As mentioned in the suggestions thread, I have been playing around with a phalanx-style CIWS overnight. It's a little complicated as it uses several different existing systems to create a single installation. The restrictions on its use are that it can only protect the mounting ship and it can only be used to engage missiles. The components of the CIWS are calculated as follows:
1) The basic system is a dual half size gauss cannon. As the range is limited to 10,000 km, I have reduced the size slightly from 6HS to 5HS. As it is a dual mount, the ROF for the system with therefore be double the racial GC ROF
2) The integral fire control system is assumed to be a 4x speed installation. The normal 4HS size is then divided by (maximum racial fire control range / 10,000) as the CIWS requires a max 10,000 km range. Finally the resulting size is halved to account for the fact this system can only defend the mouting ship, which makes things a lot simpler.
3) Turret gears are added using the normal rules for turrets with a tracking speed equal to that of the above fire control
4) The integral active sensor uses the size that would be required for a resolution-zero installation with a range of 30,000 km. This is longer than the max range of the system but it needs a little tracking time. Note that this is not an active sensor that will detect anything else. It is purely a point blank range missile tracker.
5) If ECCM is available, it can be added to the CIWS and will use 0.5HS. As this is a reduced-sized system, it will have half the capability of the regular system
6) As the GC are half size, the base chance to hit for the CIWS is 50% (modified by missile speed, crew grade and EW). This is actually slightly higher than it would be for a half-size GV with a short-range FC but I am assuming it fires at even shorter range than other anti-missile systems.
7) The cost of the system is based on the cost of all the individual components
You don't need to allocate PD modes to the CIWS, allocate ECCM or allocate weapons to fire control systems. It is a fully integrated, fully automatic system. If a missile is about to hit the ship, it will open fire. I know I have disagreed with Charlie over his reduced-size Gauss cannon, but his posts gave me the inspiration for this sytem so credit for the idea goes to him.
Here is an example CIWS using components up to 8000 RP. I'll work through the steps and then show the completed system
1) Dual half-size gauss cannon with a ROF of 3, which equals 6 shots in total. Size: 5 HS.
2) Fire control system (tech 4000 km/s). This 4HS system has a tracking speed of 16,000 km/s. As the racial fire control range is 32,000 km/s, the fire control size is divided by (32,000 / 10,000), which is 1.25 HS and then halved to 0.625 HS
3) Turret gears (tech 5000 km/s). As per the normal rules, the gear modifier = (FC Tracking Speed /Turret Tracking Speed)/10 = 0.32. Multiplying this by the weapon size of 5HS, gives a turret gear size of 1.6 HS.
4) Active sensor (tech strength 21). A 1 HS active sensor with resolution zero would have a range of 210,000 km/s. Therefore a range of 30,000 km/s requires a sensor size of 0.1429 HS.
5) Below are examples with and without ECCM. For the second example, I will use ECCM-2
CIWS-160
Rate of Fire: 6 shots every 5 seconds
Dual GC: 5HS Turret: 1.6 HS Fire Control: 0.625 HS Sensor 0.1429 HS ECCM: 0
Overall Size: 7.4 HTK: 2
Tracking Speed: 16000 km/s ECCM Level: 0
Cost: 34 Crew: 8
Materials Required: 8x Duranium 0x Corbomite 15x Vendarite 11x Uridium
Base Chance to Hit: 50%
Development Cost for Project: 340RPCIWS-160E
Rate of Fire: 6 shots every 5 seconds
Dual GC: 5HS Turret: 1.6 HS Fire Control: 0.625 HS Sensor 0.1429 HS ECCM: 0.5
Overall Size: 7.9 HTK: 2
Tracking Speed: 16000 km/s ECCM Level: 1
Cost: 39 Crew: 8
Materials Required: 8x Duranium 5x Corbomite 15x Vendarite 11x Uridium
Base Chance to Hit: 50%
Development Cost for Project: 390RPI am rounding to the nearest 0.1 HS for the CIWS, rather than rounding to a full HS, so the technology of the smaller components can make a difference. The CIWS is intended to be added to non-escort warships as a last-ditch defensive system. It allows the designer to add a self-contained anti-missile system without having to worry about anti-missile-oriented sensors and fire control systems and the player doesn't have to be concerned with allocating weapons or fire control systems. They are of little use for escorts though as they can only protect the ship that mounts them.
Steve
