Jonathan_S wrote:...
I'm fairly confident kzt was pointing out that s lasing rod is smaller diameter than a CM; so if the book called out a grav sensor on a little individual lasing rod that it would be inconceivable if the larger nose of a CM to lack one.
From
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/entry/Harrington/160/1 Most importantly, perhaps, the sheer size of the drives required to produce the needed performance preclude packing the bird with lots and lots of really sensitive and smart homing systems. Obviously, the CM has at least some homing capability, but it is inherently short-ranged. Think of it as myopic, if you will. In order to get any really useful PK numbers, each CM requires external guidance from something which has much better sensors and much better ability to penetrate defensive ECM--i.e., the fire control systems of the ship which launched it. This limits the number of intercepts to the number the launching vessel has "channels" to control. Once the CM reaches a range at which its shorter-ranged, more simple-minded onboard systems have secured a high confidence lock on its target, it hands itself off to onboard control, releasing the fire control link to the main ship (and, incidentally, giving missile defense a much better handle on threat assessment, since the CM won't hand itself off unless the PK has reached certain parameters stored in its onboard computers, and in the RMN, those parameters basically specify about an 80% PK). Until and unless a CM disengages itself, the launching ship either controls it clear to target or decides when it will disengage, leaving the CM to its own devices, in order to pick up and control a fresh CM.
and from
http://infodump.thefifthimperium.com/entry/Harrington/162/1 The nature of the CM itself only adds to the problem, because its onboard target seeking is much less sophisticated than that of a shipkiller. It needs more control for the intercept because the sheer size and power of the impeller drive engineered into it puts too much squeeze on its (much smaller to begin with) internal volume to permit the same self-targeting ability as a shipkiller and its targets are already harder to lock up (courtesy of all the penaids loaded into them, decoys, small size of target, etc.) than the target the more capable shipkiller is looking for to begin with. So you have greater need than ever for fire control from some more sophisticated platform, but the greater the numbers of CMs you send downrange, the more that control ability is restricted.
That of course doesn't mean that a CM wouldn't have a grav sensor. It just means that any such sensor is myopic and short-ranged. Counter missiles need active guidance in order to have a reasonable PK.
