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The NX-01's Forgotten Weapon
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lurker Emeritus: [QB] I take the point about distributed magazines, but there are two modes of thought regarding distribution. I know from a naval architect friend that the debate around centralisation or dispersal of mission critical systems is a perenial one among ship designers. I will use an appropriate example: the different approaches to locating the [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_launch_system]Vertical Launch System[/URL] (VLS) blocks on naval vessels. One argument says distribute them. One forward and one aft. Thus, in the event that one is hit, you still have the other. The counter argument says that by dividing them in this way you are doubling the chances that part of your VLS system will be hit! You are also doubling all the associated equipment such as hydraulic systems, fire suppression, maintenance access and storage... as well as having to build in twice the amount of damage control measures such as shrapnel protection, which impacts on the vessels structure. Basically you're making the design much more complex, expensive and bigger than it might need to be. Proponents tend to favour the old battleship "central citadel" approach, in which all machinery and boilers, main armaments and their magazine spaces where located approximately in the central two thirds of a vessel, which was heavily armoured, saving weight by having "soft ends" that were unamoured, but contained no vital equipment. Obviously, in modern terms, we aren't talking armour, but the principle can be applied to other systems. It comes down to a matter of opinion. There are just as many so-called "one hit wonder" designs as there are distributed designs. Regarding anti-matter. This, I think, would be a point in favour of centralising magazine and tube locations, because as you know, unlike contemporary warheads which are permanently fitted with their explosives, photon torpedos have their anti-matter installed just prior to launch. This would require a store of this extremely volatile substance to be conveniently on-hand. Logically this would be near or adjacent to the magazine. With a highly distributed system of tubes and associated magazines, you will have anti-matter storage areas littering the ship. So, it's not so much a matter of eliminating an enemies ability to target your entire weapons system with a single shot, so much as eliminating your enemies ability to vapourise you entire ship with a completely random strike anywhere within the hull! Given that possibility, if I were designing a warship, I might go along with the central citadel philosophy and build the warp core, deflector, computer core, command centres (bridge, engineering, etc.) and as much of the primary power distribution system into a central citadel that possessed heavier, stouter structure, greater redundancy, thicker or multiple hulls, extra shielding of both the force field and physical kind and so on. For an example, I will digress... Looking at the new Enterprise, it occurs to me that the rectangular shape lying along the top of the saucer and terminating in the "hood" should have been extended right down to the deflector for a better aesthetic. Actually, what it could represent is a central citadel which would conveniently contain the bridge, engineering, warp core, deflector, armoury and tubes and a large part of the plasma conduit system. The rest of the saucer contains almost everything else - principally accomodation and recreation and bulk storage and other things you can live without if you really have to, if they've been shot off in a fight. But as usual with Enterprise, an opportunity to build in a useful plot feature of the ship was lost... again. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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