Missile signature / Firing

[Nibelung44 (OP)]

hi,

I don't want to make a tragic and terrible mistake, given I'm now ready to order a six pack of 7000 tons light cruisers to my shipyards 

1. I see nowhere that missile can have a thermal sig, so I guess you must detect them with an active sensor, right?

2. Can I detect a ship with a thermal sensor and then fire at him or do I need to detect it with an active sensor too?

[SteelChicken]

Missiles most certainly do have thermal signatures.

[Hawkeye]

You can put thermal sensors on your missiles and launch them at a waypoint near the enemy. If the enemy is close enough once the missiles reach the waypoint and their thermal emission is strong enough, your missiles will engage the enemy (Yes, those are quite some _ifs_)

You may need a rudimentary missile fire control system, but, IIRC, you will not need one with enough range to reach the enemy/waypoint.

Missiles _do_ have a thermal sig, but it is usually extremely small, so your regular thermal sensors notice them right before they hit you. To defend against them, res-1 actives are definitely the way to go (remember to look at the range, size-6 and smaller missiles can be detected, not the nominal range - and this goes for both, active sensors and missile fire controls)

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Although missiles have thermal signatures, for almost all practical purposes you should be using active sensors to pick them up. 

[Brian Neumann]

Even if you detect a missile with passive sensors, you can not fire on it unless you have detected them with an active sensor.  In general for any warship it is worth having a size 1 res 1 active sensor as a backup for bigger sensors on other ships.  On missile ships it is usually worth having at least one fire control set up for res 1 targets.  It is both a backup for your other fire control, and lets you fire on incoming missiles with your asw missile launchers.  I usually will have a couple of salvo's worth of anti-missile missiles in any ships magazines.  It really can make a difference when a huge swarm of missiles is fired at you.  For instance from fighters, or ships with lots of reduced size launchers.

Have fun
Brian