[AlphaOne]

Oki so here it goes. I've been thinking for a while and i've begun to wonder if either the terrans or the vasudans during or after the 14 year war or during the first shivan invasion or even after the formation of the GTVA might have built or tested some sort of dedicated hunter killer ship to take out enemy capships.


Looking at some of the designs that have been introduced they do tend to go that way at least the Vasudans with the Sobek as a counterpart for the shivan cruisers.

I was thinking about stating what i believe about the Iceni but il refrain until people post since i don't wanna influence in any way this particular ship .

However the Deimos does appear to have at one point made use of some design elements that might of been tested for a dedicated hunter-killer. I'm talking about its power plant or reactor sistem's as you wanna call it.

Also it has a very tough shell to crack however it appears that its focus was shifted towards aaaf defences and such.

The Deimos i believe would of made a superb hunter-killer should the design made use of more powerfull beams even vasudan ones and a bit more power towards the engines and a few less aaaf defences. 


Edit1: Also are there any user made ships that fit this category ?

[Snail]

Well, Hunter-Killer traditionally means that the recon and the actual force are separated, so I guess the best hunter-killer ship would be a small capship with a very small fighterbay and some firepower. That way you'd have your own fighter compliment (the hunter) and the capship itself (the killer). You wouldn't need too large a fighterbay since the fighters aren't there for defense, more for recon. I suppose a ship much like the Moloch but with more emphasis on firepower, would be ideal.


As far as canon goes, the Sobek is I think the only real dedicated hunter-killer ship out there. It was specifically designed, or so the TD says, to go out and hunt down Lilith cruisers, which the PVN and GTA had a big problem with during the Great War.

[AlphaOne]

Well i was just wondering If ships such as the Sobek and Iceni given the proper overhaul meaning a lot more powerfull sensors and jamming capabilaties could be considered hunter-killer.

Meaning they lay in wait patroll or whatever and rely only on theyr massive sensors to detect and hunt ships. such as the moder day subs.

[Snail]

Honestly the best hunter-killer ship would just be a wing of Artemis bombers. The versatility of a good fighter/bomber wing can never be matched by a capship.

[AlphaOne]

Well you are assuming the bommbers would get a chance to hit the waship in question.

For example if we are talking about a Demon or Ravana they have fighter wings of their own.

Also what im talking about is a get in fast i mean like jump in from some place hidden fire your beams once or twice at the enemy capship blow it to pieces then jump out again.

[Snail]

A few bombers wings with intersystem subspace drives (and maybe a support ship assigned to their wing too) would be the best hunter-killer taskforce. They'd be able to jump in, splash the communications/engines/weapons subsystems, and then finish off any cruiser, corvette or destroyer before they knew what hit them. A capital ship could never execute such an effective surgical strike, and would never be that mobile.

[SypheDMar]

Also what im talking about is a get in fast i mean like jump in from some place hidden fire your beams once or twice at the enemy capship blow it to pieces then jump out again.

The Colossus and the Sathanas. Or just the Sathanas, if the Colossus isn't specialized for that role.

[AlphaOne]

Those ships are way too big for such a role. They require quite a lot of supply's . Something small fast deadly stealth.

[Snail]

I still think a bomber group is the best.

[Polpolion]

I'd think that a hunter-killer warship would have a good capacity to work independent of a supporting fleet for a long time (i.e. a few months). It would have a really advanced sensor suite, perhaps with some good stealth/EW tech.

Rather than having a lot of guns all over, it'd have just a few powerful beam cannons on a close spot on the ship; probably a broadside so it wouldn't collide with debris when it jumped out. It wouldn't go for prolonged fights; it would have to be a jump in, unleash beam salvo or two, jump out. The armor wouldn't be to strong, but the engines would be really powerful; powerful enough to get a corvette sized ship to 40ms and jump drives recharged in 1-2min.

This way, you jump straight in next to a destroyer and her escort, you unleash two salvos of three Bgreens and jump out before too much return fire. The enemy wouldn't see you coming too much because of the stealth tech, and hopefully would be caught by surprise.

I figure past that, it would have a small bay for a squadron of fighters for recon, and possibly escort if situations become dire, but it would probably be ships like the Loki.

[NGTM-1R]

Bomber group has no hope of being self-supporting. A destroyer or corvette might just manage it. As it stands, the best such ships in canon are the Sathanas and Ravana, both of which can deliever a fight-ending first punch and have a fighterbay to let them defend themselves against smaller threats.

[Dilmah G]

Those ships are way too big for such a role. They require quite a lot of supply's . Something small fast deadly stealth.

I agree with your idea with the Deimos, find a modeller (or whatever the term is) and redo the Deimos with four BGreens as forward beam cannons and nothing else, and if that doesn't do some heavy damage give it a fighterbay to cover its ass while its drives recharge and it gets the hell out

[BengalTiger]

4 BGReens on a Deimos? That's waaaay overkill you know.

A single Mjolnir beam would be just fine. Along with some 15 turrets for self defense.

[Mobius]

I suggest to balance everything with SEXPs.

Use fire-beam for a single volley and then cause a malfunction with sabotage-subsystem.

[Dilmah G]

I suggest to balance everything with SEXPs.

Use fire-beam for a single volley and then cause a malfunction with sabotage-subsystem.

Yeah, or make a new type of beam in the tables and give it an epically long recharge time

4 BGReens on a Deimos? That's waaaay overkill you know.

A single Mjolnir beam would be just fine. Along with some 15 turrets for self defense.

True

[Mobius]

Yeah, or make a new type of beam in the tables and give it an epically long recharge time

Using SEXPs prevents from creating a new entry in weapons.tbl

[Tantalus53]

I'de say an Aeolus, With two upgraded beam cannons, could be a right-nice Hunter-Killer. Even by itself, it is very good at fending off Fighter/Bomber attacks, and has the most Forward firepower of any Allied Cruiser.

It could probably get the jump on Cain's, and with a fighter escort, Rakshasa's & Moloch's. I'm iffy about Lilith's. That L-Red will rip it to shreds.

[Polpolion]

4 BGReens on a Deimos? That's waaaay overkill you know.

A single Mjolnir beam would be just fine. Along with some 15 turrets for self defense.

A) We're not talking about an actual Diemos.

B) A single Mjolnir beam would be sufficient. For freighters. 15 turrets for self defense is more than the Orion has total. You wouldn't need that many on a hunter-killer warship. I'd think that 3-4 Bgreens on one side would suffice, and two AAAfs and three flak guns would be plenty. In war, you're not trying to create a balanced warship; you're trying to create the best possible warship. If an Aeolus can mount two Sgreens, I can't see a ship with 5 times the power capacity having 3/4 Bgreens being too far fetched.

C) A hunter-killer warship wouldn't be designed for prolonged engagements. If you go with my previous set up, all you should need is two, possibly three volleys for most larger ships, and then you'd jump out. It wouldn't have many flak shells nor enough armor to withstand long fights. Although they'd be designed to work alone, if need be, you could probably stick two or three together for larger targets/groups of targets.

D) A hunter-killer, as its name says, would be used to stalk and hunt down specific enemy warships, then kill them. Hunters usually don't go run through the forest screaming, shooting at everything that moves when hunting deer, because that method doesn't work. Use it as a normal corvette or cruiser and wouldn't be any different from a normal corvette or cruiser. In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if we could make a new hull-classification. It'd would probably be different enough from any similar-sized warship to merit it.

[Snail]

One thing I hate is people saying "A ship with 500 BFGreens and 79001024093789327382974328943^(32388383999) AAAf beams would be great for such a role"

When it's inherently impossible anything like that could be constructed.

[Polpolion]

One thing I hate is people saying "A ship with 500 BFGreens and 79001024093789327382974328943^(32388383999) AAAf beams would be great for such a role"

When it's inherently impossible anything like that could be constructed.

My bad, I forgot 3 or 4 = 500 and that 2 = 79001024093789327382974328943^(32388383999). Tell me, why exactly is 500 (read 3 or 4) impossible for an 800 to 1000 meter long warship? Do we have canonical size restrictions, canonical beam power usage, and canonical power plant output?