Missile Defense Module Attachment

[Paul (OP)]

I've been playing around with designing attachments for ships using tractor beams, and this particular design has just saved my salvage ship from certain doom so I thought I would share it.

It is intended to be attached via tractor to other ships, with them supplying the engine power. I've used a few here and there on military ships and have occasionally been attaching them to commercial ships that are going into areas that may be unsafe. I use either big military jump tenders or gates in those areas so it doesn't hold back the commercial ship from jumping.

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Auxiliary class Point Defense Module    3,000 tons     200 Crew     574.2 BP      TCS 60  TH 0  EM 0
1 km/s     Armour 1-18     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 2     PPV 4
Maint Life 7.35 Years     MSP 263    AFR 32%    IFR 0.5%    1YR 9    5YR 128    Max Repair 100 MSP
Magazine 688    Tractor Beam     


AM Missile Launcher (4)    Missile Size 1    Rate of Fire 5
Missile Fire Control FC20-R1 (2)     Range 20.7m km    Resolution 1
Mosquito IV AM Missile (688)  Speed: 80,000 km/s   End: 0.7m    Range: 3.4m km   WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 1626 / 976 / 488

Active Search Sensor MR20-R1 (1)     GPS 87     Range 20.7m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes

I had sent my salvage ship into a system that I thought was clear to pick up some wrecks. Exploration vessels had been through and surveyed the entire system (geo and grav) without trouble, so I assumed it was safe but still left the module on it just in case. A few days into salvaging one of the wrecks the ship picked up a thermal signature on approach. I activated the active sensors and told the ship to fly to the nearest JP while I dispatched some military vessels a few systems away to head there, but they would be too late to defend the salvager. The enemy vessel shot 191 size 6 missiles at my salvager, went away, then came back with another load and fired 191 more at the salvager before it made it through the jump. The little missile pack shot down all of them and got the salvager out safe at the cost of 382 AMMs. Expensive, but cheaper than a new 60k ton salvage ship. My military fleet then arrived and dealt with the enemy, and the salvager went back in and finished the job.

[Erik L]

Very nice

[Panopticon]

That is damn clever, I may have to steal that idea.

[Thibaut]

not sure to understand how having a real military anti missile ship escorting your civilians would be different ?

You may need to resupply more often, as the engines will probably to some extent to the failure rate , but then, those escort ships would be more flexible too, able to be engaged in "real" wars.

Am I missing something ?

[Brian Neumann]

These pods are the sort of thing that can make a fleet more flexible.  If you need some light defenses then having one to two pods along will give you lots of anti-missile protection.  If you fleet is generally fast beam armed ships then having a couple of these can be usefull when you run into somebody with lots of missiles.  When you are facing someone without all that missile firepower then you leave it behind and your ships can move faster.  If you need more offensive missile firepower for some reason you could build a variant with heavy launchers fairly easily and switch to those. 

The pods are not as good as a purpose designed ship, but they can be more flexible.  Also when not using them with the mobile fleet they are good for thickening up planetary defenses.  In essence they are small orbital battle stations after all.

Brian

[ardem]

Actually I could see a whole range of possibles i did not think about, such as cargo vessel extention, like a semi, you can use it for big runs, but if you need faster smaller runs you can detach it. Same with Fuel.

Hell I think I worked out how to carry magazines, supply's with a fleet without the need to have tenders, you drop them off when you go into an attack run or you need speed to escape.

Wow great idea

[Marc420]

Drop tanks