Insanity: Screening elements in the HV

Jonathan_S wrote:Tiniest nitpick -- there's one situations I can see where you would need off-bore launches from a pod. That's when for whatever tactical reason you need to keep the podlayer's bow pointed directly at the enemy. In that orientation the pod would need to fire off-bore with the missiles dog-legging clear of the ship and its wedge before turning back onto the intercept heading to the enemy.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:It doesn't have to be that way. The pod can use chemical charges to blow itself open, clearing the pod casing from the missile bodies. The missiles then activate their wedges in a staggered order. Since they were all correctly oriented and tightly packed, the wedges won't scoop up the brethren, and a missile running up at 46,000 gravities will clear 50 km in 0.47 seconds.

tlb wrote:No, since The Short Victorious War pods have been equipped with the same mass-drivers that ships use, to give them the same initial velocity as a ship launched missile, so no petty chemical explosions.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:It doesn't have to be that way. The pod can use chemical charges to blow itself open, clearing the pod casing from the missile bodies. The missiles then activate their wedges in a staggered order. Since they were all correctly oriented and tightly packed, the wedges won't scoop up the brethren, and a missile running up at 46,000 gravities will clear 50 km in 0.47 seconds.

tlb wrote:No, since The Short Victorious War pods have been equipped with the same mass-drivers that ships use, to give them the same initial velocity as a ship launched missile, so no petty chemical explosions.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Sorry, to be more precise: I meant to say that there was another solution available, if the RMN had needed or chosen it. It's a "road not taken" solution, though one other navies could opt for to lower the cost of a pod without launch rails.

tlb wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:Tiniest nitpick -- there's one situations I can see where you would need off-bore launches from a pod. That's when for whatever tactical reason you need to keep the podlayer's bow pointed directly at the enemy. In that orientation the pod would need to fire off-bore with the missiles dog-legging clear of the ship and its wedge before turning back onto the intercept heading to the enemy.

That might be tenable now that there are bow walls and bucklers, but there was a good reason that Honor never aimed Fearless directly at the Q-ship in OBS. Even now I would expect the ship to maneuver out of the way of the missiles to give them the fastest route to the enemy, your second example had a swerve on reaching effective missile range.

Perhaps there is a situation where the missiles would need to curve around the ship, but I expect that 99.44% of encounters could avoid that.

tlb wrote:

ThinksMarkedly wrote:It doesn't have to be that way. The pod can use chemical charges to blow itself open, clearing the pod casing from the missile bodies. The missiles then activate their wedges in a staggered order. Since they were all correctly oriented and tightly packed, the wedges won't scoop up the brethren, and a missile running up at 46,000 gravities will clear 50 km in 0.47 seconds.

tlb wrote:No, since The Short Victorious War pods have been equipped with the same mass-drivers that ships use, to give them the same initial velocity as a ship launched missile, so no petty chemical explosions.

ThinksMarkedly wrote:Sorry, to be more precise: I meant to say that there was another solution available, if the RMN had needed or chosen it. It's a "road not taken" solution, though one other navies could opt for to lower the cost of a pod without launch rails.

Since the pods that do not explode are reusable and launch more dangerous missiles, I am not sure that this represents a cost effective solution. I also wonder about the effects of starting up the wedge in a close packed group, since even the Cataphract had to be designed with damping material between the nodes of the different drives.

Theemile wrote:Cheap Box launchers in LACs still used chem or mechanical launch systems in 1900pd. So such systems are still out there in 3rd or 4th tier navies.

tlb wrote:

Theemile wrote:Cheap Box launchers in LACs still used chem or mechanical launch systems in 1900pd. So such systems are still out there in 3rd or 4th tier navies.

But do they actually blow up the pod or do they act to thrust the missile out of the pod? A pod that does not blow up might still be reusable.

Launch mechanism

Originally, missile tubes merely housed the missile prior to launch. Missiles would receive pre-programmed instructions from their ship, and would then use reaction thrusters to move out beyond the ship's impeller wedge before activating their own. This severely limited the fire rate.

More modern tubes contained mass drivers that "flung" a missile out past a starship's wedge, allowing the missile to activate its own wedge without fear of interference.

At one point, curved tubes and drivers were considered for the "top" and "bottom" of a warship, in order to pack more launchers into a ship, allowing for a larger broadside. But this was deemed impractical, as the tonnage required was enormous. The idea was made obsolete by the re-introduction of the missile pod, as well as developments by the Royal Manticoran Navy. The Edward Saganami C class heavy cruiser could fire a double broadside of missiles out of its tubes, and they would re-orient themselves before activating their drives, allowing them to be fired "off-bore".[1] (SI1)

Launch mechanism

Originally, missile tubes merely housed the missile prior to launch. Missiles would receive pre-programmed instructions from their ship, and would then use reaction thrusters to move out beyond the ship's impeller wedge before activating their own. This severely limited the fire rate.

More modern tubes contained mass drivers that "flung" a missile out past a starship's wedge, allowing the missile to activate its own wedge without fear of interference.

At one point, curved tubes and drivers were considered for the "top" and "bottom" of a warship, in order to pack more launchers into a ship, allowing for a larger broadside. But this was deemed impractical, as the tonnage required was enormous. The idea was made obsolete by the re-introduction of the missile pod, as well as developments by the Royal Manticoran Navy. The Edward Saganami C class heavy cruiser could fire a double broadside of missiles out of its tubes, and they would re-orient themselves before activating their drives, allowing them to be fired "off-bore".[1] (SI1)