Re: [GZG] Armoured utility vehicles and IEDs in SG/DS

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isn't just the detonating of mines through ground pressure - modern
mines
have initiators that include sonic (trust me, a GEV will set one off)
and
electromagnetic sensors of various sorts (could be grav sensors in the
future). If you can put a grav sensor on a single chip as a sealed unit
for
cheap, you can easily make anti-grav mines.

I'm not sure if mines use any sort of self-forging penetrator, but if
they
do, GEV fans are at risk. If they use an EMP pulse as a payload, GEVs
and
Grav vehicles may be at risk. Some sort of anti-grav field mine may also
be
feasible (lord knows, in ST the warp drive was always overloading or
feeding
back or something).

This doesn't even touch on off-route mines that attack like IAVRs or
GMS/Ps.
That's a whole separate discussion. Or bio-organic mines that folks the
the
Savasku might use.

Back to vehicle design:

Mine resistance to a straightforward pile of HE in your typical current
IED
(even allowing for shaped charges from some more advanced sources) is
still
just an explosive threat (I believe... someone in the know can shoot
this
down). If you start having other sorts of threats, your V-hull and
floating
seats won't help you much.

Up-armouring will help against IEDs and RPGs. Of course, then you run
into
the question of whether a HMMWV or Gelandenwagen is size 2 and if not,
how
you can fit class 2 armour on it.

The thing about a Grav Tank (inference from the SG2 rules on
non-penetrating
hits) is that hull armour, which is all over equal thickness armour in
canonical SG/DS, protects the suspension parts. That's a pretty good
deal,
even against self-forging penetrators. Might not help vs. EMP but maybe
backup systems would. In this respect, among others, Grav would be the
technology of choice when you could get it to the battlefield.

If you were using what I'll call advanced grav (a la Traveller) that can
fly, then your grav vehicle and VTOL merge and become a whoppingly
armoured,
armed flying wrecking machine. They can self-deploy to and from orbit in
many cases and have a lot of armour protecting key systems. Of course,
this
is not GZG style grav, which is more like Luke's Landspeeder. But even
that
gives you all the mobility advantages of AC without perhaps the issues
on
hills (not sure, but I figure not) and a lot safer vs. various
bottom-attacking mines.

-- 
"Now, I go to spread happiness to the rest of the station. It is a
terrible
responsibility but I have learned to live with it."
Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness, Part I

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like
administering medicine to the dead." -- Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine