Ruminations on Void Warfare in the 41st millennium

Mankind survives on land. All power that occupies areas other than land are
necessarily supportive to land-based military effort. However subservience does
not in any way diminish the necessity of supportive elements. On the contrary, no
land operation can ever succeed in the face of enemy void and/or aerial superiority.
This, and many other tenets and axioms that apply to naval warfare, will similarly
apply to void warfare. In the 41st millennium there is little enough need or even
opportunity for operations short of war. Fleets and ships will be effectively entirely
focused on the destruction of enemy ships and by extension support to those forces
tasked with eliminating the enemys ground element.

The rules of engagement are minimal and almost every opponent likely
to be faced will attack immediately without hesitation or provocation.
Additionally, the only way to be truly safe from such an enemy is to
destroy him utterly. Very few would actually surrender and therefore
surrender is not an option for mankind.

Ships built for void travel will by necessity have very extensive service lives,
both because of the transit times involved in stellar travel and because of the
prohibitive cost of void-capable ship-building. They must contain extensive stores,
advanced technology, and technical minds to maintain and operate the ship, its
weapons, and other systems. These ships will operate long duration trips (both in
time and distance) from friendly ports and must therefore be capable, if not at a
ship level, of sustaining their own operations at a fleet level.

No other arm of the military is as essential to the continued survival of the

imperium as the Imperial Navy. It should have the highest possible priority
for personnel and defense procurement. Other arms ensure the survival of
worlds, the navy ensures survival of empires and, by extension, mankind.
The cost of building void capable ships is largely offset by the unique
condition of planets being largely united as a single entity.
Even the smallest warships, the Cobra class destroyer, is 5 times the size of a
real world aircraft carrier and many times its height and mass.
Worlds in the 41st millennium will dedicate a far higher percentage of their
industry and wealth to the military.

The primary mission of any Void warship is to establish and enforce theatre
superiority, create and then support atmospheric superiority, and by supporting
ground-based operations. To reduce the number of hulls, if not the actual classes of
ships, each platform should be capable of these missions, if not concurrently, then
at the least maintain a capability to adjust to a new role or to support those ships
that do fulfill that role. IE a cruiser designed primarily for engaging enemy ships of
the line should also be capable of orbital bombardments and if not directly capable
of assault operations then it should be capable of supporting dedicated assault
platforms.

Ships must be versatile

Ships must primarily be built with the intention of being used in concert with
other ships as part of a fleet and as a joint task force for invasions and
repulsion of invasions
Ships are built to standard patterns everywhere. They have been building the
same classes of ships for ages with little to no change from vessel to vessel.
However ships from different shipyards will certainly have minor differences
of quality and internal layout among other minor quantities.
There are no cheap classes of ship as all shipd are built to the same
unvarying standard. Therefore there will be very few ships built specifically
for convoy escort for example, these roles generally being taken over by
ships from the reserve or ships nearing retirement.
The size of ships is largely determined by the need for substantial crews and
stores but is constrained by the need for ease of reproduction.

Void capable warships are of a massive size and even the smallest types
represent an enormous expenditure of material, manpower, and time. Ship
construction, even being simplified and refined into a process that can then be
replicated ad infinitum and largely conducted by unskilled laborers must still be
overseen by an elite cadre of technically capable engineers.

Some worlds must produce beyond their own defense requirements to

provide for the defense of other worlds
Most worlds will have the capability to build starships but some will certainly
far outstrip others
The capability to build starships and their crews must be spread to as many
worlds as possible
Many thousands of ships are required for effective control of a sector
No sector truly has the capability to defend itself from a major attack such as
a black crusade

A significant portion of mankinds worlds can build their own defense monitors,
space stations, and even escort class ships. However, not all worlds that can build
platforms are capable of supplying their own professional and competent officer
corps.

Defense is commutative with worlds supporting the defense industries of

other worlds
Promoting the self-sustainability of all worlds is of prime importance
Each world must look to its own defense until reinforcements can arrive
All worlds must maintain defensive fleets therefore capable of resisting
invasion until offensive fleets can arrive
Establishing officer and crew training is just as important if not more
important than shipbuilding, the maintenance of a permanent professional
standing navy imperative to defense

Any ship conducting an operation taking place far from guarded ports and
stations will almost certainly occur as part of a self-sustaining fleet with its own

indigenous and integrated fuel, food, and munitions carriers or even producers. Any
given fleet will still operate with gun cruisers as its backbone, aircraft carriers as its
core and escort ships to defend both. Any battleships will operate in the same role
as the cruiser, being part of the gunline and forming the anchor for orbital
bombardments. The fleet will also be supported by numerous auxiliary ships which,
if not warships in their own right, will maintain some capability for self-defense.
Ideally a fleet will be structured with sufficient ships to provide redundancy of
capabilities and the consequent ability to sustain heavy casualties over long periods
without reinforcement or significant decrease in capabilities.

Void warfare will be conducted primarily for 3 reasons. To end an enemy

threat to your system, your lines of supply and communication, or to threaten
the same for an enemy.
Therefore the idea is to maintain superiority and to deny superiority to an
enemy.
Superiority does not necessarily mean maintaining a standing presence in the
system and a space can be denied to an enemy without the use of a friendly
fleet, so long as a capability is maintained to oppose any incursion by an
enemy force.
Therefore the destruction of an enemys fleet and their defenses is merely a
means to an end rather than an end in its own right.

Offensive fleets will maintain a focus on expeditionary assaults onto enemy

held worlds and for interdicting enemy fleets far from a friendly world. They will,
again by necessity and without exception, carry their own integrated aerial and
ground assault elements, as well as void support in the form of fighters and
bombers. These fleets must be composed of a professional standing body of men
and women who are trained and equipped to meet any situation and eventuality
with decisive maneuver and application of firepower. They must possess absolute
discipline, confidence, and a full understanding of the indispensable role that they
serve in the galaxy of mankind.

Offensive fleets are limited in their size to maintain sustainability and

flexibility
To offset an almost assured numerical disadvantage these fleets should be
equipped with the absolute best possible men, equipment, and ships
This also applies to the integral ground elements who will be conducting
assaults against superior enemy forces and will rely on the fleet to offset that
disadvantage with mobility and firepower

Defensive fleets do not require the same carrier resources as offensive fleets,
being tasked solely with eliminating the encroaching enemy before they make
landfall and supporting ground based forces if penetrated. They do however, need
to be proficient and capable in eliminating those same resources in an enemys
fleets. In essence the entire purpose of defensive fleets is denial rather than
superiority. Therefore defensive fleets will at the minimum be capable of supporting
ground operations, protecting lines of communication and trade, and resisting an
opposing fleet attempting to conduct an invasion. Ideally, defensive fleets will

contain a large volume of system ships with emphasis placed on firepower at the
expense of speed and maneuverability, supported by a similarly high volume of
orbital defense platforms and even possess a first strike capability to meet the
enemy and the edges of the system and conduct constant attrition on the enemy
fleet as it attempts to close with inhabited planetary bodies. The personnel
manning a defensive fleet need not be as flexible as the offensive fleets as they
have a minimum of maneuver, more rigid command structures, as well as more
established rules and methods of engagement. They should nonetheless be well
trained and well equipped as they represent the first line of defense of any world
and have the greatest capacity for halting an invasion with the least possible
damage to an indigenous population.

Defense fleets will have to meet an enemy fleet and be able to exchange
blows pound for pound in traditional warfare.
An enemys superiority in initiative and equipment will be compensated by a
defensives fleets greater numbers and the home field advantage most
often a literal fight for survival
The idea behind having large defensive fleets and small highly capable
offensive fleets will similarly apply to all aspects of warfare in the 41 st
millennium

Command of a void capable warship places a high demand on command

personnel. They must be mentally capable of conducting a battle in a 3
dimensional sphere of engagement in real time and synchronizing the efforts of an
entire fleet or fulfilling their role as a member of that fleet. The range at which
fleets engage usually means the enemy present on a particular vector and lessens
but does not eliminate the need to remain aware of surroundings in every direction.
It also means that battles can take place over the span of many hours or days.
Reserve fleets form a vital part of the defense of the Imperium. The most
famous example are the Bastion Fleets of the Cadian sector recently reactivated for
the defense against the black crusade.

Unfortunately the ships forming the reserve fleets will almost certainly be in
poor condition owing to their incredible age and by definition are ships no
longer fit for active service in the front lines.
These ships will almost exclusively operate in secondary roles during active
local warfare and will be used for such missions as convoy protection, the last
line of defense, transport and evacuation among many others.
Capitol ships form a far larger proportion of the reserve fleet than in the
active fleet because it is capitol ships that are much better maintained during
their service lives and are much more likely to survive to old age.