House of Steel The Honorverse Companion - By David Weber Page 0,199

volume intensive than the cruder, electromagnetically driven Grayson weapons, they required much less volume and a lower energy budget than laser clusters would have, while their higher rate of fire and muzzle velocity remained more than adequate for dealing with then state-of-the-art Masadan shipkillers.

The class was scheduled to receive the same defensive upgrades as Ararat, but the onset of the final Masadan War disrupted those plans. GNS Saul, the only member of the class to survive the War, was decommissioned in 1905 PD after the first wave of the Alliance Technological Exchange Program ships arrived. Her survival in combat was directly attributed in official reports to an increased volume of defensive antimissile firepower and the dramatic improvement that her autocannon represented over the older electromagnetic guns on Ararat.

Jacob-class destroyer

(for specification, see RMN Noblesse-class DD)

Number Purchased: 7

Service Life: 1903–1921

These are former RMN Noblesse-class destroyers that were shipped to the GSN instead of being scrapped. Initially outdated by RMN standards, their electronics were upgraded before delivery. Complete fits of modern point defense weapons alone made them far superior to any pre-Alliance Grayson-built destroyer.

By the middle of the first war with Haven, they were mostly relegated to training duty or System Defense Command. Few of them saw action, though some were assigned as convoy escorts. They were modernized again in late 1911 with upgraded sensors and electronic warfare (EW) systems. However, given that the youngest was over seventy T-years old when they entered Grayson service, their impellers and compensators in particular were difficult to maintain. Preferring to spend scarce maintenance resources on more modern units, the GSN retired the Jacob class with a sense of relief as the first of the Paul class were commissioned.

Joseph-class destroyer

(for specification, see RMN Chanson-class DD)

Number Purchased: 3

Service Life: 1903–present

As part of the Technological Exchange Program offered by the Star Kingdom of Manticore that gave them the retired Nobelesse-class destroyers, three brand new Flight IV Chanson-class destroyers were sold to Grayson between 1903 and 1904 PD. Renamed the Joseph class when they entered Grayson service, these destroyers joined with the seven older Jacob-class destroyers as the early modern units of the GSN before the first locally built destroyer was commissioned in late 1905.

While GNS Joseph was lost in one of the early battles of the war, her sisters, Manasseh and Ephraim, have served the Navy well in the intervening years. Though not as capable as the newer construction, they are well suited to the picket duties and other tasks to which they are assigned. Many serving GSN flag officers had their first taste of extended deep-space hyper operations onboard one of these ships.

Joshua-class destroyer

Mass: 79,250 tons

Dimensions: 369 x 44 x 25 m

Acceleration: 548.9 G (5.383 kps²)

80% Accel: 439.1 G (4.306 kps²)

Broadside: 3M, 3L, 5CM, 4PD

Chase: 2M, 1G, 2CM, 2PD

Number Built: 44

Service Life: 1905–present

The Joshua-class destroyer is the first ship of its type designed specifically with GSN doctrine as its guide. While the original inspiration was the Flight IV Chanson-class DD, the Office of Shipbuilding had its own ideas about warship design from the review of operational data received from the RMN. Somewhat to the consternation of their new allies, the Graysons made several significant changes to the Chanson design before putting it into production and still managed to complete the first unit over a year before their Manticoran advisers would have believed possible.

The GSN had already begun planning for its transition from a strictly system defense force to a force able to project power outside the Yeltsin’s Star system, and the Joshua-class plans reflected the first steps of the evolution of current Grayson doctrine for well-protected light units to provide layered defensive support as part of a screen for the wall of battle. Indeed, the GSN committed to the Joshua-class designs almost immediately after joining the Alliance, well before the completion of their first locally produced capital ship in 1908.

The Joshua-class destroyers were constructed at a time when Grayson designers and shipbuilders were still getting themselves up to speed with the technological changes the alliance brought to Grayson shipbuilding. Notionally they were built in two flights, with Flight II units carrying an additional point defense cluster in each broadside, more repair remotes, larger hydroponics bays, improved maintenance capability, and the myriad other upgrades experience had proved necessary to operate on remote stations with a wall of battle. In practice, the design was in a constant state of evolution as the Grayson engineers rapidly gained confidence. These constant changes made for some interesting times for Joshua-class crews. New hardware