Re: Aircraft Vs Dreadnoughts (Which is what the topic mutated into :o)

rlbell@sympatico.ca (Richard and Emily Bell) said:

>We have a terminology problem.<

And how much of one I didn't realize till I read this post :o)

First of all we are talking a bomb not a missile. (We don't have any
attack 
missiles as big as 2000 lbs. Well, OK, one... but really the AGM 
(Air-to-Ground-Missile)-130 is just a Laser Guided Bomb with a rocket
booster 
for increased range. It can't attack a target until after the rocket
burns 
out and it enters a descending glide path.)

Your pretty much correct about beam-riders vs Semi-active. With terms
defined 
as such, then ALL current missiles and smart bombs are "Semi-active
seekers." 
Laser Guidance is basically both. The Seeker head is not accurate enough
to 
lock on a target at large angles so if the illuminating aircraft is not
THE 
launch aircraft, (usually not) then they aircraft have to approach the
target 
from the same area. The illuminator aircraft can orbit or stand off. And

while the seeker CAN use a lot of scatter from the beam, this is only
used as 
a reference as the bomb steers to find the highest degree of radiation
in the 
sensor view area. The bombs tend to "spiral" around the beam because the

free-floating seeker head is constantly scanning for the beam and
rolling the 
bomb around the radius of the beam. This is the same technique used with
all 
tracking weapons at the present moment, excluding "Active" weapons, for 
example the Phoenix, which have their own "illumination" sources
onboard.

My major point was, and is, that once released. a free fall bomb is an
easy 
target for Point-defense simply because it's path is so predictable.
Unless 
the release is at high velocity, (which presents it's own set of
problems) 
the bomb fly's a lot slower than the terminal velocity of most missiles.

Speaking of missiles. You stated another communication problem we are
having:

>Needless to say, the warheads need to be large, as accuracy is
inversely
proportional to range.<

OK, big difference here. Air-to-Air missiles, which are the type you are

pretty much discussing in your post do NOT have large warheads. The
largest 
current AIM (Air Intercept Missile) the AIM-120 only has about a 75
pound 
warhead. (I'd have to get my CDC's to be absolutely sure :o) It is not 
"light" but while it takes 4 people to lift it and move it around,
anyone 
trying that with an AGM-65 Maverick would end up with a serious hernia.
The 
AGM has a 500-or-1000 pound warhead on it I seem to recall off hand.
(Again 
we could lump the AGM-130 in here :o)

Strictly speaking you could probably target a BB with an AIM-120... but
the 
ship would not even notice the detonation. Mavericks, Harpoons, and
Exocets 
are very much a danger due to their attack profiles which tend towards
low 
and fast, whereas an LGB needs either a higher altitude drop or requires
the 
aircraft to close to "pointblank" and drop the bomb as it overflies the 
target. (In which case you wouldn't use and LGB but a stick of regular
"iron" 
bombs, and probably lose the aircraft as well :o)