Re: FT: Missiles and Gas Tanks

   With all the discussions about missles and gas tanks I  thought I
might
list a few of the the simple things I would design into one of MY basic
missles.

1. It would hop, jink, and rotate around it axis of flight like a
demented
mongoose so that a point defense system would have as hard as possible
job to
predict its course.

2. It would drop chaff, flares, and electronic noise makers so that the
targets computers would have a heart attack determining just which radar
return to target with its point defenses.

3. It would have enough sensors ( multiple ie: IR, Millimeter wave,
gavetic
meters, etc) to find the target ( you don't think the target isn't doing
1 &
2 ???)

4. It would have enough computing power to do 1, 2, & 3 at the same
time.

5. If possible it would it would have a big motor to make the flight
time as
short as possible so that the target would have the fewest possible
chances
to do anything about my missle.

6. It would have really big warhead so that if it only got close, it
would be
enough.

7. Last and not least it would be as small as possible so that I could
carry
as many as possible. (also small targets are harder to see!)

     If you include ALL the above points in a missles' design you'll
soon see
why it will runs its gas tank out in just a few turns. If enough fuel is
included to make it last for say ten turns the size will go up by
several
factors( and therefore the number in your magazine goes down), more mass
=
slower vector changes, and the chances are that the point defense will
get a
lock on a fat, slow, and more predictable target. The result is you get
fewer
missles that are easier to defend against, just so you can launch them a
little further away ( this also gives the target more time to evade the
missle envelope.) 

    The point is, you reach a point of diminishing returns on the range
of a
missle (ie: the gas tank size.)  The real (and military) tradeoff is
between
range and effectiveness. Besides do you think any approprations
committee
would let you build missles which were less likely to hit and many more
times
expensive? 

Tom Hughes

"If you keep your armies out in the field for a long time, your supplies
will
be insufficient"   -  Master Sun