Offensive Units
After a long hiatus, the Culture only restarted specialist warship production during its only full-scale war against the Idirans. After that war it continued producing increasingly advanced Offensive Units but at a much slower rate. In Excession, a single Rapid Offensive Unit of the latest type successfully engages in combat against a fleet of Offensive Units left over from the Idiran-Culture war and survives the encounter.
Culture military doctrine has changed over the centuries. At one point, the Culture relied on several secret bases each housing hundreds and thousands of stored, inactive OUs ready to be called into battle once again. The Culture later transitioned to a force of immensely powerful craft, with their designations obscuring their true power, and scattering them throughout the galaxy.
Offensive Units' Minds are usually pugnacious and macho (particularly by the Culture's normal standards), and most non-combat ships regard Offensive Units with a mixture of respect and unease verging on mild contempt. Though OUs live for the thrill of battle, they also possess extreme intelligence befitting a Mind and are capable of advanced tactics, as opposed to using just brute force.
OUs frequently store a copy of their Mind state with another ship before going into action, and these backups are frequently installed in new ships if the OU does not survive. This is in part a reward for the self-sacrifice of the ships, and a motivation for bravery in combat. It is also a tacit admission by the Culture that it prefers peace over war–the number of warships required is small, and the creation of new warship Minds is also undesirable over the birth of peace-loving Minds.
Read more about this topic: Ship Types Of The Culture
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