Pat Flannery wrote:

Derek Lyons wrote:

You could even develop a version where the missile rode around in a
launch tube on the back of a large truck, and could be driven around
between any one of hundreds of pre-surveyed sites in time of threat to
vastly complicate an enemy's task in trying to destroy them.

Which doesn't work nearly as well IRL as does it does in the
imagination of armchair admirals.

Specifically, why not? You will need to find a way to support the base
of the tube once it's elevated into launch position to take up the
recoil of the cold-launch system on firing, but other than that, your
firing solution is a lot easier to figure out, as you know your position
down to a matter of a few feet.

There's more to it than just range and bearing to target Pat - you
also need to be able to erect and align your guidance systems before
launching. Among other things you need very exact information about
your heading in order to do this, which turns out not to be very
simple.

There's reasons why this keep being proposed and keeps not being
implemented.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL