Onno Meyer wrote:
The effect of the screen will have to be considered along with the
defenses of the carrier itself; only a small part of the attacks is
going to hit. TL6 bombs are more likely to miss on their own accord,
while TL7+ missiles face modern missile defenses.
A carrier is SM+11 to +13, so hitting it from 5,000 feet (-18) with a
bomb (-9) is going to scatter rather badly, even with an improved
bombsight. Dive-bombing is much more likely to hit, but also more
dangerous for the plane.
This is historically accurate. The ability of a ship, free to manoeuvre
in open water, to evade level bombing attacks was much higher than
pre-WWII estimates predicted, especially as the aircraft had to be
fairly high (both to avoid AA gun fire and to give thier bombs
sufficient velocity).
I don't think there are any 'official' writeups for TL7 carriers, but
some things are clear. The volume will be around 10 million cf, give
or take few million, for around 1,680,000 hit points.
Taking it out with pure concussion damage requires 20 tons of TNT, or
15 tons of TL7 warheads if my math is right. I suspect the rules are
a bit broken. Somewhere around 63 Harpoon, 85 Exocet, 44 SS-N-22, or
19 SS-N-19. Little wonder the Soviets considered nuclear missiles.
At tech level 8, carriers won't be much larger, but the damage per
warhead triples -- most likely at a mature TL8, not quite yet.
The rules don't work quite right for 'torpedo under the keel', since
that would be non-contact damage and hence DR gets squared. Torpedoes
tend to have bigger warheads than the missiles listed above, but it
still takes hits in the double digits to sink a carrier.
For TL6, fire and secondary explosions were a major factor. For TL7,
the effects of full fire suppression systems will render it moot.
In this the rules are far too generous, given the effects of fire on
ships in the Falklands War, and what happened to USS Stark (hit by *one*
not very powerful missile). Fire still seems to be the major
ship-killer. Both USS Stark (barely saved) and HMS Sheffield (lost)
were set on fire and damaged more by the missile's propellant burning as
by the warhead (though the initial damage and disruption caused by the
warhead breaking up floors and blukheads, etc., would certainly have
helped the fires get a hold).
Probably the greatest vulnerability of a carrier is that it has one or
two decks that are largely open across the full length and breadth of
the vessel, and these spaces are full of delicate and flammable
(sometimes explosive) aircraft, and fuel lines run up to them, so
there's a ready source of accelerant of those get damaged.
_______________________________________________
GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]>
http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
