Design Assistance SSBN equivalency

[Kellfis (OP)]

Hi I was hoping for some design pointers for building an SSBN equivalent in C#.   Obviously the I started with a 16% thermal reduction and cloaking tech, but beyond the stealth I was hoping to give it stupendous range missiles but I couldn't seem to find the sweet spot for the offensive power.

[Barkhorn]

You'll want long range and long deployment time.  Relatively low powered engines, to keep thermal signature low.  Big passive sensor suite so you can see them before they see you.  Probably ELINT.  I'd include some sensor buoys as well.  Mines are bugged right now and don't work, but once they're fixed in v1.12, I'd add those too.  Probably wanna have a jump engine too, so you can operate independently.  Cloaking is actually probably unnecessary, it only helps against active sensors.  You should be able to easily see them on your passives before you get anywhere near their actives.

[mtm84]

At some point you will need an active sensor if you want to actually use this SSBN analog in a solo strike role, so a cloak is still handy (unless I've grossly misunderstood how cloaking works, which is totally possible).  I've had ideas for submarine type ships but never really tried them out.

[Black]

I think you could have missiles with own active sensors, fire them at waypoint close to the target and when the missiles reach the waypoint they will seek target. That way you do not need to use active sensor for the SSBN equivalent. Of course this would mostly work for stationary target so ships in planet orbit.

Cloak makes ship difficult to be targeted by enemy active sensors it does not hide emissions of your active sensor.

Or you could have small scout on board that would provide active sensor coverage, something like japanese ww2 submarines equiped with floatplanes.

[Migi]

Missile range is generally reduced in C#, to achieve 'stupendous range' you probably want to make them as multi-stage with a cruise and sprint section.
I imagine that you'll struggle to hit moving targets so you probably want to target strategic targets like shipyards and harvesters.

[Barkhorn]

One problem with shooting stationary targets from vessels relying on stealth is that any stationary target worth shooting is probably covered by a thick AMM bubble.  Any fleet or warship with enough volume of fire to penetrate that AMM bubble is probably not very stealthy.

Shooting moving targets shouldn't be too hard; little bit of arithmetic is all.  Include a sensor on your missiles so you don't need to be perfect with the math.

[Iceranger]

Shooting moving targets shouldn't be too hard; little bit of arithmetic is all.  Include a sensor on your missiles so you don't need to be perfect with the math.

Shooting moving targets also need the target doesn't change their speed or heading at all during the missile flight time. This could be problematic for cruise missiles.

[Barkhorn]

That's true.  But just like the U-boats in WW2, the primary target should be commerce raiding.  Freighters and colony ships don't turn or change speed often at all.  Military ships do, but they're not worth shooting at with stealth ships.  The odds that you'll penetrate even minimal PD are very poor.  A single stealth raider is unlikely to be able to launch a big enough wave of missiles to achieve anything.

[Rastaman]

Sit stealthily in the outskirts of their most populated systems. If war comes, you launch against their population centers. That is what an SSBN would be for. But the AI doesn't care about your deterrence though.