Light Attack Craft
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Light Attack Craft (LAC) is a sublight warship class in the Honorverse, a fictional universe which is the setting of the Honor Harrington series of military science fiction novels written by David Weber.
Old-style LACs were used for system defense for single-system nations. They often massed around 10,000 tons. Advanced LACs were invented by Admiral Sonja Hemphill, and are much more capable. The size of advanced LACs are in dispute. According to the glossary of War of Honor, LACs usually mass between 40,000 and 60,000 tons. There have also been references to "at least 30,000 tons." In Echoes of Honor, Captain Alice Truman informs the crew of H.M.S. Minotaur that Shrikes are 20,000 tons in mass.
The Star Kingdom of Manticore's first advanced LAC was the Shrike-class. It was armed with a 150-cm graser, four missile tubes with five missiles each, four countermissile launchers with fifty-two countermissiles total, and six point defense laser clusters, all forward facing. They were also equipped with sidewalls, a bow wall and a life boat. The next model was the Shrike-A. The improvements over the original Shrike are unknown. The next in the Shrike series was the Shrike-B, which traded the lifeboat and its hangar for four countermissile launchers and six point defense laser clusters. The countermissile magazine was increased to one hundred, evenly divided fore and aft. The Ferret-class LACs were designed to support the Shrikes in the strike escort role. They traded the graser for more missiles, better electronic warfare, and a stern wall. Their total magazine capacity was fifty-six shipkillers and one hundred fifty countermissiles.
Manticore's first LAC carrier, or CLAC, was H.M.S. Minotaur. It carried one hundred Shrike-class LACs. All its weapons were mounted fore and aft, with the LAC bays port and starboard. Later LAC carriers had even fewer weapons and more LACs. All the LACs aboard a carrier formed a wing, lead by the COLAC (Commanding Officer, Light Attack Craft). Twelve LACs formed a squadron. Usually, a wing would have two squadrons of Ferrets and the rest Shrikes, preferably Shrike-Bs. All Manticoran CLACs are dreadnought-sized.
The Republic of Haven uses superdreadnought-sized CLACs with Cimeterres-class LACs.
