Re: Fighter surviability...

Kem wrote:

> Remember that with directed energy weapons (lasers or particle beams)
there
> is a minimum range where hits are automatic. For example, at a range
of
0.01
> light second (3000 km), a manned fighter executing a radical 9G
direction
> change moves only 0.9 meters from its predicted flight path (allowing
for
> travel time for the fighter's last EMS signature to the ship and the
> weapon's return fire travel time.) The directed energy weapon will hit
the
> fighter (unless it's really small <grin>).

Or the laser was slightly unfocussed or slightly misaligned, of course -
a
deviation of 0.0005 degrees at 3000 km causes your beam to miss the
aiming
point by 25 meters (could be enough to generate a miss). Similarly you
want
your beam to be focussed pretty close to where the target is, in order
to
avoid beam dispersion effects. I suspect that these more mechanical
factors
will reduce the "auto-kill" range a bit, at least in low-tech universes
like B5 or the "official" FT one.

> The laws of physics will limit how close starships and fighters can be
> without allowing automatic hits from lightspeed weaponry.
> 
> I don't see how cinematic type (ie, Babylon 5) fighter combats can
happen.

In the B5 case, it's easy. The younger races don't have lasers small
enough
to track fighters (even though they seem to hit fighters once in a while
by
accident - Severed Dreams, for example); instead they use plasma
weaponry
(where the shots travel much slower) for anti-fighter work. Minbari,
Shadow
and Vorlon ships use their beams against fighters, and chew them up
pretty
fast.

Later,

Oerjan Ohlson

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