Don't Tread on Me

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji was hard at work on a new project he came up with during the night. The old duros rarely got up in the middle of the night to work on something; much less do a rough sketch and then wander back to sleep. By the time I had woken in the morning and gotten my morning caf he was already in his workshop, plugging away at something I don’t know what is. “What’s happening, old man” I said through a big yawn to the elderly duros. He was bent over working on a sketch by hand.

He looked up from his pad of flimsi and took a good look at me before bothering to answer. “You know how back on Terminus you had trouble with your tanks getting shot up by cruise missile and the like?” He asked as if I didn’t remember. I lost a lot of good men on Terminus and wouldn’t soon forget them or their sacrifice.

“Yeah, I do. They were lighting up my battle tanks pretty bad with missiles and the like.” I grunted through sighs. Terminus brought up bad memories. “Why do you ask?” I finished, wondering where he was going with this line of questioning.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He smiled apathetically. He must have just realized he had hit a sore spot about Terminus, but I knew he didn’t mean anything by it, he was just asking a question to lead into some sort of pitch. And Pitch it was. “I think I have determined a way to alleviate that risk to our vehicles.” He started, pretty excited for an old man. I could think of a lot of things he could have gotten equally excited about though, that was just the way he was. He loved his work. He really did. “See all targeting computers that don’t work through simple visual targeting which was deemed unreliable at best way before the days of the Old Republic, work by locking onto a signature of the vessel they are aimed at. This allows the missile or cannon to track without the possibility of human error.” He explained going far more into depth than I thought was necessary, but I figured I could humor him. “After the weapon locks onto the signature a guidance system aids the weapon in striking the target. That guidance system is basically what kills the target. Sure the warhead explodes but the targeter and the guidance system do all the heavy lifting,” He said pleased with himself.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I got to admit, I was certainly intrigued by his explanation. I didn’t quite know where he was heading, but he rarely disappointed me in this field. This field was his area of expertise. “Alright, how do we counter or defeat these killer Targeting systems and the guidance systems?” I basically just let him goad me into asking a simple question he could provide several complex answers for, and I realized it as soon as I finished speaking.

“Well a single system can only do one or the other, not both. If you wish to stop the targeting computer you would have to be able to completely mask your signature and obscure your visual identity. Not an easy job for a tank, and it’s impossible to create a combat capable stealth tank, so what would you do?” He asked rhetorically, so I kept my silence knowing he would continue without being prompted. “Since you can’t completely succeed current philosophy has been to not even bother trying, but I believe with the proper equipment you can at least reduce the risk to the vehicle.” He finished his initial rant pretty quickly this time. I was a little surprised he hadn’t dived right in to a convoluted discussion with himself.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I was ready to listen to him, but I was more interested in how the idea he had would work. “Alright so how do you do that then, since you are running this show today.” I said sardonically, hoping to get a rise out of him.

He narrowed his red eyes at me, almost glaring, “You are dang right I am running this show. Today and every other day, kiddo.” He laughed a little and I joined him with a belly laugh. “Anyway, you coat the tank in a thin layer of reflec to mask its internal electronics and scramble their passive sensor equipment sweeping the area. Even with the power on, smaller less advanced sensor systems would still have trouble detecting the vehicle, much less getting a lock on it, unless you fire the weapon systems. Those kinds of energy discharges are impossible to cover up.” He said, satisfied with the initial explanation of his idea. I still had questions though, and I wasn’t one to go unheard.

“Alright so it’s not even trying to be combat effective, but it is something. There has got to be more to this than coat the thing in reflec and give it a paint job, otherwise you are wasting my time and might be losing your own mind if you think this is an idea you had to get up bright and early for.” I was trying to be stern with him, but his hurt expression kept making me smile.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

By the time I finished scolding him for waking me up so early and not getting enough sleep, if you boil it down a lot. His face had ‘I am not done’ plastered all over it and so when I finished I wildly gestured for him to continue with my right hand. “By all means continue m’lord if you have more to say.” As he started to open his mouth, just to annoy him a little bit and interrupt him one more time.

He glared at me again, “Alright, assuming I don’t get interrupted again, there is more to come. Much more if you have the patience for it. Next for disrupting the targeting of the vehicle there are much easier more conventional ways available. Aerosol Smoke Launches obscure enemies vision, and by consequence your own, making it difficult to see the vehicle equipped with the system. The smoke has a thermal signature which blocks infrared sensors and already works against night vision sensors. Only Radar and Sonar work effectively at long ranges when trying to view the vehicle through the smoke. The canisters are launched from a simple four tube system, set on all four facings of the vehicle. It’s controlled by the vehicle’s commander using a simple switch board.” He took a deep breath, as though there was even more to come.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I decided it was best that he just continue unabated. He had a pretty solid plan forming and as he was explaining it, I actually understood the basic principles he was using to guide me to where he was heading with his idea. Hopefully it would work the way he wanted it to. “You see Draco, there are still more parts to the system to make it truly effective. In order to actually be effective the system will also have to disrupt and disable missile guidance systems. If a missile doesn’t hit the vehicle, the vehicle doesn’t get hurt.” I was pretty sure I saw a big flaw in that logic, but I wasn’t going to be dumb enough to interrupt him about it yet. “Working on the principle that all guided missile systems that are non-laser pointed lock onto a signature and guide the warhead to the signature the first objective is to overload that system’s ability to determine correct signature and random excess signatures being created.” He breathed in, and here comes the storm, I thought to myself. “By using Radar signature chaff to spray over an area near the tank it will confuse the guidance, possibly into targeting a random piece of chaff rather than the vehicle itself.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He continued talking about this chaff system, “In addition thermal flares can be fired away from the vehicle adding more targets with higher thermal output to its sensor system. These flares and chaff also emit an electromagnetic signature similar to a vehicle’s, in case the targeting system has decided to use that form of signature to lock on to instead of the more applicable and more likely forms.” He sat down and took a sip of caf from his mug, collecting his thoughts in order to address any concerns I might have about the system.

I had a few, and chiefest among them was the wellbeing of nearby allies. “If the missile strikes nearby wouldn’t that endanger troops on the ground?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Furthermore the use of some as you said obscures your line of sight as well, meaning you could potential blind yourself. The flares and chaff idea has been in use for as long as people could fly aircraft, so its tried and proven technology, it just hasn’t been applied to tanks on the ground to my knowledge. I believe other than those first two things you are golden so far.” I eased back, allowing him time to address my concerns.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He thought for a moment before responding. “This system allows you to make a choice on whether your tank gets hit by the missile or it endangers ground troops. Unfortunately when using soft-kill countermeasures you cannot have both. You could install a COIL defense system on the vehicle, but those are a different form of protection, and aren’t included in this design. Again about obscuring your vision. It is a choice you have the option to make, not one you are obligated to make by any means. Defense or offense, live or kill someone else. The ability to choose is what the system offers, not a fool proof means of survival. Keep that in mind, please.” His answers weren’t bad, and he was technically right, he couldn’t guarantee the safety of the crew in question much less the countless possible infantry men around the vehicle. That’s why its war, that’s why it sucks to be out there in the thick of it.

I thought to myself for a moment. So far certainly not a bad design, but I wasn’t one hundred percent yet. “I guess you are right, a soldier needs to have the option to make the choice, not be stuck and have it made for him.” I finally relented agreeing with him.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He stood up and stretched his muscles, no doubt sore from working hunched over so long. He walked into the kitchen to grab himself something to snack on, or maybe some more caf and so I decided to take an opportunity to look over his notes. He had sketches of several other projects on pages further down the pad that also struck my interest. That’s when I realized this was simply phase one of a complete vehicle overhaul. That’s what had him so excited. When he walked back in I was still browsing his note pad. “Not bad Ideas, huh?” he asked as he walked up and took the pad from me, smiling.

“Not bad at all buddy, we need to get to work on those soon.” I said, much more pleased with the progress we were making.

He sipped his caf and took a bit of a sandwich. “Alright, on to the last pieces of the puzzle then,” he said. “Every puzzle needs an annoying last few touches before it can be called truly complete. Alright four laser targeting warning sensor nodes are located on the tank, detecting the thermal, radar, or other form of targeting laser and alerting the crew to its targeting and its direction. This allows them to evade the laser targeter or fire upon the system, assuming they can guess where the laser is coming from as it’s a very general directional sensor.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“That allows the crew to get out if they do become targeted or utilize any of the active systems to defend the vehicle. Finally a set of electronic countermeasures built into the vehicle distort almost every spectrum of its signatures, assisting in hiding it from guidance systems while a plethora of other targets appear on its computer. It works by pulsing an alternate signal from the vehicles normal signature, almost an opposite on each spectrum, causing the incoming missile to misread the data and possibly miss the vehicle entirely. It covers Electromagnetic, Sonar, Radar, Infrared, Ultraviolet, and gravtic spectrums, marking all the bases, allowing the vehicle to combat being successfully targeted by any guided warhead.” He paused for a moment before completing his sales pitch once and for all. “Throw it all onto one package and you get a pretty effective protection system with some camouflage and countermeasures to boot.” He finally completed his speech, leaving me to decide whether or not to continue.

I figured that the idea was solid, but it needed field tests for my liking. Barring that, as a true field test would be in actual combat, it needs extensive live testing in the shop here on Jabiim. “I guess I will get a hold of a crap ton of different targeting and sensor systems and a couple of missiles and we can go test it out on the coast.” I said. Benji’s face was triumphant and he should feel good. It was a lot of work and deserved a proper showing.