24 replies to this topic

[Konril]

Fallout23, on 09 January 2013 - 12:30 PM, said:

"When a target is marked by a designator, the beam is invisible and does not shine continuously. Instead, a series of coded pulses of laser-light are fired. These signals bounce off the target into the sky, where they are detected by the seeker on the laser guided munition"

Straight from the WIKI article on 'Laser designator' is it? Something very similar to this does exist in the Battletech universe, but not where you are expecting it. Straight from the Sarna wiki:

Sarna Wiki said:

Introduced in 2598 by the Terran Hegemony^[1]. The Artemis IV Fire Control System is a guidance system that utilizes an infrared laser designator and tight-beam microwave transmitter which improves the accuracy of LRMs, SRMs, and MMLs by roughly thirty-five percent.

So unfortunately, the upgraded LRM systems that can actually see a laser designator signal have their own laser designators, and the TAG laser itself is no help whatsoever except to show where the TAG is pointing. Some other technology must be present to actually improve missile accuracy and spot ECM cloaked targets when tagging.

There is a very simple reason LRM missiles themselves aren't jammed when they go through an ECM bubble. They are designed to be ECM resistant. The modern LRM was introduced way back in the 2400 in response to the ECM and anti-missile systems that existed at the time. Firing large quantities of small missiles allows for at least some of the missiles to get through anti-missile fire to damage the target. The exact method that LRMs use to stay guided in an ECM environment has never been officially talked about. In fact, the way ECM itself works is completely ridiculous compared any kind of 20th century technology. However at the range Battletech weapons operate, wire guidance (http://en.wikipedia....-guided_missile) for LRMs is perfectly plausible.

[Elder Thorn]

ICEFANG13, on 28 December 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

Yes it does affect SRMs slightly.

sorry for thread hijacking, but i would like to know how this works.
Let's say there are 2 mechs in front of me, one of them is TAGed, the other one isn't, if i shoot the guy who is not taged, how does the system know not to tighten SRMs? Or the other way arround, if i shoot the taged guy, how does it know to tighten them? Whats the key factor here? My Lock? Then i could just lock a taged mech and shoot another one with SRMs.

[ICEFANG13]

I haven't a clue, I was speaking for when I TAG my own missiles.

[Koniving]

Fallout23, on 29 December 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

Pretty dumb that tag is jammed by ECM. It's a "laser" designator. Why would it be any more jammed than a medium laser would be?

It's not that the laser is being jammed. You are jammed within proximity of the ECM. It's that the communication that is jammed. You painting the target gets you a sensor ping that you can relay to your team mates. This of course is not canon (communications being jammed, yes that is. Shared computer data, also canon. Having to Tag a target to fire missiles at it because it sports ECM? That's bull. ECM makes missiles inaccurate. Not prevents missiles from being locked at a distant ECM-protected target.)

The technology of a soflam is not quite the same thing as a tag. Although the basic concept is visually similar.

[Koniving]

Fallout23, on 09 January 2013 - 12:30 PM, said:

"When a target is marked by a designator, the beam is invisible and does not shine continuously. Instead, a series of coded pulses of laser-light are fired. These signals bounce off the target into the sky, where they are detected by the seeker on the laser guided munition"

You're thinking of a Soflam. One of the main things to note is that Tag was conceived prior to real life soflams, and it does not work the same way. Visually they are the same, but in canon lore they could not be more different.