Omega Project (Fleet Action)

What was the Omega Project that Tolwyn referred to in Fleet Action?

Omega refers to a "stealthy" ship (I believe a dreadnought) being developed/constructed on the far side of Confed space, away from the war zone. It would have entered service had the Temblor bomb not turned Kilrah into pieces (and the Kilrathi fleet orbiting Kilrah not turned around and blown Confed away), but was canceled in the post-war budget cuts.

Some people think that Omega referred to the Behemoth. There are a couple ways to ensure it's not the Behemoth - Banbridge is shocked when Tolwyn tells him that he's aware of the Omega project. Tolwyn obviously knows of the Behemoth, but, according to Banbridge, is not cleared for info on Omega. Also, Omega is supposed to be much shorter than Behemoth.

well as far as i know the quote from fleet action goes :"It was not so much a super carrier along the lines of suspected Kilrathi design, but more a stealth, heavily armored battle wagon with upgraded shielding that was proof against medium-yield antimatter warheads. There were rumours as well of a super weapon to be carried on the new ship, but that was even a darker secret."

So theres no hint how long the "omega ships" are supposed to be, actually they could even be longer than behemoth. (granted, behemoth doesnt look very stealthy but then 9 kilometers isnt very much in the vastness of space , granted behemoth wasnt heavily armored and not proof against medium-yield antimatter warheads but then it wasnt finished and about tolwyn, do we really know for sure since when he is aware of behemoth? We know that behemoth needed ten years of research and building but that does not mean admiral tolwyn did know about this project from the beginning.

So as far as I know the first (if only barely) operational project omega ship could (in theorie) be indeed behemoth.

Heart of the Tiger states that Tolwyn was involved in the early planning stages of Behemoth, so yes, he did know about that from the beginning

Furthermore, in Fleet Action, Banbridge says that he expects it to be a year to a year and a half before the engines on the first Omega-class ship will be started up. Considering that the Behemoth entered service, and was destroyed, well before that length of time passes, it's safe to say Project Omega does not refer to Project Behemoth at all.

From the description in Fleet Action, I'd imagine it to be something along the lines of the Confederation dreadnought, but heavier.

After reading Fleet Action, I began thinking if the Vesuvius supercarriers weren't some kind of byproduct of the Omega Project. Even if the actual project was shut down after the end of the war, this does not mean the technologies developed in it would simply be abandoned. The Vesuvius class does have impressive shielding, and smooth lines that maybe could reduce its sensor cross-section and make it "stealthy". It could even be the actual Omega Project, modified from a battlewagon to a supercarrier, maybe after those involved saw the Hakaga in action. The fact that the Vesuvius class only entered service 4 years after the war could be due to these modifications and the fact that, after the end of the war, the project lost its urgency (political and budgetary issues of the post-war could have something to do about it too).

As for the "super weapon" it could be anything. Since only "rumors" about it were mentioned, it could even not be a weapon at all, but some other impressive system - like the one that makes the Vesuvius so wildly fast and maneuverable for a ship it's size.

Well heart of the tiger states also that vagabond dies and then we see him in wcIV, what i want to say is that although i love the novels, in case of heart of the tiger and price of freedom i will take the games over the novels as reliable information source . (Forstchen seems not to be very accurate when he names ship classes and certain details (like which charactar dies and so forth )

And in the game there is no indication that Tolwyn knows from behemoth since ten years. And yes banbridge said a year and a half before the first ship is ready but I suppose he meant completely ready and not just barely able to move with almost no armor and shielding, and only able to fire the main gun, so I guess its a save bet to say that they could have rushed the first omega ship into service in a much shorter time.

@ Lynx yes I imagined the omega ships also as dreadnoughts, all I wanted to say is that we can not be completely sure

Maybe it's the Midway.
Okay probably not.

Well, maybe a fanmade game like WC Saga could fill in the gaps as to what Project Omega was.

What?

Hehehe.

Bet 10 bucks that is for the thread in the Reckoning Forum.

I always thought project omega was the launch platform for the Lexington class carriers in Armada- I mean the ship is basically a well armed battlewagon on shadow manuvers in enemy space.

Not sure about that more like a dreadnough with improved PTC maybe. Its more like loose end, because some ships that were suposed to be scraped but were not scraped just relocated. Btw it ties in with few things, confed might have been working on a capital class ship that could take on Hakaga class Heavy Carrier.
If there were a mod that would deal with period of time, where confed was cleaning affter BL incident. It would be nice if some BL secrets might be revealed. Hell maybe they just got the first nanofactory online that could crunch out ships so fast as long the would be material to build on or secret sleeper colonys where GE are breed tested and stored for future use.

Project Omega could not have been Confed's answer to the Kilrathi's Hakaga class because when the Omega project started, nobody in Confed knew of the Hakaga class yet.

*shrug* Maybe, then again maybe both sides were working on similar porjects but cats got it done sooner.
Probably not!

I just finshed rereading that book. I've always wondered about the project too, I can't help but think that they would have finshed building those boats. I mean you don't stop ship construction when your 80% done. You finsh the new ones and take the old ones offline. The new ships are doubtless more automated and would require less crew to do the same jobs, if their bigger and do most stuff they're still most cost effective because you can do more with the one ship. We know for a fact that they didn't hold all new ships, they made the midway, the Vesuvius, and that other ship (WCSO I forget the name). I've sucribed more to the idea of refitting the Dreads into supercarriers than totaly scrapping those ships done and those hulls alreay made and starting from scratch. Doesn't a dread carry ships in the WC world? Maybe they called them dreads till Towlyn took over and he moved the ships to Earth and retrofited them to incorpate the new ideas. Maybe the ideas taken from the Hakaga were internal not really extrenal. Think about how simlar designs are from different countries today. You don't throw away completed ships that are not damaged.

I'll go the game over the book too, Manic growing a pair and pushing a gun into seethers head doesn't strike me as something he would do. Maybe pull it and point it, but put up to his head... doesn't seam like him to me.