troy.terry.DeleteThis@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi folks
>
> I've been re-reading the Harrington saga, and one of the things I
> really like is how Weber pays so much attention to his space
> technology -- what are the ships like, what can they do, and the
> interaction between the various weapon systems and countervailing
> defenses.
>
> That said, how would you guys upgrade the Fleet (whichever one you
> fancy) for the next book?
>
> One thing that occurred to me...
>
> Telemetry! That is, I get the strong impression that not much
> attention is being paid to recording the battles.
IMHO given their sensor and computer technologies, telemetry must be quite
advanced, it's just in the books Weber don't spend too much time on it.
About upgrades ... there are a lot of things that could be improved, it's
only a matter of deciding what doesn't bend the rules too much.
a) "Hyper submarines"
From the books it looks that transition from hyperspace back
to normal space and once back in normal space it takes some time
for the ship sensors to "adapt/stabilize" and more time to jump
back in hyperspace.
It is one of the things that has not been improved, probably
because most of the fights happen inside the hyperlimit, jumping
quickly in and out of hyperspace wasn't on the "must have" list
of Manticore or Haven.
Now, imagine a ship with better hyperspace "navigation" systems
and more powerful generators or superconductive accumulator
so it can perform multiple "micro jumps" with enough precision
to perform "close range" shoot-and-run against an enemy ship
(i.e. it pops out of hyper, fires its grasers, jumps back into hyper
and then repeats the attack from another direction).
I said grasers, not missiles because all the tonnage required
for ruggedized sensors (bigger and bulkier, but they reach
targeting accuracy faster), extra power generation and more
superconducting accumulators has to come from somewhere and
once the ship can micro-jump straight at graser range it makes
sense to go for it.
A ship like that could be described as a "hyper submarine"
(or as a "vomit ship" because of the transition's side effects
on some humans), useful to interdict the zone around the hyperlimit
or to attack convoys near the hyperlimit.
In the published books the spaceships make the transition
from hyperspace to normal space at a safety distance from the hyperlimit
and usually with enough time and distance to be able to jump back into
it, in that zone the "space submarine" can wreak havoc thanks to
its better agility and precision in hyperspace transitions.
A "hyper submarine" is almost useless to attack targets inside
the hyperlimit (no missiles and too much tonnage spent in
generators/accumulators and enhanced/ruggedized sensor arrays)
but can strike deeper behind enemy lines (remember, no missiles
nor missile pods; plus at least a part of tonnage can be used
for extra reaction mass, storage of food and spares, etc. etc.)
and besides disrupting enemy logistics it forces the adversary to
disperse its forces to guard convoys in previously "safe" space.
The reason nobody spent resources on "hyper submarines" was that
no previous war between political entities so big and with
that level of technology happened *before* (i.e. previous wars
happened either on a smaller scale or with more primitive
technologies available), but now having something good for
"attrition near the hyperlimit" becomes a valuable asset
especially *if* the "hyper submarine" can pop-up at maximum
graser range, fire and safely jump back into hyperspace before
its target can hit back.
b) fleet level gravitic phased arrays
Or "if it works with electromagnetic waves ...".
Active phased array radars can perform some nasty tricks
on enemy avionics, think about its gravitic equivalent.
What may happen if lots of LACs or maybe all the ships in a task force
modulate in sync their impellers like a massive phased array to produce
focused "gravitic beam/pulses" ?
Just something capable to disturb enemy sensors could be terrific
because it traslates into less effective enemy defences
and degraded guidance for enemy weapons.
c) SESD MIRV (Suppression of Enemy Defense MIRV)
Like multi stage missiles, but their third stage is 3..4
countermissiles-like warheads designed to gut the enemy defense system
(i.e. to damage sensors,laser emitters, countermissile launchers
and anything that's vulnerable on the outer parts of a ship).
Packing enough of them in the first wave of missiles will open the path
for the second wave.
A further improvement is to improve the multiple warhead communications
so their sensors can operate in synthetic aperture mode and shoot
at roughtly the same position on the same target if it is big enough.
So instead of a hit or miss single warhead the MIRV has more probability
to inflict at least partial damage and helps in saturating and/or
degrade enemy defenses).
Another improvement is to simulate a missile hitten by countermissiles
when the third stage missiles detach.
d) swarm pods with delayed activation
Like missile pods, but bigger, with longer endurance and more stealthy
until activated; dropped from auxiliary units keeping outside the
hyperlimit, they coast at nearly zero power on ballistic trajectories
flanking/preceding the advance of the main attacking force
that will follow later.
When the main force kicks in, the swams preceding and shielding it
can pump an unexpected salvo on at least part of the enemy forces
trying to intercept the attackers.
When the swarm pods come online they are pre-programmed to attack
in group certain targets entering their kill zone
and/or to ignore some targets to concentrate on the ones they can
handle better, or they can acquire new targets or directives
on demand from the ships.
They can be programmed for selfdestruction before they run out
of power (to avoid Eridani-like accidents).
L. Micheletto
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