So, in terms of deadly women...

tinfoil wrote:I really like the way this thread has stayed on topic...

darrell wrote:
I inferred the size of the Mk-41 from a quote in "In Enemy Hands"
"""I don't know about you, My Lord, but I'll sacrifice eighteen percent of my total missile load for that performance envelope!" """

since we are sacrificing 18% of missile power, that indicates that the missiles themselves are probably 18 % larger.

Remember that the Mk-41 used some new components such as new capacitors that made them much smaller. from "Ashes of Victory"
"""but if they wanted to accept bigger launchers and lower missile load-outs, they could probably match the extended range capabilities of Ghost Rider's offensive side. Heck, build the suckers big enough, and they could do it with off-the-shelf components, Stew!" """

Where do you get that a DDM is bigger than a SDM? since BC sized single drive missile lunchers and DDM launchers are the same mod number, with just the letter being different indicates that the DDM can be fired by a launcher that is the same size for both, the only difference is the new launcher has the ability to start the fusion plant,

Besides, Who said that a capital ship capacitor powered DDM was equal to the MK-31 except for the drive? Use a less powerful comupter, less powerfupowerl warhead, and it definitely could be done, even with "off the shelf components"

Theemile wrote:The "In enemy Hands" quote is referring to the change from the old 12 missile SDM pods to the new 10 missile MDM pods - an 18% decrease in towed missiles. Remember - at that time in IEH, Podnaughts were on the drawing board. There is no reference to size or mass, just shots per pod.

Your "Ashes of Victory" quote was Scotty Tremaine talking to another COLAC about the Havenites building MDMs using their standard kit - not a comment on how Manticore did it, but did lay out how easy it was. Notice I gave you the masses of 3 marks of RMN capitol missiles, and they were decreasing in mass, Manticore had been installing the updated capacitors in missiles for several years, so their use in the Mk 41 was nothing new, or was just the latest iteration on the miniaturization, not a quantum leap over the previous generation. That would not come until the fusion plant of the mk 23.

BCs and CAs in RMN service use the same missiles. The Star Knight and the Reliant had the same mk launchers (the 7b) and are limited to the mk 13 ER missile, while the Sag-C and the Nike have a newer launcher, specialially designed and armored for the fusion plant in the mk 16 missile. Notice at Monica the 2 Star Knights did not have the Hexapuma's range - they still used the older missile. Why? The Mk 16 DDM is larger - it's speced at 94 tons in SFTS, while the mk13 is speced at 78 tons in IFF. Both originally had a 6 rod, 10Mton nuke warhead, while RMN capitol warheads have a 10 rod, ~60Mton warhead (Prior to the -G upgrade that is).

The reason the Mk 16 is smaller than a Capital missile is the smaller warhead in the mk 16 and other cruiser weight missiles, once you scale up the warhead to Capital specs, the rest of the missile has to scale as well.

darrell wrote:The So called "newer" launcher is the 7C. In nomenclature it is very very similar to the 7B. This indicates to me that the likely possibility is that the fusion DDM is the same physical size as the old CA/BC missile.

12 missiles is 20% more than missiles than 10.
10 missiles is 17% (seventeen) percent fewer missiles than 12 missiles.

Neither of those is the same as """eighteen percent of my total missile load"""

Presuming that the drive and capacitor for a SDM takes up half the missile body, using "off the shelf components" a three stage missile would be twice the size. IMO it is not likely that manticore could fit 10 missiles in a missile pod instead of 12 if the missiles were twice as big.

IIRC there was something somewhere that said havenite single drive missiles were about 25% larger, which would make havenite missile pods almost twice as large. to be able to throw 16 SDM's.

Maldorian wrote:Why are all people are thinking in "fleets"?

Give some agents a few A-bombs and bring them to Beowulf would be much easier to realize than an military attack and if you place them right can do the same amount of damage. I say "Yawata Hit"! I think Beowuld has some orbital medical plants, blow them up and the debris are good as kinetic projectiles.

Brigade XO wrote:The Alignment wants to humiliate and break Beowulf. It wants to have it's own code become the standard in the human occupied galaxy. *Tough to do if Beowulf is a cinder or a mostly uninhabitable ball of rubble on the surface and survivors are living either in (badly run) refugee camps on it's surface or in enclaves of refugees scattered around in other systems.

Just supplanting Beowulf as a standard of conduct and medical technology will never be enough. Beowulf has to KNOW it has been replaced.

So, just using weapons of mass destructions is ultimatly futile in true victory for the Alignment. Making your opponant bleed and despair while flailing ineffectively to defend itself against loss of prestige, "moral high ground", the pinical of medical technology etc, etc. is much more satisfying. The fact that the Alignment is willing to kill billions to set up it's own shadow government -they arn't likely to come out from behind the curtin to rule- is just the way it must go to vindicate the work of L Detweiler and the superiority of the Detweiler approch to medical and social science.

Subtle.....in it's own twisted ways. Like perverting the original Republic of Haven into PRH to break the SL to get at Beowulf.........as I say, twisted.

Maldorian wrote:With other words: "A covert Operation isn´t Hollywood like enough!"

The Alignement is a Diva who wants the big stage!