Naval Bases, even the largest and most advanced, pale in comparison to a Naval Depot.
No disagreement there.
The reason I think Scout Way Stations could be large is due to their use
as Naval Bases during war. This is explicitly mentioned. What is
not said is just as important: Scout Bases are
not used as Naval Bases during war. This sets up a hierarchy of sizes, with Naval Bases and Way Stations overlapping somewhere, and Scout Bases being the smallest and least equipped.
Hey, I found mention of a
fifth installation -- the
Xboat station, which is smaller than a Scout Base.
Here's what Library Data (Imperial Encyclopedia, copied from the old Library Data supplements) says.
Naval Depot: Serve as focuses for naval efforts
- supply a fleet's every need
- provide construction and repair facilities
- produce and test experimental ship prototypes.
- generally occupies an entire system.
- Facilities, material, and personnel are extensive enough to repair and resupply a large fraction of the fleet at any time.
- may be isolated from outside contact for years at a time without serious setbacks.
- effectively no distinction between orbital and surface berthing.
- In peacetime, the main function of a depot is the design and testing of ships.
- In wartime, depots serve as repair and resupply centers for the fleet.
- In emergencies, the depot's construction yards are sometimes pressed into service for production of military ships.
- security is tight.
- Contingents of marines and system defense boats are stationed throughout the system, and they are constantly ready for action.
- placed in systems where they will be close enough to the expected action to be useful, but far enough back to insure that they will not be captured.
Naval Base: a port facility for the support, maintenance, repair and refit of naval vessels
- The naval base is responsible for supporting the fleet and keeping it in optimum condition for its combat missions.
- not a tactical unit. It has no battle forces of its own, and it does not exert control even over local system defense boats (which are under a separate command).
- orbital berthing area (for Big Ships)
- planetary surface berthing area (for Adventure-Class Ships)
- maintenance section. Maintenance is performed on the ships on the world surface or in orbit as necessary.
- administrative headquarters.
- Berthing areas provide locations for ships to lay over, for a day or for months.
- All berthing areas include provisions for refueling from storage tanks or fuel lighters.
- Maintenance sections at naval bases vary from base to base. Where such a section would be redundant to the local starport shipyard, it is small, and repairs or alterations are carried out under contract by the local facility. Where adequate facilities do not exist, the naval base itself may have a large maintenance section capable of extensive repairs and refits.
- The administrative headquarters handles the day-to-day operations of the base, as well as its paperwork (including the allocation of funds, distribution of personnel, and disbursement of maintenance and repair contracts).
Scout Way Station: a Maintenance link in the express boat network
- devoted to the maintenance/overhaul, repair, and refit of express boats at points in their journeys.
- have stocks of scout-oriented repair and maintenance equipment
- have trained staffs of service personnel.
- are the equivalent of naval bases, although they are capable of servicing Big Ships 10,000 tons and less
due to the size and orientation of their facilities.
Scout Base: Port facility for the support, maintenance, and repair of scout vessels
- tend to be on less well-developed worlds with starports type D or C.
- tend to be surface installations equipped with basic facilities for fueling and for minor maintenance activities oriented toward Adventure-Class Ships.
- positioned in systems more out of the way than naval bases.
- serve as a source of ships carrying dispatches from the well-travelled Xboat lanes to more remote worlds.
- most have an administrative responsibility
- maintenance and refueling of scout ships.
- Within a subsector, one base will hold responsibility for cartography in the subsector, another will be responsible for technical developments, and still another for contact or liaison activities.
-
The scout base is more extensive than an Xboat station, but less comprehensive than a way station.
Xboat Station: Facility for handling Xboats at a star system
- handles the message traffic
- manages incoming and outgoing Xboats.
- Usually located near the edge of a star system
- picks up messages beamed to it by incoming Xboats and relays the data to the local world for delivery.
- Messages destined for worlds farther down the line are transmitted to a waiting Xboat which then jumps for the next world in the network.
- contains receiving and retransmission equipment;
- also provides refueling and support facilities for the local staff and waiting crew are also provided.
- maintains a local office on the system's major world for the acceptance of Xboat messages, as well as to handle delivery of the messages to addresses on the world.
