So your threat assesment consists of what is the best that can possibly happen?
My threat assessment is what's most likely to happen, same as any government on a budget. Ico mentioned the police car and the 40mm grenade launcher. Good example as any. There's always that possibility that Arab terrorists might make some dramatic play in downtown Albuquerque, or that the Chinese or Russians have started to fund domestic terrorists, or that the Mexican Mafia might come to rob a bank. However, the Albuquerque Police Department doesn't drive around in a fleet of cars armored against 40mm grenades; they buy cars that meet the issues they commonly run into, then buy a couple of specialty vehicles like armored SWAT-style units to step in if the regular units find themselves in over their heads.
The ship's boat is cheap and - at 6g - very effective in the role, perfect for any port trying to keep within a budget. I wouldn't fight a war in one, but they're good "coast guard cutters".
Ico's 10-t idea's interesting, but the CT 10-ton fighter costs only a couple of million less than the ship's boat and has only a ton of spare space; the 13.7 tons of extra space on the 30-ton boat makes it useful for rescue work, so I prefer the ship's boat in the orbital patrol role for its versatility - I only need the one type for both rescue and armed patrol.
HG2 = High Guard second edition. Chameleon is in FASA ACS1..
Thanks for that. I tend to think of that as the official High Guard and the previous one as a mistake. I don't have anything from FASA though.
No, if cargo is inspected at all and which a fairly small amount actually is, it happens in port.
You're free to do what you want in your universe. If you decide cargo is rarely inspected and then only "a fairly small amount," then cargo is rarely inspected and then only "a fairly small amount." If I decide that a competent class-A starport in a frontier sector troubled by Zhodani-backed Ine Givar terrorists will consistently do pre-inspections at least thoroughly enough to be sure an H-bomb or some tailored virus isn't going to wreck things, then my customs folk are going to do pre-inspections.
In my universe, there's effective bureaucracy ... in some places, and ineffective bureaucracy in some places, corrupt bureaucracy in some places, and little or no bureaucracy in some places. Regina Highport does not function like the class-C starport at Menorb - and it's makes those class-E's feel so much more pleasant by comparison.
You mean like today where there is no control? Can't say I have EVER been checked for diseases at customs. Though I think 3000 years from now their medicine will be a slight bit better.
No control?
I attended a conference in San Diego recently. At the airport, I had to take off shoes, belt, empty my pockets passed through a metal detector and then the full-body scanner thing, my carry-on was x-rayed, as was my checked suitbag, and there was a long list of things I couldn't take. If anything had blipped, I'd have been taken aside and searched physically; heck of a lot of complaints coming from that one, I understand. That was the result of one successful attack by terrorists. Now imagine what I'd have to go through if Al Qaeda actually had the tech to do a germ weapon, or if that flu pandemic threat of a few years back had actually materialized.
And lest you think we just let any old sickie come into the country from abroad, let me point out U.S. law applying to foreigners seeking a visa to come into this country, whether as tourists or on other business. Section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act declares:
"(a) Classes of Aliens Ineligible for Visas or Admission.-Except as otherwise provided in this Act, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:
"(1) Health-related grounds. -
"(A) In general.-Any alien-
"(i) who is determined (in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services) to have a communicable disease of public health significance;
"(ii) except as provided in subparagraph (C), seeks admission as an immigrant, or who seeks adjustment of status to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, and who has failed to present documentation of having received vaccination against vaccine-preventable diseases, which shall include at least the following diseases: mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, pertussis, influenza type B and hepatitis B, and any other vaccinations against vaccine-preventable diseases recommended by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, ..."
I think that's a bit more than "no controls," don't you? But - as before - you can do as your please in your universe.