This is an idea I had and I am looking for thoughts on how viable it is.
A deep space, as in the black between stars, series of bases for warships. (This is an old idea I had that has regained life with my reading of Cannonshop's various stories, where the Lyran Commonwealth decides to create a professional navy.)
The idea is to create a base by using either an existing asteroid or building a space station.
The first question related to the above is size, the bare minimum would be the equivalent size of several replenishment ships, to achieve quantity as it should take fewer stocking trips from known naval depots for secrecy. Also, would it have to be large enough to tend to multiple vessels at once or only individual vessels which could slip away from their duties for underway replenishment? Is just supply or supply and maintenance?
The second is, how self-sufficient should it be? Think of the Sol Belters or Rock burrows in Kowloon versus real-life's Diego Garcia?
What should be onsite? Grav ring? Crops for the station and morale for visiting ships? Acting as a recharge station for visitors to decrease loitering time away from duties? As was pointed out, by Daryk, this would require hydrogen to run the fusion power plant(s). Would this hydrogen be created on location or shipped in?
As an aside, I had thought that none of the visiting vessels would have the location only a code to request a 'pilot' to bring them in.
Looking forward to reading anyone's ideas.
Thanks
Erik