ARMOUR AND DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY |
INTRODUCTION |
In the beginning of the Earth expansion in the space, just
after the First contact with the Centauri, on April 07,2156, and
thanks to the information provided by the Centauri it selves, and
later by the other Alien cultures which came in contact with us,
took place the acceptance of the fact that the universe was a
place all but pacific or friendly (In this period, BTW, on April
01,2159, was founded the E.F.N.I.).
Small paces were attempted to organize a space-capable combat
force, but the kick-off episode that really started the
activities in the field of defence equipments and organization,
was the Koulani Directorate raid at the EA outpost OF 61 Cygni A
II, in 2169.
The Earth Alliance, through his military branch, Earthforce,
accelerated the AEGIS program started in 2168, a formidable
effort to offer a credible military instrument for the defence of
Earth Alliance interests in the space. The Firsts outcomes of the
Aegis program were heavily influenced by the naval military
concepts of XX, XXI, and early XXII century, and materialized
themselves in these main milestones: the carrier task force
concept, with the Avenger Class Carriers and the relative
offensive arm, the Aries Starfury, an escort vessel for the
carriers, the Olympus Alpha, and a point defence system, well
able to reduce the vulnerability of the ships, in the form of the
Interceptor/Energy
Web system (developed with the contribution of the E.F.N.I).
This first step had consequences that are still alive today; the
choice operated was all but nonsense: for the Earth Alliance
technology, in those early days, was impossible to build engines
powerful enough to build fast attack vessels, while the artillery
systems(even if sufficiently powerful), were limited to lasers,
plasma guns and railguns, and the only long range weapons were
the nuclear and conventional warhead missiles, susceptible to
electronic countermeasures: A gunship or an artillery cruiser
were out of discussion, for the moment, but, given the
informations about the alien technologies, and some strongholds
of the Earth abilities and technology (Mainly, the conceptual
experience in building combat aircrafts and small star crafts,
and the good technological level in the field of materials) drove
to the structure of the force, and to the design concepts still
alive today: Combat ships with a large fighter complement, very
well protected, either in terms of point defence (Energy Web
included), and passive armour, high quality fighters, and speed
and manoeuvrability in the last places of the priority list. Must
be considered that the second hostile confrontation between Earth
Force and an Alien power, in this case the Ch'Lonas attack of
Ross 128 IV in 2170,
was a clear victory for the Earth Alliance, and a proof of the
correctness of that choice.
EARTH ALLIANCE DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY |
The origins |
The main weapon systems known by the Earth alliance, and
widely used among the space fairing races, were lasers, plasma
based weapons, particle accelerators and nuclear warheads. The
E.A. mastered the railgun technology, but this last type of
weapon was never used by other races.
The first generation of armours was a direct heir of the concepts
and technologies used by the Earth armies in the heavy tanks* and was structured to
counter kinetic attacks, to sustain the ablative effects of the
lasers, of the particle accelerators, and to dissipate the
ablative/thermal effect of the plasma based weapons. Great care
was used to counter the effects of close-in nuclear explosions.
The first generation of multi-layered spaced armours of the E.A.
was a success, particularly if combined with the active
protection of interceptors/energy web. Even More advanced races,
in that period, weren't able to obtain, given a mass of armour, a
so high level of protection: the LONAW forces had a tendency to
enhance firepower, speed and manoeuvrability over the protection.
The Brakiri were an exception, with fairly but not heavily
protected warships.
The Vree and the Centauri, with their high technological level,
utilized crystalline technology protection, lightweight and
effective against direct energy weapons, but with limited
thickness and simple (Non-multilayered) schemes, having their
strength in the speed and manoeuvrability of their units obtained
thanks to the gravitic propulsion, in a superior technology and
in the power of the weapons. But, even if effective, the
crystalline armours are weak and fragile against the kinetic
attacks. This is also true for the Minbari crystalline armours**.
The Narns are still today limited to a double hull structure,
with an external ceramic ablative layer, an intermediate
honeycomb layer and the main armour made of ceramic composite in
metal matrix for the external hull, and an internal hull made of
titanium alloy.
(see note * of
paragraph 1)
(*The tank is a
weapon not very used among the alien races, and it is intended
mainly as a support weapon, without the antitank weapons and the
specialized protection of the Earth designs: most part of the few
known alien tanks are something similar to AIFV's)
**The Minbari, and
in a lesser measure, the Centauri crystalline armours are
designed to refract the energy, spreading it on large volumes:
this effect is significative against Lasers and other pure energy
weapons, but offers little improvement against the
ablative-sublimative effects of the Heavy Particles Beams and of
the Plasma Weapons.
1 - From the beginning to the Earth-Minbari War - The Multi-Layer "AEGIS" First Generation Armors |
In the early days of his space military build-up, the
materials and armour sector was, comparatively, the most advanced
in the Earth technology, given the experience maturated in the
area during centuries of internal wars, and the traditional Earth
strength in the field of the materials science and engineering.
The first generation protection scheme was a proportionally very
thick multi-layer spaced armour, illustrated in fig. 1-2.
The outer layer is an homogeneous plate of
beryllium-copper-nickel alloy, with an extremely hard ceramic
(amorphous silicon nitride) ablative covering, effective against
either kinetic impact and high energy neutrons of fusion warhead
explosions (the beryllium is a powerful neutron reflector). The
second layer is a metal matrix composite of boron fibres (Single
crystal fibres) in a titanium alloy matrix, strong, elastic and
relatively lightweight. The whole external layer is effective
against the hard ray radiations (X and gamma rays) of the nuclear
explosions. The boron, being a neutron absorber, enhances the
anti neutron protection. This outer double layer is followed by a
multicellular metal (Titanium) foam, that acts either as an
"energy distributor" on the inner layer of protection,
and as a room space to allow the expansion of plasma bolts
eventually able to pierce the outer armour, weakening their
terminal effect. The inner layer is a sandwich of titanium alloy
bonded with three intermediate layers, the first made of corindon
crystals in a ceramic matrix, the mid one of boron single crystal
fibres in an organic matrix, and the last of polymeric fibres
composite. This inner armour is extremely effective, due to his
combination of outer hardness and stiffness and inner strength
and elasticity, against the kinetic and explosive secondary
effects of plasma weapons and outer layers ablation.
SECTION OF THE MULTILAYER E.A. "AEGIS" ARMOUR
Multicellular metal foam |
This basic scheme allowed the E.A. warships to become
extremely effective: while having limitated acceleration and
manoeuvrability, and with limited weapon range (even the lasers,
that are intrinsically high range weapons, were limited by the
sensors), the "Earth bricks", with their powerful
fighter force, and the combination of interceptors, energy web
and heavy armour, became formidable weapons even against more
advanced races. Impervious to the enemy weapons, able to take
hard punishment without losing operative capability, and with a
devastating short range firepower, thanks to the powerful plasma
cannons and railguns, the warships of the first generation
(Avenger carriers, Olympus corvettes, Oracle missile destroyers,
and later the Artemis frigates and the Hyperion cruisers were
well able to hold their own in the combat situations experimented
in that era, and gained the respect and consideration of the
other races which came in contact with the E.A., either as
friends or as adversaries.
The real act of force of the Earth Alliance was the intervention
in the Dilgar war, when the Earthforce confronted a fierce enemy
with a technological level close to the one of the Centauri. The
fast, well armed and sophisticated Dilgar warships crashed
against the Earth warships like birds of prey against a wall,
thanks to the formidable combination of the armours and
interceptors/web, and were unable to inflict damages quickly
enough to prevent a devastating short range confrontation with
our units, and unable to escape the deadly pursuit of the
superiors Tiger and Nova Starfuries. It was a conflict where the
tactical and strategic capabilities and the training of the
Earthforce were well able to exploit the strongholds of our
technology, and the weaknesses of a more advanced, but tactically
less able enemy. ( for more details see "Dilgar War: The Earth
Alliance Involvement")
The later bitter chapter of these
first generation units, with their armours, was the Earth-Minbari
war.
As stated above, in the multi-layer structure of the Earth
warships, there is a strong percentage of two particular
elements: beryllium and boron. These materials are respectively a
neutron reflector and a neutron absorber, and were vastly used
because allowed to combine high mechanical characteristics with a
very high neutron protection. This last thing means that both the
elements have a strong interaction with the neutrons. The main
anti ship weapon of the Minbari arsenal is the "neutron
laser", that in fact is an extremely powerful beam of
antimatter and free antineutrons. This technology was devastating
against the Earth warships: outmanoeuvred, outnumbered, made to
fight with sensors that were all but almost blind against the
cloaked Minbari units, they had, for bad fortune, an adversary
using weapons uninterceptable by the interceptors and scarcely
affected by the Energy Web Mk1 (*)(that
works only against charged particles or plasma weapons), and with
a passive armour that was conceived to interact strongly with the
neutrons. It did the same with the antineutrons of the Minbari
beams, enhancing, instead of reducing, their terminal effect,
because of the annihilation energy release generated by the
collisions of antimatter particles with the matter of the armour,
a phenomenon localized and enhanced by the armour materials.
The slaughter suffered by the Earthforce (that lose in combat
more than the 80% of his forces during the E.M. War), teached
many hard lessons, and, beyond the heavy and sad legacy of fear
and tension, whose legacy is not totally cleaned until today,
drove the development of the second generation of armours.
(*)The
Interceptor Mk2 and later, and the E-Web Mk2 and later are much
more effective even against the neutron and antineutron carrier
beams, thanks to the use of an internal cold plasma defensive
layer.
2 - From the end of the Earth-Minbari War to the Civil War and later - CARBONAT Armors |
In the last weeks of the Earth Minbari war, appeared the
ancestors of the next generation of systems of the Earthforce:
the eight pre-production Omega Destroyers (6 of 8 Lost in
combat), the anti fighter particle/pulse turrets
(Walther-Raytheon WR1000), the heavy particle/pulse weapons
(Raytheon OMEGA), and, used on the Nova Dreadnoughts and (Mk2) on
the Omegas rushed in service during the war, a new protection
system: The Carbonat series armour.
This type of armour, even if still too weak to sustain the fire of the Minbari Neutron beams at full power, was far more impervious to the energy weapons, improved his kinetic resistance, and wasn't as vulnerable to the anti-neutron interaction effect as were the old armours (but, as seen today, there is not an absolute defence against this weapon among the younger races: even the Minbari armours are unable to oppose their own main antimatter beams).
SECTION OF THE CARBONAT ARMOUR
Advanced dissipative multicellulular metal foam |
The outer armour is a composition of regular plates of
standard dimensions (30*20 meters), with the outer ablative
covering that is made by a lamination of low thickness (28mm)
layers of amorphous Silicon nitride , saturated with boron
whiskers, and layers of multicellular metal (Titanium) foam
(50mm): this external layer is followed by a coryndon crystals
metal matrix composite and by a third, thick layer of a 3-D mesh
of carbon nanotubes in a Beryllium-Titanium alloy matrix
(Commercial denomination: Plasteel).
This stratification is more effective than the old one against
the conventional energy/kinetic attacks, but his interaction with
the antineutron beams is conceived, as possible, to destroy
mainly the external laminate through an ablative process, in the
attempt to sacrifice as much as possible of the outer armour,
preserving the inner hull. The intermediate layer is similar in
concept to the former scheme, but with a more sophisticated
design, with collapsible cylinders (Pugliese sacrifical
structures) contained in the metal foam layer, more effectives
than the old homogeneous foam regards the energy dissipation
ability. The inner armour is again a sandwich of titanium alloy
bonded with three intermediate layers, with the first made of
corindon crystals in a ceramic matrix, the second made of carbon
nanotubes in a metallic/resin hybrid matrix, and the third of
organic, high strength fibres in an organic matrix. All this is
bonded to the structure of the hull, that in the Novas and Omegas
is a series of beams, plates and bulkheads of carbon nanotubes in
a resin matrix, with large use of sandwich structures,
molecularly bonded together to build the sturdiest hulls ever
seen on a combat spaceship.
This scheme enhances the internal elasticity and kinetic
resistance***,
without sacrificate the energy weapon resistance.
The external layer, being modular, allows easier repair and, in
case of a close thermonuclear explosions, reduces the thermal
stress on the structure, due to the dilatation room in the joints
of the modules. The Boron based ceramics are highly refractory,
and the beryllium is very likely the best heath sink and ablation
resistant conventional material known. This type of protection is
a vast advancement respect to the old scheme, being more
resistant against the "conventional" attacks and
improving the behaviour against the antimatter/anti-neutron
beams. The large percentage of carbon nanotubes, an excellent
material from the structural point of view, and a good
"energy dissipator", was the origin of the name of this
series of armours, employed, in different evolutions in a vast
majority of the Earth warships, alone or in combination with
other types of armour protection.
The Carbonat modules of the series IV and later have improvements
in the materials ( nanomachine manufacturing of the fibres,
introduced in all the variants actually produced and a
rhombus design of the modules (series VI and later), that is more
elastic, giving an higher degree of mechanical resistance, and
with safer and more reliable thermal dilatation joints.
CARBONAT VI ARMOR
CARBONAT VIII armour
Utilization:
Carbonat II: Omegas of the first series and the last Nova Beta
series
Carbonat IV: Omegas, from series 5 to actual production
Carbonat V: Nova Delta
Carbonat VI: Warlock (VI-A*), Nike(VI-A*), Lupo, Vigilante, Nova II (VI-A*)
Carbonat VIII: Some batches of Nike and Lupo, Styx (Prototype -
VIII-A*),Gladium(**),Centurion(**)
*The Carbonat
VI-A and VIII-A has an intermediate layer of Nanotechnological
armour.
**These
units have an outer layer of Nanotechnologycal armor.
***The mechanical
strength and the sturdiness of the Earth ships and of their
armours respect to the crystalline protections had some proofs
during the Minbari conflict: during the defensive battles of the
inner rim, in the last months of the war, four Sharlins and one
Shargoti cruiser were rammed and destroyed by Earthforce ships
(Five Nova Dreadnoughts). While four Novas were destroyed
immediately in the following explosions, one of the ships
survived the collision, after demolishing and passing from side
to side of the main hull of the Minbari Cruiser. The Nova was
destroyed a few seconds later by the fire of another Sharlin, but
in fact was able to survive and retain structural integrity after
the kinetic collision that barely left broken relics of the
Minbari cruiser.
3 - From the end of the Civil War to the actual developments: the Ganymede dig and the Nanotechnologycal Armour |
The Shadow Armour
in 2253, was found on Mars, localized in Syria Planum an ancient
relic, a spaceship of unknown origin and extremely advanced
technology: it was a Shadow Battlecrab, hidden about 1000 years
ago, and this discovery was the first contact (?) of the human
race with the Shadows.
When the ship was digged out, and after an accident that killed
one of Psi-Corps' scientists working in the dig (He died
immediately after touching the surface of the ship)*, the ship
reactivated, sent a signal, and after few hours was salvaged by
two identical vehicles, that suddenly disappeared with the Ship
of Syria Planum.
A second ship, apparently equal to the one found and lost on
Mars, was discovered, encased in the ice on the Jupiters
moon of Ganymede. In this occasion, the Earthforce was aware, and
the first stage of the dig and inquiry on the relic went on well,
allowing Earthforce, with the contribution of the technical
division and of the Investigation Office of the E.F.N.I., to
gather high quality informations about this alien artefact.
The technologies employed were so advanced, that many of the
working principles of the ship, able to enter the hyperspace
without generating a jump point and probably to extract energy
from the Zero Point Fields, were barely understood. The main
informations gathered were:
1-This type of ship works like a living entity, and has a
rudimental conscience of itself.
2-The technologies involved are partially biological,partially
nanomechanical; most part of the ship systems are made by a
nanomachine technology extremely advanced and barely
comprehensible.
3-The gravitic field control, used either for propulsion and for
hyperspace enter/exit, are extremely more advanced than the ones
known until that moment.
4-The ship was at least an half million years old.
The E.F.R&D and the E.F.N.I. technical division had not time
enough to extract the key informations regarding the Hyperspace,
energy, and propulsion technologies, but gathered good data about
the armour, the computers and data transmission, and the weapon
systems. The ongoing inquiry was blocked by the intervention of
the Government, that gave the responsibility of the studies to
the civil research section and to the Psi Corps, that, as usual,
was able to quickly turn the operation into a disaster, with the
lose of the ship, of the installations and facilities and of more
than one hundred human lives.
The working principle of the Shadow armour is brilliant: it is a
lattice structure of organic fibres that are able to act as a
thermal superconductor, merged in a matrix that is entirely made
of nanites. These nanites act in two ways: first, when subject to
an energy discharge, part of the nanites immediately sublimates,
subtracting heath by local ablation, while the bulk of the energy
load is adsorbed and distributed on the whole surface of the ship
by the fibre lattice; then, the nanites it selves act to repair
and rebuild the damaged area of the fibre lattice. the extreme
thermal conductivity of the lattice is the secret of the shadow
armour, because the fibres are able to transmit heath by a
mechanism similar to a wave guide, with a speed and an efficiency
of many orders of magnitude higher than the one of a conventional
material. The reconstructive action of the nanites is so quick
that the repair of the local damage take place at a speed of the
same magnitude order of the armour destruction speed allowed by
the great majority of the continuous beam weapons.**
Microphotography of the Shadow armor: the lattice structure |
The shadow armour, in a form equal or very close to the
original one, but with limited thickness, was applied on the
hulls of the Omega Epsilon Advanced Destroyers under the Clark's
Regime, with the intervention of alien powers (Drakhs?), whose
motivations were at least ambiguous. The whole technology was
managed by Clark's entourage and by His Psi-Corps puppet masters,
and, after the defeat of the Regime by the Earth Alliance
Liberation Forces, was definitively lost.
The shadow armor concepts and some informations and technologies
survived, and were used to drive the research and the development
of new technologies thanks to the efforts of the E.F.R&D and
of the technicl section of the E.F.N.I, with an high level
success, whose first materialization was the armour of the
Warlock destroyers.
The Nanotechnologycal Armour.
The first fundamental step to build a Shadow-like armour is the
availability of a material, shaped in fibres of sufficient
length, able to manage heath like a superconductor: this first
milestones was obtained thanks to a nanomechanical building of
nanotubes with an outer layer of carbon and a crystalline inner
layer (classified materials and technology) that duplicated the
"Thermal Waveguide" ability of the Shadow lattice. The
second step was the achievement of a system able to adsorb the
energy of a weapon and to convert it in heath: this wasn't
possible to obtain with a nanomachine-based material with our
actual knowledge, but a liquid crystals matrix surrounding the
nanofibres lattice was able to reach good efficiency, even if
inferior (50-60%) to the original shadow nanites. The liquid
crystal matrix, controlled with an electromagnetic system
directly derivate from the Energy Web, worked fairly well, and an
autreconstruction capability of the armour was obtained thanks to
the merging of an high percentage of specifically designed
nanomachines in the liquid crystals matrix. It was impossible to
replicate the energy dissipation function of the
"spines", typical of the Shadow armour, so the whole
liquid crystal matrix and the mass of the standard armour acts
like an heath sink.
Nanotechnologycal armour |
Nanotubes mesh in the liquid crystal matrix |
Nanites in the liquid crystal matrix |
The Earth Alliance Nanotechnologycal armour has the same
effectiveness of a shadow armour layer of a third of his
thickness and weight, and this, taking account of the enormous
technologycal and historical disparity between Humans and
Shadows, is an exceptional outcome.
The Nanotechnologycal Armour is a formidable defence against the
energy weapons, but has limited structural strength (This is a
common trait with the original Shadow armour***), and gives his best when used in
union with another different type of protection: the combination
of the Nanotechnologycal armour with a carbonat type protection
has shown an exceptional effectiveness since his operational
debut in the first Drakh attack of 2266, when the Warlock Heavy
Destroyers, even if hit by the Drakh fire, were able to easily
sustain the punishment and endure in combat without important
reductions of operative and combat efficiency. Can be affirmed
that the original advantage in terms of protection shown by the
Earthforce units until the Dilgar war is vastly restored.
The Nanotechnologycal armor is the second defence layer on the
Warlocks, the Nikes, and the Nova II used in combination with the
Carbonat armours (Carbonat VI-A, ), and in many new projects,like
the Nova II, and it is the first protective layer in some units,
like the Nova Delta of the E.F.N.I., the Centurion Class
Dreadnoughts and the Gladium heavy assault ships.
* The Nanites of the
shadow armour, when touched by the skin of a living being, reacts
disrupting the electrical signal transmission of the neural
system: this means the instantaneous interruption of all the
nervous activities of the being, and the consequent death.
**The main energy
beams of the OMEGA cannons are not able to destroy the armour of
a standard battlecrab at a rate high enough to penetrate the
armour, but the concentrated fire of four turrets at emergency
power (120%) would be enough, if maintained for at least 1,5-2
seconds on the same nominal area, to pierce the armour: this is
more easy to say than to do; highly focalised energy/matter pulse
weapons, like a Centauri Ion cannon of class 4 or superior
(Octurion heavy battleships) or an Earthforce Q-spoiling heavy
laser or gravitic fusion pulse cannon could be able to penetrate
the protection of a battlecrab of small or medium dimensions. The
discharge of a Narn Mag Gun (Bin'Tak heavy battleships) is
sufficient to destroy a battlecrab, and so, being more powerful,
the fire of a Centauri Heavy Ion Discharge Cannon or of an
Eartforce G.O.D. cannon are enough to obtain a kill.
***A shadow
battlecrab, incapacitated by the fire of some Vorlon
"Lighning" class fighters and of a Vorlon gunship
during a fighting in the beginning of the Shadow War, was rammed
and destroyed by the gunship, that didn't suffer apparent damage.