Apollo Counter.

infodump wrote: (7) [SMALL SPOILER] The evolution of Mark 16 tactics, using Ghost Rider platforms and FTL communications buoys to reduce the control links' effective lightspeed lag have provided a sort of "poor man's" Apollo for Mark 16-equipped combatants ...

Work is currently underway to provide genuine Apollo capability for the Mark 16, and (in fact) that should be happening fairly shortly. The problem is going to be that not even the Nike is equipped with Keyhole-Two, so until a fix is found for that, the capability will be useful only when in company with a sufficient number of Keyhole-Two-equipped combatants to provide enough Apollo control links to make it worthwhile. The Agamemnon is too small to be equipped with Keyhole-Two. In terms of evaluating the BC(P) versus the BC(L) as a type, that is a nonfactor; in terms of evaluating the currently available BC(P)s and BC(L)s, which is something the Admiralty has to do when deciding where to assign the ships it actually has, it is a very significant factor.
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Yes, a BC(P) can carry Mark 23s whereas a BC(L) cannot. This is a well taken point. And, yes, Mark 23s can be used exactly the same way that a Saganami-C or a Nike (or a Roland) uses the Mark 16 in conjunction with FTL com ability.

SharkHunter wrote:Hello y'all. I found the textev I was looking for that FTL drones and buoys CAN be used relative to missile control plus another tidbit that has some interesting tactical considerations for "Nike" vs Aggie deployments:

http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/en ... gton/285/1

Here's the snipped applicable bits:

infodump wrote: (7) [SMALL SPOILER] The evolution of Mark 16 tactics, using Ghost Rider platforms and FTL communications buoys to reduce the control links' effective lightspeed lag have provided a sort of "poor man's" Apollo for Mark 16-equipped combatants ...

...snip because not addressing...

SWM wrote:

Somtaaw wrote:Still loosely falls in my response of it's gonna be whichever systems have full-fledged Naval Yards already built.

But they still have to get past the NIH blinkers, which so far have only been done by a) Maya sector, and b) Techno-Dyne (Industries of Yilden, I think is the full name)

That's not true. David has told us that a number of Solarian member states (probably ones with their own SDFs) sent observers to watch the First Havenite War (and presumably the Second War, too). These systems were not as complacent about the preeminence of Solarian naval technology, and kept close track of developments in the Haven Quadrant.

So for more than a decade, some Solarian systems have been aware of the leaps Manticore has made, and probably trying to duplicate them.

Storm from the Shadows end of Chapter 48 wrote:Cpt Daud al-Fanudahi and Cpt Irene Teague talking about SDF observations of the Havenite wars

"They can't all be true," she protested quietly. "The rumors, I mean. Manticor's only one time little star system, Daud! All right, so its a rich little star system, and it's got a hell of a lot bigger navy than anybody else its size. But it's still one star system, however many other systems it may be in the process of annexing. Are you seriously suggesting that they've managed somehow to put together a better, more effective R and D establishment than the entire Solarian League?"
"They don't have to have done that," he said flatly. "The League could be ahead of them clear across the board, but that doesn't mean the Navy is. These people have been fighting a war for better than twenty T-years, and they started their military buildup way the hell before that. You think maybe they could have been working really hard on weapons R and D in the process? That maybe, unlike us, they've been looking at real combat reports, instead of analyses of traing simulations where the 'secret details' get leaked to all the senior participants before they even begin the exercize? That, unlike us, the people building their weapons and evaluating their combat doctrines might once have heard of a gentleman named Charles Darwin? Compared to someone who's been fighting for his life for two decades, we're soft, Irene - soft, underprepared, and complacent."

SharkHunter wrote:

infodump wrote: (7) [SMALL SPOILER] The evolution of Mark 16 tactics, using Ghost Rider platforms and FTL communications buoys to reduce the control links' effective lightspeed lag have provided a sort of "poor man's" Apollo for Mark 16-equipped combatants ...

Weird Harold wrote:You're missing the critical point; the RDs can't communicate with missiles, the Hermes communication buoys (with far more communications channels than an RD) apparently can talk to a limited number of missiles per buoy.

SharkHunter wrote:Snip...

That said, even without Apollo, the DDM's (16-G) and larger are currently absolutely lethal in quantity to ANY other fleet, even just with lightspeed links. Another "weird" thought/question is -- could you use an rear ACM to update another forward ACM?, sort of the opposite of the ACM as an RD trick from the Henke simulation? That capability would also make Apollo uncounterable, I think.

SharkHunter wrote:Well, I could argue that you could have the RD's communicate with the buoys and the buoys communcate with missiles

Kizarvexis wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:Snip...

That said, even without Apollo, the DDM's (16-G) and larger are currently absolutely lethal in quantity to ANY other fleet, even just with lightspeed links. Another "weird" thought/question is -- could you use an rear ACM to update another forward ACM?, sort of the opposite of the ACM as an RD trick from the Henke simulation? That capability would also make Apollo uncounterable, I think.

I would guess no as the ACM hides in the shadow of the other missiles, so I'm betting broadcasting forward would have a problem with wedge interference from the missiles it is controlling.

Storm from the Shadows wrote:The simulated targets' fire control had only a relatively imprecise idea of where to look for the attack missiles before their third-stage drives came suddenly on-line. They'd still been so far out when they shut down for the ballistic leg of their flight that the defenders' on-board sensors hadn't been able to fully localize them. The target ships had gotten enough to predict their positions to within only a few percentage points of error, but at those velocities, and on such an enormous "battlefield," even tiny uncertainties made precise targeting impossible. And precise targeting was exactly what was necessary for a counter-missile to hit an attack missile at extended range.

Kizarvexis wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:Snip...

That said, even without Apollo, the DDM's (16-G) and larger are currently absolutely lethal in quantity to ANY other fleet, even just with lightspeed links. Another "weird" thought/question is -- could you use an rear ACM to update another forward ACM?, sort of the opposite of the ACM as an RD trick from the Henke simulation? That capability would also make Apollo uncounterable, I think.

I would guess no as the ACM hides in the shadow of the other missiles, so I'm betting broadcasting forward would have a problem with wedge interference from the missiles it is controlling.

Jonathan_S wrote:
So even if you wanted one transmitter to take yo the ship and another missile (at least halving its transmission rate to each) I don't think a single transmitter, squeezed into a missile, could point both ways.