Next Bolthole devellopment

George J. Smith wrote:Just rereading TSVW and the description of the battle where Helen Zilwicki's squadron defends the convoy.

Warshawski sails are used by ships in hyper to provide propulsion, as they would be destroyed if they bring up their wedges.

OK, what if S&S could give missiles Warshawski sails?

In order to get beyond wedge interference range before lighting off the impeller a missile is launched using some form of railgun technology so if the missile was designed to go directly to Warshawski sails instead of the normal wedge could that work? And if it could it would be a game changer.

(or is that something to be added to the ship that must not be named along with its weapon that must not be named)

Pearls of Weber: Warshaski sail missiles

And you need a pair of sails for a ship, or drone, or whatever to maneuver and accelerate in a grav wave - not the single ring of impellers capable of powering a missile. So I seem to recall from a prior discussion that the smallest you could make a sail propelled object is roughly 1/2 - 1/4 the size of a dispatch boat. So you're talking about a 10,000 - 20,000 ton 'missile'. And because it's using scaled down ship propulsion it would have less than 3x the acceleration of a ship. So a big, relative slow, target for the ship's energy mounts.

Yes it might do a little damage, and you don't risk your own ship getting damaged in return, but it's a wildly inefficient way of doing so...


Combat in grav waves is already so astonishingly rare that navies don't bother to install bubble sidewall generators on their ships - even though that should be far less of a cost and volume hit than these sail attack drones (I can't really call something that big and slow a missile) and give the ships carrying them a major advantage if able/forced to fight in a grav wave. The massive advantage in that one scenario isn't worth the cost and opportunity costs for that volume in the combat and operations they're overwhelmingly more likely to engage in throughout their carriers.



It would be an interesting technical trick to build a sail powered drone/missile - but not, at this time, a militarily practical one. Sorry.

George J. Smith wrote:Just rereading TSVW and the description of the battle where Helen Zilwicki's squadron defends the convoy.

Warshawski sails are used by ships in hyper to provide propulsion, as they would be destroyed if they bring up their wedges.

OK, what if S&S could give missiles Warshawski sails?

In order to get beyond wedge interference range before lighting off the impeller a missile is launched using some form of railgun technology so if the missile was designed to go directly to Warshawski sails instead of the normal wedge could that work? And if it could it would be a game changer.

(or is that something to be added to the ship that must not be named along with its weapon that must not be named)

I think the cost per unit of such a limited use weapon would be more of a problem then any thing else.

[quote="Weird Harold"}

How much interface is there between "weapons and sensors" and "propulsion and life support?" The only interface I can think of off-hand might be maneuvering/navigation and tactical maneuvering. Even there, an automatic interface isn't necessary and CWO Harkness, PMV, could whip up a software patch in about thirty seconds.[/quote]


Just need 12v dc and a 1553 bus. Easy peasy.

1. Homing signal RD's I hope. Given that the FTL comm equipped Ghost Rider drones were still giving Haven fits, and the SLN is to this point clueless, a more direct RD to control missile patch, so that at some point the RD is feeding the AI directly.

2. Ability to synch separately fired missiles to one ACM's take, even at a say 20-30x ratio.

3. Tube fired ACM's (likely from bow tubes)

Jonathan_S wrote:
snip

Combat in grav waves is already so astonishingly rare that navies don't bother to install bubble sidewall generators on their ships - even though that should be far less of a cost and volume hit than these sail attack drones

snip

Wouldn't a ship with bow and stern sidewalls be equivalent to bubble walls and much more usable


Also, we should remember the "clamp on" pods. I like the idea of a spoofer drone with clamp-ons capable of firing at least a few missiles of the size and capability of the ship being projected.

'Sir, there are hundreds of super dreadnoughts in their formation, and they have each fired one missile as a demonstration!'

DDHv wrote:

Jonathan_S wrote:
snip

Combat in grav waves is already so astonishingly rare that navies don't bother to install bubble sidewall generators on their ships - even though that should be far less of a cost and volume hit than these sail attack drones

snip

Wouldn't a ship with bow and stern sidewalls be equivalent to bubble walls and much more usable

We've speculated about that before, but we know a full bow or stern wall needs to tie into a wedge; so you clearly can't use them in a grav wave while under sail. It's unclear whether a buckler wall can be freely projected without a wedge up - because that situation hasn't come up in the books.

I'd be inclined to suspect that it can, but that you'd need a special version of use to use in a grav wave; one that can be tuned to the grav turbulence like a sail. (Without the ability to tune it, which you wouldn't need for n-space use, I think it'd get blow by the 'wave in short order).
So my personal suspicion is that even if it's possible to build a buckler wall you can use in a 'wave that the current generators don't pay the size and complexity costs to be able to actually do so.


Also, a buckler wall would be effective against a single opponent. But against even a pair that knew you mounted one its far less useful. Given their size, and standoff distance, they only protect a cone of a couple of degrees to either side of straight ahead; so it's impossible to keep it interposed against multiple enemies if they split up.

I may be wrong about the "Streak Drive'" It is an advantage in Hyper but not at all in N space? Also while it has been in research for centuries, only recent technical breakthroughs in other fields have allowed research to develop. Again I may be confusing the two.

Would love to see a redesigned a la Grayson Streak Drive that gives ships more N-space accel. That would be a battle advantage.

WeirdlyWired wrote:I may be wrong about the "Streak Drive'" It is an advantage in Hyper but not at all in N space? Also while it has been in research for centuries, only recent technical breakthroughs in other fields have allowed research to develop. Again I may be confusing the two.

Would love to see a redesigned a la Grayson Streak Drive that gives ships more N-space accel. That would be a battle advantage.

"Streak drive" is a terrible name. What it really is, is a hyper generator with access to two more bands of hyperspace.

No n-space benefits at all.

WeirdlyWired wrote:I may be wrong about the "Streak Drive'" It is an advantage in Hyper but not at all in N space? Also while it has been in research for centuries, only recent technical breakthroughs in other fields have allowed research to develop. Again I may be confusing the two.

Would love to see a redesigned a la Grayson Streak Drive that gives ships more N-space accel. That would be a battle advantage.

I think improvements in compensator design/ability is where any added acceleration will come from, ships can already accelerate at rates their organic crews can not tolerate without adequate compensation.

George J. Smith wrote:

WeirdlyWired wrote:I may be wrong about the "Streak Drive'" It is an advantage in Hyper but not at all in N space? Also while it has been in research for centuries, only recent technical breakthroughs in other fields have allowed research to develop. Again I may be confusing the two.

Would love to see a redesigned a la Grayson Streak Drive that gives ships more N-space accel. That would be a battle advantage.

I think improvements in compensator design/ability is where any added acceleration will come from, ships can already accelerate at rates their organic crews can not tolerate without adequate compensation.

Yep. And (Manticoran) ships can already accelerate 50% faster than they could at the beginning of the series. That's a pretty major major improvement...