The speculative ship list becomes a force-structure exercise rather than merely a collection of names. At sixteen hulls, the fleet is large enough to begin generating its own experienced crews and occasionally operate ships in mutually supporting pairs. The proposed allocation sends two to Earth, two to Pegasus, and four on independent missions. The other eight must cover refit, repair, workup, training, and a rapid-reaction reserve instead of appearing in the front line at once. Some maintenance capacity would also have to sit forward in Pegasus if ships remained deployed there for long periods. The allocation demonstrates why nominal fleet strength is much larger than the number of warships continuously available for operations.
Chapter · 1:21:53-1:25:31
What a sixteen-ship BC-304 force could sustain
Sixteen hulls would permit standing Earth and Pegasus deployments, independent missions, a reaction force, training, and a realistic maintenance cycle.