RE: Maritime Strike Bombers

Ryan Gill wrote:

>>Shipboard, SML salvoes and MT missiles are 2 mass on their own, so if
you
>>want a fighter capable of delivering the full shipboard effect, your
fighter
>>is going to need to be 3-4 mass (which defeats the purpose of
fighters).
>>It's cheaper to send in a missile destroyer with SMRs/MT missiles once
you
>>get into these mass / costs (plus the added benefits of FTL).
>
>Well, there isn't a need for magazines, handling gear and all the
armoured 
>box stuff that they need shipboard.

Don't look at the *SM*-ER. You have to look at the *SMR*-ER, since
that's 
what your bomber is launching - it includes the mass of the hardpoints, 
which your bomber certainly does need (unless it uses duct tape to
secure 
the missiles <g>). Similarly the MTMs include the Mass of their
hardpoints.

A single ship-board SMR-ER is Mass 5 and costs 15. This Mass does not 
include magazines or handling gear; but it *does* include the hardpoints
- 
which the bomber needs too. Two MTMs including hardpoints is Mass 4 and 
costs 12.

IOW, unless you meant for the entire bomber squadron to have a total 
payload of 1 SMR-ER or 2 MTMs, the ship-mounted *weapon* alone - without

the ship to carry it to the battle - costs more than your entire
*bomber* 
(including missiles) :-/

In another post Ryan wrote:

>Hmm... given that torp fighters are size 1 and carry a single shot mass
4 
>weapon.

No, they don't carry "a single shot mass 4 weapon". They carry a 
single-shot weapon with similar damage and *one-fifth the range* of a
mass 
4 *multi-shot* weapon. Saying that the torp fighter weapon is the same
as a 
P-torp is similar to saying that an 120mm tank round is the same as the 
more-than-5-meter long tank gun which fires it, plus its magazine :-/

Your bombers do seem to launch the full-sized ship missiles though,
since 
they have the same range as the originals.

>Compare what is needed to fire a Harpoon from the air with what they
use 
>on the ground. Also the ground based missiles usually need a booster.

But in this case you're comparing launching a missile from the air with 
launching it from the ground. A more relevant comparison is between 
launching a cruise missile from a big flying aircraft and launching the 
same cruise missile from a smaller flying aircraft.

Regards,
Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

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