Re: Kinetic Energy Missile--New weapon for DSII

Mike Jasinski wrote:

> > ECM is totally ineffective against a KEM due to its 
> > guidance mode.
> 
> If the guidance mode is "no guidance", this is probably true <g> A
> missile travelling fast enough to kill a tank by pure KE - we're
talking
> 2-3000 m/s or so - would be... difficult to steer to say the least, so
> "no guidance" (making the KEM a rocket-powered KE round rather than >
a
missile) sounds fairly likely. If it is fire-and-forget, it will be
> vulnerable to ECM.<<
> 
> By guided I don't mean radical course changes, only minute corrections
> to keep up with target's movements, which would not be all that great.

I > envision the KEM as a laser beam-rider, which means that unless you 
> can somehow interrupt  the laser beam between launcher and missile, >
ECM cannot help.  

The laser beam-riders I'm used to (BILL et al) point the laser beam at
the *target*, not at the *missile*. If the target can somehow shake off
the guidance system's target lock (which is AFAIK next to impossible
with
today's tech, but might be possible in the future - god knows there's a
lot of research on this going on right now, but unfortunately he's also
probably the only one who knows just how far they've come so far :-/)
the
missile will most likely miss. This shaking off guidance lock could be
represented by the ECM game mechanic, even if it isn't electromagnetics
that do the shaking.

However, given the high speed the missile would need for a KE kill
there's not much need for guidance - except at very long ranges, of
course, but then there's all too often a small problem with intervening
terrain (unless the missile is fired from aircraft, in which case you
have to hope that your enemy forgot his AA somewhere :-/ ), and also
excepting very fast targets (Renegade Legion-style grav tanks moving at
200+ mph, aircraft etc).

> Unless you assume that the KEM has an engine some orders of 
> magnitude more efficient than the GSMs (in which case it'd be a *lot* 
> more expensive rather than 10-20 pts, or else the GSMs would use it 
> too), [snip] <<
> 
> That is my assumption indeed.  KEMs would use the same tech as 
> SMLs. 

Not sure if SML means something else than Salvo Missile Launcher in the
2300 universe, but there's no propulsion tech specified for the
(starship-mounted) Salvo Missiles in the FB which makes it kind of
difficult to say that the GMSs aren't using that tech as well :-/ Salvo
missiles aren't KE weapons, though.

>  As far as the cost is concerned, what is your suggestion?

I haven't played DSII enough lately to say anything for sure, but 100
pts
or so for the basic guidance doesn't look out of place compared to its
capabilities (same range as and better damage than HEL/5, and *much*
smaller). Scale the better-guided versions to fit.

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

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