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Resonance based explosive timing

Measure ships and kill them
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The length of a ship is generally known to those attacking it. Precision munitions and timing is now possible in anti-ship missiles. This additional software carried on an anti-ship missile would calculate the length of a ship, use the known speed of sound in steel, and attempt to explode at the proper time to resonate its shockwave with any other nearby attacking warhead. Two warheads could thereby be much more destructive together.
Voice, Jun 24 2021

(?) These are cutless https://www.nzheral...ZHB4THJ62VT32JWRZQ/
From the strange ideas department comes DentalSlim [wjt, Jul 11 2021]


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       What's wrong with simply swinging across on ropes to board them with teeth clenched cutlasses?
xenzag, Jun 24 2021
  

       A pirate's orthodontist could offer special retainers, so the pirate could keep their cutlass in at night.
pertinax, Jun 24 2021
  

       Resonance is also a function of configuration, joint strength, cross-bracing, etc.
RayfordSteele, Jun 25 2021
  

       In principle, constructively interfering shock waves would really be something. Like a shaped charge except the shaping is achieved by synchronization of many small charges instead of shaping a single large charge. Sounds expensive though.
sninctown, Jun 25 2021
  

       How about a swarm of heavy barnacle drones? Any ship thus attacked would quickly become overloaded on one side and turn turtle.
xenzag, Jun 25 2021
  

       I always thought anti-ship missiles were scary stuff, but a recent encounter with the (ex) USS New Jersey suggests that modern anti-ship missiles are in the business of piercing an inch or so of armor and exploding. With the New Jersey's foot or so of armor, they'd only be left with scraping the remains of the missile off and repainting. So, resonance wouldn't help much there. Also, battleships are cool.
bs0u0155, Jun 25 2021
  

       It's my firm belief that about 2 years into the next real war and after numerous hubris-reducing military disasters ships will have real armor again. Stability is a red herring: inherent stability via buoyancy has worked well enough until now but when powerful attacks can come from any angle and sensors need to remain outside the ship it's just silly to designate part of the ship as "topside and light". Modern warships should be shaped like cylinders and should need very little in the way of passively keeping one side up. There should be active roll control and it should be possible to operate the ship at any level of roll up to and including upside down!   

       Now that we've done away with that fragility-inducing topside-bottom-side we can armor the full outside of the ship as thick as we like because we can just make the thing larger without adding nearly as much to the cost. No need for a complete re-design based on the new stability numbers. No need for moving engines and fuel tanks lower and those delicate pink bags of water higher. No need for complex strain calculations around a square corridor with a "this side up" constraint and a connection to an angled hull. Make it as large as fits the budget, and if the water line turns out to be one inch from the top so much the better.   

       Standard steel braces cost much, much less than 5000 different shapes and sizes of aluminum, kevlar, and steel braces. Design the ship around other constraints and only then decide which side is up based on which side happens to be heavier.   

       And no, this doesn't make every ship cost as much as a submarine. There's no need to add all the cost and complexity of planning for long periods underwater, pressure hulls, diving and surfacing, hiding from sonar, and moving silently. Just keep it on the surface.
Voice, Jun 27 2021
  

       //Modern warships should be shaped like cylinders and should need very little in the way of passively keeping one side up. There should be active roll control and it should be possible to operate the ship at any level of roll up to and including upside down!//   

       Why... if only an Archimedes screw hull could rotate around a stationary ballast!   

       <gasp>   

       Any blast would be at least partially deflected and the crew itself could remain upright.   

       Oh!, if only the patent for such a thing weren't firmly in the public domain now since First-To-Invent was unconstitutionally stolen from the American people in 2014 rendering it untouchable with a ten foot pole.   

       Oh the hue manatee...   

       //It's my firm belief that about 2 years into the next real war and after numerous hubris-reducing military disasters ships will have real armor again.//   

       I agree. The current thinking is that missiles can be built that defeat any armor, so, don't bother with the armor. The new key to survivability is stealth. But we've heard that before, and it's the F-15 and not the F-22 production line that's still chugging along. Stealth is a workable theory in aircraft because the speed and mobility adds to the stealth, if you don't know where they are AND they can be anywhere in a short space of time, it's hard to work with. With ships, they're constrained completely in altitude, have no terrain to hide in, are huge and slow moving. You can hammer away at 100 mile stretch of ocean secure in the knowledge a destroyer won't zip across in in the 5 mins you're not looking.   

       One good argument for armor is that everyone else has down-armored. Missiles have followed. Build a modern battleship and it will be completely invulnerable to all current non-nuclear anti-ship missiles. Meaning you obsolete the arsenal of multiple nations and force a development cycle of missiles and possibly the ships that carry them. The re-activation of the Iowa-class battleships in the 80's sent the Soviets into somewhat of a tizzy for this reason. Even if by the 80's, the gun crews couldn't hit a small island reliably.   

       //Modern warships should be shaped like cylinders//   

       eh, not sure about that. Submarines are cylinders and no- one likes being on the surface in a sub. Ships are a pretty mature technology.   

       //Standard steel braces cost much, much less than 5000 different shapes and sizes of aluminum, kevlar, and steel braces.//   

       Ships are steel. Steel is an astonishingly mature technology. It's also dirt cheap to buy, build, use, repair and modify. The core ship should be steel, conventional and if possible modular for maximum adaptability. The F- 15 is a model here, as a core aircraft it's astonishingly capable, and all the new toys can be bolted right on. Ships are like that, but moreso.
bs0u0155, Jun 28 2021
  


 

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