Ship Design with Rigger 3, & Naval Combat in the 2060s Options

[Austere Emancipa...]

I could only find this, where the problems of creating a tanker ship is discussed. Has anyone designed military ships? Ships useful for pirates or shadowrunners with maritime interests?

I'm only now reading through the ship-specific rules in Rigger 3, but I've already run into several silly issues there-in. For example, all SR ships need an Engineering Crew of (Hull + 1)^2 men. The Sea Shadow is ancient (80 years old in SR times) and displaces 560 tons (and is thus Hull 3), so it should need an Engineering Crew of well over the minimum of 16, because clearly the automation in the 2060s is at a far more advanced level than it is now, or was 20 years ago.

The Sea Shadow has a total crew of 10. Thus I will probably take several liberties when deciding on crew sizes for ships I design.

That said, are there significant issues with designing ship communication and control networks, weapons networks and rigger circuits? Yes, I'll read through those sections myself, preferably several times with thought, but it would be hear about possible problem areas.

I'll try to use the canon ships described in R3 when determining several things about my designs -- are there any problems with the canon ships that I might not easily spot? Glancing at them, they seem really light on C&C gear, Remote Control Networks etc. that I would think are extremely important aspects of naval combat in the 2060s.

Finally, how do you personally view naval combat in Shadowrun? I'm certainly no expert in that area, but it seems that the current trend is towards smaller, faster, more stealthy and cheaper ships, with a few large carrier fleets doing backup. Maybe the largest ships in most fleets would be about the size of small destroyers today, with full displacements well under 10,000 tons (about the size of an Arleigh-Burke)?

Would fast & stealthy missile frigates serve as the backbones of navies in the 2060s? Or would the advances in technology make even smaller ships prevalent, leading to navies arming themselves mostly with ships like the Streetfighter Littoral Combat Ship? Do you think carrier groups would still depend on supercarriers, or would the majority of carriers be smaller and carry mostly VSTOL aircraft?

Looking at the US Navy's plans for the CVN-21, it seems supercarriers will be around for at least the next 50-60 years. Large navies, such as the Japanese Imperial, Aztlan and perhaps some Norther American ones, would probably still have these in SR times. Most of the navies of current world powers might make do with smaller carriers, perhaps reminicent of the Corsair. Somehow I'd like to think Destroyer-sized ships would still be around in plenty, but maybe that's just wishful thinking -- I have no idea how naval combat in 2060s would actually work.

How dependent on air power would navy fleets be? Would all ships of necessary size utilize a large number of strike VSTOLs and UAV scouts, or would strike aircraft be kept out of the airspace because of advances in sensor and missile technology? Large ship groups, carrier groups mostly, would probably make use of extensive command networks, but perhaps smaller units (most groups with most ships under 1,000 tons) would keep networking to a minimum for fears of enemy Electronic Warfare?