From:	Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com
Subject:	the value of education
Date:	Wed, 14 Jul 1999 21:33:21 EDT

In a message dated 7/14/1999 7:11:57 AM US Eastern Standard Time,
mc23@**********.com writes:

> >* Come to think of it, the CAS would probably have more subs (SSNs,
> >SSBNs, SSGNs (1), and SSVNs(2)) than anyone else in the world, except
> >Russia and Japan. (The Confederacy is, after all, the first "country"
to
> >deploy a submarine in actual combat.)
>
> My naval lore is very limited but I'm confident the CAS would have a
> ship christened the Merrimac within its line. (Even though the original
> ironclad was rechristened the Virginia).

Okay, this is where my naval lore goes astray as well (sort of). As anyone
with Turner Network Television knows, they had a show titled "the Hunley" on
recently. It was about the "first" submarine ever used in a military
campaign. Hand cranked, and everything. The idea is interesting, but I'm
curious. Did this thing really exist?

> >(1) SSGN: Missile submarines carrying conventional antishipping or land
> >attack missiles. One example is the old Soviet Oscar-class sub, which
> >was armed with Sunburn antiship missiles.

Which could be launched how?

> >(2) SSVN: Aircraft-carrying submarines, particularly unmanned combat
> >drones (called UCAVs in RL military lingo). This is a concept I had
> >tossed around with K and AirWasp. An interesting idea, though I'll admit
> >it shows limited tactical or strategic potential.
>
> I don't care, I like! I'm sure there are many unofficial military
> actions being undertaken against Aztlan where this could be more useful.

It was an idea that made Mike B. bounce all over the place and drive us up
the wall. We were not long afterwards making up the thing(s) and placing
them in the game. We even made up the excuse, based upon something Jon S.
stated, that the "real" direction the "Stonewall Main Battle Tanks"
research
funds were headed was towards these things.

IF anyone has the old Micro$oft video game titled "Deadly Tide", you can
imagine what we were imagining for a more advanced "Marine Campaign" for a
while.

-K