TechMemo:EW Drones
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Star Fleet Engineering
Bureau of Starship and Starcraft Technology
Star Fleet Engineering
Technical Memorandum
Stardate: 170318 (18 March 2005)
RE: Electronic Warfare (EW) Drones
Fundamentally, EW drones are highly specialized probes launch either from photon torpedo launchers or deployed from lateral, non-accelerated, deployment chutes. They are sometimes considered part of an overall point defense system solution or an overall ECM package, electronic warfare drones actually have a number of potential uses. These uses include both offensive and defensive modes of operation.
Offensive EW drones may be deployed independently of weapon systems or in concert with volleys of torpedoes (or missiles depending on the race).
- EW drones deployed in advance of weapons fire are, essentially, highly stealthed tactical sensor probes. They use low emission hull materials; low power, long range drives; and advanced passive sensors to extend the normally limited range of light speed tactical short range sensors by deploying these same system far afield of the main vessel. These drones then transmit their findings back to their base ship via FTL transmission, providing a level of detail that is not possible to obtain from shipboard sensors until the starship is in much closer proximity to the target.
- EW drones deployed with weapons fire have two divisions of responsibility. They may be active sensor probes tasked with improving the terminal fire solution for the weapons that they accompany. By having a dedicated sensor package with the weapons, it is much harder to spoof these weapons than when they are limited to their own normal onboard sensors. EW drones may also serve to protect incoming weapons from defensive point defense fire. They may do so by jamming to prevent solid targeting locks or by saturating targeting sensors and available point defense lasers by producing illusionary missiles which distract the point defense systems and lure fire to non-existent torpedoes or missiles.
Defensive EW drones have the task of drawing enemy fire away from the main ship. They may do so by either sensor deception or jamming.
- A defensively deployed EW drone may send out the emissions of the ship while the mother ship hides under her stealth systems and draw an enemy out of position. The duration of this deception is limited by the onboard power supply of the drone and is inversely proportional to the complexity and power of the emission spectrum of the ship being emulated. For most starship classes, this is about 20-30 minutes as EW drones from larger starships are generally correspondingly larger and more powerful.
- Alternatively, an EW drone can be deployed in close proximity to its mother ship. In this position, it has effectively unlimited endurance as it can be beamed power from its mother ship. This allows it to mirror the mother ship's signature and draw incoming weapons fire to itself and away from the mother ship. It also allows the drone to produce a strong jamming field which affects targeting sensor of an attacking ship.
