Design: "Stand Off"-Class Laser Vessel
4-1, 5-2+1, 4-1
The new Stand Off class Laser Vessel is the first of its kind.
Lasers have always been a weapon of the future. The militaries of Earth were even beginning some heavy experimentation and exploration into the possibility of in-atmosphere lasers for military uses. They were restricted by factors we're not.
The new HyMet Superconductor has been used extensively in this design to allow for the most powerful laser possible. Extensive capacitor banks built into the ship are immediately discharged through the superconductors to fire a large laser.
The extreme majority of the ship is capacitors. The laser actually takes up a relatively small portion of the vessel - we just need to power it. Most of the remaining parts of the ship hull are filled with cooling equipment for the superconductors making up the lasers. The crew inhabit a tiny portion of the ship - merely a bridge and multi-purpose crew quarters. Maintenance shafts go through the ship's machinery to allow for monitoring and repair of the vessel. The ship is manned by a crew of 6. One captain, four bridge crew, one general engineer. Field repair of the laser if damaged is unlikely, to say the least.
We tried to improve our cooling capabilities for the superconductors here, but ultimately failed. Luckily with the mass of the ship and lack of space given to anything else we can incorporate the cooling elements at least. The ship uses a combination of heat sinks and radiator panels to deal with the one-off heat generation of the laser's superconductors.
Damage to the laser is very likely and nearly impossible to repair mid-battle, due to the sheer amount of space the equipment takes up in the ship.
The problem with the Stand Off-class is power. It's powered by solar panels. Needless to say, this is not anywhere near enough power to charge a laser. That combined with the energy capacity of our capacitor banks means the vessel only has enough juice for a single shot. The solar panels are tasked with powering the non-weapon functions of the ship, while the capacitor banks are charged in orbit over Amaok. Perhaps with a significant leap in generator technology we can allow the ship to fire off multiple shots, but for now we're limited.
The laser's power is not to be questioned. It's quite short range, as light tends to scatter at distances reachable by other weapons. Right now we've deemed its range to be Medium Range. Roughly up to visual range.
Damage-wise, the laser can cut straight through another ship not explicitly equipped to deal with it, and can still do sizeable amounts of damage (we assume) if the enemy was to begin fielding armor designed against the laser. Provided the laser can target a ship and is in range, it can cut a hole through any portion of the ship.
When we devote so much space from the ITC hull to weaponry such as this, other aspects start to suffer. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately based on how you look at it) fuel suffers here.
The Stand Off-class has just enough fuel to maneuver to a planet and back to Amaok. There's some fuel for orbital maneuvering, but we had to allocate very little fuel towards rotational capabilities. Reaction wheels and the like mean targeting the laser is possible, but very slow and difficult. Ships with any kind of maneuvering capabilities at all should be able to perform evasive maneuvers, and vessels with higher amounts of agility should be able to completely avoid targeting.
The Stand Off-class utilizes basic active radar sensor equipment for targeting. Most of the targeting is human-based, but a small portion of it is automated. The radar isn't quite suited to be constantly scanning for foes, but when given a target it should do adequately for the purpose of tracking that target.
We have high hopes for the Stand Off-class and future laser-based weaponry, but it's not going to be easy. For now, the Stand Off class should be quite useful. Current enemy ships are quite sluggish and using this weapon to great effect should be possible. Central Command has expressed interest in the usage of a weapon like this for planetary bombardment. Miniaturizing it could be extremely useful as well.
"Stand Off"-Class Laser Vessel: An ITC-based ship with a skeleton crew of six (5 bridge crew, 1 engineer). The majority of the ship is dedicated to cooling equipment + capacitors + superconductors for a laser. Medium-Range laser can cut a hole clean through improperly armored ships. Active Medium-Range Radar is used exclusively for tracking a single target. Reaction wheels make targeting laser very slow and ineffective against faster ships. Powered by solar panels; requires recharging at Amaok between shots. Laser equipment is very easily/likely damaged and nearly impossible to field-repair.
Expense: 3x
Resources: Metal, Exotic
It is now the Revision Phase of 2212.
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Topic: Planetary Arms Race - Amaok, Strategy Phase 2212 (Read 35162 times)