Submarines in space?

[Michael Sandy]

Except as soon as the missile leaves the tube, it's sensors turn on. Against a target with a very strong passive sensor, it paints a trail right towards you.

Just like you can see the torpedo track, even if you can not see the submarine.  I am not seeing the problem from a game perspective.  You can't TARGET the sub just by backtracking the missiles/torpedos.

Can't missiles home in on passive sensors?  That way the missiles themselves aren't going to be emitting anything.

[MarcAFK]

Even with an extremely large passive sensor that missile would probably only be detected at fairly close range, unless you've over-engineered it's sensor significantly.

[83athom]

Can't missiles home in on passive sensors?  That way the missiles themselves aren't going to be emitting anything.

Missiles can only home in on a passive signature if there is already a current active contact associated with it. Passive sensor missiles can however fire another missile at a passive contact, and those missiles can have an active sensor to home in by themselves.

[IanD]

Have you been reading Glen Cooks "Passage at Arms?" This is one of the best submarines in space books ever.

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Passage-at-Arms-Glen-Cook/dp/1597801194/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

[Jorgen_CAB]

I find the best anti commercial tactic in the game are small submarine like mini carriers who basically find the pray and have a few beam fighters do the dirty work. They can practically operate and terrorize an area indefinitely, at least for a couple of years depending on the design.

Missiles does not seem very effective in this role since they need to be resupplied eventually.

Having a more real submarine mechanic would make these carriers extremely effective and dangerous against civilian traffic that is not heavily patrolled and/or escorted.

[linkxsc]

I find the best anti commercial tactic in the game are small submarine like mini carriers who basically find the pray and have a few beam fighters do the dirty work. They can practically operate and terrorize an area indefinitely, at least for a couple of years depending on the design.

I envision a "carrier" 6-10kt with 2-4kt of hangar space. Assuming 2kt of hangar, 2x 250t scouts (1 thermal, 1 em, can probably do a size 3 array on them), 4x 112t light fighters,
and 2x 500t 10cm railgun fighters. (or more tiny GC fighters and make the pair of scouts larger), and use thermal sig reduction galore on the engines

Scouts trawl around at low speed (low thermal sig) looking for thermal sigs that look like commercial shipping. Carrier sits ~5-10bkm out to launch and recover fighters. When targets are spotted, send out the fighters to take them out (if you can, approach at lower speeds so your thermals don't show up)

[Jorgen_CAB]

I envision a "carrier" 6-10kt with 2-4kt of hangar space. Assuming 2kt of hangar, 2x 250t scouts (1 thermal, 1 em, can probably do a size 3 array on them), 4x 112t light fighters,
and 2x 500t 10cm railgun fighters. (or more tiny GC fighters and make the pair of scouts larger), and use thermal sig reduction galore on the engines

Scouts trawl around at low speed (low thermal sig) looking for thermal sigs that look like commercial shipping. Carrier sits ~5-10bkm out to launch and recover fighters. When targets are spotted, send out the fighters to take them out (if you can, approach at lower speeds so your thermals don't show up)

This is how my "submarines" have worked, more or less.

The mother ship usually have good passive sensors and only some rudimentary self defense weapons systems. Its engines have a much thermal reduction as possible and cloaking if available and practical. It then carries a few scouts and a few beam fighters. Raillguns are pretty good in a fighter.

I have not needed to be as far out as 5-10b km though, the mother ship quite often could use its passive sensors to find civilian traffic too from a pretty far distance. Civilian traffic tended to have pretty big thermal signatures.

The new sensor system in Aurora C# will make the smaller scout more effective though so things might change in my next campaign.

[linkxsc]

"submarines"

Seaplane tenders?


I've messed with more "pure" "sub" designs before, 1-2kt ships with a bunch of missiles. But they only really work at higher techs when you can do a lot of damage with a single missile (cause you can only carry so many, and reloading is a pain) and I'm pretty sure they'll go straight to worthless the second the AI starts putting CIWS on their commercial ships.

[Jorgen_CAB]

The reason why it have worked pretty well in my games are because I have been playing with multiple nation earth starts and with human intelligence on multiple sides. It is quite common for several factions to have mining and colonies in the same systems, often even on the same planets.

This means that military forces can already be in those systems and many conflicts are over specific resources and are more low intensity wars than full blown wars.

This obviously have a huge impact on how ships are designed and how doctrines will evolve in many different types of engagements and threat levels.