator’s helmet display. While used in some Manticoran units, the Royal Manticoran Army has been phasing out the M136, and most of the inventory was sitting in a warehouse when the Grayson Army made their request for the weapon.

The Manticoran M11 grav tank and related variants are in service in a limited capacity, but the Army has designed its hybrid infantry fighting vehicle to meet their needs, with a design that is faster than the M13 but carries fewer troops. Stingships and trans-atmospheric transport are all Alliance issue, however, as are the pinnaces and assault shuttles operated by the Navy. The Army lacks any kind of interstellar transport, and the few times units have been deployed in support of Alliance occupations they have traveled on Manticoran hulls.