TechMemo:Point Defense
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Star Fleet Engineering
Bureau of Starship and Starcraft Technology
Star Fleet Engineering
Technical Memorandum
Edited: 130807 (7 August 2001)
RE: Point Defense System
Laser systems
The advantage of a point defense system over any ECM system is that it can physically intercept missiles with either energy or missile weapons of its own. In the case of point defense lasers the system is beam-based.
The weakness is that each laser cluster, can only engage a single missile at a time. Recent tactical engagements have shown that volleys of 20 missiles at a time are not unheard of. So, the laser clusters are most effective when a number of ships are working together to shoot down a single broadside.
When the ships are deployed in a wall formation:
[--] = 1 ship
[--] [--]
[--] [--]
[--] [--]
(and so on)
the overlapping fields of point defense fire make this system extremely effective. In one-on-one situations, the system is proportionally less effective. Any ship type can employ the system, but the problem is, of course, mass and power allocation. BB's have a lot more room, mass, and power capacity than DD's.
Other limitations include the fact that missiles maneuver and photon torpedoes are very fast. It takes a sustained (albeit not long) hit from a PD laser to destroy either. This is very hard to accomplish. A touch and go or glancing hit will not destroy the target.
The type I point defense laser was created in response to the Dalriadan War of 2410 and built into several series of ships first launched late in that year. The initial system was rushed into production. The lasers had an effective range of only 150,000 km, inside the 200,000 maximum detonation range of the Dalriadan missiles, but outside the normal detonation of 100,000 km.
Since 2410, there have been two revisions of the point defense laser system. The type II system was never put into production because it required significant retrofitting to enlarge capacitor banks to power the system due to poor power usage of the laser system employed. The current system, the type III has a refined laser core and can generate pulses capable of intercepting incoming fore to a range of 300,000 km.
Drone Systems
The second type of point defense system is the drone. Drones attempt to draw enemy fire away from the starship which controls them and to themselves by using sophisticated ECM gear which makes the drone appear to be the starship itself to targetting sensors. A network of drones deployed around a starship which is itself using its ECM systesm, gives any incoming fire multiple targets which it must distinguish between in order to damage the actual ship.
Because some weapons, such as photon torpedoes, use proximity detonation and never actually strike the targetted ship, point defense drones also carry powerful jamming systems intended to interfere with guidance and targetting systems and to cause premature detonation.
