Re: [FT]Modular Ships

From: "mary" <r2bell@home.com>

> I accept that this is close enough to ten percent; however, it
> conclusively shows that the modules have extra hardware(including, but
> not limited to those little cabinets) which must increase their cost,
> and add some premium the the cost
> of a reconfigurable warship.	You must also concede that the
> reconfigurability
> is limited to sensors and weapons.

Limited to sensors and weapons? Yes.

Additional costs? Not really. The initial cost is a tadge higher, but
after
you've built a few, the cost decreases due to less training, maintenance
etc.
This was not a design consideration, but has proven to be true for a lot
of
vessels. Hence the popularity of the Meko concept, where navies that
have
no intention of ever swapping to different types of module still like
the
modularity, because maintenance is a lot cheaper. It's a bit like having
sound cards, video cards etc rather than having everything built on to
a single very expensive motherboard. You may pay a bit more to have the
additional bus slots, but the first time you want to upgrade, or the
first
time a chip dies, you save heaps. But of course, your software had
better manage the IRQ etc conflicts. But software that does this is
in a better position to cope with VR goggles, scent-sprays or whatever
new hardware is coming in the next 5 years anyway.