Interesting info about Guided Missiles

[Sainthe (OP)]

Today I figured that I would make some missiles and put a thermal sensor on it. I intended to figure out if I could get this missile to hit my target with only using a waypoint, data from my sensor ship about the location of the enemy engines (thermal), and "Open Fire".

This is what I found out -

A Default command of "Msl Launch" causes all passively guided missiles thus launched to head directly for the closest star if they do not detect anything immediately in range of their sensors; not very useful at all.

But I found another way which involves these steps: by targeting a waypoint set at the location of the enemy ship, pressing "Open Fire", waiting 10 seconds for the data to be uploaded to the missile and then deleting the waypoint, what will happen next is as follows:

The missile says "Uh-oh, target is gone. Switching to passive seek mode".
The missile DOES NOT head toward the nearest star. This is the useful part.
Eventually, if you're lucky, the missile will intersect a target and lock-on.

Why is all this useful in any way shape or form? I'm not sure really, I just thought it was cool. If you can predict where your target will be, either using math or just guessing, you can fire a missile without an active lock, creating a sort of stealth attack.

[UnLimiTeD]

Interesting.
Though I would prefer EM sensors for that, or a MIRV with active sensor submunitions.

[Aldaris]

EM signatures are unreliable at best, most NPR fleets only have one or two ships with active sensors on. Thermals are more reliable by far, and gravity sensors would be better again.

[Father Tim]

The missiles don't actually head for the star (stars have no thermal, EM, or grav signatures as Steve didn't bother to program them in) but rather for the 0,0 coordinate of the system (which happens to lie in the center of the A component of any system) as they literally have no target.  In pretty much any other circumstances a missile with no target will self-destruct.  They should probably do the same in this case, though then I suspect people will complain and ask Steve to put in an "are you sure?" pop-up window when they are about to launch missiles which will immediately self-destruct.

'Stealth firing' missiles by targeting a waypoint at/near the enemy and letting onboard guidance take over is a perfectly valid behaviour.  In essence, you are trading a single large sensor on/with your missile ship(s) for small sensors on every missile.  Cheaper and maybe smaller ships for more expensive, less-efficient missiles.

[Brian Neumann]

EM signatures are unreliable at best, most NPR fleets only have one or two ships with active sensors on. Thermals are more reliable by far, and gravity sensors would be better again.

If the ships you are likely to target have shields then they will also have an em signature.  The stronger the shield the larger the em signature.  When you design a ship look at the em signature up top.  This does not include the sensors, and will give you an idea if an em sensor on a missile will have a chance to track the ship even with actives being off.

Brian

[Shadow]

So, technically, I could put some very fast, short-ranged, heat-seeking missiles in reduced size launchers on this ship...

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Ronin class Special Recon Vessel    5000 tons     485 Crew     1543.6 BP      TCS 15  TH 120  EM 0
7500 km/s    JR 3-250     Armour 2-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 44/44/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 0
Annual Failure Rate: 57%    IFR: 0.8%    Maint Capacity 675 MSP    Max Repair 200 MSP    Est Time: 2.97 Years

J5000(3-250) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 5000 tons    Distance 250k km     Squadron Size 3
MagCon Fusion Drive E6-MS (6)    Power 125    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 20    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 150.0 billion km   (231 days at full power)

Moebius Sensor Suite A-19-16 (1)     GPS 1792     Range 19.7m km    Resolution 16
Moebius Sensor Suite T-4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
Moebius Sensor Suite E-4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 15% of normal

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes...and turn it into some kind of dashing space ninja!

I know of a certain star system adjacent to my colonized territories. As far as I know there's two Precursor missile corvettes in there, and one of my Ronin scouts has been able to fool around with them, successfully remaining undetected even in the face of active sensors 8 million km away (very submarine-movie-like!). So I believe a missile-armed variant of this stealth class could, using the discussed method, theoretically take them out from the cosmic shadows.

[ShadoCat]

I know of a certain star system adjacent to my colonized territories. As far as I know there's two Precursor missile corvettes in there, and one of my Ronin scouts has been able to fool around with them, successfully remaining undetected even in the face of active sensors 8 million km away (very submarine-movie-like!). So I believe a missile-armed variant of this stealth class could, using the discussed method, theoretically take them out from the cosmic shadows.

They will be able to detect the drives of the missiles at some point.  I don't know if Steve put the intelligence into the AI to have ships try to follow the missile track back to the attacker.

This could be good for shoot and scoot sniping.

[Shadow]

They will be able to detect the drives of the missiles at some point.  I don't know if Steve put the intelligence into the AI to have ships try to follow the missile track back to the attacker.

Not sure. It's likely they'd be drawn to their signature, unless they're smart enough to identify missiles, and flee instead.

By the way, I forgot to post the development of my aforementioned plan.

My stealth scout was able to fool around with Precursor corvettes, successfully remaining undetected even in the face of active sensors as close as 8 million km. From that experience, I envisioned a combat variant, armed with a minimal amount of nimble yet short-ranged missiles, later designed as the Shuriken Tactical Anti-Ship Missile (TASM). Here's the design of this experimental warship:

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Shinobi class Special Recon Vessel    5000 tons     460 Crew     1364.86 BP      TCS 15  TH 80  EM 0
5000 km/s    JR 3-250     Armour 1-26     Shields 0-0     Sensors 44/44/0/0     Damage Control Rating 3     PPV 7.92
Annual Failure Rate: 57%    IFR: 0.8%    Maint Capacity 597 MSP    Max Repair 200 MSP    Est Time: 2.74 Years
Magazine 60    

J5000(3-250) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 5000 tons    Distance 250k km     Squadron Size 3
MagCon Fusion Drive E6-MS (4)    Power 125    Fuel Use 60%    Signature 20    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 250,000 Litres    Range 150.0 billion km   (347 days at full power)

Tactical Missile Launch Tube S6-720 (4)    Missile Size 6    Rate of Fire 720
Shuriken MFC M16-R9 (1)     Range 16.6m km    Resolution 9
Shuriken TASM (10)  Speed: 41,700 km/s   End: 6m    Range: 15m km   WH: 16    Size: 6    TH: 264 / 158 / 79

Moebius Sensor Suite A-19-16 (1)     GPS 1792     Range 19.7m km    Resolution 16
Moebius Sensor Suite T-4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
Moebius Sensor Suite E-4-44 (1)     Sensitivity 44     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  44m km
Cloaking Device: Class cross-section reduced to 15% of normal

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 purposesThe Shuriken is meant to be used as the enemy closes in, lured by the Shinobi's small yet noticeable (in close proximity, that is) thermal signature, without the use of ship-based active sensors. Using a waypoint on the incoming vessel as target, the missile would theoretically lance away from the stealth ship and pick up its prey using its own sensors, therefore not giving away the firer's position.

Of course, this tactic's optimized for encounters with small warships (like the Precursor corvettes) or certain commercial vessels. Larger ships would either not be destroyed in a single, 4-missile salvo, or likely possess enough point-defense systems to neutralize it.