I'm getting the idea that we're agreed in principle.
Ship-mounted weaponry is unusual in Fenspace except during wartime, and the Convention is wise enough to know that it can't win a war (even a cold war) with any of the Space Powers of the 'Danelaw.
Most folks can name all the peacetime armed ships in Fenspace, since they're so uncommon: X-Wings, Blackbirds, Vipers, Hornblower-class cruisers (all four of them), Azu Squadron's ships(?), the Ciara, the Normandy, and the Epsilon Blade.
When wartime rolls around, the Archer-class and Gagarin-class ships' probe launchers become torpedo launchers and similar adaptations take place in other factions, but nobody thinks of those as "armed ships".
(Second-order effect: After a few years, the Justice subfaction of the Senshi will be over-ruled by Serenity I and those two Hornblowers in construction drydock will be completed without weapons.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Ship-mounted weaponry is unusual in Fenspace except during wartime, and the Convention is wise enough to know that it can't win a war (even a cold war) with any of the Space Powers of the 'Danelaw.
Most folks can name all the peacetime armed ships in Fenspace, since they're so uncommon: X-Wings, Blackbirds, Vipers, Hornblower-class cruisers (all four of them), Azu Squadron's ships(?), the Ciara, the Normandy, and the Epsilon Blade.
When wartime rolls around, the Archer-class and Gagarin-class ships' probe launchers become torpedo launchers and similar adaptations take place in other factions, but nobody thinks of those as "armed ships".
(Second-order effect: After a few years, the Justice subfaction of the Senshi will be over-ruled by Serenity I and those two Hornblowers in construction drydock will be completed without weapons.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012