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[andrea]

I don't believe we can afford the manta. Also, considering the enormous number of laser cannons, I think it lacks power. And seems lacking in thrust as well. Should at least specify that those reactors are significantly more powerful than the oens available now. Especially the main thrusting one.

[Detoxicated]

Manta Flatship frigate B
The manta is a flat space ship which has many laser guns on top of its roof. There is 40 laser turrets but there is still place for more weapons. There is three reactor cores running the weapons system. Its hull is of our best armour materials and it also has the latest targetting systems installed..Since the reactors are only used for weaponry they are able to power alot more weapons.
It also has four reactors to move the ship. The outer two reactors can be rotated to add speed but are usually used to steer whilst the middle reactors only work to push the manta forward.

[Blood_Librarian]

Series: Sarissa Series Missile Launchers

The Sarissa series Missile launch systems are a series of ground-based weapons, including a set of theoretical nuclear weapons. However, after coming into the crunch time, only the HSML-1 was thoroughly designed.


Design: SSML-1

 is a civilian contracted electric motorized vehicle with a big enough suspension and weight handling system to handle the 20-missile rack. Each missile is around 1.4 meters in length, with a 10-kilogram warhead that is triggered based on the programming given by the user (Impact, airburst, etcetera.). The Missile rack is motorized and can rotate a full 360 degrees to target enemies, with the angling required for it to launch itself. Each SSML-1 is equipped with the electronic/communication systems to communicate with target designators for spotting purposes along with an Athena Node for the missile guidance system. Specialized invisible laser target designators with enough power to pierce through enemy smoke to target enemy tanks are handed out to target designators.

The missiles themselves are propelled by a solid rocket booster, and the warhead itself can be configured to be either an anti-tank(Armor piercing Insullanium Sabot) or anti-infantry(High Explosive) variant. The missile is equipped with an automatic control system, controlled by an Athena Node with a full sensor suite, however other control methods are designed (Manned, Laser designator, Infrared Seeker). The Laser tracker can be designated to target either specialized laser designations or the laser signature given off by our ranger/raider weapons.

the SSML-1 is designed to be disassembled and then reassembled on site. It comes with 60 missiles for the purposes of reloading the already loaded missile rack. The designed range is to be at least 5 kilometers.

EAC-F1 Harpy(1): Andrea
Manta Flatship Frigate B (1): Detoxicated
SSML-1(1):Blood_Librarian

[Chiefwaffles]

Design: EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher
The Sarissa uses the full might of Athena in order to lay waste and destruction to our foes on the ground. And hopefully later, space.

The first step in the Sarissa design is attaching small Athena-networked cameras to our uniforms and armor. Nothing amazing, but it gives Athena a basic understanding of the battlefield in addition to any other networked sensors. This is only if we don't already have cameras. We should hope that - like the militaries of Earth before our departure - we have basic cameras on our uniforms and armor.


The Sarissa Missile Launcher has a rack of about 8 missiles. Each missile is equipped with a tactical (read: very small) nuclear fission warhead - enough to wreck absolute devastation in a  relatively small area without nuking our own troops. Chemical engines provide the thrust necessary to go great ranges, though we're not aiming for anything near planetary or continental coverage (range is fairly low priority overall). The missiles must fit in an ITC shuttle - we don't want to hot-drop missiles or transport one missile at a time. Furthermore, each missile is also equipped with a micro-Athena node. These nodes aren't great for allowing Athena to operate, but it does allow Athena to fully operate individual missiles and manage their guidance systems in coordination with our ground forces. The missiles are built to be agile, and in conjunction with Athena's expert piloting skills, we should be able to hit targets as small as Quillus' tanks (this is important), massed forces, fortifications, and more!
The Sarissa Missile Launcher itself is equipped with a relatively-regular sized Athena node to allow for operation of the missiles when not networked to other nodes. Missiles are launched straight upwards, and do the maneuvering themselves.

As all Sarissa Missile Launchers are a part of the Athena network and are weapons, Athena will coordinate them expertly and use them as she deems necessary just like with our Spear turrets with the intelligence from the previously-mentioned body cameras and any other sources she's networked to. The top priority is allowing our forces to advance - meaning eliminating enemy tanks and fortified positions, with the second priority being bombardment of enemy bases. Athena will also still respond to and consider requests for missile support via radio or other sources. We recommend an operator or two are stationed at Athena nodes to look over the targets as they're updated; the operators aren't a part of the loop and it doesn't wait on them, but in case of faulty targeting operators can abort the target as long as the missile hasn't hit it yet.
Oh yeah. While we're at it and if it doesn't add difficulty, include a cool holographic map at ground Athena nodes representing Athena's current knowledge of the battlefield from her networked sensors.


The non-launcher part of Sarissa Missile Launchers is just a simple unarmored "truck" to transport it around, though it should always be a good distance behind front lines. The truck part is basically just a relatively small (electric)engine and a small 1-person cabin, with the actual tech just taken from the civilian sector. Though it has a COOL HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFACE. As the actual Missile Launcher is likely too big to fit on a shuttle as a whole, it's simply divided into two parts - a "truck" and a trailer - that can be transported individually.


TL;DR: An 8x missile wheeled tactical nuke launcher controlled nearly entirely by Athena. Designed largely to nuke particularly offensive small targets (read: tanks) as well as bombard massed enemy forces and fortifications.

Spoiler: Difficulty Analysis (click to show/hide)

"Truck"
Not even worth a theoretical revision. The "truck" is just giving it a driver's seat, small engine, and wheels. It's not an engineering challenge to implement at all, and it's not a technological challenge because we'd just be literally taking the stuff from our civilian tech.

Assembly & Transport
While it'd be better for it to be transported in one piece, neither the difficulty nor quality should be notably impacted by the assembly & transport aspect. The cabin & trailer are trivial to separate with no R&D required at all nor any legitimate engineering effort. Then it's just a matter of literally hooking them together once they're both at the same spot.

Athena & Guidance
What are the two things Athena is extremely good at?
Targeting things and flying things.
What are the two things a missile's guidance system needs to do?
Targeting things and flying things.

It's not exactly the same, of course - there are differences between ground&space targets and air&orbital flight. But those two things should be easily covered by this design and Athena's learning capabilities. The core concepts - which would make up the extreme majority of the difficulty to design a theoretical new guidance system - are still completely intact. And we have a guidance system that can already learn.

Nuclear Warhead

You know about as much as a civilian could know today. So, the basic principle you are aware of, for sure, and some details, but not enough to just build one trivially.
But it also would not be hard by any means.

-NUKE, when asked about how much we already know about nuclear warheads.

Plus the fact that we're building a simple & small-scale warhead. We're not trying to recreate the Tsar Bomba here. So this should be easy.

The Launcher Itself
The Launcher's basically just 8 launch rails, an Athena node, and the truck. Not really hard.

Summary
So, to sum it up, we need to do some mild revisions facilitating Athena's learning process to handle the differences between ground&space targeting/flying, though they won't be particularly major differences. We need to take a civilian engine & wheels, stick an Athena core + launch rails on it. And we need to develop a small basic nuclear warhead, which has been stated to be relatively easy.
Of course, the difficulty is more than the sum of its parts. A missile is more complicated than "guidance + warhead", but this covers all the technological challenges and a decent portion of the engineering challenges. It ideally should be Normal, though it could be Hard.

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (1): Chiefwaffles

I think it's time to invest in some weapon variety.

[3_14159]

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (1): Chiefwaffles

Essentially, I'd rather design one thing (and one cost-efficient thing!) well. The nuclear missiles require us to design missiles, trucks, the targeting, and some way to get everything onto the ground.

On the other hand, you can probably hand out one or several Akontia's per fireteam. ATGMs (and direct-fire support) for everyone!

[Chiefwaffles]

We do not need to design a truck - it just uses a very basic civilian (it's been confirmed that our civilians do in fact have motor vehicles) "engine & wheels" . We do not need to design targeting - it uses Athena who is specifically good at flying things and targeting things. We do not need to design some way to get everything onto the ground - we just ship the trailer and "truck" individually, and hook them together once landed.

The Sarissa allows for easy orbital missiles, it allows for much more effective missiles, and it allows for Athena to coordinate our missiles. And she's much better at targeting than humans.

[Blood_Librarian]

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (2): Chiefwaffles, Blood_Librarian

[TheFantasticMsFox]

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (3): Chiefwaffles, Blood_Librarian, TFF

[piratejoe]

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (4): Chiefwaffles, Blood_Librarian, TFF, Piratejoe

[sprinkled chariot]

Finally quillian scum will get NUKED

[joha4270]

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (5): Chiefwaffles, Blood_Librarian, TFF, Piratejoe, joha4270

[/quote]

[Happerry]

I think air power is a good thing to go for.

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (5): Chiefwaffles, Blood_Librarian, TFF, Piratejoe, joha4270
EAC-F1 harpy strike craft (1): Happerry

[andrea]

too late, Nuke has already rolled. We got a 4 by the way, as a base roll.

But, hey! might as well reinstate the vote that was there before, just for the sake of it!

Manta Flatship Frigate (1): Detoxicated
Akontia Missile System (1): 3_14159
HSML-1 (0):
EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (5): Chiefwaffles, Blood_Librarian, TFF, Piratejoe, joha4270
EAC-F1 harpy strike craft (2): Happerry, Andrea

[NUKE9.13]

Design: EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher
The Sarissa uses the full might of Athena in order to lay waste and destruction to our foes on the ground. And hopefully later, space.

The first step in the Sarissa design is attaching small Athena-networked cameras to our uniforms and armor. Nothing amazing, but it gives Athena a basic understanding of the battlefield in addition to any other networked sensors. This is only if we don't already have cameras. We should hope that - like the militaries of Earth before our departure - we have basic cameras on our uniforms and armor.


The Sarissa Missile Launcher has a rack of about 8 missiles. Each missile is equipped with a tactical (read: very small) nuclear fission warhead - enough to wreck absolute devastation in a  relatively small area without nuking our own troops. Chemical engines provide the thrust necessary to go great ranges, though we're not aiming for anything near planetary or continental coverage (range is fairly low priority overall). The missiles must fit in an ITC shuttle - we don't want to hot-drop missiles or transport one missile at a time. Furthermore, each missile is also equipped with a micro-Athena node. These nodes aren't great for allowing Athena to operate, but it does allow Athena to fully operate individual missiles and manage their guidance systems in coordination with our ground forces. The missiles are built to be agile, and in conjunction with Athena's expert piloting skills, we should be able to hit targets as small as Quillus' tanks (this is important), massed forces, fortifications, and more!
The Sarissa Missile Launcher itself is equipped with a relatively-regular sized Athena node to allow for operation of the missiles when not networked to other nodes. Missiles are launched straight upwards, and do the maneuvering themselves.

As all Sarissa Missile Launchers are a part of the Athena network and are weapons, Athena will coordinate them expertly and use them as she deems necessary just like with our Spear turrets with the intelligence from the previously-mentioned body cameras and any other sources she's networked to. The top priority is allowing our forces to advance - meaning eliminating enemy tanks and fortified positions, with the second priority being bombardment of enemy bases. Athena will also still respond to and consider requests for missile support via radio or other sources. We recommend an operator or two are stationed at Athena nodes to look over the targets as they're updated; the operators aren't a part of the loop and it doesn't wait on them, but in case of faulty targeting operators can abort the target as long as the missile hasn't hit it yet.
Oh yeah. While we're at it and if it doesn't add difficulty, include a cool holographic map at ground Athena nodes representing Athena's current knowledge of the battlefield from her networked sensors.


The non-launcher part of Sarissa Missile Launchers is just a simple unarmored "truck" to transport it around, though it should always be a good distance behind front lines. The truck part is basically just a relatively small (electric)engine and a small 1-person cabin, with the actual tech just taken from the civilian sector. Though it has a COOL HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFACE. As the actual Missile Launcher is likely too big to fit on a shuttle as a whole, it's simply divided into two parts - a "truck" and a trailer - that can be transported individually.


TL;DR: An 8x missile wheeled tactical nuke launcher controlled nearly entirely by Athena. Designed largely to nuke particularly offensive small targets (read: tanks) as well as bombard massed enemy forces and fortifications.

EAC-TML1 Sarissa Missile Launcher (Hard): (3+1)-1=3: Buggy Mess
Well, we have nukes now. That's always a plus. And with plenty of fissile materials lying around since our fission reactors went offline, just waiting to be converted into weapons-grade stuff, they aren't even especially expensive. They deal devastating damage to everything in a... 'tactical' radius of where they go off- we believe that Quillus's tanks won't stand a chance so long as the nuke hits within 10 meters- and damage them quite badly so long as it hits anywhere nearby. A very respectable effort, good job all round.
...
The missiles, launcher, truck, Athena nodes? Well, uh. About that.
The missiles... are not so much missiles as rockets. With not very impressive ranges, at that. Our efforts to make a guidance system were stymied to the point that just dumb-firing them was more accurate.
The launcher... fails to launch ~25% of the time, but does not fail to arm the warhead. Fortunately we only tested it with dummy warheads.
The truck... okay, the truck wasn't a huge problem. We just took an unmodified civilian vehicle that would fit in our current shuttles. In order to fit, we used a fairly small truck, which isn't capable of towing the launcher at anything better than Slow speed, but it works without issue, at least. On worlds with breathable atmospheres, that is- it uses a combustion engine.
Athena... Athena continues to disappoint with regards to her lack of flexibility. Yes, she can learn. About space battles. Steering a missile is about the best we can manage, and that only by fudging inputs so Athena thinks it is a very small ship with extremely short-ranged weapons- and she does it no better than a hard-coded guidance system would. Comprehending the tactical situation in chaotic ground warfare... well, even with our best efforts that would've been a long shot. Target coordinates must be entered manually, based on information received the normal way.

In sum, then, we have some slow-moving nuclear rocket artillery that misfires in the worst possible way at the drop of a hat. We could technically deploy this. It would cost us 2GPP to produce enough to outfit a unit, and it takes up 2TC but can still be transported by an unmodified ITC.


It is now the Revision Phase of SY103.

[andrea]

Revision: EAC-TML2 Demi-Sarissa

the first version isn't very useful, but thankfully the problems can all be tracked down to the missile and launcher themselves.

The most important fix is making sure that the missiles always launch. This should be a simple matter of checking all the relevant circuits and firing mechanisms.
Then, the more complex fixes can start. A proper AI was quite an overreach, but a simple guidance system should be easier to implement: most simply, after being fired toward manually set coordinates it will start seeking for enemy vehicles, whose signatures/shape are hardcoded into it as targets. accuracy in this terminal guidance isn't terribly important, as 10 meters are enough to kill a tank, but the simple guidance package should be able to recognize the tank and get within 10 meters.
Finally, range. I am not sure what happened to our rockets, but at the size and payload they have they should have ranges measured in tens of kilometer, especially if guidance is implemented. Check department of acquisitions to see if they are half loading propellant. If not, make them longer or wider, as long as it fills all previously established size limits.

Those are the fixes made on the missile system. It descopes the system a bit, and make it easier to develop and deploy while still being effective, so they are the focus.
However, while dealing with this, track the guy who approved the acquisition of a combustion vehicle instead of the requested electric, and fire him. Hopefully a more competent replacement will finally find the right hardware.

EAC-TML2 Demi-Sarissa (1): Andrea