Gauss Weapons, Anyone?

[Arkathan]

Sure... cuz there's not ENOUGH explosives on a carrier, right?

The marines trained constantly to protect the magazines. Their berthing was under the forward mess deck. Legal owned the passageway between them and their objective. Legal LOVED to strip and wax their decks. Either the Chief for Legal was prescient, or the Marine Commandant was a sadist, because every time Legal put that slick stripper all over their passageway, the marines got called to defend the magazine areas. Our rad-con shop was in that hall, next to a hatch. We'd open the top half of the door and watch the marines go flying by, only to be launched by the ramp at the hatch, one leg on the ground, one in the air and both hand overhead holding their weapon. Just like a cartoon.
Had that hatch been a knee-knocker, we'd have had an awful lot of medical discharges for shattered shins.

 

[Condottiere]

1. I believe, interwar, someone did a study for torpedo tube equipped aircraft carriers.

2. My experience with predreadnought battleships makes it gamewise a good idea.

3. In real life, it's not.

4. It's not so much about the amount of high explosives onboard, but storage, and access.

 

[Geir]

I found this one:

French aircraft carrier Béarn - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Silly French... I think everyone else pulled the tubes when they did a conversion, but this reads like they were kept.

 

[Condottiere]

The logic behind it sounds sensible.

About the same as adding on a battery of eight inch guns, in case cruisers and destroyers catch up to the carrier.

 

[Sigtrygg]

An aircraft carrier that is in range to use torpedoes is in the wrong place.

Take an old aircraft carrier and install as many VLS cells as will fit.

The UK, China, India and Japan are still looking to having a railgun within the decade,

 

[Condottiere]

They never got around to the arsenal ship, so I'm going to guess that conversion and operating costs don't make it worth it.

However, drone carrier may be back on the menu, boys!

 

[Jame Rowe]

Well, as it sits right now both the 'electric guns' can get the projectile out of the barrel at almost ballistic velocities, but the accuracy sucks dog balls.
And the Navy has completely abandoned rail gun experimentation because the gun simply takes too much energy to fire. Even with the reactors aboard cruisers it doesn't have enough power to run the gun and the electronics aboard.
So, as we sit here at late TL 8, it's gonna take another TL to get the theory to scale up to what the designers want the facts to be.
Sometimes tech levels are frustratingly linear: theorize + discover if it's possible + design the parts of the prototype + develop the parts of the prototype + test the prototype = yell and scream cuz the godsbedamned prototype didn't work x start over.

A.) I *did* specify TL 10, so undoubtedly we're just a TL or two too early for effective gauss weapons.

B.) Remember the part where it's a game! We can just make stuff up for it!

 

[ottarrus]

A.) I *did* specify TL 10, so undoubtedly we're just a TL or two too early for effective gauss weapons.

B.) Remember the part where it's a game! We can just make stuff up for it!

And it isn't as if Traveller doesn't pander to OCD gearheads or anything...