They're pretty useless as they are, but they've got a LOT of heavy missile tubes. What I usually do is design an upgrade that rips out the old fire control and adds a TN one, but leaves the tubes and armor alone (to lower refit cost). I also build size-24 TN missiles for them that have a longer range than just sitting on the planet like ICBM do. I then refit the PDC to the new standard and build the missiles.
OK, I finally got around to doing all this (and yeah, it worked fine going into SpaceMaster mode for that workaround). Before I actually run into aliens, though, I want to be sure I understand something. These missile bases have new, long-range missiles and a fire control to match. Is that all I need?
I don't have an active sensor anywhere in the Sol system yet. In the event of an attack on the Earth by hostile aliens, I realize that an active sensor might work better than my planet-based passive sensors, but is it absolutely essential that I have an active sensor? As long as
any sensor anywhere picks up an attacking fleet, these missiles will be able to use their fire control to attack the ships, right?
I understand that they won't be able to attack invisible ships, of course, but planet-based passive sensors have a pretty long range. Can I rely on that, at least at the beginning of the game? So far, these missile bases are my only defense against anything at all. (But then, I haven't started exploring the galaxy yet, either.)
Thanks,
Bill