Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

Well, that didn't take long.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17518210

Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

Plus, everyone in the solar system with line of sight saw you rendezvous with the asteroid, and didn't see you leave it.

Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

Well, assuming that there's a lot of traffic but not a concerted effort to track every single ship, you can basically "hide in the crowd". If there a few hundred legitimate mining vessels flitting around among the asteroids, no one will notice one more. In the TS setting the Deep Beyond is basically the Wild West, with all sorts of independent communities set up by prospectors, survivalists, renegades and revolutionaries.

Eh, I don't think that'll actually go very far in making ships harder to spot; the thermal energy still has to go somewhere. Perhaps you'd be able to direct it away from a particular opponent, but you'll shine all the brighter in your other arcs. And that still won't do anything to mask an active engine.

Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

In the TS setting, wouldn't something with the exhaust plume of an EPP engine pretty much scream "I'm important, look at me"?

Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

True. I suppose "pirates" would need to use ships that at least resemble mining or trading vessels, rather than warships. If they have high-thrust engines like EPP, NTR or HEDM, they'd need to have an additional "civilian" engine that they rely on for clandestine travel, breaking out the extra acceleration only for pursuit.

Even with that though, space is big enough that they're only likely to achieve surprise if there's a reason for the two ships to be in the same spot - ie, at an mineable asteroid or spacestation. It's simply not feasible to "jump out" from behind an asteroid that happens to be in the flight path of the target vessel.

Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

Those are very important tactical considerations in using a stealth approach. My point is that "stealth in space" as TL^ is probably no longer a tenable conclusion. It now looks to be TL9, with lots of caveats. And given that ultrablack material, visible light cloaking, and other aspects of this metamaterials revolution are also underway, you may well have for all practical purposes the ability to greatly reduce your signature regime in a number of ways. That's generally how "stealth" is defined.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14788009
http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...blackest-black

Re: [Spaceships] TL9 Military Spaceships
 

Design suggestion for MA-1 Shiva
Does it need sensors? Could it target its missiles based on data from the carrier or deploying vessels?

Thinking in terms of survivability: dDR5 won't stop anything worthwhile; the moment you launch, the enemy will reply and destroy your pod, making the extra 4 loads of missiles redundant.
I'd dump the armour and add an extra 9 launchers.

If you're into house-rules:
consider that the ammunition for a launcher averages 2/3 of its mass, therefore, instead of one launcher and 4 re-loads, you could have 3 launchers. Instead of a 45 missile salvo with 4, possibly redundant, reloads, you get 162 single-launch systems in a disposable unit - if it survives, it can be recovered and reloaded.
If your target can survive a 162 missile salvo,
maybe an outsized spinal mount energy weapon is needed. You could mount 2x100mj UV pulse lasers and outrange anything smaller than a 32cm missile - but it's all houserules:)