Ashin Varanin
Professional Enabler
Intent: An improved chaff/flare countermeasures module.
Development Thread: No
Manufacturer: Silk Holdings
Model: QQ-45H mated with QQ-310T
Affiliation: Open market
Modularity: It's a module
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Electronics
Description: Chaff and flares suffer from vulnerabilities associated with volatility. Even static electricity has been known to set them off, causing internal damage to vessels carrying them...and to valuable cargoes. Silk's answer to this dilemma is the 45H flare projector coupled with the 310T chaff dispenser.
The 45H flare projector is a modification of energy torpedo technology. Exponentially scaled down in power, range, and speed, it fires a spread of unguided ballistic energy packets at a glacial ten metres per second. Each energy packet, lasting twenty seconds, gives off enough heat to confuse heat-seeking warheads and have a decent chance of throwing off their guidance systems. One energy packet, if it struck a vessel, would have perhaps as much strength as a blaster cannon bolt -- i.e., very little.
The 310T chaff dispenser canisters do not rely on a conventional explosive to propagate their chaff. Each canister deploys its chaff through a method which is non-volatile and essentially invulnerable to sympathetic detonation. The deployment charge is formed of a tightly coiled high-resistance bridgewire linked to a low-volatility battery. A small electronic module accumulates a powerful charge and deploys it through the wire, which superheats and explodes due to its own electrical resistance. The resulting explosion is not especially powerful, certainly not equivalent to the use of an explosive substance, but is more than sufficient to scatter the chaff sheets, especially in vacuum where air resistance is not a factor.
The 45H flare projector can fire ten spreads of five flare packets. The 310T holds ten strings of five chaff canisters. An advanced lock-threat warning system offers probability indices for various warhead types as related to guidance systems and thus appropriateness of chaff versus flares, and recommends both when in doubt. The combined module can deploy one chaff string and one flare spread simultaneously.
The module takes five tons of cargo space. It is thus too bulky to be effective for starfighters; it is optimal for shuttles, freighters, dropships, and some gunships. Heavy corvettes and larger vessels would get little benefit from a 45H/310T module in most circumstances, as your average warhead is not stupid enough to mistake a very small flare packet for the heat signature of its target capital ship's drive efflux.
Barring installation just inside a cargo door, the twinned module must be attached externally, rendering it vulnerable to counterfire, though not to sympathetic detonation.
Development Thread: No
Manufacturer: Silk Holdings
Model: QQ-45H mated with QQ-310T
Affiliation: Open market
Modularity: It's a module
Production: Mass-Produced
Material: Electronics
Description: Chaff and flares suffer from vulnerabilities associated with volatility. Even static electricity has been known to set them off, causing internal damage to vessels carrying them...and to valuable cargoes. Silk's answer to this dilemma is the 45H flare projector coupled with the 310T chaff dispenser.
The 45H flare projector is a modification of energy torpedo technology. Exponentially scaled down in power, range, and speed, it fires a spread of unguided ballistic energy packets at a glacial ten metres per second. Each energy packet, lasting twenty seconds, gives off enough heat to confuse heat-seeking warheads and have a decent chance of throwing off their guidance systems. One energy packet, if it struck a vessel, would have perhaps as much strength as a blaster cannon bolt -- i.e., very little.
The 310T chaff dispenser canisters do not rely on a conventional explosive to propagate their chaff. Each canister deploys its chaff through a method which is non-volatile and essentially invulnerable to sympathetic detonation. The deployment charge is formed of a tightly coiled high-resistance bridgewire linked to a low-volatility battery. A small electronic module accumulates a powerful charge and deploys it through the wire, which superheats and explodes due to its own electrical resistance. The resulting explosion is not especially powerful, certainly not equivalent to the use of an explosive substance, but is more than sufficient to scatter the chaff sheets, especially in vacuum where air resistance is not a factor.
The 45H flare projector can fire ten spreads of five flare packets. The 310T holds ten strings of five chaff canisters. An advanced lock-threat warning system offers probability indices for various warhead types as related to guidance systems and thus appropriateness of chaff versus flares, and recommends both when in doubt. The combined module can deploy one chaff string and one flare spread simultaneously.
The module takes five tons of cargo space. It is thus too bulky to be effective for starfighters; it is optimal for shuttles, freighters, dropships, and some gunships. Heavy corvettes and larger vessels would get little benefit from a 45H/310T module in most circumstances, as your average warhead is not stupid enough to mistake a very small flare packet for the heat signature of its target capital ship's drive efflux.
Barring installation just inside a cargo door, the twinned module must be attached externally, rendering it vulnerable to counterfire, though not to sympathetic detonation.
