Re: [FT] Should all Beams fire at fighters/ordinance?

--- Roger Books <books@mail.state.fl.us> wrote:
> On 13-Jun-01 at 16:50, David Griffin
> (carbon_dragon@yahoo.com) wrote:
> 
> > Again there's nothing broken about the current 
> > system, we're just exploring possible
> improvements.
> > In that spirit, consider the targetting problem of
> > intercepting a MT missile you've known about for
> > 2 turns and which is coming straight for you with
> > a class 4 beam or a pulse torpedo. Is this really
> > an intractable problem? Would it be that much 
> > harder for the humans of 2160 than it is today
> > for us to intercept missiles with missiles?
> 
> But we don't intercept missiles with the same
> missiles
> we use to shoot at ships. 

Well, I'm not saying our intercept missiles have
to be MT missiles. They could be special intercept
missiles. Though a nuclear missile would have 
advantages because the margin for error could be
bigger ;-)

> As a matter of fact the
> closest model I could see for the anti-missile
> missile system is a PDS.

I always thought the PDS looked like it was modelled
after the CIWS system on American ships or the
similar system on Soviet ships (even has it's own
fire control radar just like the PDS). The anti
missile role on modern ships would be stuff like
the sea sparrow and the standard, right?

>  I guess you could attempt
> to shoot down a nuclear missile with a nuclear
> missile
> but nothing is really designed for that because it
> is
> extremely inefficient.  I guess what it comes down
> to
> is do we expect extensions of what is current. 
> Currently
> we have offensive systems and defensive systems and
> the
> two just don't seem to meet.

Maybe when you buy an MT missile you specify that
it's an intercept missile just like you specify
heavy fighters or interceptors in carriers? Just
a thought.  As far as missiles that are offensive
and defensive, the Phoenix AA missile can be 
targetted at enemy aircraft or incoming missiles.

Maybe an actual real MT missile is too slow to
maneuver to be an interceptor itself, but the
shotgun effect of a salvo missile *might* be
a candidate, and a smaller missile bought at
the same price as an MT missile could be the
missile killer. We could call them patriots?

In a dark star setting, the interceptor could
be programmed to engage the incoming MT missile
in a philosophical dialog as to the nature of
being and whether the incoming missile could really
trust the evidence of it's sensors ;-)

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35