On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 1:02 PM Thomas RUX <xxxxxx@comcast.net> wrote:

On board the three ballistics missile submarines and one fast attack torpedoes were loaded with a hydraulic torpedo loading system and as a back-up could be loaded manually using block and tackle.TNE and T4 has a similar system in my opinion.

Given TL10+, you can do a heck of a lot more.


The hydraulic system has a ram that pushes the torpedo down the stowage rack that has a set of rollers and a removable extension to span between the end of the and the opened breech of the tube.

I think about the autoloaders on Soviet tanks as the simplest version. Perhaps a better model is the ammo drums on the AMX-13: http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/16/1428934488-w111.jpg
Drum rotates to the round you want, it's pushed sideways into the loading tray, and then rammed forward.

Concept for an M1 with a similar system: http://pikord.com/media/429249408231277577/

Actually, modern soda machines may be a good analogy. They have a "catcher" the moves up to the correct row of can, lets one fall into it, and then move to the dispenser slot, so the can is hardly josted at all.

Of course I've not considered the use of gravitic/anti-grav technology in anything other than the maneuver drive, vehicle thrust-based suspensions and a grav belt.

Well, my joke was about overall technologies, not even the specific application of anti-grav to reloaders, so you bring up an interesting additional point.  

I've run the Guardian through a new spreadsheet based "A MegaTraveller Starship Design Example"  and discovered that a 100 ton bay requires a crew of 50 versus the CT requirement of 2 per bay

Now *that's* hilarious. Same crew requirement as barbettes, isn't it? Barely worth bothering.

On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 2:14 PM Bruce Johnson <xxxxxx@pharmacy.arizona.edu> wrote:
 
Or maybe total crew needed for 3 8hr shift/day with fire control AND engineering requirements.
 
Maaaaybe. Traveller ships have low engineering requirements almost everywhere else.

Per Wikipedia, each of the main turrets on an Iowa-class required 85-100 crew in total.
That covers both crew in the magazines and turret crew. Since battleship guns use unfixed ammunition, and there was no automation in the magazines, and hardly any in the turrets, it's not surprising that each gun needed about 30 crew to maintain a good rate of fire. Some of them are NCOs and officers who are overseeing the whole operation and are there for local fire control if the centralized directors fail. Again, at TL 10, even with 50 missile tubes, one crew per missile tube is wildly excessive.