FT3 rules and SMs

I've been watching the latest discussion of the Salvo Missiles with
interest.
When we were first playtesting them I thought they were hideously bad
and
over-powered. I quickly learned how to deal with them in order to
minimize
their damage potential as best as possible. Others have already cited
some of
the better tactics for dealing with the FSE ships (maintain range,
speed,
plenty of PDS', and screening escorts). And while I'm in agreement with
all
these now, I did want to point out something that may be obvious to
most, but
what hasn't been mentioned, is the effective range of the SMs. They have
a
firing range of 24 mu. But with a burst radius of 6 mu, that gives them
an
effective range of 30 mu! If going against a ship with Class-3 batts,
the L3
batt-armed ship has a fairly narrow engagement envelope to work with in
order
to start chopping up the SM-armed ship. 6 mu, at any semi-decent speed,
ain't
a lot.

This just gets worse when your SM-armed opponent is using extended-range
SMs. A
firing range of 36 mu yields an effective range of *42* mu! Now he
out-ranges
your L3 batts for a bit (if 'only' by 6 mu)

I haven't figured a way of easily maintaining range beyond 30 mu and
still keep
my L3s in arc of the target ship(s) before they closed the range down
further
for nominal SMs (my opponents have rarely felt the need to resort to
extended-range SMs). This with Cinematic movement. I still feel speed,
plenty
of PDS', and an escort screen will work fine, though (have served me
well
enough over time, anyway!)

Mk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
"Who am I? I am Susan Ivanova. Commander. Daughter of Andre and Sophie
Ivanov. I am the Right Hand of Vengeance...and the boot that is going
to kick your sorry ass all the way back to Earth, sweetheart. I am Death
incarnate. And the last living thing you are _ever_...going to see.

"God sent me."

				      - Ivanova, "Between the Darkness
						      and the Light"