System Defense

[Whitecold (OP)]

Hello, I´m pretty new to Aurora and in the process of designing my first warship for the defense of the Sol system.

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Achilles class Destroyer    4'350 tons     159 Crew     594.8 BP      TCS 87  TH 150  EM 0
1724 km/s     Armour 4-23     Shields 0-0     Sensors 5/5/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 27
Maint Life 6.03 Years     MSP 256    AFR 50%    IFR 0.7%    1YR 12    5YR 181    Max Repair 75 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 0   

150 EP Ion Drive "Mule" (1)    Power 150    Fuel Use 125.78%    Signature 150    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 100'000 Litres    Range 3.3 billion km   (22 days at full power)

10cm V2/C3 "Braclet" Railgun  (9x4)    Range 20'000km     TS: 2000 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
S02 32-2000 "Braclet" Fire Control (3)    Max Range: 64'000 km   TS: 2000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0
P9 Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 27    Armour 0    Exp 5%

MR20-R50 "Hawk" Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 2400     Range 20.4m km    Resolution 50
MR3-R1 "Goat" Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 60     Range 3.6m km    Resolution 1
Thermal Sensor TH1-5 "Robin" (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-5 "Robin" (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

At the same time I was fiddling around with Missile armaments.  Somehow I can´t design an useful AMM, with only 0. 05 Fuel I still have 20million km reach, but only 20% hit probability on a missile with similar speed.  What can I do here? Also

[Erik L]

Figure AMM will have 4-5x the speed of the ASM they will be intercepting.

[Nightstar]

AMMs at ion tech aren't expected to have better than 1/5 hit rate. If you want to use AMMs, you'll have to shoot more than one per opposing missile.

[Whitecold (OP)]

Well, then I think I wait for AMM's until my Missile tech is a bit better.  What about the Destroyer? I really have no experience with possible opponents.

[niflheimr]

Even for ion it's too slow IMHO. You won't be able to get in beam range with 1.7 kkm/s . Another issue is your res 1 sensor - with that range you won't be able to detect size 6 and below missiles before they are 10 second or less from impact. Spoiler AAM might actually show up the moment they hit you.

[Hawkeye]

I agree with niflheimr in everything.

Add at least a second engine. Ion ships, IMO, should at least move at 3k km/s.
Beam warships should be even faster, so they can close with the enemy fast!
Imagine an enemy mounting a 60.000 km range laser (which is pretty low-tech) and being faster than your DD. He can stay out of your range but inside his range forever, picking you appart with impunity.

Personally, I would scrap the res-50 sensor and put the mass into the res-1 sensor. This would increase the range you can detect incoming missiles and serve as a short-ranged anti-ship sensor.

If you increase the speed of your ship, you will also need to re-design the firecontrol for your railguns, because the tracking speed of the guns will be either your researched tracking speed (2.000 km/s from the looks of it) or the speed of the ship, the guns are mounted on, whichever is HIGHER.

To do all this, you will probably have to reduce the number of railguns (don´t forget to reduce the number of powerplants accordingly.
I would _not_ reduce the armor. Beam warships are designed to slug it out at close range. They need all the passive protection they can get.

I´d also suggest to perhaps half the amount of maintenance supplies. 6 years of maint life for a ship with fuel for 22 days seems a wee bit excessive


As this is your first warship, it is ok. Just be aware that a max. weapons range of 20.000 km is not even knife fight range, it´s inside knife fight range, basicly belly-to-belly!

[Whitecold (OP)]

I removed the res 50 and put a new single size 10 res 1 sensor on it.  I went down from 9 to 6 guns with a new 4000km/s fire control, and added more engines.  How good are railguns at missile defense? I´m also planning to support the destroyers with missile-armed cruisers, however I need to invest some in the techs first.

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Achilles class Destroyer    5'400 tons     166 Crew     819.8 BP      TCS 108  TH 450  EM 0
4166 km/s     Armour 5-27     Shields 0-0     Sensors 5/5/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 18
Maint Life 3.56 Years     MSP 285    AFR 77%    IFR 1.1%    1YR 35    5YR 520    Max Repair 120 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 0   

150 EP Ion Drive "Mule" (3)    Power 150    Fuel Use 125.78%    Signature 150    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 300'000 Litres    Range 7.9 billion km   (22 days at full power)

10cm V2/C3 "Braclet" Railgun  (6x4)    Range 20'000km     TS: 4166 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
S04 32-4000 "Braclet" Mk II Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 64'000 km   TS: 4000 km/s     67 55 42 29 17 4 0 0 0 0
P9 Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (2)     Total Power Output 18    Armour 0    Exp 5%

MR7-R1 "Goat" Mk II Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 120     Range 7.2m km    Resolution 1
MR20-R50 "Hawk" Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 2400     Range 20.4m km    Resolution 50
Thermal Sensor TH1-5 "Robin" (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-5 "Robin" (1)     Sensitivity 5     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  5m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


[Charlie Beeler]

Looks like you still have the res50 in the class design.

I'd also drop both passive sensors.  At size 1 they aren't going to do you any functional good on a warship.

You really need to advance your sensor techs at least two more levels each to function well in an Ion drive environment.

The current res1 is still too small.  Ion missiles can be expected to have at least a speed of 21k/kps.  That means that you have to be able to see size 6 missiles at greater than 1.05m km and the listed sensor can only see them at 784k/km. 

Too take advantage of missile tracking bonus 20%(assuming you've researched it) you need too be able to see missiles at greater than 10.5m/km since the bonus accumulates at 2% per 5second combat cycle.  With your current tech a max 50hs sensor only reaches 3.9m/km vs size 6 missiles.

[Nightstar]

Try to ignore that guy^^. For one thing, he's off by a factor of ten. Your res1 sensor works fine for spotting missiles, (it's overkill really) and isn't even that bad for tracking bonus. Without a dedicated sensor ship, oversized sensors cost so much you lose the benefit of having them anyway.

Thoughts about your ship: The stated purpose is system defense. I assume that means you have more than one target in the system. If you just need to protect your homeworld, missile PDCs are far more effective. Since this ship doesn't have the range to operate effectively outside your system, you may as well drop the thermal sensor. Strength 5 thermal is useless at range, and your ground based DSTS are FAR more powerful anyway. The EM sensor isn't needed, but can serve as a backup if you ever move it out of the system. The res 50 sensor is a matter of choice. It'll let you get another look at the size of your opponents before moving into AMM range, but it isn't really that helpful. I'd drop it.

Other than minor changes in optimization, you have a decent fast railgun ship. They're very reliable, but not terribly efficient. Make sure to build a few more than you think you'll need.

[Charlie Beeler]

That's what I get for posting after a weekend of 20+hours of driving. 

Nightstar is correct, while not ideal the spec'd sensor will detect missiles with sufficient time to intercept.  The is enough range to detect speed 21k/kps missiles at great enough range to accumulate a useful fraction of max tracking bonus if the tech is available.

[niflheimr]

It looks a lot better. It now has the speed to stay in range , and that missile sensor is potent enough.

That being said I'd add another powerplant for redundancy since your only armament is the rails.

PD wise , railguns are quite good at your given tech level since they launch quite a few shots per cycle - but you have one chance only to intercept them given the range. It would be worth setting them to final fire only , and not area defend in this case.

As some have already said , ditch the passive - they are only useful in 10+ HS . I'd drop the size 50 as well , you won't need it at this range. Dont forget to back away from missiles - at 4kkps it won't help a lot , but it can improve your chances.

If you've got the tech I'd add a ECM as well - it can help getting your ships in range intact.

[Whitecold (OP)]

I redesigned the Fire Controls and the main sensor to incorporate a few new techs, as well as new armor, giving the ship even more speed.  DD Achilles and DD Hector are now in production.

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Achilles class Destroyer    4'750 tons     141 Crew     800 BP      TCS 95  TH 450  EM 0
4736 km/s     Armour 6-25     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 18
Maint Life 2.66 Years     MSP 211    AFR 90%    IFR 1.3%    1YR 42    5YR 635    Max Repair 128 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Spare Berths 1   

150 EP "Mule" Ion Drive (3)    Power 150    Fuel Use 125.78%    Signature 150    Exp 12%
Fuel Capacity 300'000 Litres    Range 9.0 billion km   (22 days at full power)

10cm V2/C3 "Braclet" Railgun  (6x4)    Range 20'000km     TS: 4736 km/s     Power 3-3     RM 2    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
S02 24-6000 "Braclet" Mk III Fire Control (2)    Max Range: 48'000 km   TS: 6000 km/s     79 58 38 17 0 0 0 0 0 0
P9 Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor (3)     Total Power Output 27    Armour 0    Exp 5%

AMSS-MR10-R1 "Goat" Mk III Active Search Sensor (1)     GPS 128     Range 10.2m km    Resolution 1

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes