Control Missile for shipboard launched missiles

Rakhmamort wrote:Since when did a 12 missile salvo have the same saturation as a 240 missile salvo? It has already been established that a 120 missile salvo can saturate the defenses of a BC division. When has it been shown 12 missiles can do the same?

Weird Harold wrote:When has anyone claimed that 12 -- or 24 or 36 -- Mk16s were sufficient to saturate a BC's defenses? What I have said is that a Dragon's Teeth's 100+ false images can serve the same purpose as wasting 100+ actual missiles.

Weird Harold wrote:I seem to recall that a Roland's missile tubes are trios. One ACM tube could displace three Mk-16 tubes.

However many it displaces, it still makes a significant dent in offensive capability.

Another point to consider is that the big advantage to Apollo is increased long range accuracy, not multiplication of control links. Fitting FTL transceivers to individual missiles would actually be preferable so that an entire pod of missiles doesn't need to be fired to gain long range accuracy. A disadvantage of Pod-based weapons is that the EW/Attack ratio is fixed long before the tactical situation is encountered -- One ACM, One Dazzler, One Dragon's Teeth, and six attack missiles for an Apollo pod.

Given the destructive power of a Mod-G warhead, I can see where a mix of one Dazzler, three Dragon's Teeth, and eight Attack Missiles might be a better tactical choice than emptying the entire magazine in one salvo. That probably wouldn't obliterate even a Solarian BC, but it should at least give a BC second thoughts and mission-kill anything smaller.

Rakhmamort wrote:

Bill Woods wrote:The simple solution for a DD skipper forced to fight several BCs is 'do not allow yourself to get into this situation.' On the very rare occasions when it's unavoidable, the skipper may get a medal for being a hero. Otherwise, he probably gets cashiered for being an idiot.

With the proposed control missile, he doesn't have to be a hero. Neither would his ship and his crew need to be battered into a wreck or destroyed.

Rakhmamort wrote:The sollies need only to use multi-squadron sized commerce raiding force a couple of times to force the RMN to increase the size/number of the escorts. This tactic is going to stretch the RMN's capabilities since they need to defend everywhere while the solly raiders will only attack where they find weakness.

If the only deterrent to that is to use more/bigger ships, then the sollies' tactics has already succeeded.

Bill Woods wrote:If the Sollies are clumping their commerce raiders in multi-squadron task forces, the obvious response is to dispense with convoys. Use SDF craft to escort freighters past the hyper limit and send them off. If the Sollies want to waste a dozen BCs chasing down one freighter, well....

Rakhmamort wrote: And sending individual merchies with no defenses will mean no merchies killed? Oh wait, no navy ships killed but dead merchie ships all around. Looks like a win for sollies again.

Bill Woods wrote: Suppose the Sollies have about 1000 BCs available for commerce raiding. That gives them only about 40 of your huge task forces, less the ones refitting, or in transit to or from their bases. With so few raider TFs, almost all merchies will arrive at their destinations without ever seeing one. But some ships will be captured, and I suppose a few people will be killed. There's a war on; risks are unavoidable.

Meanwhile, the Manties would be using navy ships to set ambushes at locations those raider TFs might be expected, and taking out their bases.

Rakhmamort wrote: And that is the point why SLN is going to go to such a tactic. Instead of Manty ships performing offensive strikes to defeat the SL, they are going to be waiting in ambush, escorting merchies, looking for raider bases and hitting them. The PN sent only a couple of squadrons of ships into Silesia to f-up manty merchant shipping and the manty's had to scramble to react. Imagine a campaign with 1000 BCs running around taking out merchantmen?

Bill Woods wrote:Well, no one else seems to think these control missiles can be built or deployed in the near future. Mind you, I didn't hear an explanation why a Ghostrider recon platform, near the target, couldn't relay messages sent via FTL comm from the launching ship to the incoming missiles, giving essentially the same performance.

Bill Woods wrote:Attacking the Frontier Forces bases the commerce raiders are coming from qualifies as "offensive strikes", in my estimation. And if a cruiser squadron can ambush one of your multi-squadron raider task forces, I think they'd call that a "target-rich environment". To be effective, raiders are supposed to tie down a comparatively greater force of the defenders. I don't see your plan working out that way.

Rakhmamort wrote:

Bill Woods wrote:Well, no one else seems to think these control missiles can be built or deployed in the near future. Mind you, I didn't hear an explanation why a Ghostrider recon platform, near the target, couldn't relay messages sent via FTL comm from the launching ship to the incoming missiles, giving essentially the same performance.

Actually, I think they are building it or something like it. I don't know what the exact Keyhole-lite's specifications are but it is supposed to be something like Apollo for lighter combatants. It might be possible that the K-lite control missile might have FTL receiving capabilities too.

The Rolands were designed to fit a very specific tactical and strategic niche. They were also very deliberately designed not to fit other tactical and strategic niches. They are the fleet's new-generation destroyer, and one of the considerations that went into their design was the identification of capabilities which had to be left out in order to keep them from being pressed into roles for which they were never intended. There is no way that BuShips is going to go back and look at ways to cram in the very sorts of capabilities they very carefully designed out.

Rakhmamort wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:Given the destructive power of a Mod-G warhead, I can see where a mix of one Dazzler, three Dragon's Teeth, and eight Attack Missiles might be a better tactical choice than emptying the entire magazine in one salvo. That probably wouldn't obliterate even a Solarian BC, but it should at least give a BC second thoughts and mission-kill anything smaller.

Bill Woods wrote:Mind you, I didn't hear an explanation why a Ghostrider recon platform, near the target, couldn't relay messages sent via FTL comm from the launching ship to the incoming missiles, giving essentially the same performance.

Rakhmamort wrote:

Bill Woods wrote:Well, no one else seems to think these control missiles can be built or deployed in the near future. Mind you, I didn't hear an explanation why a Ghostrider recon platform, near the target, couldn't relay messages sent via FTL comm from the launching ship to the incoming missiles, giving essentially the same performance.

Actually, I think they are building it or something like it. I don't know what the exact Keyhole-lite's specifications are but it is supposed to be something like Apollo for lighter combatants. It might be possible that the K-lite control missile might have FTL receiving capabilities too.