Jonathan_S wrote:Somtaaw wrote:The only time Ghost Rider EW has ever truly fooled RMN sensors, was during Project Anzio, and the full-sized testing of the CLAC and Shrike concept. And Ghost Rider was still an official secret that very few officers even knew about.
After Ghost Rider went fully distributed, I don't recall a single instance of RMN stealth beating RMN sensors. Hemphill tries but she's managed to keep both sides fairly well balanced, and head and shoulders above anybody elses tech.
And 1st line navies (the ones you might need to try to pull this trick on to even the odds) have bow and stern walls; so even a hint of a RD trying to sneak into a dead-ahead or dead-astern position would likely cause them to raise the appropriate wall -- which would significantly blunt the attack.
So even if they couldn't localize well enough to take it out with a CM they're not so vulnerable anymore.
OTOH while they're lower accel, there's some risk of the MAlign trying this same trick with Graser torps; their one-shot grasers pack a lot more punch than your average laserhead and their stealth is probably even better that Ghost Rider.
Mistletoe was designed against basically unmoving - and defensively unarmed - targets. Missle pods, the Moriarity control platforms, etc. It used standard nukes; and those platforms weren't actively looking for *recon drones*, they were searching for warships.
Your note about bow and stern sidewalls is noted, but as I recall, they are mostly used for units *at rest*; and, most likely, only when attack is imminent, since the grav bands that comprise them would interfere with sensors trying to locate enemy ships and control offensive weapons. Keyhole helps, along with Ghost Rider and Apollo, but the most sensitive sensors are still ship based.
That said, even side sidewalls only *attenuate* the bomb-pumped lasers. I doubt bow or sternwalls would do anything different.
I suppose it *could* be useful if attacking from stealth. There'd be no impellor signature to give warning, just a shot out of nowhere. But the same problem still arises - a ship of the wall is unlikely - unless very unlucky - to be significantly damaged by a single laserhead missile. Smaller units, maybe, but there are usually *lots* of those compared to the "heavies". And they're likely to be constantly moving while being the "screen".
As for Ghost Rider and RMN sensors, there's really never been a situation where they've tried to find one that was *hiding*. They have control codes that can get one to respond if it was left behind or otherwise "lost". The exercises are *simulations*, not actual ships moving and weapons being fired. In the ATC, or on shipboard computer simulations, you can pretty much show or do anything the person setting it up decides on. They've occasionally given the opponent Ghost Rider or something similar, but when they do they don't *tell* the folks training that they have. It's up to them to find out as part of the training. In general, they've managed to discover that kind of "trick". The stories, however, aren't all that clear on exactly *how* they might have done so, so we really don't know.
I *think* I vaguely remember a comment in one of the books somewhere where it was said that a Ghost Rider recon drone was very difficult for even Manty sensors to locate and track, however. That would imply that it's *possible* to do so with RMN sensors, but I don't recall any statement as to what to look for.
But since the RMN isn't battling *itself*, the Graysons, or the Andermani, I doubt they even *looked* for something that stealthy on a regular basis. That might have changed after Oyster Bay, but I don't think anything has really been said about it, other than upgrading and keeping better watch with the system defense sensor nets for potential stealthy arrivals out of hyperspace.
