Author Topic: Microwave Power Beam  (Read 2460 times)

AlphaMirage

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Microwave Power Beam
« on: 23 May 2019, 19:48:00 »
I remember faintly a mention of a Microwave Power Beam which I believe was used against the Capellans on Kathil or New Syrtis in one of the novels and I thought a sourcebook. 

Was this ever statted? and if it was is it a valid weapon for Aerospace?

Liam's Ghost

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #1 on: 23 May 2019, 20:13:46 »
A "low density" version was included in Tactical operations, and has no affect in combat.

The "High density" power transmitter used on Kathil was not, and I hope it never is. As it was depicted in the warrior trilogy, engaging targets already in the atmosphere, it was relatively sane. It's second depiction, hitting unpredictably moving targets with unerring accuracy from tens of thousands of kilometers away... oy.
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The_Caveman

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #2 on: 23 May 2019, 21:48:40 »
Treat it like a single Light NPPC with an additional accuracy penalty, IMO.
Half the fun of BattleTech is the mental gymnastics required to scientifically rationalize design choices made decades ago entirely based on the Rule of Cool.

The other half is a first-turn AC/2 shot TAC to your gyro that causes your Atlas to fall and smash its own cockpit... wait, I said fun didn't I?

glitterboy2098

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #3 on: 23 May 2019, 23:07:08 »
more like a max size battery of heavy NPPC's. that sucker is supposed to have massive energy levels involved, and a single LNPPC wouldn't have the 'fist of god' feel from the warrior trilogy. and the impression i got in "Flashpoint" wasn't it  managing to aim at specific targets in the dropship melee of the naval battle, so much as it just being fired towards concentrations of ships and hitting whatever was in its path. though since it is used to power orbiting stations, not all of which would be in geostationary orbits, one would presume it has the ability to traverse reasonably fast as well as some decent orbital tracking systems.

The_Caveman

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #4 on: 24 May 2019, 01:56:31 »
Apparently I need to reread those novels. I don't remember a DropShip-vaporizing beam.
Half the fun of BattleTech is the mental gymnastics required to scientifically rationalize design choices made decades ago entirely based on the Rule of Cool.

The other half is a first-turn AC/2 shot TAC to your gyro that causes your Atlas to fall and smash its own cockpit... wait, I said fun didn't I?

phoenixalpha

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #5 on: 24 May 2019, 02:19:09 »
Yep I think it killed one Dropship at least (well... I think the microwaves cut its power as it was landing.... the rest was down to gravity).

I think its probably a valid thing. Huge power arrays with moveable dishes. The chances of it ever being weaponised is probably impossible unless the situations are *just* right. Like you are dropping on to a power station which receives/transmits its power to and from orbit and those big dishes can move. Also I think once it's been done, operational procedures in the future prohibit such events happening again.

glitterboy2098

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #6 on: 24 May 2019, 03:45:10 »
Yep I think it killed one Dropship at least (well... I think the microwaves cut its power as it was landing.... the rest was down to gravity).

I think its probably a valid thing. Huge power arrays with moveable dishes. The chances of it ever being weaponised is probably impossible unless the situations are *just* right. Like you are dropping on to a power station which receives/transmits its power to and from orbit and those big dishes can move. Also I think once it's been done, operational procedures in the future prohibit such events happening again.

in Warrior Coupe it is used to shoot one Dropship out of the sky entirely, splitting it open like a rotten egg. in Flashpoint there was a plan to use the exact same array (one of the steerable dish arrays for powering facilities not in stationary orbits) to destroy the dropships of a force of reinforcements for the davion units on world. it did get used to destroy several dropships in the middle of the orbital battle. the first one being a Steiner aligned ship.. much to the annoyance of the Steiner Admiral in charge of the Avalon Warship that was also in the middle of the battle. the Admiral in the warship was rather concerned about the beam, implying that if it hit the warship it would have taken the warship out nearly as easily as the dropships.

idea weenie

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #7 on: 24 May 2019, 23:33:39 »
I think its probably a valid thing. Huge power arrays with moveable dishes. The chances of it ever being weaponised is probably impossible unless the situations are *just* right. Like you are dropping on to a power station which receives/transmits its power to and from orbit and those big dishes can move. Also I think once it's been done, operational procedures in the future prohibit such events happening again.

The other reason could be that by using it as a weapon once, any attacker will likely see that system as a valid military target and treat it as such.  This means it can be a target for sabotage to help Dropships get past, or simply as a target in case of full on combat.  As this means the planet will lose access to the Microwave power, the defenders will not want to use it as such.

Hopefully the officer in charge who made that decision was executed for risking harm to the planetary infrastructure.  There might be other considerations (and quiet congratulations) in private, but for public (and other House's news) consumption the officer made a mistake to use a valuable Star League artifact as a tactical weapon.
« Last Edit: 17 September 2020, 19:46:44 by idea weenie »

cray

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #8 on: 26 May 2019, 11:50:41 »
Apparently I need to reread those novels. I don't remember a DropShip-vaporizing beam.

I only recalled the DropShip suffering a systems failure and crashing, similar to the case of when a US Navy Aegis AN/SPY-1 radar lights up an airplane at full wattage on pencil beam.

The indeterminate effects of the high density beam were why it was kept out of TacOps.
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**"Well, the first class name [for pocket WarShips]: 'Ship with delusions of grandeur that is going to evaporate 3.1 seconds after coming into NPPC range' tended to cause morale problems...." --Korzon77
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Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.

The_Caveman

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #9 on: 26 May 2019, 21:48:23 »
I only recalled the DropShip suffering a systems failure and crashing, similar to the case of when a US Navy Aegis AN/SPY-1 radar lights up an airplane at full wattage on pencil beam.

The indeterminate effects of the high density beam were why it was kept out of TacOps.

That sounds a lot more believable. Unless they were using a maser to transmit the power, it's unlikely you'd get finger-of-God power densities on a small area. So perhaps it'd work more like a bigass TSEMP?
Half the fun of BattleTech is the mental gymnastics required to scientifically rationalize design choices made decades ago entirely based on the Rule of Cool.

The other half is a first-turn AC/2 shot TAC to your gyro that causes your Atlas to fall and smash its own cockpit... wait, I said fun didn't I?

cray

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #10 on: 27 May 2019, 16:39:09 »
So perhaps it'd work more like a bigass TSEMP?

Sounds reasonable.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer

**"A man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything." --Wash, Firefly.
**"Well, the first class name [for pocket WarShips]: 'Ship with delusions of grandeur that is going to evaporate 3.1 seconds after coming into NPPC range' tended to cause morale problems...." --Korzon77
**"Describe the Clans." "Imagine an entire civilization built out of 80’s Ric Flairs, Hulk Hogans, & Macho Man Randy Savages ruling over an entire labor force with Einstein Level Intelligence." --Jake Mikolaitis


Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.

Colt Ward

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Re: Microwave Power Beam
« Reply #11 on: 28 May 2019, 10:56:30 »
Ah, hitting a warship or dropship in orbit manuevering in battle with a TSEMP . . . no, nothing could ever go wrong.
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