The evolution of insect swarms from XNUMX million years ago

Chapter 297 LiDAR

Several main starships of the Horseshoe Fleet have a photoelectric comprehensive observation compound eye structure that is slightly different from other main ships. Just like the nocturnal predators, the Horseshoe is large overall, but has a smaller number of eyespots. Few specialized compound eyes.

At the same time, the structure of the four specialized appendages on their sides that were originally secondary cannons also changed slightly. The complex reflective focusing structure at the end was no longer there. Instead, there was a weird hemispherical structure connected to the end of the appendage. , with a flat section facing straight forward.

There are still claw-like structures inserted on both sides of the end, but instead of two pieces, there are three pieces. The structure is also slightly flat, more like a heat sink structure. At this time, these appendages also slightly adjusted their angles, aiming at the group of enemy ships ahead.

Instead of focusing the axis beams of the four side secondary guns on one point through angle concentration like the usual two-stage shooting of the main Xinghao, they are spread out, as if it is a scanning rather than a direct attack.

As if receiving some kind of signal, on both sides of the supporting Horseshoe Crab fleet, all the main stars in the other two class fleets - the Paddle-winged Horseshoe Fleet and the Winged Horseshoe Fleet also aimed at their targets. Skillfully launched a two-part salvo.

Just as these two genus winged horseshoe crabs have nothing special, these two genus-level fleets are also ordinary main star flies. But at this time, under the guidance of the Sharp Horseshoe Fleet, this two-stage shooting once again exerted an astonishing effect.

Groups of plasma bloomed on the enemy ship, and there was another round of bombardment with astonishing accuracy. It seemed that it was not affected by the probability cloud at all. The high-energy X-ray laser fired by the secondary battery instantly destroyed the Whipple-like layer. The shield gap armor, then, the more powerful X-ray laser of the main gun drove straight in, causing horrific damage to the enemy ship's main armor.

In the enemy fleet, a group of enemy ships immediately adjusted their formations. The bows of the ships all pointed at the position of the Sharp Horseshoe Fleet. The crossfire of the main guns suddenly came with the increase in the heat radiation signal of the radiator. The specialized The compound eye structure clearly captured the dazzling death light.

It seems that the enemy has noticed something, and then launched a crazy revenge on the location of the Sharp Horseshoe Fleet. The scale reactive armor layer flashed with a dazzling color, and the intensive firepower still made some achievements. One of the main starships was severely damaged and lost its combat effectiveness, and the scale reactive armor of the remaining ships was also more or less consumed.

Due to the alternating concentrated fire shooting, in a sense it has the same effect as the two-stage shooting used by Lin Yi. The first shot destroys the scale reactive armor layer, and the second shot damages the main exoskeleton.

That is to say, the performance of this layer of scaly reactive armor is better than that of the opponent's Whipple-like shield spaced armor, so that it was not completely destroyed in such a concentrated fire, but many of them were able to retreat with injuries and barely healed themselves. Stay in the fight.

Considering that they had been exposed, Lin Yi controlled all the surviving main stars in the Sharp Horseshoe Fleet to temporarily reduce their straight-line speed, and retreated while performing large-angle probability cloud maneuvers, using the optical and infrared signals of the remaining nearby warships as much as possible. Conceal your own existence.

However, the urgent targeting or retaliatory shooting of these enemy ships also caused their maneuver probability cloud to shrink by a circle at this moment. Lin Yi keenly captured this opportunity. On the side, the Yekel horseshoe crab who had been on standby for a long time The fleet once again started operating its free electron laser organ, which had been dormant for some time.

Four beams of secondary gun beams focused on one point arrived first, and then the powerful energy of the traditional laser was focused on one point and fired out. Although this salvo of the Yekel Horse Fleet was because the enemy only showed a slight flaw, it did not 100% hit, but again severely damaged several enemy ships. All around, the rest of the family-level fleets also seized the opportunity to open fire. The members of the winged horseshoe crabs, paddle-winged horseshoe crabs, shrimp skeleton horseshoe crabs, and the remaining members of the family-level fleets, including most of the family-level fleets, poured out at the same time. The firepower was directed at the enemy ships that carried out retaliatory strikes against the Sharp Horseshoe Fleet.

Although the lethality is not as dazzling as the damage caused by the free electron laser carried by the Yekel Horseshoe Fleet, it is still enough to severely damage the enemy ship in the event of a hit. One round of shooting added a lot of space junk floating in the endless void.

The main star in the Limulus fleet is installed with a new type of radar - lidar. It uses laser instead of traditional electromagnetic waves as the detection means to achieve accurate directional detection. At the same time, it is relatively difficult to detect like ordinary active sensors. Like radar, once it is turned on, it becomes a beacon in the dark and is completely exposed to the enemy's detection methods.

This configuration of radar is quite suitable as a fire control radar for tracking targets, while the search part is still completed by traditional passive optical and infrared band observations, which can further lock the position to the maximum extent without being accurately positioned. enemy.

But it also has disadvantages. For example, the lidar with a phased array structure needs a larger volume to be able to operate at a light-second level combat distance, which will inevitably occupy the installation space of the weapon, and it is still not suitable for long-term startup, otherwise it will be like just now. Likewise, it invites retaliatory fire from the enemy.

In order to accommodate enough related organs, these main starships in the Limulus fleet replaced the entire secondary battery structure with a phased array laser radar and various supporting structures, and improved the structure of a pair of compound eyes to be able to receive The structure of lidar echoes.

In a sense, it does correspond to the two iconic features of the genus Limulus pteropods. One is the highly specialized compound eyes to adapt to nocturnal predation, and the other is the slender claws among the pteropods. At the end of the limbs, the overall combat effectiveness is slightly inferior to that of its close relatives.

For this sub-class developed on the basis of the main force Xinghao, Lin Yi simply introduced the name of later surface ships "XX-class battleship" and called it "Ruizhi Limulus-class comprehensive surveillance and strike main force Xinghao", abbreviated as A sharp-branched horseshoe crab-level star.

It is envisaged that these sharp horseshoe crabs will serve as early warning aircraft similar to those of later generations, and serve as the core of information situation awareness in the science-class fleet. Of course, there are some differences, such as not having the ability to completely coordinate the entire field, and having amazing directional range. In front of capable weapons and combat units, they become equal beings facing artillery fire.

As for their organization, whether they will still be organized into a single subordinate-level fleet in the division-level fleet as they are now, or whether they will be scattered among various subordinate-level fleets, still needs to be tested in actual combat.

After encountering two rounds of attacks, some special warships seemed to have begun to operate in the enemy's formation. I don't know what they were trying to do, but it didn't seem simple.

(End of this chapter)