Hi Guys,
DED's question about EMP weapons got me to thinking, just what would an anti starship weapon be like? I designed it using FF+S-1 at TL-12. Below are all the components used. Note I used a USL Box with an armor of 10 so it would appear as a piece of debris from a Far Trader and the hull plating is twice what is needed to take into account the "bent and twisted" nature of space debris.
I give this weapon a to hit of 15 (TL-12 +3). If hit the pilot sould have a chance to horse the craft down (Imp: Pilot) skill or the ship will auger in. I read to article on the F18G and it sounded like it was a flying area jammer and to get the EM pulse it fired all that jamming power down a single narrow pulse. I included an area jammer to "make" the EM pulse and the maser to fire it. I used a battery to hold for long term the energy for the pulse and a HPG generator to instantly release the power. The solar power is sufficient to power the robot brain, the P-EMS and half of the controls, which seemed fair as half the systems are not powered until firing. The thermite charge is an anti-tamper/ leave no evidence behind charge.
For a more covert delivery one could use the UCAV found in BARD to do the actual delivery while the mother ship stays at say the nearest gas giant, pretending to refuel while ready to make a fast getaway.
Vol Mass Power Area Price
Area Jammer 1500km 0.27 0.27 0.675 0.54
Maser Comm 3000km 0.02 0.04 0.08 1. 0.021
P-EMS 3000km 0.12 0.22 0.01 0.4 0.22
Robot Brain TL-12a 0.022 0.005 0.001 0.17
0.675mw Btty 3.6 sec 0.0036 0.0072 0.000072
HPG Generator 0.3375 0.675 0.003375
Solar Array 0.012mw 1.2 0.0012 27.5 0.0012
Solar Cell 0.012mw 0.3 0.6 0.03
Controls 0.2 DT 0.0028 0.00028 0.002 0.0003
Hull Plating USL Box 0.1714 2.571 0.00096
Thermite Charge 0.012 0.012 0.000036
The Satellite EMP weapon is designed to be left in in orbit and if spotted it will appear as a piece of space debris torn off from a small freighter. It can be left in a stable orbit for years if necessary but is normally left so the ship dropping it off can make a clean getaway, a few weeks at most. Upon sensing its target, it fires a single EMP pulse designed to fry the electronics on a starship sending it crashing to the ground where upon its thermite charge ignites and turns the weapon into the space junk it was previously mimicking.
This would be a deadly weapon in a trade war, imagine an enemy ship getting hit as it starts to dive into a gas giant to refuel or one hit on takeoff and crashing into startown. An investigation could shut down an opponents merchant fleet with a result of crash by mechanical failure.
As allways, let me know what you think.
Roger
Interesting line of thinking, just a quibble to add tho:
EMP doesn't do its damage without leaving evidence behind. The electronic systems are often well and truly fried. Fuses, fusable links, circuit breakers, lightning arrestors etc are all designed to protect equipment and usually do the job but a strong EMP can often(?) / sometimes (?) still fry the electronics nonetheless.
As an act of war, this would not be a matter of concern (wow our electronics got fried well pull out the spares quick and get whatever it is on line back and fast, mean time I'll send a runner to notify the captain) but in the economic "war" this would be approaching the criminal - not saying they wouldn't try it, but when you trash a ship so that it crashes - well the accident review board is going to know that somebody was playing for keeps.
just saying
T
>________________________________
From: roger
Sent: Thursday, March 8, 2012 12:34 PM
Subject: [Traveller_TNE] Satellite Based Antiship Weapon
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>Hi Guys,
>DED's question about EMP weapons got me to thinking, just what would an anti starship weapon be like? I designed it using FF+S-1 at TL-12. Below are all the components used. Note I used a USL Box with an armor of 10 so it would appear as a piece of debris from a Far Trader and the hull plating is twice what is needed to take into account the "bent and twisted" nature of space debris.
>I give this weapon a to hit of 15 (TL-12 +3). If hit the pilot sould have a chance to horse the craft down (Imp: Pilot) skill or the ship will auger in. I read to article on the F18G and it sounded like it was a flying area jammer and to get the EM pulse it fired all that jamming power down a single narrow pulse. I included an area jammer to "make" the EM pulse and the maser to fire it. I used a battery to hold for long term the energy for the pulse and a HPG generator to instantly release the power. The solar power is sufficient to power the robot brain, the P-EMS and half of the controls, which seemed fair as half the systems are not powered until firing. The thermite charge is an anti-tamper/ leave no evidence behind charge.
>For a more covert delivery one could use the UCAV found in BARD to do the actual delivery while the mother ship stays at say the nearest gas giant, pretending to refuel while ready to make a fast getaway.
>Vol Mass Power Area Price
>Area Jammer 1500km 0.27 0.27 0.675 0.54
>Maser Comm 3000km 0.02 0.04 0.08 1. 0.021
>P-EMS 3000km 0.12 0.22 0.01 0.4 0.22
>Robot Brain TL-12a 0.022 0.005 0.001 0.17
>0.675mw Btty 3.6 sec 0.0036 0.0072 0.000072
>HPG Generator 0.3375 0.675 0.003375
>Solar Array 0.012mw 1.2 0.0012 27.5 0.0012
>Solar Cell 0.012mw 0.3 0.6 0.03
>Controls 0.2 DT 0.0028 0.00028 0.002 0.0003
>Hull Plating USL Box 0.1714 2.571 0.00096
>Thermite Charge 0.012 0.012 0.000036
>
>The Satellite EMP weapon is designed to be left in in orbit and if spotted it will appear as a piece of space debris torn off from a small freighter. It can be left in a stable orbit for years if necessary but is normally left so the ship dropping it off can make a clean getaway, a few weeks at most. Upon sensing its target, it fires a single EMP pulse designed to fry the electronics on a starship sending it crashing to the ground where upon its thermite charge ignites and turns the weapon into the space junk it was previously mimicking.
>This would be a deadly weapon in a trade war, imagine an enemy ship getting hit as it starts to dive into a gas giant to refuel or one hit on takeoff and crashing into startown. An investigation could shut down an opponents merchant fleet with a result of crash by mechanical failure.
>As allways, let me know what you think.
>Roger
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Would the EMP effect be noticeable after the disabled craft performs a lithobraking maneuver? Station this around a gas giant, and there is no evidence for the review board, since the craft falls into the atmosphere and gets crushed.
As to space debris, it would work great around a low-tech system, but a high tech system would likely have a Skysweep program to remove debris from orbit. If they notice a ship dropping off debris, and that debris then does an EMP detonation, that ship will get added to the list of shoot on sight targets.
A laser weapon against an orbiting body would be able to slowly wear away at it. A meson burst would be able to bypass the armor and damage the droid brain eventually.
Since it is an orbiting piece of debris, a kinetic weapon would be able to take it out fairly easily too. Fixed orbit, so you run the math, and fire a shot. The kinetic shot then takes it into a different orbit, either to burn up on reentry, or elliptical. The elliptical orbit can then be steadily adjusted to crash into an uninhabited moon, or into the local star.
If it is really debris, it will continue on its new path. If it is the satellite and tries to adjust its orbit, it has just given itself away.
Todd Kes
--- On Thu, 3/8/12, Tim O'Reilly wrote:
Interesting line of thinking, just a quibble to add tho:EMP doesn't do its damage without leaving evidence behind. The electronic systems are often well and truly fried. Fuses, fusable links, circuit breakers, lightning arrestors etc are all designed to protect equipment and usually do the job but a strong EMP can often(?) / sometimes (?) still fry the electronics nonetheless. As an act of war, this would not be a matter of concern (wow our electronics got fried well pull out the spares quick and get whatever it is on line back and fast, mean time I'll send a runner to notify the captain) but in the economic "war" this would be approaching the criminal - not saying they wouldn't try it, but when you trash a
ship so that it crashes - well the accident review board is going to know that somebody was playing for keeps.just saying
> Hi Guys,
> DED's question about EMP weapons got me to thinking, just what would an anti starship weapon be like? I designed it using FF+S-1 at TL-12. Below are all the components used. Note I used a USL Box with an armor of 10 so it would appear as a piece of debris from a Far Trader and the hull plating is twice what is needed to take into account the "bent and twisted" nature of space debris.
> I give this weapon a to hit of 15 (TL-12 +3). If hit the pilot sould have a chance to horse the craft down (Imp: Pilot) skill or the ship will auger in. I read to article on the F18G and it sounded like it was a flying area jammer and to get the EM pulse it fired all that jamming power down a single narrow pulse. I included an area jammer to "make" the EM pulse and the maser to fire it. I used a battery to hold for long term the energy for the pulse and a HPG generator to instantly release the power. The solar power is sufficient to power the robot brain, the P-EMS and half of the controls, which seemed fair as half the systems are not powered until firing. The thermite charge is an anti-tamper/ leave no evidence behind charge.
> For a more covert delivery one could use the UCAV found in BARD to do the actual delivery while the mother ship stays at say the nearest gas giant, pretending to refuel while ready to make a fast getaway.
> Vol Mass Power Area Price
> Area Jammer 1500km 0.27 0.27 0.675 0.54
> Maser Comm 3000km 0.02 0.04 0.08 1. 0.021
> P-EMS 3000km 0.12 0.22 0.01 0.4 0.22
> Robot Brain TL-12a 0.022 0.005 0.001 0.17
> 0.675mw Btty 3.6 sec 0.0036 0.0072 0.000072
> HPG Generator 0.3375 0.675 0.003375
> Solar Array 0.012mw 1.2 0.0012 27.5 0.0012
> Solar Cell 0.012mw 0.3 0.6 0.03
> Controls 0.2 DT 0.0028 0.00028 0.002 0.0003
> Hull Plating USL Box 0.1714 2.571 0.00096
> Thermite Charge 0.012 0.012 0.000036
> The Satellite EMP weapon is designed to be left in in orbit and
> if spotted it will appear as a piece of space debris torn off from a
> small freighter. It can be left in a stable orbit for years if
> necessary but is normally left so the ship dropping it off can make
> a clean getaway, a few weeks at most. Upon sensing its target, it
> fires a single EMP pulse designed to fry the electronics on a
> starship sending it crashing to the ground where upon its thermite
> charge ignites and turns the weapon into the space junk it was
> previously mimicking.
Actual, real world, EMP bombs are a *lot* simpler. You dump power
(usually from a capacitor bank or the like) into a coil and then
implode the coil with carefully configured explosives.
The implosion "spikes" the field.
Jammers aren't *remotely* powerful enough. And are far more complex
than necessary.
Also, EMP bombs are not directional (and probably *cannot* be).
No need for the thermite charge as the implosion destroys things
anyway.
Thing is, the EMP *is* subject to the inverse square law. So you
likely need a *nuclear* device to successfully attack at a reasonable
range.
Also, solar flares (like the one the other days) have trapped
magnetic fields which is how they mess up the ionisphere and cause
all the damage to electrical stuff here on Earth.
So ships will be "hardened" as a matter of design. Thus rendering EMP
pretty much ineffective unless it's insanely powerful. Which brings
us back to "setting off a nuke nearby".
EMP (and the flares) work by creating an intense, moving/changing
magnetic field. As this moves across something, the field changes
induce current flows in long conductors, with the voltage
proportional to the length of the conductor, the strength of the
field change and how rapidly it's moving.
EMP *won't* damage tube based electronics. At best, they'll cause a
spike of interference.
Semiconductor based stuff "fries" because the induced voltage acts
much the same as a static spark. It's high enough to force current to
"jump" the PN junctions, damaging them in the process. This doesn't
take much, because we are talking about layers of silicon (or
whatever) only microns thick. So the induced voltage creates a
permanent short.
Space rated gear needs to be hardened *anyway*. And as noted above,
various flares, coronal mass ejections, or simply dealing with gas
giants like Jupiter are going to require hardening the electronics.
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com
> Would the EMP effect be noticeable after the disabled craft performs a lithobraking maneuver? Station this around a gas giant, and there is no evidence for the review board, since the craft falls into the atmosphere and gets crushed.
See my other post. EMP is not likely to be effective against a
Traveller ship.
> As to space debris, it would work great around a low-tech system,
> but a high tech system would likely have a Skysweep program to
> remove debris from orbit. If they notice a ship dropping off
> debris, and that debris then does an EMP detonation, that ship will
> get added to the list of shoot on sight targets.
Just "dumping debris" is going to get you in trouble. *Big* trouble.
Also, typical ship courses will have the ship moving *way* above
escape velocity during any part of the triip where it could drop the
satellite. Even if it was moving at the right speed, it'll be in the
wrong direction.
Finally, there's no *way* any sort of EMP device will have a range
worth mentioning. Hundreds of KM is a stretch for a nuclear one,
unless it is set off in a planetary ionisphere where it'll caudse EMP
*on the planet*, not on ships in orbit.
So the odds of it getting *close* enough to a ship to attack it are
miniscule.
Add in the fact that ships will be avoiding going anywhere near hunks
of debris (because they are kinetic kills waiting to happen) and it
just won't work.
Remember, EMP weapons *aren't* directional.
Far simpler (and more practical) to buld an EMP bomb into a cargo
container and ship it. Or just an ordinary bomb.
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com