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Title Posted
Grav pulse comm pulse generation Nov 2002
Grav pulse comm in hyper Nov 2002
Prolong Nov 2002
Cover art Nov 2002
Treecat intelligence I Nov 2002
Why did Paul Tankersley accept Summervale's challenge? Nov 2002
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

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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.

Missile pods as strap-on weapons?

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: October 22, 2002

I'd have to say that would not be a good idea. For one thing, they're bigger than some of you seem to be assuming. In point of fact, the Manties' present capital-ship missile pods are considerably larger than a pinnace or an assault shuttle. In fact, they're a little more than half the beam of a standard DD in their widest dimension, which is why Wayfarer could deploy no more of them simultaneously and why a pod-SD (by the way, I like the term; I hadn't thought of it for myself. Perhaps we should call them SD(P) from now on? ) can deploy even less in a salvo than Wayfarer could. The depth of the after aspect of the wedge is not much of a factor; the physical dimensions of a pod which must pass through a physical hatch are. Moreover, when used as broadside weapons, one would be required to shut down one's sidewalls while one launched (assuming one could launch from a broadside--see below), which could be a major disadvantage if one were under threat of attack at the moment of launch. Why drop the sidewall? Because unlike the fixed, conventional launcher, your pod has no "gunport" in the sidewall through which to eject the missile(s) it is blasting off.