FT/SG interface

Someone suggested that shipboard weapons be considered as having basic
fire control. I wonder about this.
Let's think about the comparative difficulty of tasks. Hitting a 10m
long target moving at (if its a tank) 100 kph (let's be generous). Range
on this shot might be about 30km or less. Or hitting a 10m long fighter
manoevring at multiple Gs at 6000km. Hmmmm.

And needle beams particularly are designed to punch through stuff by a
focused beam, they'd be pretty rough on any SG2 vehicle they hit.

I think if one wants to downrate FT FC, one must do it on the basis that
the target predictor software is not setup to track ground targets, not
that the system isn't sensitive enough. But, OTOH, you'd expect adaptive
systems at this time, so you'd think it wouldn't take long to
recalibrate to engage the tanks. And the ECCM suite on the average
warship ought to be able to null out ANY ECM mounted in a tank.

Let's try this:
Assume an FT fighter probably has a 2-3 armour in SG2. So a PDS must be
capable of beating this. So let's call it a class 3 weapon.

PDS: Class 3 HEL. All RB are considered short. FC vs. VTOLs and other
airborne targets (except in NOE) is Superior. Vs. VTOLS in NOE or ground
targets, Enhanced.

Class 1: Class 5 DFFG. All RB are considered short. FC is considered
Basic. If you believe in adaptive systems, it could improve to Enhanced
in 1d4+1 turns. Versus infantry or other dispersed targets, it would
always be Basic.

Class 2+: I agree with the suggestion to treat as artillery, but keep in
mind the damage should be pretty gross. This system can do 6 pts without
rerolls in FT. It should have a pretty high chance of annihilating any
ground units it hits.

Now, people may ask what insanity even sparks the desire to have FT
ships interface with DS or SG. First, I guess in a campaign someone
might want to do it. Second, I was thinking of a particular scenario
where all the cash strapped colonial government might have access to is
a converted freighter with a PDS and a class 1. They may want to use it
as "poor man's ortillery" to support their troops fighting rebels on
some backwater planet. Regular force units will come with ortillery
support, and fleet elements will have better things to do.

Plus, if you allow it, coming in atmosphere should be a big risk for a
ship - for partially streamlined ones, it'd be doing damage every turn.
For fully streamlined ones, you still have to watch for THAAD systems,
ZADS, PDCs, and perhaps most grossly of all you cut your PDS's response
time so fighters or SDBs might be able to engage you with missiles or
beams before your PDS can defend you (from the fighters or the SDB
missiles). So coming in atmosphere like this would be a rare event for a
non-ortillery ship. And I assume a support ship that expected to be
engaging in a hot situation would have ortillery, PDS, ECM, decoys, it's
own interface fighters, and lots and lots of armour.