On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 8:51 AM, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sun, Mar 13, 2016 at 8:03 AM, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

For missiles, you could have a central magazine that feeds to launch tubes both fore and aft, at least if you are using relatively small missiles.

Why bother? unless the launcher is also a catapult, you could just mount ejection tubes on the perimeter, aligned with the main axis, and just push them out. They can just precess until pointed in the right direction, and then fire primary drives.

I suppose it depends on your assumptions regarding combat (e.g. the rules set in use). I can see a central magazine feeding to multiple launch points being an advantage in three ways (in addition to the aforesaid possible boosted-launch function):

1) Having the flexibility to push missiles out from the firing arc where they are needed RIGHT NOW - instead of waiting for them to fire from the "wrong" arc, precess, lock-on and then re-vector toward the threat - could be vital to survival.

2) Unless the precise timing of a specific hit is extremely unlucky, knocking out a single launch point or even several of them won't also knock out any missiles.

3) A centralized installation in a capital ship designed with an eye to engaging multiple smaller opponents armed with lighter weapons prevents "scrubbing" of the capital ship's exterior from affecting it's missile capability significantly. All damage control has to do is clear any blockage (even if this means blasting away parts of intervening decks) and the capital ship can resume dispensing its undiminished stock of missiles.

On the other hand, a centralized magazine can be a net disadvantage when facing something armed with weapons capable of deep penetration, since a hit could possibly trigger a chain-reaction magazine detonation. But then again, the OP is supposing a *lack* of such heavy weapons to begin with, so that point shouldn't concern us.

Richard Aiken

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