Hmm, I guess I dreamed it. I went back to the passage I thought it resided (when Bear sees the Vukar Tag battle group - before he hops the Sabre to go to the meeting - and goes on about the Concordia's damage), but no mention of it. For some reason, I specifically remember the phrase "repeated firing of her main gun" and something about the damage it caused. Anyway, if you haven't heard of it, its probably a figment of my imagination.
I ask the usual suspects about it last night, no one knew what you were referring to. I don't think the Phase Transit Cannon is referenced outside of Wing Commander 2's errata (which, of course, was the goal of 'removing' it from the continuity in the first place).
I have no idea how current or WC-future dockyards figure out what ships they build where, but I would imagine there is an upper limit to the size (length and width) of vessel that can be built at a certain dock.
If they're anything like the 'space' yards we see in Wing Commander IV, then they seem pretty standardized; if they're like the fully contained "drydocks" in Action Stations then it stands to reason they'd be built with the ability to repair all sorts of {large} ships (rather than narrowly focused on a single class).
Also, your earlier observation that the Concordia was 'bulkier' than the Tiger's Claw was incorrect: based on their silhouettes, the Terran Confederation-class is only ~20 meters wider than the Bengal-class.
Well, since every other number used in the computation hangs on your assumptions for carriers built, I would guess to be accurate you’d need to use your 6 CDN number. Its hard to quote actual numbers though when we all admittedly have no idea exactly how many Confederation DN’s were built.
For the 1/15 number to be true, one has to assume that the Concordia-class kept the same number of dockyard slots for the past 30 years (something I find increasingly more problematic if you want to believe a new design can instantly replace an old one), that the Jutland was the Bengal’s replacement and began production runs in 2657, and that the CDN took over the Bengals dockyard slots and production schedule. The problem I see is, even with the 1/15 number and ¼ chance in surviving the BoT (I prefer 2/5, thanks to the Wolfhound. The chances increase to 50-50 if the Gettysburg "carrier" which is also in a repair yard of sorts at this time is considered), that number is still greater than zero. There is a possibility.
Lets just stay on the subject of long shots for a second. We have the Ark Royal, which is assumed to be the same carrier we see in Action Stations. To survive 34 years of war, the Ark Royal must carry on when 64 (using LOAFs list and excluding Bengal losses) carriers have been lost around it. I think if you do the math, the chance that the Austerlitz is a CDN and survived the BoT and the chance that the Ark Royal would survive for 34 years is almost even money . Basing the continued use of the Ark Royal on the name in FA alone holds about the same amount of water (percentage-wise) as the Austerlitz being a CDN (per LOAF’s numbers).
I find it hard to believe that you "find increasingly more problematic", given that you've just gone on about how you think yards are built for specific classes of ships (despite any conclusive or even suggestive evidence to support this idea).
(In terms of the Concordia-class ships, I generally attempt to go by the same ship list on which Origin has referred for Secret Ops. This is, of course, not really canon -- but it's one of those things that it's perhaps better to abide than not. I would throw it out the minute it's contradicted in the future, of course, but that doesn't seem likely to happen in the immediate future. Of course, it calls the Austerlitz Concordia-class, too...)
The Ark Royal remains the same Concordia-class ship simply because that was the stated intention from the author back when Action Stations was published. Whether that's likely or not (the Victory survived a similar amount of war) is up to you - fan projects looking to invent shiney new carriers can ruin that history if they like, I suppose. That said, I don't see how one carrier surviving 34 years of war makes it probable that another carrier more likely to survive compared to its contemporaries. The Ark Royal doesn't have a giant space magnet that increases the probability that the Austerlitz as opposed to fifty eight other carriers survives for longer. (Or that makes the Austerlitz Terran Confederation-class to begin with...)). To put it another way - it's improbable (perhaps) that the Ark Royal survives however many battles its in -- but that doesn't make it *more* probable that any other specific carrier would survive (because you can apply the same logic to the Viper or the Washington or any of the other field of ships). I'm no mathamagician, but I'm pretty sure probability doesn't work that way at all. Flipping heads ten times in a row doesn't affect the fact that I have a 50% chance of getting it the eleventh time.
We know the Austerlitz is being repaired somewhere, as well as the other carriers, per the statement that it will take 60 days to bring them all back online in FA. I’m also pretty sure that no Kilrathi War "larger" carrier class ever stuck with its naming convention (speaking of which, what could be the CDN’s naming convention? Confederation and Concordia doesn’t exactly create a link in my mind, unless the Sesame Street-ish "words that start with the letter C" counts as a naming convention ). The Tarawa-type CVE's seem to be the exception. We know 3 carriers were hit in a drydock. I don’t see how that translates into a definite that the Austerlitz (being whatever carrier type it is) or Viking (being whatever carrier type it is) took one of the falls.
No matter how the math works on whatever side, the one answer you can’t give to criticalmass is “No”. Put whatever caveat you want to on the response, but it is possible a CDN is around post-BoT.
I disagree.
First, read what you've quoted: criticalmass didn't ask about "post-BoT"; he asked about "2673-2681" (post-war). There's yet another layer of improbability here -- that Confed is keeping their faulty, crippled dreadnaught around while scrapping large portions of the fleet.
Had criticalmass asked your question, I would still say no. Anything is *possible* if you go through ridiculous lengths to make it true - if you want to have a Terran Confederation dreadnaught in Wing Commander III you can make up an elaborate story. Yes, the Confederation could secretly build more dreadnaughts without us ever hearing a reference to them... they can even have an amazing fixed gun that we've never heard of! Hell, our story can involve time travel if you want -- we can cite some Privateer 2 references for that.
That said, it is incredibly improbable (as demonstrated) that the TCS Austerlitz is a Terran Confederation-class dreadnaught -- similarly, it goes against the spirit of removing the ships from the continuity in the first place and the very spirit of Wing Commander III itself (the Confederation is losing the war and now relying on older carriers because ships like the Concordia have been lost).
Hard ons for the superships do not justify reintroducing them just because you want to show off a 3D model or have your Mary Sue be captain of a giant space gun.
(Ooh, oooh, no, we'll do The Final Countdown in the Wing Commander universe. The TCS Concordia will travel back in time to Space Pearl Harbor and fight the Kilrathi.)
(Finally - Concordia and Confederation are both words which mean alliances or unions. If I had to name others, I'd give them names like Alliance and Union... or perhaps more specific names, honoring particular present-day unions -- 'TCS Firekkan Alliance' and the like.)