And because of its storage saving capabilities, it can store many more S.P.A.M launchers, making the tactic all the more effective due to the larger quantity of rockets being fired.

Each S.P.A.M rocket contains 10 cluster missiles, and are fired at a fast rate.

@Pilotmario S.P.A.M is basically a similar system to your all-spectrum seeking missiles. However it is packed as a cluster missile, for storage purposes. Each S.P.A.M rocket is, like your sophisticated and in-directly OP stuff, all-spectrum seeking. They mainly come in an arch like pattern, then clustering at a certain altitude. Some of the cluster veers off course, and then approaches the target from all directions in a cruise missile-like manner.

@Pilotmario you have a point.... which is why S.P.A.M, a multi-purpose missile system is being deployed by the RWA. It is well capable of detecting waves of all-spectrum seeing missiles....and countering it with MORE all-spectrum seeing missiles. For low flying missiles like you mentioned we use surveyor satellites and aircraft, much like you.

Phalanx CIWS FTW !

Yes, the ship may be faster, but that doesn't help with not sinking from inclement weather that would literally drown your ship.

See the loss of the USS Monitor as an example. @TheBroadside

@Pilotmario Keep arguing with me then. Bigger engine, more power, more speed. how it works

Not. @TheBroadside

@Pilotmario It will.

@TheBroadside A bigger engine isn't going to help your ship from getting swamped in slight waves.

@Pilotmario Want to know how to fix this problem?

Magic little thing. it's called horsepower.

@ChasingHorizon no shit.

@TheBroadside You realize that you can't armor everything on a ship, right?

Otherwise, the ship becomes too heavy, too slow, too unseaworthy, and basically a floating target.

@ChasingHorizon Big armor can. HE shelling will ultimately sink me, yes. But with a good amount of armor, that would take a very long time, giving me time to locate and kill you.

@TheBroadside There is a reason why there is no battleship in service today.

@ChasingHorizon Not going to help much.

@Pilotmario as much as i like your design and use of radar flaws, i think i'll stick with heavy armor and big ass guns.

@ChasingHorizon Remember, the curvature of the Earth limits a radar's ability to detect objects, depending on the height of the radar set. This area is known as the radar shadow.

The radar shadow is quite large given the low elevation of a warship's mast. This also limits the range which it can detect these missiles in the first place. For the Horizon's End, the radar horizon would be about 20 miles.

Paternian anti-ship missiles take advantage of this flaw by flying very low at wavetop level. We are also aware of this flaw, and possess aircraft such as the E-2 Hawkeye in order to provide a much higher altitude radar, extending the effective radar horizon of the fleet to distances of 250 miles.

Keep in mind that the AGM-202 HSLAM-II can travel that 20 mile distance in 20 seconds. We aren't accounting for the use of low-observable materials, which reduces the effectiveness by half. So you have ten seconds to identify, acquire, and neutralize it.

@ChasingHorizon I am aware of the power of the LAWS.

I am also aware of its limitations.

You realize that you still missed the point of the missile's incredible speed: you only have ten seconds to detect the missile, identify the missile as a missile, acquire a targeting solution, and THEN defeat the missile it.

While your ships are very strong at actually defeating the missile, your ships lack the ability to detect, identify, and then acquire a targeting solution in the ten seconds it takes for the thing to get from the radar's horizon to the side of your ship.

Detection is relatively simple. Identifying it as a target can be somewhat easy in a clear, target-rich environment with loose rules of engagement, but can be easily complicated by the presence of friendly aircraft. There are many times in history where ground-based air defense assets mistook neutral or friendly aircraft for hostile aircraft. Many forces see this as such an issue that they are willing to sacrifice

Paternian stealth technology allows the missile to get closer to the ship before detection, while the hypersonic nature of the projectile means that upon detection, there is even less time to kill it.

Also, range discrepancy. Our missiles can achieve hits at 300 nautical miles. Your gun range, at maximum, is 50.

Yeah. Good luck.

Very true. The Paternian guns are all dual-purpose pieces.

However, I feel the Mk 210 would have a good chance of defeating the primarily gun-armed Scarlett Academy Navy since we can start shooting at far longer distances than they can. Which means covering 250 nautical miles of missile volleys in the shade. @EternalDarkness

@ChasingHorizon @Pilotmario you both have a bit of a point here. Guns and missiles aren't meant for the same job. Modern naval guns, radar assisted, have a conceivable chance of hitting a ship-sized moving target at up to 50km, and shells are almost impossible to stop. On the other hand, a missile can accurately hit it at over 300km. Most modern missiles use slow/fast concept, where the missile approaches the target at subsonic speed, just a few meters above the water, and then engages a supersonic, maneuvering mode in order to close the terminal distance and avoid CIWS.

The guns themselves.

Naval gunnery duels often involve a massive volume of shells to be fired over hours, hoping for a lucky hit. Even the most accurate, long-range naval guns rely on this.

In the case of missiles, a single missile fired is enough to strike a warship.

And yes, you do have a lot of jamming, but our anti-ship missiles have lots of counter-counter measures. Paternian ASM employ a multi-spectrum seeker, making it very difficult to engage if targeted. These are incredibly difficult to jam effectively, as decoys and jamming that works on one portion of the electromagnetic spectrum will not fool targeting with other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

However, it's main strategy against hard countermeasures is to delay the point of detection, minimizing the time that missile defense systems can react to it.

The AGM-202 HSLAM II is a hypersonic, low-observable cruise missile. Jamming systems, as established, are basically useless.

We know that the time it takes for an HSLAM II to travel between detection and impact is approximately 10 seconds. In that half a second, you have to identify the target, track it, and then kill it.

The laser, upon continuous, steady contact with the titanium skin, will take about five seconds to burn a hole. In addition, it will take a single hit from a 30mm cannon to bring it down. In average, the cannon will need to fire about 100 rounds to score a hit, which can be achieved in 0.6 seconds.

Now that may seem adequate, until you realize that is moving in a slightly erratic pattern. Which means the laser is not going to be able to burn a hole through the airframe in time, and the amount of rounds needed to score a hit jumps to 1,000, or about 6 seconds of fire.

And we are firing multiple missiles in mass volleys at the same time. While they may not come over the horizon at the same time, thus increasing your probability of a successful defense, they are coming from multiple engagement vectors, thus dividing your effective fire and reducing probability of a successful defense dramatically. @ChasingHorizon

@TheBroadside It's pretty hard to jam modern missiles.

And when you launch 70, one of them is bound to hit.

Missiles can be electronically jammed. Guns can't

@ChasingHorizon And keep in mind, this is when they're about 50 nautical miles away, 100nmi with an AWACS.