JeffEngel wrote:SWM wrote:It is neither a retcon nor an OOPS. David was saying that the new counter-missiles, with their higher accelerations and range, cannot be stepped down. The counter-missiles on the old CL Fearless could. No contradiction at all.
Why on earth would you build new CM's without a critically useful capability the older ones had? Particularly if you have a need for
range, which depends even more on time you can accelerate than the rate of acceleration.
Or if you want to build CM's that you can't adjust for longer acceleration at a lower rate, why not build two (or more) models: short-duration, high acceleration for medium-range interceptions, and longer duration, lower acceleration ones for long-range interceptions? Mix the two in your magazines, fire the relevant one for either sort of interception.
It's sounding not so much like not an oops but just not the oops originally suggested.
First, my read is that the nodes on even the older CMs couldn't be stepped down much, or get significant extended range.
But even if I'm wrong, the Mk31s already got a 25% bump in runtime over their immediate predecessors, the mk30s, resulting in roughly a 56% greater range.
And at that range we're told they're exceeding the limits of effective fire control.
So, for CMs, why would Manticore want to trade off
anything to gain a reduced power extended range when they can't effectively use the range they already have?
I admit Viper's might potentially be a slightly different matter, they target bigger slower targets and might be controllable at a longer range. OTOH RFC has
said that the CM control links aren't interchangeable with offensive missile links; as the CM links "are for short ranged use only, they are relatively small, less sophisticated, and available in much larger numbers because they cost less both financially and in terms of mass and volume"; and I assume Vipers are controlled through CM links even when in anti-LAC mode. So a 16 million km range Viper might need to be enlarged to contain the longer ranged 'anti-ship' control link hardware to avoid losing link with the launching ship.
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