The Daedalus Spoilers for Conversion, The Hive and Critical Mass

[spg_1983]

No, I am trying to think like the military.

Sending people on the Daedelus gives them a chance, cloak or not, but sending them in a Cargo ship is like a suicide mission.

Mattathias

So its better to commit the resources of an entire battleship, and all the money and man hours that went into its building and training of its crew, and if the situation arises where an enemy can see through their cloak and out run them they are going to be screwed anyways and a coule hundred lives are wasted, compared to crew of 10 that would be lost with a cargo ship in the same situation.

[aAnubiSs]

Lets see... A Cargo vessel with an Asgard hyperdrive and an Asgard shield... What do you need the rail guns and missiles for? All the Daedalus is doing is killing Darts and then going to hyperspace.

A Cargo vessel would never leave hyperspace except when to deliver the cargo at Atlantis and refilling at Earth/Earth MW Outpost. When is the cargo vessel supposed to defend itself?

It takes a single Hive ship ~5min to take down Asgard shields, so even if the Cargo vessel was parked somewhere they'd still have more then enough time to jump to hyperspace.

Building Battle Cruisers for Cargo duty is just a waste of resources Earth doesn't have.

The Cargo vessel doesn't even need a strong hull since it isn't designed for .5c sublight speeds and military engagements.

Even the US Navy have cargo vessels, granted they usually don't travel alone, but then again they don't have hyperspace.

[spg_1983]

Even the US Navy have cargo vessels, granted they usually don't travel alone, but then again they don't have hyperspace.

They could build some smaller escort ships to go along with the cargo ships just in case. Something a quarter the size of the Daedalus to harrass darts while the cargo ship goes to hyper and then they follow.

[aAnubiSs]

They could build some smaller escort ships to go along with the cargo ships just in case. Something a quarter the size of the Daedalus to harrass darts while the cargo ship goes to hyper and then they follow.

Those vessels wouldn't have the same hyperspeed as the Cargo vessel due to a smaller reactor, or atleast I'd imagine they'd have smaller reactors, and because of that they would only slow the cargo vessel down.

I guess they could be waiting at the edge of Pegasus and then escort the cargo vessel to Atlantis.

Heck, one could add a few rail guns to the cargo ship. They don't have to take up that much space. We saw 10,000 round rail guns the size of an MC. 360 degree cover with rail guns would take up what, 10% of available cargo space?

[spg_1983]

Those vessels wouldn't have the same hyperspeed as the Cargo vessel due to a smaller reactor, or atleast I'd imagine they'd have smaller reactors, and because of that they would only slow the cargo vessel down.

I guess they could be waiting at the edge of Pegasus and then escort the cargo vessel to Atlantis.

Heck, one could add a few rail guns to the cargo ship. They don't have to take up that much space. We saw 10,000 round rail guns the size of an MC. 360 degree cover with rail guns would take up what, 10% of available cargo space?

I doubt they would have to be smaller. If they were the same size engines and reactor. They would just have their mass devoted to shields and weapons instead of storage space.

[spg_1983]

Heck, one could add a few rail guns to the cargo ship. They don't have to take up that much space. We saw 10,000 round rail guns the size of an MC. 360 degree cover with rail guns would take up what, 10% of available cargo space?

Adding weapons would take up space and add to the crew compliment. To be effective you would have to have many rail guns like Daedalus does. It would be beeter to use the space for exra cargo or armor and focus on making the cargo ship fast enough to just out run an enemy.

[aAnubiSs]

Adding weapons would take up space and add to the crew compliment. To be effective you would have to have many rail guns like Daedalus does. It would be beeter to use the space for exra cargo or armor and focus on making the cargo ship fast enough to just out run an enemy.

Why would the rail guns add to a bigger crew? I'm sure they could be automated and reloading could be done at Atlantis or on Earth. Also, it wouldn't need an effective offensive weapon, just some ASAP cover while jumping to hyperspace.

I don't think any weapons are needed on a cargo vessel with the speed and shields of Asgard design.

You were the one that brought up using destroyer(or maybe Frigate/Corvette would be a better definition) escorts. I feel a cargo ship is fast enough to not need escort(against the Wratih that is)

[spg_1983]

Why would the rail guns add to a bigger crew? I'm sure they could be automated and reloading could be done at Atlantis or on Earth. Also, it wouldn't need an effective offensive weapon, just some ASAP cover while jumping to hyperspace.

I don't think any weapons are needed on a cargo vessel with the speed and shields of Asgard design.

You were the one that brought up using destroyer(or maybe Frigate/Corvette would be a better definition) escorts. I feel a cargo ship is fast enough to not need escort(against the Wratih that is)

Well if you are adding to the systems on board you increase the chances of break down and all that goes along with the systems. I dont think weapons would be neccesary either. but an escort ship isnt a bad idea. At the very least it allows for the buddy system so if they do encounter a threat that does manage to catch them or destroy them there is still the possibility of one ship getting away to get the word out about the new threat.

[aAnubiSs]

Well if you are adding to the systems on board you increase the chances of break down and all that goes along with the systems. I dont think weapons would be neccesary either. but an escort ship isnt a bad idea. At the very least it allows for the buddy system so if they do encounter a threat that does manage to catch them or destroy them there is still the possibility of one ship getting away to get the word out about the new threat.

I feel they should wait with escort vessels until they have energy weapons that would atleast be able to damage a Wraith Cruiser.

Well I guess they could build a <100 meter long ship filled with millions of rail gun projectiles and 24+ rail guns Dump all the useless nukes, "ICBMS", F-302s and the small missiles since they never do anything the regular PD Rail guns can't

[immhotep]

You say we need to arm a cargo ship with rail guns, why? the rail guns do nothing to the hives and the darts can camakaze the asgard shields until production stops and do no damage...so why have them atall.
my short design for a cargoship:
Shields: asgard
Hyperdrive: asgard
sublights: ion, goauld, chemical, whatever they decide to use
power: mark III naquadah/naquadria reactor ( that what im calling the deadalus one, because its most likely another type of naquadah reactro)
weapons: none
other: beaming tech, nav equipment, storage/presevation facility's
size: 5x the size of the deadalus, about the size of the belliskner.

just create a very large, very minimilist ship, shields, engines, power, lots oand lots of space. then fill that with everything else. you can have F-302's in cargo, and if you need them beam them out and put them on auto-pilot 'engage'. or weapons, can be in cargo, nukes, whatever...with beaming technology and cargo hold space you can load a cargo ship with anything you like, using it will have to be jerry rigged.
the only issue i see is getting an asgrd to agree to be the delivery boy on the cargo ship's shields and engines. if they wont, just use goauld shields and engines.

[spg_1983]

You say we need to arm a cargo ship with rail guns, why? the rail guns do nothing to the hives and the darts can camakaze the asgard shields until production stops and do no damage...so why have them atall.
my short design for a cargoship:
Shields: asgard
Hyperdrive: asgard
sublights: ion, goauld, chemical, whatever they decide to use
power: mark III naquadah/naquadria reactor ( that what im calling the deadalus one, because its most likely another type of naquadah reactro)
weapons: none
other: beaming tech, nav equipment, storage/presevation facility's
size: 5x the size of the deadalus, about the size of the belliskner.

just create a very large, very minimilist ship, shields, engines, power, lots oand lots of space. then fill that with everything else. you can have F-302's in cargo, and if you need them beam them out and put them on auto-pilot 'engage'. or weapons, can be in cargo, nukes, whatever...with beaming technology and cargo hold space you can load a cargo ship with anything you like, using it will have to be jerry rigged.
the only issue i see is getting an asgrd to agree to be the delivery boy on the cargo ship's shields and engines. if they wont, just use goauld shields and engines.

Good idea, but I wouldnt make it so big. For one thing building it that large would take forever at our current rate of production. Plus that huge would likely slow it down either in hyper or at sublight which would make evasion very difficult. Third, there is no need for that size at this point, they could never fill it up with supplies that would actually ever get used. They took enough enough supplies to last them a year with just what they were able to carry through. A ship half the size od Daedaulus designed just for cargo would still carry ten times what they would needfor an extended period of time. Better to make it smaller and more effecient and produce a couple, then one honking big one.

[immhotep]

ok then how about the size of a crusier or the deadalus 1.5, most of the space of the deadalus is corridoors, lifts, hangers, cockpits, computer etc...dont need that in cargo, just a huge hanger. also why dont they just gut an alkesh, or the ones they have for doing beta site runs. the alkesh with all the gold and the goauldness taken out is a cool ship ( if u look at it closely).

[Mattathias2.0]

So its better to commit the resources of an entire battleship, and all the money and man hours that went into its building and training of its crew, and if the situation arises where an enemy can see through their cloak and out run them they are going to be screwed anyways and a coule hundred lives are wasted, compared to crew of 10 that would be lost with a cargo ship in the same situation.

The Daedelus has shields and weapons. The cloak would be a defense thing for sure, but they wouldn't be screwed having weapons and shields. It's something.

But put a cloak on a Cargo ship, which only has minimal defenses and weapons by standard, and their chances for survival are dramatically less.

I honestly think Caldwell was right about what may exist in the Pegasus Galaxy and how they are using it to ferry back-and-forth. I just think they should begin solving that problem

Spoiler:

maybe by using the Orion

and begin discovering the Pegasus before developing a Cargo ship...

With knowledge of what is out there, atleast they could make a Cargo vessel with the proper defenses which would be safer for anyone on it, such as Weir, McKay and Carter.

Granted, the idea is good to build one, but I think it's still a premature idea.

Mattathias

[spg_1983]

But put a cloak on a Cargo ship, which only has minimal defenses and weapons by standard, and their chances for survival are dramatically less.

What? Are you saying having a cloak on a Cargo ship would make them more vulnerable?

[Mattathias2.0]

What? Are you saying having a cloak on a Cargo ship would make them more vulnerable?

No, I'm saying they'd be more vulnerable to begin with, with the cloak being uninvolved.

Mattathias