Re: Full Thrust : Electronic Warfare

At 12:43 PM 11/4/1998 +0000, Thomas Anderson wrote:
>On Tue, 3 Nov 1998, Phillip E. Pournelle wrote:
>>	Fire Control directors are not used to track targets, only to
direct fire
>> control systems.  They are a pencil width beam, you don't use them to
track
>> targets, only to direct weapon systems...
>
>would you actually need a director for a beam weapon? surely if you
know
>your relative positions accurately, from your tracking data, you can do
>some vector maths and figure out where to point your beam.
>
>furthermore, if combat occurs at above lightsecond ranges, your
direction
>data will always be out of date, and so you will have to raster the
>target area anyway; precision leaves the equation.

	You still need to get a fire control solution on the target
before you
waste ordnance or energy on it.  The Fire Control system gets you a
highly
accurate idea of his course and speed.	Even if we are assuming the
light
seconds distance issue, you would have greater accuracy (smaller error
area
to rastor) with the FC system then whithout.  Again space is very big
and a
FC sensor is pencil thin.  Better to find the target and do a complete
Detect to Engage sequence.

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