Launch Tubes require 25 times the tonnage of anything launched from them (LBB5.80, p32).
Imagine using Launch Tubes as a "poor man's spinal weapon" for planetary bombardments using ... planetoids ... from orbit against surface targets.
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
o:
And for anyone who isn't quite sure what that would look like, well ...
here's a video reference for you to review. (58 second youtube link)
At TL=8-10 the only spinal mounts available (in LBB5.80) are Particle Accelerators (A, B, C and J), all weighing in around 5000 tons for the weapon itself plus an additional 500 or 800 EP to energize the weapon. Crew requirements for these spinal mounts are 45-55 gunnery crew. Power Plants to power the weapons would be either 2000 tons (TL=8) or 1500 tons (TL=9) or even 1500 for the C or 2400 tons for the J particle accelerator spinal mounts (TL=10), requiring an additional 15-24 engineering crew for the power plant needed to energize the weapon.
So in an extreme, pre-meson gun era ... let's take the TL=10 particle accelerator J spinal mount as the context comparison.
Weapon tonnage: 5000 (800 EP)
Power Plant tonnage supporting weapon: 2400 (800 EP @ TL=10)
Fuel tankage required for power plant: 800 tons (1 ton per EP)
Crew: 50 gunnery (5 officers, 15 petty officers, 30 ratings), 24 engineering (2 officers, 5 petty officers, 17 ratings) = 7 single occupancy staterooms, 67 single occupancy cabins = 162 tons
TOTAL Tonnage: 5000+2400+800+162 = 8362 tons
MCr: 3000 (weapon), 7200 (power plant), 81 (crew accommodations) = 10,281
Luanch Tubes are 25 times the tonnage of the maximum size that can be launched from them (LBB5.80, p32) and requires a crew (LBB5.80, p33) of 10 consisting of 1 officer and a preponderance of petty officers. So using the above 8362 tons as our benchmark available tonnage to play with ... how "big" of a launch tube can you fit into the same amount of starship tonnage?
Crew: 10 flight (1 officer, 5 petty officers, 4 ratings) = 1 single occupancy stateroom, 9 single occupancy cabins = 22 tons
200 ton Launch Tube * 25 = 5000 tons
3300 ton hangar bay (capacity for 15x 200 ton craft)
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
TOTAL Tonnage: 5000+3300+22= 8322 tons
MCr: 10 (launch tube), 11 (crew accommodations) = 21
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
o:
So for almost the exact same tonnage (8322 vs 8362, a reduction of 40 tons) and
0.204% of the cost ![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
o: in construction ... you can equip a TL=10 ship with a
![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
o:
MASS DRIVER ![Eek! :eek: :eek:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
o: that can "hurl rocks" (or even wreckage!)
up to 200 tons in size gathered from an asteroid/planetoid belt in a system (up to 15 planetoids of up 200 tons each!) and launched at a planetary surface to bombard it from orbit. A launch tube can launch up to 40 vessels in one combat turn (LBB5.80, p38), meaning the launch tube can "fire all" of the contents of the hangar bay holding planetoids within 20 minutes (one per 30 seconds!) given enough planetoid bodies to launch.
I am reminded of a certain
episode historically broadcast on Terra all the way back on
6 Mar 1988 which included the following inspirational line at 3m29s for how this bit of starship design took the form it has in responding to this thread.
"You don't suppose there's any way Dread could stop it, hm?"
"200 tons of smokin' metal ..."
Sometimes, the best way to defeat a high tech defensive system is with a really really REALLY low tech system that isn't often used as a weapon.
Sure, a deeply buried meson gun planetary defense weapon can be extremely hard to destroy from orbit with "conventional weapons" (as if there's anything "conventional" about meson guns!) ... but what about if you bombard the planetary surface with LOTS OF ROCKS that send MASSIVE seismic shocks underground from orbit to "batter" the deeply buried meson gun in a way that disables it using the echoes of the impact shocks on the surface? Sure, the meson gun could fire at individual incoming rocks to destroy them ... one by one ... which is great when there's ONLY ONE ROCK being thrown at you. But when there are dozens of rocks? Hundreds of them?
As an attacker, all you need to do is essentially SATURATE the surface with more rocks than the meson gun can fire at and destroy before impact ... and given the slow rate of fire for spinal weapons (one shot every 20 minutes, per LLB5.80), using an extremely large 200 ton capacity Launch Tube that can shoot "a lot of rocks" at the surface above a deeply buried meson gun thanks to a faster launch rate than the meson gun's rate of fire ... well ... it's just a question of bringing enough big rocks to get the job done, wouldn't you say?
Mike said:
Even in space, sometimes the best weapon is an exquisitely well aimed rock.
![Cool :cool: :cool:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)