Re: Ships in closed airspace

> Date: Tue, 21 Aug 90 11:25:00 BST
> From: [email removed]
> Subject: (1479) Peformance of Starships/Shipsboats in Close Airspace
>
> Hi List,
>
> I'm currently writing a mercenary scenario, and I was thinking about the
> situation where fighter aircraft, jets and helicopters came against
> ships boats or even starships armed with lasers and missile racks.

  All common air to air missiles and guns have penetrations that is way below
40. (I think this is the case for the missiles, since they in fact don't have
any penetration listed! I assume that they have the same penetration as they
do damage.)

  On the other hand, if the spaceship is relatively slow and lacks excessive
agility, it might work to lob some anti-tank missiles and the heavier types
of command guided missiles at it. Those with HEAP warheads have penetrations
above 40, and since the only way to resolve this, presently at least, is to use
the vehicle hits, there is at least a small chance that one will hit at vital
component. The drive, for example :-)

  (Using command-guided weapons against flying objects actually work. One of
the main weapons of the Swedish fighter J35 Draken (Dragon) during the 50's
was a big ugly command-guided air-to-air missile. The idea was to use it
against big lumbering high-altitude strategic bombers. The warhead was about
one ton of high-explosives, so even a close miss would tear the bomber to
pieces.
  The US equivalent was the 'Blivet'. a dumb nuke missile that flew in a
straight line towards the formation of bombers and detonated. Blivet equivalents
would certainly be usable against starships in Traveller.)

> Are the spacecraft going to be like whales in sky, easily shot down or
> are they flying fortresses, impervious to the weapons of, say, earths
> current tech level.

  Largely impervious, unless the weapons are exceptional.

> ie who would win, a group of tornados or the modula cutter?

  If the tornados could carry mavericks, I'd put my money on them, otherwise
they couldn't harm the cutter.

> Any ideas? What is the generally accepted performance and normally space-
> bound vehicles inside close airspace?

  If you cought the ship on the ground, on the other hand, it would be a sitting
duck to any B52 or B1 equivalent with a bombbay full of laserguided 1000kg
iron bombs and with a forward observer on the ground to point a laser at the
ship.

  The onetonners have pen49 and damage60, which mean that they will do 30
unmodifyed. But since hitting a target with laser guided bombs is simple, they
will have their damage multiplied in most cases.
  (Is this correct? COACC says in essence 'apply damage according to the players
manual, and I think that includes the exceptional success multiplyers.)
  I think that the COACC B1 equivalent had a 34ton bomb bay. That would make it
capable of dishing out about 3000 damage points (modified for multiplication and
armor) which is enough to totally wreck a scoutship (remember the *10 for damage
points, a scoutship has 900/2250, not 90/225) and give inoperable to a ship of
300 tons.


  However, if one combines the ship design rules and the COACC weapons, things
get *really* nasty. It is easy to build a realtively fast and agile smallcraft
of 50t that could take 420 tonnes of bombs (if one cuts endurance to about
4 days)
  So, what could you do with 420 tons of bombs? Well, according the COACC rules
for dropping bombs in big numbers, one is to multiply the dangerspace with the
number of bombs which is totally unrealistic.
  The 'beaten zone' table in the referees companion gives a much smaller area
which is more realistic, and according to that, the 50ton ship could cover
3.9 square kilometers with 1000kg bombs.
  If it was loaded with HEAP cluster, effective against battledress clad troops,
it could cover 24 square kilometers! (The manhattan island is about 60 square
kilometers)
  That kind of ground attack craft would be bad news for anyone.

  And think about dumping the load of a 30000 ton naval transport down at a
world from orbit....

- -bertil-
- --
"Greetings, Nuke Dorris!..... eh... Duke Norris!"
Anonymous player.