DataPacRat wrote > These "Pigeons" are deployed in swarms on the order of > 10-50,000, which fly around a target zone, look, network with each > other and with fire control; and when they're assigned a target, go > and explode themselves at it.
A swarm would be 30 to 150 million $ or thereabouts. You can get many iron bombs for that much money. Smart bombs are the way to get more hits with fewer weapons, usually ... > What flaws do you see, how > would you build it better? If a generic (or your favorite) TL6-9 tank, > mecha, battlesuit, or whatnot is faced with a flock of Pigeons of a > similar total cost, which would likely finish the other off first, and > what can be done to improve either side's chances? OK, trying to blow holes into the concept and the design: * If you introduce new weapon systems on a large scale, sooner or later people will introduce countermeasures. Your pigeons are terribly fragile -- how about FAE airbursts to kick them around? * What happens to them in the area of a beehive round? * Your damage calculation seems to be missing the S multiplier. I get 40d(5). At TL9, a serious MBT might be all but immune against that attack, and even if a few hits penetrate there won't be much after-armor damage left. * A TL9 point defense system should be able to fry many of them before it gets saturated. * The LLTV is pretty myopic, by ATGM standards. A battlesuit with instant chameleon could be invisible until the pigeon stumbles into it. > Comm: Radio, short range: .25 lb, .005 cf. $50, rng 10 miles. Scrambler: > $500. Even with a scrambler, what happens if there are high-powered jammers around? > Computer: Small, Robot. 2 lbs, 0.04 cf, $1k, C2. > Program: Computer Navigation: C2, $500. > Computer: Tiny, Dedicated: 0.25 lb, 0.005 cf, $40, C1. > Program: Datalink: C1, $400. No tactics skill at all, just the IQ 5 brain. Don't expect any coordinated attacks, then. > Battery: TL8 Rechargeable Power Cell, 36,363.6 kWs: 4 lb, 0.04 cf, $400 Technically legal under the Vehicles rules, but classic GURPS had 20-lb. E power cells, 5-lb. D cells, etc. The VE formula fits nicely for E cells, but not for D or smaller cells. > Total Structural Area: 3.786 Only if you use the optional formula. The table gives higher areas. If you discard the swarm tactics -- a datalink doesn't make a collective intelligence -- what you have here is one step beyond the LOCAAS. Even slower, even weaker, but much less expensive. If the USAF thinks about it, odds are that the idea makes at least some sense :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Cost_Autonomous_Attack_System Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
