Acting Commander AP is currently formulating a future fleet policy which will, in his words, take the DDS fleet from the wreckage of the ABBO War and into the 2120s. Already he has said he does not wish to see the Chrysalis future cruiser built (and personally i don't believe even a token single ship will be built) but what has not yet been examined have been his published targets for the DDS fleet.
AP wants the fleet split much more clearly along "Fleet" and "Patrol" lines with the Fleet consisting of the legacy cruisers, the 8 Quasar 15As plus 16 carriers and a combined fleet of 45 Panther, Intrepid and Solaris destroyers. The Patrol fleet will consist of 80 frigates and sloops (the designation of the Corkscrew) and a small fleet of 15 corvettes (Rome 46A). The Falcon and Pentekonter-M specialist small escort fleets will also be available to assist the Patrol fleet.
AP is aiming for a simpler and more rationalised fleet and that approach does have merit though i feel there will be occaisions where a smaller ship will be needed on a combat operation though of course there is no reason why a Patrol ship could not be seconded to a Fleet operation. The main question is, are these numbers enough?
Contrary to some criticism AP is not aiming to butcher the fleet, indeed to reach these stated fleet goals will require a lot of ship building over the next few years. One thing is AP's favour though is that none of the combat ships in the fleet (with the exception of the Pulsar 12As which i understand will be withdrawn at the conclusion of the war) are due to be replaced until the late 2120s at the earliest which means the DDS will be able to reach these fleet total goals and then will have plenty of time before they have to start the whole cycle again!
