Wet Navy
Sarna News
- Blue water and black water redirect here.
- This article is about the naval concepts. For the planet named "Blue Water", see Monthey.
In the BattleTech universe with its star-spanning factions, naval terms such as "ship" or "navy" that originated with sea-going terran vessels now usually refer to spacecraft instead, where many of the same ideas and principles apply.
Where it is necessary to distinguish between these two naval concepts, the classical sea-going navy is referred to as the "wet" or "blue water" navy. By contrast, spacecraft are referred to as the "space-based", "spaceborn", or "black water" navy. (Note that the term "black water navy" is deprecated, as "blackwater" usually refers to wastewater or sewage contaminated with urine and/or feces.)
Contents
History
The blue water warships were as old as the navigation itself. Even after mankind expanded to the stars, they were still useful, specially in mostly aquatic planets, patrolling their waterways against aquatic pirates and providing artillery support in the nearby coasts.
These warships, sometimes bigger than the space WarShips and with more weaponry, range from the small, lightly armed patrol ship to the biggest cruisers and aircraft carriers. They have several advantages than explains their continued existence: first of all, are much less expensive than the space WarShips, and easier to maintain, even after the loss of advanced technology of the Succession Wars.
As example, in the 30th century, the Lyran Commonwealth have more than twenty blue water 60,000 cruisers of Jormungand-class through their space, three of them only in their capital Tharkad.[1]
However, their disadvantages are also important: obviously, they cannot be easily moved from one planet to another, having to be disassembled and then re-assembled again on the planet of destination, or be built in place, and are very vulnerable to space attacks.
Blue water combat was a key part in the defense of many planets, and a very reputed Mercenary unit, Kraken Unleashed was dedicated to the aquatic, amphibious and underwater warfare, with much success.[2]
Construction Rules Wise
As noted, these vessels heavier than standard Combat Vehicles or rarer Super Heavy Combat Vehicle which range from 200 to 555 tons, use the Naval Support Vehicle rules. Which has uses templates to define their sizes. They also have very different movement than Combat Vehicles and their weapons placement.
Classes of Bluewater WarShips
- Jormungand-class cruiser
- Argo-class sumergible carrier
- Meabh heavy cruiser
- Silverfin coastal cutter
- Luftenburg supercarrier
- Sovereign-class cruiser