Grayson Space Navy

The Grayson Space Navy is the space force for the planet Grayson, a space nation in the Honor Harrington universe created by the science fiction author David Weber.

In the internal history of the Honorverse, Grayson was settled by emigrants from Earth motivated by their religion, which called for a withdrawal from the technocratic society of Earth, a society the future inhabitants of Grayson believed to be subversive of true human potential and spirituality. The planet picked for the settlememnt was one very rich in heavy metals; local life had adapted, but human settlers suffered a very high death rate as well as a high rate of non-lethal, but debilitating poisonings from the high environmentyal levels of lead, mercury and antimony. The settlers' biology has partially adapted since, but to this day, agriculture on Grayson remains a chancy undertaking, and food Graysonites eat with safety can still poison an outsider.

Until Grayson joined the Manticoran Alliance, the Grayson Navy was hopelessly obsolete, and most of it was destroyed during a brief war with its neighbor Masada, just before it officially joined the Manticoran Alliance (Two Manticoran destroyers were also lost during the incident, with two cruisers badly damaged.)

After joining the Alliance, Grayson received massive technological boosts from Manticore, and quickly rebuilt its navy with the new technology. Grayson ships are different from Manticoran, Havenite, and Andermani ships in that they mount fewer weapons, but the weapons themselves are much larger. Later Manticoran and Grayson ship designs were designed in concert and are largely similar in design and function, and newer Manticoran designs have been influenced by the success of Grayson-designed ships.

Due to difficulties developing fusion technology, the Graysons continued to use fission reactors long after other nations had switched to fusion power. This meant that the Graysons developed fission reactors that were far smaller, safer, and more efficient than almost anywhere else in the galaxy. This technology was taken by Manticore, and used to develop more advanced reconnaissance drones, LACs, and, eventually, missiles. Also, in developing their own version of the inertial compensator, the Graysons used a method that "everyone knew wouldn't work," but which actually did. Manticore perfected this technology once the Graysons demonstrated that it was practical, giving the alliances ships a decided advantage in acceleration over the Havenites.

The Grayson Navy consists of its main navy, with its regular chain of command, and the Protector's Own Squadron, which answers directly to the Protector, ruler of Grayson, and is currently commanded by Fleet Admiral Steadholder Honor Harrington, the Protector's Champion, with Admiral Alfredo Yu as her second-in-command. The Protector's Own is an oddity in itself, since a large portion of its personnel are expatriates and former prisoners of the People's Republic of Haven, which the Manticoran Alliance is currently at war with.

The Grayson Navy wears a uniform which resembles the United States Air Force uniform of blue jacket and trousers, light-blue shirt, visored cap, and necktie. (This was done by Weber to annoy a good friend of his who was a historical buff and who disliked the USAF uniform.)

Grayson ships have the prefix "GNS" (Grayson Navy Ship).

High Admiral
The Military Commander of the Grayson Space Navy holds the rank of High Admiral. The High Admiral's chief duties include advising the Protector on military concerns, commanding the Yeltsin units during a hostile naval attack and conducting operations vital to his nation. After the 1st and 2nd Battles for Yeltsin, Wesley Matthews was promoted to the position. Previous High Admirals include Bernard Yanakov, Leon Garrett and Wesley Matthews.

Grayson Navy ship classes and ships
Superdreadnoughts LAC Carriers Battlecruisers Heavy Cruisers Light Cruisers Other Cruisers Destroyers
 * Manticore's Gift-class: This class consists of eleven captured and refurbished People's Navy DuQuesne-class superdreadnoughts.
 * GNS Manticore's Gift
 * GNS Courageous
 * GNS Furious
 * GNS Glorious
 * GNS Magnificent
 * GNS Terrible
 * GNS Vengeance
 * Benjamin the Great-class: The first Grayson-designed and built class of ships of the wall. With the advent of pod-laying superdreadnoughts, these ships were retained as "command superdreadnoughts". Only three were made of this class
 * GNS Benjamin the Great - The flagship of Admiral Hamish Alexander during his command of Eighth Fleet
 * Honor Harrington-class: The Grayson Navy's variant of the Royal Manticoran Navy's Medusa-class superdreadnoughts. Both classes were the first pod-laying (capable of deploying hundreds of missile-launching pods) superdreadnoughts ever built in the Honorverse. Appear to be named for Steadholders, with the lead ship of the class christened when Steadholder Harrington was believed to have been captured and executed by the Havenites.
 * GNS Honor Harrington
 * GNS Isaiah Mackenzie
 * GNS Edward Esterhaus
 * GNS George Hanson *
 * GNS Hector Ferelli *
 * GNS Abraham Honeywell *
 * GNS Isaac Santorini *
 * GNS Barbara Bancroft *
 * GNS Jason Mueller *
 * GNS Howard MacLenmore *
 * GNS Jasper Johansen *
 * GNS Andrew Massengil *
 * GNS Mason Luttrell *
 * GNS Seneca Gilmore
 * Steadholder Denevski-class: An unseen class of warship, presumably superdreadnaught class, which had their fusion drives canabilized to rush the production of the Harrington-class. This slowed their final construction until after the GNS Honor Harrington.  Presumably a pre-pod type of warship, indicating that probably few were made in favour of the more powerful Harrington's.
 * Honor Harrington-B-class: Possibly the Grayson variant of the Manticoran Medusa-B-class, though it might be a different design.
 * Covington-class
 * GNS Covington
 * GNS Austin Grayson
 * GNS Judah
 * GNS Glory
 * GNS Saul
 * GNS David
 * Raoul Courvosier-class: Grayson's first indigenous battlecruiser design, named after the senior Manticoran officer at the Battle of First Yeltsin.
 * GNS Madrigal
 * GNS Raoul Courvosier
 * GNS Bernard Yanakov - Presumably destroyed.
 * Raoul Courvosier II-class: An improved version of the Courvosier-class with pod-laying capabilities and advanced systems. As the Battle Cruiser was carrying missile pods, it was decided to greatly reduce the typical broadside missile tubes common on battle cruisers, in favour of more, and heavier, energy mounts for close-in fighting.  Named for important or famous Grayson's.
 * GNS Bernard Yanakov *
 * GNS Janice Yountz *
 * GNS Alice Manwairing *
 * GNS Michael Riaan *
 * GNS Randolph Candless *
 * Jason Alvarez-class: The first class of heavy cruisers built by Grayson. Named in honour of the Manticoran destroyer captain who fought in the Battle of First Yeltsin.
 * GNS Jason Alvarez
 * Austin Grayson-class: A small and obsolete class of three light cruisers that predated Grayson's alliance with Manticore.
 * GNS Austin Grayson
 * GNS Covington
 * GNS Glory
 * Nathan-class: New light cruisers built after the Grayson-Masada war.
 * GNS Nathan
 * GNS Francis Mueller
 * Ararat-class: A small and obsolete class of four destroyers that predated Grayson's alliance with Manticore. All four ships were lost during the Grayson-Masada war.
 * GNS Ararat
 * GNS David
 * GNS Saul
 * GNS Judah

Those ships marked with a (*) were mentioned in a post by David Weber as forming part of Honor Harrington's fleet during the Second Battle of Marsh, see