Re: Honor Harrington Question?

On Sun, 13 Jul 1997, Peggy & Jeff Shoffner wrote:

> My Point to Ponder is this.  In one of the books, he mentions that
fighting 
> in hyperspace is very dicey, mainly because your main grav shields are
being 
> used for the sails, and missiles are useless because the impeller
drive would 
> instantaeneously burn out when fired.
...
> My thought is this: yeah, the missile impellers might not work, but
the 
> missile launch tubes are over-glorified rail guns/mass drivers.  Why
couldn't 
> the ships launch the missiles without impellers and either (A) let the
75 to 
> 100 ton mass slam into the opposing ship, or (B) modify the warhead to

> detonate by proximity (which, I think they already do)?  The really
cruel 
> thing is, Honor's universe detects other ships, etc. by their grav
signature. 
>  If the missiles are just thrown out without impeller drives working,
the 
> opposing ship won't know what's coming until it's too late.  Sounds
like an 
> Honor tactic to me.....

Some reasons:

1) A ship (or missile) without a Warshawski sail is torn apart in a grav

   wave (which is where most of the hyper travel takes place). Merely 
   turning your wedge off isn't enough to save you.

2) If you want to fight at missile ranges, pray that the enemy doesn't 
   change his course - because without maneuvering power, the missiles
can't 
   react when he does... and the overwhelming part of a missile's 
   velocity comes from its own drive and the launching ship's velocity, 
   not the missile launcher. Sure, the opponent won't see the missiles
on 
   his radar until they get fairly close, but when it takes the missiles

   several minutes to reach firing range after they're seen...

3) Missiles _using_ their drives rarely get close enough to cause damage

   with normal nuclear warheads. Scoring a direct (physical) hit is even

   harder.

Also note that it _is_ possible to use missiles in hyperspace, as long
as 
you're not inside a grav wave. Read "Honor among Enemies", and you'll
see :)

Oerjan Ohlson

"Life is like a sewer.
 What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
 -Hen3ry