[Mars]

I think it was for his motorcycle somehow. . .?

[General Battuta]

I have no idea, the naming wasn't done by a member of the BP team, but yeah we can try to work in a reason.

Perhaps James Raynor is now a mythological and literary figure. 

[Snail]

I think it was for his motorcycle somehow. . .?

Yeah I'm pretty sure it was named after StratComm or someone's motorcycle.

[Black Wolf]

The raynor's suposed to look like a vulture, which from certain angles it kinda does.

[crizza]

Not quite sure about that...but I think I read somewhere, that the 14th battlegroup was composed out of the finest ships and crews of the TEVs...so...why wasn't the Atreus, as typ-ship, not one of the finest ships? Was it always planed as a Orestes replacement or was it on border patrol?

[Scotty]

The Orestes could simply have had a better crew.  It's still a Raynor, after all.

[-Norbert-]

The first isn't the finest. The first prototype of pretty much anything shows the quirks in the design, that get ironed out in the later objects.
Now let's assume they found those problems, corrected them in the Orestes and then sent the Atreus back to get those errors out too.

Or it was simply upgraded with it's sprint drive at that moment.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Since the Orestes and Temeraire aren't online I assume they aren't needed for garrison duties or patrol? In other words they should be free to start operations in Sol as soon as they're ready with new squadrons and crew. Maybe Carthage and Hood will be rotated out once they're ready? Not that I want them to go, Carthage looks cool in blue.

[The E]

Rotating out the Carthage and Hood BGs makes really no sense at all.

The GTD Carthage is one of the oldest capital ships still in service with the Alliance fleet. Launched towards the end of the Great War, she has participated in most major campaigns fought by the GTVA, and her accumulated combat record is unparalleled.
After she was nearly destroyed during the nebula campaign, she was refitted as a Combat Evaluation Unit Destroyer, to field-test new armor, propulsion and ECM designs. Exact details are unavailable, but we do know that her anti-fighter armament has been substantially upgraded to allow her to survive in today's fighter-centric combat environment. Indications exist that she has been fitted with a prototype version of the sprint drive, which essentially consists of a second subspace drive motivator. Her hull plating, in combination with her extensive redesign, have increased her combat survivability by several orders of magnitude. While the ship has been in active duty for the better part of 50 years, ONI estimates that destroying her or achieving a mission kill will take careful planning and considerable firepower.
The Carthage and her escort fleet have been under the command of Admiral Anita Lopez for 15 years, and while her command is primarily composed of old ship designs, all the rough edges have long since been worn away, and the battlegroup is consistently found in the top 10 percent of the GTVA's Fleet Performance evaluations.

Removing the Carthage from the theater makes no sense at all. You don't remove one of the best units in the GTVA from the field without good cause.

Also, badass pic is badass:

[Dilmah G]

Well Combat stress is a pretty good reason to me to rotate units out of field. Even if the Carthage is one of the best mother****ers of Tev origin chilling in the Sol system, it'll have to come out soon enough before the crew start suffering psychological casualties.

[The E]

Certainly. Which is why I said "without good cause"

[Fury]

Considering how big the ships are, I would think they have enough crew to rotate personnel internally to prevent, or at least greatly postpone any psychological issues like combat stress. That and the support infrastructure they have in Sol should allow rotating personnel without rotating the ships themselves out of the Sol theater.

[MatthTheGeek]

However, now that the Carthage's battlegroup has been quite crippled (all ships heavily battle-damaged, fighter complement nullified, one corvette and one cruiser captured), I'd expect it to be rotated for a new one soon enough.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah, it would probably be more economic on the Alliance to just rotate the entire destroyer to the back of the line out of Sol.

Considering how big the ships are, I would think they have enough crew to rotate personnel internally to prevent, or at least greatly postpone any psychological issues like combat stress. That and the support infrastructure they have in Sol should allow rotating personnel without rotating the ships themselves out of the Sol theater.

Well the Carthage only has a set amount of bunks, and when you have twice the amount of crew necessary onboard, that means you need to cater for twice as many, and then you have additional issues that I believe come about when men and women of the profession of arms sit around all day doing nothing whilst their mates are out fighting and dying (could be wrong, someone with a psych background verify?).

Being able to restaff them in the Sol theater though, is probably something they're able to do.

Certainly. Which is why I said "without good cause"

Ah yeah. I thought that 'when they're ready' in the previous post implied that it was when the time came to rotate them to the back that he meant. Anyway.

[Fury]

Also, badass pic is badass:

I take you badass pic and rise with another badass pic.

[-Norbert-]

Restaf perhaps, flying in new fighters (especially if they come together with the pilots) no problem, but what about repairs?
I doubt the facilities the GTVA has inside Sol are going to get the Carthage battle-ready as fast as those in Delta Serpentis. So a few weeks pause in DS are very likely I think.

[Destiny]

That Carthage needs escorts around it to make it look more badass while flauting it's size...the green Carthage looks spooky actually.

[The E]

Well, Destiny, I guess you'll have to wait until you see the mission that pic was taken from. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. Note also: Mjolnir.

[MatthTheGeek]

Last time the Imperieuse was damaged, it was expected to retreat back to DS. However, DE has showed that the Tevs are more than able to repair such a ship on field, and in total secrecy to boot. I don't know how long it took though.

[Buckshee Rounds]

Just saw the Halo reference in the Carthage wiki entry. Is that an R2 mission or is it set before R1? I ask since it's around Neptune.