cthia wrote:Besides, if you are correct about the elusive threat vector, then you have put another finger on a limitation of active scans. Scans have to be directed, as was evident in Abigail Hearn's orders to her crew in the War Games to "direct your search in this area right ... here." Which adds to mounting evidence towards my notion that in peacetime a bowshock might not be detected.
Probably wouldn't be detected at 22.8 million km in the pre-Galton doctrine. How close they would be, with whatever doctrine they used to use, we don't know. They would eventually be detected, but it might be too late.
In any case, now that the bowshock effect is known, the GA can also tune their sensors to see them at greater distances or, at the same distance, see fainter signals or over a larger volume (bigger angle).
Space is huge, mind boggling and scan boggling huge. The LD's will not be attacking on a bearing that is to be expected. A bowshock won't be detected. As far as active scans, there seems to be both a limitation of range and a limitation in the need to be directed. And the need to be directed insinuates a need to be lucky. At Galton the GA knew to be looking for a threat from the inner system. The GA won't be looking for an attack from their own inner system. Even the sensors from forts and platforms have to be directed. They have to be looking in that direction.
I don't think this scenario is realistic simply because I don't expect an LD to be coming at fast enough speeds and close enough to produce a noticeable bowshock in the first place. The ship is several orders of magnitude bigger than the Hasta missile, with a much bigger cross-section and powerful engines, so it should produce orders of magnitude brighter bowshocks. It's equally orders of magnitude more expensive than a Hasta, so it won't be risked under similar conditions that Galton's attack faltered on (this is assuming they get their hands on an Alliance report that explains how they detected the Hasta attack). So it's a moot point for the mothership itself.
For the missile pods and graser torpedoes, that's a different story. Those are similar in size to Hastas and have to get close enough. In fact, the Hasta is effectively a missile pod strapped to a recon drone body to provide an engine.
Thus the notion, "flying below the radar."
More like tiptoeing below the radar. Reminds me of the episode in which the Mythbusters and build team tried to break into a building, the memorable one where they tried to use magnetic clamps to climb ventilation ducts and concluded it was possible but also incredibly loud. In that episode, Kari defeated the motion sensors by just walking very, very slowly.