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[Kot]

@kot
yes, but I think we are keeping this war a secret, to keep all the glory and fight for ourselves.

For now. I am pretty sure that Sectoids aren't going to only attack Forenia.

[andrea]

maybe. But if they abducted you, You likely pointed them to forenia as the one and only worthy target, so we could have the best fight.

I would feel offended if during the first encounter with aliens you pointed to other nations as equals to forenia in importance and power.

[Kot]

maybe. But if they abducted you, You likely pointed them to Arstotzka as the one and only worthy target, so we could have the best fight.

FTFY

[Happerry]

Rocket planes were definitely a thing that happened, and given our current technology status they probably offer our best chance of actually being able to intercept some UFOs.

Also now I'm wondering if X-Com is ever going to show up once they get Hyperwave Decoders and notice UFOs getting shot down over here or something along those lines.

[andrea]

X-Com gets founded in the 90s, there will be no more UFOs by then.

rocket planes are indeed our best short term bet to intercept UFOs. Good widespread AA might also be feasible to shoot them down, but we need to know more about them before we can tell which we should pursue

[somemildmanneredidiot]

Okay so from a technological standpoint, their aircraft and spacecraft likely out do ours by a signficant margin. Before thinking about diving into rocket planes which might not end up being enough to combat this glorious enemy, why not aim to refit or reverse engineer one of their planes once we capture one so that we start on an even playing field and the skills of our pilots will truly shine as they shoot down their evenly equipped opponents! And from there, we can push our planes further than them and slowly crush them through Forenian innovation!

But yeah, the reason why XCOM didn't aim for AA fields is because they would have needed to cover the entire planet. We have one nation to worry about and as such, AA fields to provide constant harassment will work much better until we can start using Alien Tech to make comparable planes.

We'll want to get proximity fuses for our AA as we are in the era where it is developed. To be able to provide all artillery with it at once, we'll probably need to spend a design action on it. We could try to get it as a part of new AA gun, but it will probably be more expensive as well as less flexible.

[andrea]

We shall see. It depends on how many things. How fast they are. how easy it is to capture UFOs without shooting them down. Their abduction patterns.

[Aseaheru]

 We could develop prop aircraft better than most gen 1 jet aircraft, but we will want jet engines at some point soon, mostly for turboshafts.

[RAM]

The glider part of those rocket gliders seems sort of unnecessary. I expect that a more aggressive wing design could improve combat performance and I am sure that our glorious pilots can handle whatever post-combat situations there might be that arise...

If I were the aliens, and I found a fanatically isolated yet militarily adept nation then I might well consider launching a somewhat isolated assault against them to test my methods against a foe with less resources than the planet at large. I mean, if Foreignia goes public with this war(is there any reason that they would?) then I am not convinced that anyone else would believe them...

... Ground-based air-defence could work to an extent, but there will always be some isolated farm or something, and we might, maybe, be able to give them a gun, but we won't be giving them anyone to use it. Rockets could probably get us something capable of engaging the enemy in the air using what we have now and will probably continue to be of use in developing missiles and space-travel. Alien technology will be good, but it will likely be complex and difficult to alter where rocketry may well produce more compact and cheaper options even if we master alien technology...

[Aseaheru]

 Rocket interceptors do their fighting as gliders because the engines do not last long enough. Its simply not possible to have rockets with long enough duration for powered combat.

[Kot]

Komet had ~7:30 minutes of powered flight. It could reach 12000 meters in 3 minutes, leaving the pilot with 4:30 minutes of powered flight, which at the speed it had was enough to catch up to any bomber in existence. Indeed, it usually made it's four or so passes at bombers as a glider, but that was more due to the fact it was so fucking fast that it would be nearly impossible to try and shoot down that much slower target while still speeding up. Against aircraft of similar speed it shouldn't be that much of a problem.
For intercepting UFOs, first thing required would be the usual altitude and speed they operate at.

[RAM]

And, if possible, the rockets should be launched from the air, to save on time expended to reach altitude. Although I suppose, if one were a coward, they could consider sequential rockets with gliding periods between boosts...

Anther advantage of air-launched rockets is that hopefully they will do less damage to the launch-platforms...

[Aseaheru]

 And unless we have relays of large bombers flying constantly response time will be greatly increased.

[Kot]

Doesn't make much sense honestly. The main point of rocket powered interceptors is that their response time is short and they climb well enough and fast enough that the fuel amount doesn't really hinder them much.
And damage to launch platforms? They launch from regular airfields, as far as I'm concerned, and do no damage to them (unless they fuck up, but eh).

[3_14159]

My main point of criticism against the rocket-powered glider isn't performance, but ease of use. The most well-known glider, the Me 163, used the nicely-called C-Stoff/T-Stoff (Hydrazine/HTP) as propellant. One of the advantages is the ease of it corroding the fuel tank, plane, and pilot.
Using alcohol/LOX as in the X-1 does manage to avoid that, though.

Such a plane has another advantage: Assuming we design it next turn, we can try using the gained experience to design a surface-to-air missile based on that plane the turn after.