wwengr
Posts: 678
Joined: 1/14/2007 From: Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, USA Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Iridium Well, then why not a particularly hard alloy of Titanium or something of that nature? Besides the brittleness of Titanium it can be made to be quite durable in alloys. EDIT: I find this interesting because we can build reactive armor and the like but it's actual applications are limited to only a few, if any uses. Recent commodity bench mark prices: - Hot rolled carbon steel plate (used in ship building) - $1.15/kg
- 304 Stainelss Steel (too expenisve for most ship hulls and large structural elements) - $3.48/kg
- Ferro-Titanium Alloy (70% Ti and cheapest Ti alloy) - $4.72/kg
Anti-shiiping missles and torpedoes are simply too powerful. Armoring up ships is too expensive (even with carbon steel) and severly limits available displacement for ship systems, combat systems, and cargo. The emphasis has become: - Doctrine to avoid getting shot at
- Defensive systems to prevent detection/targeting
- Defensive systems to misdirect incoming weapons
- Defensive systems to destroy incoming weapons
- Structural design to dissipate energy when the ship is hit
- Selected protection of critical systems with advanced armor
Titanium alloys would be ideal, but would raise the price of a frigate hull to that of an a carrier. Not only is the commodity more expensive, but it costs more time, effort, and tools to cut, shape, and weld titanium.
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I have been inputting my orders for the campaign game first turn since July 4, 2009. I'm getting close. In another month or two, I might be able to run the turn!
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