Star Ship Polaris

[Mysterion]

^If it stood up to the blast from all the conventional explosives in the warheads. Remember, if one goes off, all of the others are going to cookoff as well. That would still be a pretty big yield even without it going nuclear.

It's still just going to only be the conventional explosives, though. You'll be getting no explosive action out of the active materials in the warhead. Yeah, it's gonna really screw up your ship's hull, but it's still pretty survivable - unless you've really went cheap on your hull composition. And, I would assume that when they retrofitted that missile launcher onto the hull, they did some reinforcement work underneath it. So i think the biggest problems are going to be:

1) Decontaminating whatever is left of that weapons pod structure.
2) Replacing the weapons pod structure.
3) Repainting that spiffy orange racing strip on the hull.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

3 is the most important step. Fund that, and drop everything else.

 

[Mysterion]

3 is the most important step. Fund that, and drop everything else.

Fair 'nuff. Maybe a few extra bucks for some chrome, though?

 

[sojourner]

^If it stood up to the blast from all the conventional explosives in the warheads. Remember, if one goes off, all of the others are going to cookoff as well. That would still be a pretty big yield even without it going nuclear.

It's still just going to only be the conventional explosives, though.

You ever watch what Mythbusters can do with conventional explosives?

You'll be getting no explosive action out of the active materials in the warhead.

Yeah, I said that.

Yeah, it's gonna really screw up your ship's hull, but it's still pretty survivable - unless you've really went cheap on your hull composition. And, I would assume that when they retrofitted that missile launcher onto the hull, they did some reinforcement work underneath it. So i think the biggest problems are going to be:

1) Decontaminating whatever is left of that weapons pod structure.
2) Replacing the weapons pod structure.
3) Repainting that spiffy orange racing strip on the hull.

Don't forget the weapons pod is going to make for some really nice shrapnel. I would guess that you would have some hull penetrations and maybe some collateral damage to other structures on that side of the ship. Remember, it wasn't constructed as a warship. Heck, the way the pod is designed, the force of the explosions are going to be directed forward and also in toward the main hull.
I could easily see damage being done to the forward drive mechanism. The access door to the globe could be torn right off.

 

[Nightfall to-Ennien]

Remember, if one goes off, all of the others are going to cookoff as well.

This assumes that they'd be using a form of conventional explosive that's volatile enough to explode when hit with another explosion. Most explosives are designed to be exceedingly stable unless specific conditions are met. RDX, for example, can be (relatively) safely set on fire, or shot with small arms without detonating it.

 

[sojourner]

^In which case our scenario never happens.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

What attack scenarios are we talking about here that Polaris would have to defend against? Its missiles being hit and generating secondary explosions?

Being hit by what? A missile with a nuclear warhead of its own? A kinetic kill shrapnel field that will turn the whole ship into swiss cheese?

Of course I don't know what Polaris tech is all about, but I think you all need to be a bit more specific (a) about what is attacking the ship and (b) how likely it is for that to happen.

Sure, there are probably scenarios that are pretty bad, but what are the expected scenarios? Are secondary explosions the biggest concerns in those scenarios?

 

[sojourner]

^it's a hypothetical attack in which one of the missiles gets hit by something large enough to detonate the conventional explosives inside while being small enough not to just vaporize the whole thing. A pretty rare occurrence.

 

[Santaman]

Hmm, in space you at least would not have a pressure wave so an explosion is far less damaging than it would be here on Earth.

Of course I am all for Yamato spec armour..

 

[Maverisms]

While there's no over-pressure in space, an explosion in contact with the hull will do significant damage. That said, I think magazine cook-off probably wouldn't be a major issue. There's a basic assumption here that warheads require "conventional explosives" to detonate. I'm gonna go out on limb and say, if you can build a star ship you can probably build a nuclear warhead without resorting to large amounts of volatiles.

The exposed placement of the missiles would seem to bear that out. Of course, I have no idea how the creators of the ship see it, but it makes sense. If the missiles were vulnerable to mission kills, they'd be better protected, even on a converted ship. So, logic suggests anything that can mission kill the missiles stands a good chance of mission killing the ship.

That's just me, though.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

You guys don't get it.

The Polaris Defense Systems Manual consists in it's entirety of the following items:

1. Don't get hit.
2. See Item (1). Nothing else is going to matter.
   
   

 

[Mysterion]

You guys don't get it.


The Polaris Defense Systems Manual consists in it's entirety of the following items:

1. Don't get hit.
2. See Item (1). Nothing else is going to matter.
   
   

Good plan, but see Murphy's Addendum to the Polaris Defense Systems Manual: "No plan ever survives contact with the enemy."

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Then they're screwed.

 

[Mysterion]

Then they're screwed.

Life is often this way. The trick is to go out in style. Judging from the stills I've seen of the Polaris production, y'all got a good handle on that.

 

[Maverisms]

You guys don't get it.

The Polaris Defense Systems Manual consists in it's entirety of the following items:

1. Don't get hit.
2. See Item (1). Nothing else is going to matter.
   
   

Apparently, I totally got that.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Well yeah, you did, didn't you?

 

[Maverisms]

Seriously, I was just guessing. Using the design elements to throw a spanner in the gears of the discussion. It just tickles that the guess was right.

 

[Vektor]

 

[sojourner]

[Takei]Oh my![/Takei]

 

[Gepard]

Are the panels permanently gone from the nose? Because me like.