Dual Sidewalls

Somtaaw wrote:

SWM wrote:I have generally been a skeptic of the idea. But it gained some credibility when the Anderman Empire used LAC wedges to protect a ship from a mine field. In that case, the ship and LACs stopped accelerating, and the LACs in front of the ship turned sideways to block the throat of the ship with their wedges. So it worked around the problems outlined above.

I personally think that tactic was partially how Manticore invented the bow-wall concept. I believe it was Herzog von Rabenstrange who had developed the LAC defence against minefields, and he'd published it in an Andermani naval manual?

And iirc, the Andermani having done their little minefield trick actually happened (in the book) shortly after Honor's return from Hades? That timing works out to about the time the Shrike-B's and Ferrets were in development.

If he did publish it, then Manticoran informants would have found it, and passed it along. Due to it being tactical information, it would be passed to the WMD, which would have led to it being handed to Sonja Hemphill, and ta-da.... new bow-wall technology.


.... or at least that's more or less how I figure it happened

Erls wrote:
Thank you for this information. But, I don't believe any of this would refute what I suggested.

In recap, I'm not suggesting a drone sidewall (or wedge) that makes its parent ship impervious to fire. Nor am I suggesting a drone sidewall that can offer gun ports or anything of that kind. What I am suggesting is that eventually the RMN will find broadside missile tubes almost a waste of space due to the capacity of its SD(P) design, and that the space that used to be missile tubes could be better used for CM launch tubes and Laser Clusters.

With that in mind, if a grouping of drones were able to create a minimal sidewall outside of a laserheads detonation point around the most likely avenue of approach, that could allow a ships dedicated anti-Missile weapons to become more effective alone the other avenues.

Basically, a small throw-a-way line of drone sidewalls in the 'best' line of attack for missiles that will disrupt them would allow the anti-Missile weapons to focus more heavily on everything else, leading to more kills on those missiles while those on the 'best' line of attack are wasted on the drone sidewalls for even the first couple barrages.

The point isn't to make the ship impervious to missile fire. The object would simply be to allow it to survive longer by allowing it to better target and defeat the first couple barrages it faces.

If each SD(P) could face even 2 more massed missiles attacks before being overwhelmed that would drastically increase both the offensive firepower and the likelihood of ships surviving a long range missile combat scenario. Just remember the first battle of Manticore- If Kuzak had been able to get each SD Squad to survive even 1 more blow that would have allowed McKeon to take out at least 2 or 3 more Haven SDs with Apollo missiles, maybe even more!

Erls wrote:<snip>

... What I am suggesting is that eventually the RMN will find broadside missile tubes almost a waste of space due to the capacity of its SD(P) design, and that the space that used to be missile tubes could be better used for CM launch tubes and Laser Clusters.
<snip>