The logistics of SLN commerce raiding

Weird Harold wrote:Shrike or Cimeterre class LACs, with spinal graser or laser, are far more precise than a laser warhead or contact missile. The should easily be able to disable a merchant ship instead of destroying it. Abigail managed to do it with just a Pinnace's lasers in SoS.

It's an exawatt weapon designed to bunch holes in meters thick battle cruiser armor. It delivers damage by heating to stellar temperature the entire depth of the hull in a diameter at least as big as the aperture of the graser. And on a civilian ship the gamma rays probably penetrate the entire cross section of the ship. Heating the material hot enough that the plasma is mostly emitting xrays as it cools. This is not subtle or a "little damaging". It's the equivalent of tons of high explosive set off on the inside of your hull.

kzt wrote:It's the equivalent of tons of high explosive set off on the inside of your hull.

Not if you aren't aiming at the hull. Granted it's overpowered and less precise than a customs cutter might carry, but it is far more precise than a laser-head.

There are also the PDLCs on a LAC that should suffice to disable the drive ring of a merchant ship.

LACs are Bowie Knifes instead of a missiles Machete, but scalpels (pinnaces) don't have the range needed. You make do with what can do the job, even if it's not an ideal tool.

Who would you nominate to handle the complex operations against Yildun?

Hamish is automatically entered into the pot, courtesy of Esther McQueen giving him a crash course in complex operations, and spanking that bare ass until it was raw, a time or three.

"This is what you get, for phucking around with Peeps! Go home to your mother!"

Weird Harold wrote:

kzt wrote:It's the equivalent of tons of high explosive set off on the inside of your hull.

Not if you aren't aiming at the hull. Granted it's overpowered and less precise than a customs cutter might carry, but it is far more precise than a laser-head.

There are also the PDLCs on a LAC that should suffice to disable the drive ring of a merchant ship.

LACs are Bowie Knifes instead of a missiles Machete, but scalpels (pinnaces) don't have the range needed. You make do with what can do the job, even if it's not an ideal tool.

It would have to be a PDLC. But even then, a powered node has a heck of a lot of energy being fed into it, and when the node gets shot that energy has to go somewhere. In other words, there would still be a big bang.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I seem to remember that the energy weapons on pinnaces are approximately 5cm lasers? That's a massive difference to a 150cm graser! Hence my comment about PDLC.

WLBjork wrote:

Weird Harold wrote:Not if you aren't aiming at the hull. Granted it's overpowered and less precise than a customs cutter might carry, but it is far more precise than a laser-head.

There are also the PDLCs on a LAC that should suffice to disable the drive ring of a merchant ship.

LACs are Bowie Knifes instead of a missiles Machete, but scalpels (pinnaces) don't have the range needed. You make do with what can do the job, even if it's not an ideal tool.

It would have to be a PDLC. But even then, a powered node has a heck of a lot of energy being fed into it, and when the node gets shot that energy has to go somewhere. In other words, there would still be a big bang.

Edit: I forgot to mention, I seem to remember that the energy weapons on pinnaces are approximately 5cm lasers? That's a massive difference to a 150cm graser! Hence my comment about PDLC.

Jayne's has it as a 2cm laser. even worse!!!!!

kzt wrote:It's an exawatt weapon designed to bunch holes in meters thick battle cruiser armor. It delivers damage by heating to stellar temperature the entire depth of the hull in a diameter at least as big as the aperture of the graser. And on a civilian ship the gamma rays probably penetrate the entire cross section of the ship. Heating the material hot enough that the plasma is mostly emitting xrays as it cools. This is not subtle or a "little damaging". It's the equivalent of tons of high explosive set off on the inside of your hull.

And you have to fire it at full power??

Besides, the targets would be drive nodes, not the hull at all. The idea it to make the ship stop, the least damaging way to do that is blow nodes.

WLBjork wrote:Edit: I forgot to mention, I seem to remember that the energy weapons on pinnaces are approximately 5cm lasers? That's a massive difference to a 150cm graser! Hence my comment about PDLC.

Pinnaces are scalpels. LACs are somewhere between a Buck and a Bowie. Missiles are Machetes or Battle Axes.

Pinnaces would be ideal if they had the range and endurance to patrol the hyper-limit. Unfortunately, they don't. They'd be easy meat for any local warships, too.

However much they might be overkill against simple freighters, LACs are the best compromise of survivability against armed blockade runners, range, speed and numbers than any other platform available.

Loren Pechtel wrote:Besides, the targets would be drive nodes, not the hull at all. The idea it to make the ship stop, the least damaging way to do that is blow nodes.

The pulse doesn't deliver energy to the surface of the object hit, it delivers it deep into the material in the way. Unless that material is the equivalent of SD sidewall plus main belt armor the outer layer of material being turned into a multi-million degree plasma cloud probably won't stop the pulse from propagating onward.

So it might be the "least damaging", but least is likely to include a lethal x-ray dose to at least some of the ship and a rather extensive physical damage to the area around that portion of the ship.

kzt wrote:So it might be the "least damaging", but least is likely to include a lethal x-ray dose to at least some of the ship and a rather extensive physical damage to the area around that portion of the ship.

Of course, Lasers, grazers, PDLCs, missiles, or whatever can easily be avoided by Ships striking their wedge when given an "Or Else" request. Ships that continue trying to escape should expect some casualties when they encounter the "Or Else."

You still have not defined the strategic goal. Until you say what you want to accomplish, you can't determine how to achieve that goal. Oh, and my impression is that a graser is much more powerful than a missle. A single hit from a missle damages the paint on a capital ship, a single hit from a grazer can cripple one. A LACs graser isn't a machete, it is a battle are.