Wednesday 9 February 2022

Missiles for MgT:2300AD Universe Redone to Match the Canonical Universe

MgT 2k3's Aerospace Engineer's Handbook has quite a few issues. One of the many issues is that the missiles are quite different, even in spirit, to the primary canon. Whilst I'm not completely wed to all the odder points of the primary canon, the missiles make no physical sense either. Most notably, nuclear warheads are depicted as being about 100 times larger than they are in reality. Also note that there is no possibility of the SR-10 in MgT ever launching a submunition in real combat, because it lacks the power output to fire the mass driver, use the guidance system and the engines at the same time.

MgT nuclear missiles are, apparently, simple nuclear blast explosives exactly like in Traveller. They use the same sort of rules. That's fine. It's a change in that universe. The missiles now also have some basic terminal guidance, which means they are actually "impacting" or at least being triggered by a proximity fuse. In the following, it is assumed that this is the case; the nuclear warheads are being detonated maybe a few tens of meters off the target. This creates some issues for submunitions, since they need to be dropped directly in the path of their target. However, as a nuclear proximity mine dropped by a fighter, it's still workable.

Warheads were scaled by taking the 4D, blast 8 of the SIM-14 as a 10x2, and doing linear scaling. The size of the warhead was reduced to 1% of the formula value, and this is about the right size for the warhead.

In the following the TL of a missile is taken directly from the TL of the drive in GDW. There is only one TL-12 missile in this selection, and that's the Ritage-2. Most missiles are TL-10 or 11. Some missiles are TL-9, and I've had to impute values. The date nations transition to New Military (TL-12) is in the 2270's for Britain, the 2280's for France, and the mid-2290's for America (with the Kennedy's starting to receive TL-12 drives to replace their old TL-10 ones from 2295 onwards).

I should note that adding sensors to MgT missiles is not at all viable, and those that had sensors in the canonical version, do not have them. Sensor drones as direct conversions are also problematic because there is no granularity in the system, and I can't put a 5 MW sensor on an HD-5, because such powerful sensors don't exist in MgT.

On traits, kinetic weapons (traveling at a few kps) and particle beams (traveling at ca. 10-25% of lightspeed) should not have the same modifier for not being speed of light..

Anyway, these are direct conversions from SC, excepting using batteries in place of the fuel cell (which has all sorts of advantages and simplifies matters), but keeping the power ratings. No missiles have sensors.

France

France has three missiles listed here. There is another in SotFA which is specifically for fighters. The Ritage missile is a particle beam armed (see the boxed set) drone, and so has no terminal guidance because it never impacts. Instead it is just a "remote turret" fired by the launching ship. The Ritage-2 is humanities top-of-the-line nuclear weapon. Most ships were originally fitted for Ritage-1's, but 3 Ritage-2's replace a Ritage-1. Thus, the missile armament of a Suffren or Richelieu is 48 Ritage-2's, with 3 replacing each Ritage-1. An Aconit frigate has 6 Ritage-2's.

The Ritage-2 was the biggest, fastest and most modern missile in 2k3, with the biggest warhead (tied with the SIM-14). This is literally a direct translation of that weapon, although I kept the MgT endurance of 3 hours.

The Silke is an obsolete weapon, used by second rate nations like Russia.

Ritage-1

  • Nation of origin: French Union (2279)
  • TL-11 (tail end of 11)
  • Number in Service: between 1,000 and 2,000. Being sold off to allies cheap, as no longer a front line missile.
  • Power plant: 0.1 MW TL-11 stutterwarp powered by batteries (16 hour life at 0.1 MW discharge, each shot of the armament drains 100 minutes from the battery)
  • Sensors: none (fired from the mothership)
  • Armament: 1 "2 MW" particle beam (3D, AP 2, EM, Slow)
  • Speed: warp 3.09 (tac speed = 3)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 2.5 dTons
  • Cost: MLv 3.08

Ritage-2

  • Nation of origin: French Union (2289)
  • TL-12
  • Number in Service: more than 1,000
  • Power plant: 0.2 MW TL-12 stutterwarp powered by batteries (3 hour battery life at full power, attack modes may involve lower speed to increase range. Half-speed = 4x battery life)
  • Sensors: terminal guidance, +1 modifier
  • Armament: nuclear (4D, 8 blast, radiation)
  • Speed: warp 8.6 (tac speed =9)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 0.8 dTons
  • Cost: MLv6.8

Silke (Silka)

  • Nation of origin: French Union (2244)
  • TL-10
  • Number in Service: small numbers in many second rate navies
  • Power plant: 0.1 MW TL-1 stutterwarp powered by batteries (1 hour battery life at full power, attack modes may involve lower speed to increase range. Half-speed = 4x battery life)
  • Sensors: terminal guidance, +1 modifier
  • Armament: nuclear (2D, 4 blast, radiation)
  • Speed: warp 4 (tac speed =4) - limited by TL from 5.54 (tac speed = 6)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 0.7 dTons
  • Cost: MLv1.59

Germany

The Federal Republic of Germany primarily used Ritage(-1) missiles in 2291. After the German revolution, the 4th German Empire was unable to purchase Ritage-2 missiles from France, and so had to improvise. They had the facilities to manufacture Silka missiles due to an ongoing contract with Russia (who added the warhead), and had hundreds of Ritage-1's captured from the Federals. The Silka units had a small nuclear warhead installed in place of the Russian one and were fielded as SR-9. The Ritage's had a larger warhead installed with a terminal guidance package and were fielded as SR-10. As highly improvised missiles, manufacture did not progress once stocks were used, and the 4th German Empire finds itself rather short of missiles.

 SR-9

  • Nation of origin: 4th German Empire (2291)
  • TL-10
  • Number in Service: no more than 100.
  • Power plant: 0.1 MW TL-10 stutterwarp powered by batteries (2 hour battery life at full power, attack modes may involve lower speed to increase range. Half-speed = 4x battery life)
  • Sensors: terminal guidance, -1 modifier
  • Armament: nuclear (1D, 2 blast, radiation)
  • Speed: warp 4 (tac speed =4) - limited by TL from 5.59 (tac speed = 6)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 0.7 dTons
  • Cost: MLv1.01

 SR-10

  • Nation of origin: 4th German Empire (2291)
  • TL-11
  • Number in Service: estimated between 100 and 200.
  • Power plant: 0.1 MW TL-11 stutterwarp powered by batteries (2 hour battery life at full power, attack modes may involve lower speed to increase range. Half-speed = 4x battery life)
  • Sensors: terminal guidance, no modifier
  • Armament: nuclear (2D, 4 blast, radiation)
  • Speed: warp 6 (tac speed =6) - limited by TL from 6.49 (tac speed = 6)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 0.6 dTons
  • Cost: MLv1.80

Manchurian Soviet

Manchuria is the state created by the Soviet Occupation of 1995, although Soviet control has since broken down. It is quite backwards, with a general naval TL of 10.

Glowworm

  • Nation of origin: ex-Soviet Manchuria
  • TL-9
  • Number in Service: ?
  • Power plant: 0.1 MW TL-9 stutterwarp powered by batteries (12 hour life at 0.1 MW discharge, each shot of the armament drains 40 minutes from the battery)
  • Sensors: none (fired from the mothership)
  • Armament: 1 LL-88 laser (1D)
  • Speed: warp 3.0 (tac speed = 3) - limited by TL from 3.32
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 1.6 dTons
  • Cost: MLv1.58

Fan Tan

  • Nation of origin: ex-Soviet Manchuria
  • TL-10
  • Number in Service:?
  • Power plant: 0.2 MW TL-10 stutterwarp powered by batteries (2 hour battery life at full power, attack modes my involve lower speed to increase range. Half-speed = 4x battery life)
  • Sensors: terminal guidance, -1 modifier
  • Armament: nuclear (2D, 4 blast, radiation)
  • Speed: warp 4 (tac speed =4) - limited by TL from 5.59 (tac speed = 6)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 0.7 dTons
  • Cost: MLv 1.68

American Republic

The American Republic is just reaching TL-12, with the refit of TL-12 engines onto the Kennedy beginning in 2295. The SIM-14 is an aging missile with a large warhead and an OMS thruster, which no-one has ever found a use for.

SIM-14

  • Nation of origin: American Republic
  • TL-10
  • Number in Service:?
  • Power plant: 0.07 MW TL-10 stutterwarp powered by batteries (8 hour battery life at full power, attack modes my involve lower speed to increase range. Half-speed = 4x battery life)
  • Sensors: terminal guidance, -1 modifier
  • Armament: nuclear (4D, 8 blast, radiation)
  • Speed: warp 3.77 (tac speed =4)
  • Hull: 1
  • Tonnage: 1 dTons
  • Cost: MLv3.79
  • Other: OMS (2 burns)

 

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