Re: GEV capabilities

On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, Adrian Johnson wrote:

<snip>
> >SO the point I'm getting at is, a GEV could not traverse a cliff, or
a
> mountain
> >or even a stiff hill. Does this jive with your guys impressions of
GEV
> >capabilities or do you see it like a helicopter, capable of rising to
any
> height
> >it wishes . (I believe the pop up ability of a GEV is a function of
teh
> rating
> >of its power plant and mass).
> >
(snippage)
> Just to throw in a monkey wrench:
> 
> Q:  if a Ground Effect (hovercraft) tank fires it's main gun, won't it
be
> propelled in the opposite direction - in other words, there's nothing
to
> push back against the recoil...  This would not be a problem if you
had
> directional fans providing propulsion AND the gun was firing in a
direction
> opposite to the thrust of the fans AND you had "burst" thrust
capability on
> the engines to compensate for the momentary thrust of the cannon
recoil...
> 
> There are some potentially very serious performance
issues/considerations
> for ground effect armoured vehicles...
> 
> For example: How do you stop them once they are moving...  A tank has
LOTS
> of inertia, and a GEV is like an air-hockey puck...???
> 
> Armoured vehicles have a maximum side incline rating (the vehicle can
climb
> an incline of x degrees, descend a y degree incline, and traverse an
> incline of z degrees tipped to the side without rolling over...).  How
> would a ground effect vehicle traverse ANY side incline - would it not
just
> "slide off" to that side...????
> 

Combat-capable GEVs (and it is Ground Effect Vehicle in all the SF I've
read) would have to have gimballed fans for movement, steering, etc.
With
a few exceptions, GEV tanks don't have external thrust fans and rudders,
so the bottom-mounted lift fans would have to swivel around to provide
steering and accel. There are already, I believe, real-world hovercraft
that operate on these principles.

As for power supply and availability of enough thrust, we're already
positing battlefield lasers, FTL, some energy weapons, combat railguns,
and a host of other futuretech in vanilla DS/SG. Assuming a big enough,
efficient enough power plant exists for armoured GEV tanks isn't that
big
a stretch.

(I must admit a certain bias here: I really like hovertanks, and I have
a
DS2 Size 5 super-hovertank that regularly appears in my forces, to great
effect. Most of the rest of my force is also GEV mobile.)

DS2 standard GEV combat vehicles do have certain mobility problems
already: they can't move thru forests, and they really slow down in
slopes
and rough ground. The open-ground mobility and the absolute
amphibiousness
tend, I find, to make up for the restrictions. 

Just my $0.02,

Brian (burger00@camosun.bc.ca)
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