Starship Countermeasure Systems

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Countermeasures are active measures employed to defend spacecraft from attack, most notably from missile and torpedo attacks. The only viable counter for energy weapons is active shielding and armor, however some of the systems described below can assist with reducing detection or throwing off targeting.

Active Counter Measures

Defensive Missiles

Most battleships are equipped with strictly defensive missile tubes, which, unlike the offensive tubes, are typically spaced around the ship at different alignments, usually allowing for counter measures to be fired in any direction. Most active counter measures are launched from the same tubes.

The standard defensive missile favored by the Crimson Blade (and often exported with few restrictions) uses a standard rocket motor for the first stage. It then has four impactors equipped to independent, scaled down motors. Guidance is handled by sensors and motors on the first stage, while the second stages are fired at fairly close range. There is no warhead, but the second stages kill with kinetic energy.

Because of the second stage, defensive missiles can reach speeds much higher than typical weapons, up to 82 PSL.

Radio Flares

Similar to the use of terrestrial flares, those used by ships create intense bursts of heat to confuse sensors. The mechanism is via a rapid combination of radioactive materials which produces a sudden but sub-critical nuclear reaction. The actual results vary, as the most common materials are waste actinides from nuclear power plants.

Unlike terrestrial flares, the goal is not to draw the missile of course as the flares do not move fast enough. Rather, by shooting off several at an angle 90 degrees from that of the incoming missile, they can create the illusion that the ship is much larger. Since the missile is attempting to make a center-mass impact, if the flares are spread to a distance roughly three times the dimension of the ship, the missile will miss.

The flair creates a burst of both heat and radioactivity, which has the added result of making the vessel much more detectable. Not always desireable, but generally more so than a missile impact.

Chaff

Much the same as in terrestrial applications, large bundles of tightly-packed metal foil is dispersed by an explosive to create a large area of radio-reflectivity. Chaff are frequently combined with flares, using the sub-critical nuclear reaction to propel the materials. Much like flares, the goal is to change the apparent size of the ship so that a seeking projectile weapon will miss. Chaff is also commonly used to disguise the size of a formation or to make a much smaller attach appear larger.

While aluminum foil is preferable, cheaper metals such as tin or steel are most common.

Footprint Magnification Systems

The Footprint Magnification Systems or FMS are various active measures designed to make a small ship appear larger, not for the momentary act of diverting a missile at close range. The Foundation uses them most commonly, but many militaries have developed similar technologies.