Ship Design Philosophy

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

Spacecraft: Armaments, Ordnance, and Newton's Third Law

Q. Glide bombs adapted from existing unguided bombs such as FAB-500 and FAB-1500 using inexpensive UMPK kits have been used extensively by Russian forces in the Russian invasion of Ukraine due to their low cost and reduced vulnerability to Ukrainian air defenses compared to more sophisticated cruise missiles, hypersonic missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles with longer flight times and more easily detected propulsion systems.

R. Russian forces have been using Su-34 and Su-35 jets to launch glide bombs from within Russian-held territory beyond the range of Ukrainian air defenses.[2]

S. These glide bombs can carry between 250kg and 3 tonnes of explosives for over 60km and have been cited as one of the primary reasons for the Ukrainian retreat from the town of Avdiivka in February 2024 by the Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Syrskyi.[7]

T. In theory, you could use sand canisters as dumb bombs.

U. Install a guidance munitions kit on them, they become smart bombs.

I have been using sandcasters as bomb racks for years.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

Spacecraft: Armaments, Ordnance, and Newton's Third Law

V. A very short-ranged weapon, the sandcutter fires a hail of electromagnets into the midst of an enemy sand cloud.

W. A sandcutter canister may be targeted against an enemy ship within Adjacent or Close range and a successful attack halves the protection given by any sand canisters the enemy uses that round.

X. Sand casters then have a potential range of close, somewhere in a six minute window.

Y. Close range is upto ten thousand metres.

Z. In an environment with microgravity and no atmosphere.

This works very well, and what eventually led to my interest in dogfighting.
It all started when a player decided to rig sandcanister as a fuel-air explosive for missile defense...and then for dumb bombs...all in the interest of avoiding customs inspections for having "unpermitted military weaponry"

 

[Condottiere]

It is a fifty kilogramme canister.

And, it has a (likely) mini mass driver launcher.

Problem, no guidance and organic propulsion.

Solution, guidance, add guidance munitions kit.

Customization long range, which, in theory, should increase that range band.

 

[Condottiere]

The hull is cheap up front but paid for in lower payload as long as it runs. You also don't pay extra for limited armour.

Kilotonne planetoid, with eight hundred tonne usable volume, requires a forty five megastarbux thirty tonne jump drive, and a twenty megastarbux ten tonne manoeuvre drive.

Eight hundred tonne normal hull, requires a thirty seven and a half megastarbux twenty five tonne jump drive, and a sixteen megastarbux eight tonne manoeuvre drive

Factor/one.

Difference, seven and a half megastarbux, and four megastarbux, respectively.

Kilotonne planetoid costs four megastarbux, and eight hundred non gravitated light dispersed hull seven and a half million megastarbux.

Minus waste and jump fuel tank, seven hundred tonnes for the planetoid, and seven hundred twenty for the normal hull.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

It is a fifty kilogramme canister.

And, it has a (likely) mini mass driver launcher.

Problem, no guidance and organic propulsion.

Solution, guidance, add guidance munitions kit.

Customization long range, which, in theory, should increase that range band.

100mm Anti-Armour missile (Whispers on the Abyss) is 18kg, and does 1DD damage (groundscale) with the Smart trait. Thus, a Spikedcan could have two of them with a range of 1k.

 

[Condottiere]

Dogfight missile, four times smaller than default missile, does the same damage.

If I understand where you're going with this, I did consider stuffing the sand canister with a sabotted smaller missile, that gets launched from the caster, and reorientates itself in space, than goes after a programmed target.

 

[Condottiere]

Which reminds me.

Guidance can be given by fibre optic cable, in any case upto close range/ten kilometres.

Don't know if you could do it further in Traveller, considering the next range band is twelve hundred klix.

 

[ProfGrizzlyJon]

Dogfight missile, four times smaller than default missile, does the same damage.

If I understand where you're going with this, I did consider stuffing the sand canister with a sabotted smaller missile, that gets launched from the caster, and reorientates itself in space, than goes after a programmed target.

Exactly