(no subject)
Dear US Navy,
Just in case you didn't see the genius in my ' ice submarine' invention, please consider the following:
In my daily random thoughts about strange topics I believe I have come across a revolutionary new type of armor. 'Stealth' vessels and aircraft operate on the theory that if you make yourself appear smaller to your opponent, you will be harder to hit. I propose the opposite. If you make yourself appear to be much larger than you actually are, then your opponent has a good chance of missing you even if from their perspective their aim was accurate. This concept can be demonstrated by the following design, which I will call the 'unsinkable ship'.
Imagine a vessel which appeared to be extremely large, but where the vessel itself was actually much smaller. To accomplish this, a light outer hull is constructed which is not necessarily watertight. Instead, it is supported by multiple pontoons which are suspended inside it, and able to move around in such a way as to maintain the overall balance of the vessel (or not, as purposefully unbalancing a vessel could also potentially prove useful).
As you can see, the main systems and buoyancy of the ship are protected by two factors. First, the outer hull detonates incoming explosive attacks at a considerable distance. Second, the internal sections of the ship may not necessarily be close to the explosion, due to their slow continual rotation. This means that an attacker must guess the best place to attack, and there is a chance that they will guess wrong.
Against non-explosive armor-piercing projectiles the design functions to prevent nearly all damage most of the time. Since the enemy cannot know where the pontoons are located, their only choice is to fire at the outer hull randomly and hope to get lucky.
Obviously, the sketch is rough. In the real version, I'd likely have two counter rotating sets of pontoons, possibly set in a gyroscope-like system.
This system functions even better for a space vessel, too, where small amounts of damage to pressurized areas are far more dangerous. In this setting, the gyroscopic system could also function as attitude control.
So, that's my second try at a weaponry paradigm shift. I think it's a bit more useful than the ice submarine, but who knows.
Sincerely,
Rick
Mad Scientist
Just in case you didn't see the genius in my ' ice submarine' invention, please consider the following:
In my daily random thoughts about strange topics I believe I have come across a revolutionary new type of armor. 'Stealth' vessels and aircraft operate on the theory that if you make yourself appear smaller to your opponent, you will be harder to hit. I propose the opposite. If you make yourself appear to be much larger than you actually are, then your opponent has a good chance of missing you even if from their perspective their aim was accurate. This concept can be demonstrated by the following design, which I will call the 'unsinkable ship'.
Imagine a vessel which appeared to be extremely large, but where the vessel itself was actually much smaller. To accomplish this, a light outer hull is constructed which is not necessarily watertight. Instead, it is supported by multiple pontoons which are suspended inside it, and able to move around in such a way as to maintain the overall balance of the vessel (or not, as purposefully unbalancing a vessel could also potentially prove useful).
As you can see, the main systems and buoyancy of the ship are protected by two factors. First, the outer hull detonates incoming explosive attacks at a considerable distance. Second, the internal sections of the ship may not necessarily be close to the explosion, due to their slow continual rotation. This means that an attacker must guess the best place to attack, and there is a chance that they will guess wrong.
Against non-explosive armor-piercing projectiles the design functions to prevent nearly all damage most of the time. Since the enemy cannot know where the pontoons are located, their only choice is to fire at the outer hull randomly and hope to get lucky.
Obviously, the sketch is rough. In the real version, I'd likely have two counter rotating sets of pontoons, possibly set in a gyroscope-like system.
This system functions even better for a space vessel, too, where small amounts of damage to pressurized areas are far more dangerous. In this setting, the gyroscopic system could also function as attitude control.
So, that's my second try at a weaponry paradigm shift. I think it's a bit more useful than the ice submarine, but who knows.
Sincerely,
Rick
Mad Scientist