Destroyer Task Group

[3_14159 (OP)]

Considering that I'm rapidly getting near MPD drives and that I want to completely update my ships there, I decided to post my design for the destroyers here.  They actually haven't been used in a real fight (only destroyed gate construction ships with their gauss weaponry, which took an ungodly amount of time. . . ).  Their predecessor has been used, and was quite useful, killing all except one beam armed enemy combatant before running out of missiles and then being slaughtered by him. . .  At least the destroyer leader singlehandedly killed the only salvo the enemy managed to launch (6 missiles, if I'm not mistaken).
After that, I updated the design by removing most of the shields (as I had just researched a new stage it didn't cost that much shield strength), and nearly doubling the magazine capacity.  But, enough talk, here are the two:

Code: [Select]

Ticonderoga IB class Destroyer Leader    11,000 tons     982 Crew     2606 BP      TCS 220  TH 231  EM 1980
3000 km/s    JR 4-50     Armour 2-44     Shields 66-225     Sensors 1/11/0/0     Damage Control Rating 8     PPV 33.12
Maint Life 2.72 Years     MSP 1155    AFR 124%    IFR 1.7%    1YR 223    5YR 3350    Max Repair 576 MSP

J11000(4-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 11000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 4
Military Cooled Ion Engine E6 (11)    Power 60    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 21    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 400,000 Litres    Range 109.1 billion km   (420 days at full power)
Epsilon R225/18 Shields (22)   Total Fuel Cost  396 Litres per day

WSGMT-17 Twin WSGM-6 Gauss Cannon R1-100 Turret (2x6)    Range 10,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 1    ROF 5        1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
WSFM-4 Fire Control S04 32-20000 (2)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

SSAM-1 Active Search Sensor MR2-R1 (1)     GPS 21     Range 2.3m km    Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR231-R100 (1)     GPS 21000     Range 231.0m km    Resolution 100
SSAMX-1 Active Search Sensor MR23-R1 (1)     GPS 210     Range 23.1m km    Resolution 1
SSEN EM Detection Sensor EM1-11 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  11m km

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes


Code: [Select]

Pharris IB class Destroyer Escort    10,000 tons     1062 Crew     1865.6 BP      TCS 200  TH 210  EM 810
3000 km/s     Armour 1-41     Shields 27-225     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 81.12
Maint Life 2.09 Years     MSP 373    AFR 250%    IFR 3.5%    1YR 115    5YR 1718    Max Repair 96 MSP
Magazine 480   

Military Cooled Ion Engine E6 (10)    Power 60    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 21    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 300,000 Litres    Range 90.0 billion km   (347 days at full power)
Epsilon R225/18 Shields (9)   Total Fuel Cost  162 Litres per day

WSGMT-17 Twin WSGM-6 Gauss Cannon R1-100 Turret (2x6)    Range 10,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 1    ROF 5        1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
WSFM-4 Fire Control S04 32-20000 (2)    Max Range: 64,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     84 69 53 37 22 6 0 0 0 0

WSMS-6 Size 6 Missile Launcher (8)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 45
WSFS-2 Missile Fire Control FC138-R100 (2)     Range 138.6m km    Resolution 100
MSS-6 II Size 6 Anti-ship Missile (80)  Speed: 17,900 km/s   End: 60.4m    Range: 64.9m km   WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 119 / 71 / 35

SSAM-1 Active Search Sensor MR2-R1 (1)     GPS 21     Range 2.3m km    Resolution 1
SSAS-3 Active Search Sensor MR69-R100 (1)     GPS 6300     Range 69.3m km    Resolution 100

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

And the missiles:

Code: [Select]

Missile Size: 6 MSP  (0.3 HS)     Warhead: 9    Armour: 0     Manoeuvre Rating: 20
Speed: 17900 km/s    Endurance: 60 minutes   Range: 64.9m km
Active Sensor Strength: 0.1785   Sensitivity Modifier: 110%
Resolution: 100    Maximum Range vs 5000 ton object (or larger): 190,000 km
Cost Per Missile: 4.471
Chance to Hit: 1k km/s 358%   3k km/s 100%   5k km/s 71.6%   10k km/s 35.8%
Materials Required:    2.25x Tritanium   0.1785x Uridium   3.0425x Gallicite   Fuel x3250

Doctrine is to use one Ticonderoga and three Pharris as independent operations group, and if a bigger fleet is necessary, use several of those groups.  Of course, that's moot at the moment, as I'm only having one of them at the moment, relying on FACs to defend JPs and my colonies.  One of the destroyer task groups is able to squadron jump, can put up 24 missiles per 45 seconds for 240 total (needing 6 minutes total), and each ship should quite surely kill 2 salvoes of four 20kkm/s missiles each, every 5 seconds.

My plan is to use MPD engines in the new design (increasing the total speed), therefore also use MPD missiles, and update them to ECM20.

Any particular advice on updating them? Or thoughts, or thought experiments in which those will totally lose? ;-)

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Hmm-mm... the escorts are very light on toughness, 1 armor layer and 27 shield strength is bupkis for a 10000 ton ship, particularly if you intend to ever jump it in an assault role. 

Also, why 2x resolution 1 sensors on the Leader? You don't need the redundancy, since the Escorts mount their own AMM radars.

I think the active sensor on the missiles might be extravagance. It's nice, but you could get significantly more speed out of that design if you put that weight to engines instead. Speed will increase your defense penetration, which you will sorely need with size 6 missiles.

Impressive shield tech though. Epsilon is pretty high power for late Ion. :]

[Charlie Beeler]

With Ion tech your missiles are way to slow, 30,000 kps should be easily designed.  I haven't reverse engineered your tech yet, but it looks like your warhead and sensor tech is too low for what your trying to achieve.   

You've also installed too many active sensors.  You only need a decent res 1 that can see size 6 missiles at 1 to 2 million km.  These sensor will see larger targets at the ranges you need for anti shipping needs.  If you need longer ranged detection then design a dedicated scout with the a sensor to cover the need.

You've got no ranged active missile defenses, so you need much better passives.  Armor should be at least 3 layers for ships of these displacements.   If you change the shields to 1 for every 500tons you'll fair much better in combat.  Yes it will cut into your offensive systems, but having the weapons mean nothing if you loose the ship to only a couple of medium salvos. 

[TheDeadlyShoe]

These sensor will see larger targets at the ranges you need for anti shipping needs.

? that's not true.  Active sensors go no longer than their specified range.

[Shaitan]

I think perhaps he was referring to the fact that AM sensors are res 1, so if he sets the sensor to detect a Size 6 missile at his desired AMM range, the range for detecting things larger than said missile will be longer.   

Though anything larger than size 1 think is only detected at the listed max range for a size one object, in that you are correct.   I think.   

[Charlie Beeler]

? that's not true.  Active sensors go no longer than their specified range.

It's quite true.  There was a time when there was range degradation for targets both larger and smaller than the designed resolution.  At that time in Aurora we still had resolution 0 for the purpose of detecting sub 1 hs targets (ie missiles).  When res 0 was removed (v4.9?) the degradation for targets larger than the designed resolution was removed and for targets smaller the degradation was stopped at missile size 6 with sizes 1-6 being detected as .33hs.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Well... Neither ship mounts AMM launchers, talking about previous versions just confuses things, and a Res 1 active will not see targets at ranges he needs for anti shipping purposes (~70mkm.) Unless its like size 35-40.  I guess that's within his capabilities, but still.