HI all
As requested, this is the first part of my write-up, a general description of my take on character-scale Point Defense Lasers (PDL), as opposed to the well-understood canon on starship lasers used for missile point defense. Part II is a more technical discussion, which I'll post over in the Research station.
My main argument is that PDL's change the battlefield a lot from our TwenCen baseline, but they explain a lot of features of the OTU like the preference for energy weapons in higher TL forces. If YTU wants more of a 'Nam, Blackhawk Down or Generation Kill vibe in the battle scenes, you may want to ignore this stuff, since the shout of 'RPG' to Imperial Marines in MTU causes the same derisive laughter as a modern day tank crew noting an opponent coming at them with a sword...
------------------------------------------
Traveller Personal-scale Point Defense Lasers (PDL)
by DeusX 2009 (all applicable rights reserved)
IMTU Point-Defense Lasers (PDL) are used to destroy incoming small, relatively slow-moving explosive projectiles like RPG's, RAM grenades, mortars, rockets, missiles and deadfall bombs. They use counter-battery radar, lidar, thermals and multi-spectral imaging for targeting and small arms power lasers for target engagement and destruction. [While lasers for point-defense are well understood in space combat, leading to stand-off attacks like bomb-pumped x-ray laser missile warheads, this write-up is focusing on smaller battlefield and personal PDL]
---------
History and Development:
PDL's initially appear in late TL7/ early TL8, as a development of radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns (TL6); and the TL7 combination of counter-battery radar, automated anti-missile point-defense based on multi-barrel rotary cannon(e.g. Phalanx, Goalkeeper), and early laser technologies like prototype lidar and directional IR sensor dazzlers.
Initial prototypes (like ABL/ATL/THEL) are fixed site or very large vehicle based. By mid-TL 8 battlefield PDL's are appearing - consisting of multiple large vehicles(radar vehicles, power truck, command truck, firing truck and logistics trucks) forming a single firing unit. These have a low rate of fire and small ammo(laser fuel or coolant) capacity, and are hence only suited to light counter-insurgency(COIN) or force protection usage against small numbers of light projectiles e.g. 60-120mm rockets and mortars used for harassment fire and terror.
(THEL was designed for a shot every 5 seconds, 12 shots total before refueling)
In TL9 the PDL joins the battlefield laser as an effective large vehicle/ship turret weapon option., and becomes a small self-contained vehicle turret by TL10. Vehicle fusion power brings near-unlimited shots for PDL's. TL 9 and 10 military forces include dedicated PDL vehicles to protect HQ units and bases, usually grouped with anti-aircraft or counter-battery teams.
TL11 and 12 brings stand-alone phone booth or mailbox sized battlefield PDL's that can be inserted by meteoric drop. The TL11 are usually chemical cartridge-based lasers and hence have limited shots, while the TL12 units can use built-in fusion power for near-unlimited shots, but are coolant limited, restricting fire rate.
At TL13 one can have battle-dress mounted personal PDL backpacks (MP-PDL) usually with 1 or 2 over the shoulder sensor/emitter masts. By TL14 the PDL can be belt-mounted, or be a mode/add-on to an existing laser small-arm. TL15 allows helmet-mounted (or wrist) personal PDL with multiple sensor/emitter heads.
------
Sidebar: PDL in Meteoric Assaults
PDL's are very important defenses in a combat drop, due to the surface to air missile risk. At TL10 dedicated PDL drop capsules are available, with TL13+ adding individual capsule PDL to trooper's capsule defense suite - along with the flares, decoy jammers, chaff, smoke, sand, terminal grav-maneuvering package aka jitterbox(random 1-6G jinxing) etc.
-----
PDL disadvantages and countermeasures:
Widely deployed battlefield PDL renders traditional mortars, RPG and rifle grenades, anti-tank missiles and single artillery rockets obsolete against defended targets, But they have several shortcomings and limitations. They can be relatively fragile, expensive and power-hungry at lower tech levels. But more importantly they are active sensors, giving away their position to attackers, which is rapidly fatal if the opposition has energy weapons, meson sleds or ortillary support. Also they are fully automated weapons which are illegal in some areas and widely distrusted everywhere due to the risk of friendly fire and fear of accidental blinding even if beyond kill range. (Like their close automated weapon cousins- sentry guns, many states only allow semi-fixed position PDLs or use on manned vehicles/battle dress)
For these reasons, PDL defenses are usually left in passive 'cool' standby mode, 'detect-only' until the battle begins. Some have a 'warm' passive stand-by where they can engage an obvious inbound rocket thermal plume or ballistic artillery launch signature, but the occasional accident limits them to active battle-zones.
Hence only the first surprise salvo gets through before the PDLs go hot.
This makes heavy multiple rocket barrages and co-ordinated Time-on-Target air strikes, where all ordinance arrives together, popular. Failing that, a massive sustained bombardment can overload a small PDL's retargeting and fire rates or exhaust laser fuel, battery charge or coolant, especially if warheads MIRV or release cluster bomblets before impact.
Alternately warheads are reflec or ablat coated to force longer dwell times (for continuous beam lasers) or multiple shot re-engagements (for pulse lasers).
----
Sidebar: PDL's for counter-sniper defense
PDL lidar when active can detect and dazzle or destroy any simple optics in line of sight, be they eyeball, sensor, camera, scout binocs or sniper scope, and often blinding the unlucky sniper or low tech scout who doesn't understand lasers.
This makes primitive direct optics very risky as rainbow tuneable PDL laser can burn past fixed-spectrum laser safety filters. The counter-sniper capability is degraded in a high-reflection environment like urban battlefields with broken glass and presumably dead CCTV cameras. (And certain sizes of raindrop drive them mad.) Sneaky snipers lay down anti-laser smoke to protect themselves.
-----
PDL's influence on weapons adoption:
To beat laser defenses, physical projectiles have 3 basic strategies - solid shot, go big or go fast. Solid shots, kinetic penetrators and slugs have no guidance or fusing sensors to blind or jam and no explosive warhead to detonate - a primitive solid iron cannon ball is highly PDL-resistant. Gauss weapons and rail guns go hypersonic fast, to give less detection and engagement time, and are often multi-projectile burst fire. Finally, going big, i.e. throwing rocks or the more technical 'high-mass ablative projectiles' work as well as ever, like very large armored shells from TL6 wet-navy battleships or railcar superguns. multi-ton ortillary massdriver shot or even asteroids.
The best option at higher tech levels in a PDL-heavy battlefield is to adopt your own lasers, energy bolt weapons like PGMP/FGMP and energy ball mortars & howtzers, where the shot can't be disrupted by laser.This may be a major factor in their adoption by TL13-15 forces, along with the reduced recoil in zero-gee and lack of ammunition limitation and the resultant logistics tail.
<See Part II in the Research Station forum for a technical description>
-----------------
Corrections, comments, questions and rules mechanics suggestions warmly encouraged.
DX
-----
The Imperial Moot - Every Count Votes!
As requested, this is the first part of my write-up, a general description of my take on character-scale Point Defense Lasers (PDL), as opposed to the well-understood canon on starship lasers used for missile point defense. Part II is a more technical discussion, which I'll post over in the Research station.
My main argument is that PDL's change the battlefield a lot from our TwenCen baseline, but they explain a lot of features of the OTU like the preference for energy weapons in higher TL forces. If YTU wants more of a 'Nam, Blackhawk Down or Generation Kill vibe in the battle scenes, you may want to ignore this stuff, since the shout of 'RPG' to Imperial Marines in MTU causes the same derisive laughter as a modern day tank crew noting an opponent coming at them with a sword...
------------------------------------------
Traveller Personal-scale Point Defense Lasers (PDL)
by DeusX 2009 (all applicable rights reserved)
IMTU Point-Defense Lasers (PDL) are used to destroy incoming small, relatively slow-moving explosive projectiles like RPG's, RAM grenades, mortars, rockets, missiles and deadfall bombs. They use counter-battery radar, lidar, thermals and multi-spectral imaging for targeting and small arms power lasers for target engagement and destruction. [While lasers for point-defense are well understood in space combat, leading to stand-off attacks like bomb-pumped x-ray laser missile warheads, this write-up is focusing on smaller battlefield and personal PDL]
---------
History and Development:
PDL's initially appear in late TL7/ early TL8, as a development of radar-controlled anti-aircraft guns (TL6); and the TL7 combination of counter-battery radar, automated anti-missile point-defense based on multi-barrel rotary cannon(e.g. Phalanx, Goalkeeper), and early laser technologies like prototype lidar and directional IR sensor dazzlers.
Initial prototypes (like ABL/ATL/THEL) are fixed site or very large vehicle based. By mid-TL 8 battlefield PDL's are appearing - consisting of multiple large vehicles(radar vehicles, power truck, command truck, firing truck and logistics trucks) forming a single firing unit. These have a low rate of fire and small ammo(laser fuel or coolant) capacity, and are hence only suited to light counter-insurgency(COIN) or force protection usage against small numbers of light projectiles e.g. 60-120mm rockets and mortars used for harassment fire and terror.
(THEL was designed for a shot every 5 seconds, 12 shots total before refueling)
In TL9 the PDL joins the battlefield laser as an effective large vehicle/ship turret weapon option., and becomes a small self-contained vehicle turret by TL10. Vehicle fusion power brings near-unlimited shots for PDL's. TL 9 and 10 military forces include dedicated PDL vehicles to protect HQ units and bases, usually grouped with anti-aircraft or counter-battery teams.
TL11 and 12 brings stand-alone phone booth or mailbox sized battlefield PDL's that can be inserted by meteoric drop. The TL11 are usually chemical cartridge-based lasers and hence have limited shots, while the TL12 units can use built-in fusion power for near-unlimited shots, but are coolant limited, restricting fire rate.
At TL13 one can have battle-dress mounted personal PDL backpacks (MP-PDL) usually with 1 or 2 over the shoulder sensor/emitter masts. By TL14 the PDL can be belt-mounted, or be a mode/add-on to an existing laser small-arm. TL15 allows helmet-mounted (or wrist) personal PDL with multiple sensor/emitter heads.
------
Sidebar: PDL in Meteoric Assaults
PDL's are very important defenses in a combat drop, due to the surface to air missile risk. At TL10 dedicated PDL drop capsules are available, with TL13+ adding individual capsule PDL to trooper's capsule defense suite - along with the flares, decoy jammers, chaff, smoke, sand, terminal grav-maneuvering package aka jitterbox(random 1-6G jinxing) etc.
-----
PDL disadvantages and countermeasures:
Widely deployed battlefield PDL renders traditional mortars, RPG and rifle grenades, anti-tank missiles and single artillery rockets obsolete against defended targets, But they have several shortcomings and limitations. They can be relatively fragile, expensive and power-hungry at lower tech levels. But more importantly they are active sensors, giving away their position to attackers, which is rapidly fatal if the opposition has energy weapons, meson sleds or ortillary support. Also they are fully automated weapons which are illegal in some areas and widely distrusted everywhere due to the risk of friendly fire and fear of accidental blinding even if beyond kill range. (Like their close automated weapon cousins- sentry guns, many states only allow semi-fixed position PDLs or use on manned vehicles/battle dress)
For these reasons, PDL defenses are usually left in passive 'cool' standby mode, 'detect-only' until the battle begins. Some have a 'warm' passive stand-by where they can engage an obvious inbound rocket thermal plume or ballistic artillery launch signature, but the occasional accident limits them to active battle-zones.
Hence only the first surprise salvo gets through before the PDLs go hot.
This makes heavy multiple rocket barrages and co-ordinated Time-on-Target air strikes, where all ordinance arrives together, popular. Failing that, a massive sustained bombardment can overload a small PDL's retargeting and fire rates or exhaust laser fuel, battery charge or coolant, especially if warheads MIRV or release cluster bomblets before impact.
Alternately warheads are reflec or ablat coated to force longer dwell times (for continuous beam lasers) or multiple shot re-engagements (for pulse lasers).
----
Sidebar: PDL's for counter-sniper defense
PDL lidar when active can detect and dazzle or destroy any simple optics in line of sight, be they eyeball, sensor, camera, scout binocs or sniper scope, and often blinding the unlucky sniper or low tech scout who doesn't understand lasers.
This makes primitive direct optics very risky as rainbow tuneable PDL laser can burn past fixed-spectrum laser safety filters. The counter-sniper capability is degraded in a high-reflection environment like urban battlefields with broken glass and presumably dead CCTV cameras. (And certain sizes of raindrop drive them mad.) Sneaky snipers lay down anti-laser smoke to protect themselves.
-----
PDL's influence on weapons adoption:
To beat laser defenses, physical projectiles have 3 basic strategies - solid shot, go big or go fast. Solid shots, kinetic penetrators and slugs have no guidance or fusing sensors to blind or jam and no explosive warhead to detonate - a primitive solid iron cannon ball is highly PDL-resistant. Gauss weapons and rail guns go hypersonic fast, to give less detection and engagement time, and are often multi-projectile burst fire. Finally, going big, i.e. throwing rocks or the more technical 'high-mass ablative projectiles' work as well as ever, like very large armored shells from TL6 wet-navy battleships or railcar superguns. multi-ton ortillary massdriver shot or even asteroids.
The best option at higher tech levels in a PDL-heavy battlefield is to adopt your own lasers, energy bolt weapons like PGMP/FGMP and energy ball mortars & howtzers, where the shot can't be disrupted by laser.This may be a major factor in their adoption by TL13-15 forces, along with the reduced recoil in zero-gee and lack of ammunition limitation and the resultant logistics tail.
<See Part II in the Research Station forum for a technical description>
-----------------
Corrections, comments, questions and rules mechanics suggestions warmly encouraged.
DX
-----
The Imperial Moot - Every Count Votes!
