PBY
(Copied straight from .XML 'backup' file, needs formatting and corrections. ZM User (talk) 20:15, 22 April 2024 (PDT))
This is a "Stub", or a short article with little useful information. Any editor with more information about this subject is invited to help improve it.
"PBY" Patrol Bomber
The PBY was a long-endurance low-observable patrol bomber developed to minimize the manpower needed to patrol a given volume of space. The original version was armed with a single 55cm Shipkiller Missile for offense and a Light Particle Beam mount for defense. The PBY-2 was a slightly larger improved version carrying two Shipkiller missiles. The design was named for the US Navy's World War 2 series of long-range flying boats used for reconnaissance, patrolling, weather reporting, and survivor pickup duties.
A PBY required three crew for full operation; a Pilot, a Navigator, and a Gunner, but in an emergency only the pilot was required to make it move. One of the three must be designated as the Commander. The Commander and the Gunner must be Sponsors, while the Pilot and Navigator could be Concubines if needed.
The PBY series are local-space-only small craft and need a base or mothership to operate from. The Lawrence or "Larry" class of hyper-capable mothership was developed concurrently with the PBY design in order to jointly act as a complete weapon system capable of going anywhere, performing its assigned task, and returning safely to base. Each Larry had mounts to carry 8 PBYs and berthing for both its base crew and 8*(3 crew + 3 Concubines) for the embarked PBY squadron.
Manning and construction cost for a Larry plus its entire embarked PBY squadron was roughly equal that of a single Castle patrol corvette. A squadron of PBYs could cover eight times the volume in a patrol sweep, though, had far more combat lethality, and was far more stealthy than a Castle. A monitoring task requiring two or three Castles could be performed faster, better, and with less chance of discovery by a single PBY squadron. And, if a PBY was discovered and destroyed, the loss was only three personnel instead of a Castle's 55 crew. The other 7 PBYs in the squadron would have a better chance at vengeance, too.
See Also
(Someday this will be a navigation template. It will provide a bar across the bottom of each article with useful navigation links. Until then, this is just a placeholder to get rid of all the red "broken link" indicators. -ZM User (talk) 10:00, 3 May 2024 (PDT))
