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Title Posted
Why did Pavel Young accept Harrington's challenge? Nov 2002
Balance of power in the Star Kingdom of Manticore Nov 2002
"Beached" or <em>half pay</em> officers Nov 2002
Manticoran Admiralty Nov 2002
Warship armor Nov 2002
Grav pulse comm and the detection of hyper footprints Nov 2002
Prolong Nov 2002
Grav pulse comm pulse generation Nov 2002
Grav pulse comm in hyper Nov 2002
Manticoran Peerage seating Nov 2002

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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

Asymmetrical broadsides

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: October 22, 2002

Why Are Starships Symmetrical? The question of why ships aren't designed with separate broadsides optimized for different types of combat -- that is, missile-range combat as opposed to energy-range combat -- has emerged once again. Do you want to comment on this one at all?

 

Symmetrical Broadsides. No, I don't want to comment on this. I've done it before, and the statements I made then still apply. Indeed, they've become even more relevant in an era in which broadside missile tubes are becoming less and less significant for major combatants and the need for missile defenses has never been greater. Asymmetrical broadsides would be a bad idea.