User:Supercavitation/M389 Ship Protection System

The M389 Ship Protection System began its life as Project: SCUTUM, a human initiative to create shielding for starships, to protect them from micro and macro meteorite strikes as well as other debris. Following the rise of the Insurrectionists in 2494, the Project was expanded to include ordnance such as Ares and Archer missiles, as well as MAC cannon and Helix AAA gunfire. The project continued on this path until the advent of the Human-Covenant war, when the initiative was adjusted yet again, to include, if not be replaced by particle beams, lasers, and plasma. The project concluded in 2555 after help from Sangheili Weapon smiths enabled the project to realize its original goals.

Origins
A study done in 2491 showed that despite common beliefs, micrometeorites and other space debris than had caused more fatalities and ship accidents than Shaw-Fujikawa Drive failures. Data seemed to indicate that conventional ship armor, known as Titanium-A or Titanium-50, simply wasn’t dense enough to protect ships against meteorites, especially those moving faster than 15 kilometers per second, and weighing more than 1 ton. In response to this concern, ONR was tasked with Project: SCUTUM, and given orders to examine all possibilities for defending ships against these threats. The project required ONR to examine any possibility deemed to be physically possible, regardless of cost or other requirements. While the exact number of proposals reviewed by ONR during the opening stages of the project is classified, the number is known to be well over five thousand, as contractors and backyard inventors from all over human territory flocked in, eager to receive the contract for all of human ships in the galaxy. Any proposals deemed to be feasible would move on to the second round. Of the 5000+ proposals, sixteen were deemed to feasible enough to send on to the second round of testing. At this point, the project was officially cancelled for cost reasons, but was carried on in secret by ONR.

Second Stage
At this point, all proposals that had been deemed feasible went through a more in depth set of tests. Whereas the first round of tests had been designed solely to evaluate whether a proposal would be able to work as specified, the second round was designed to create a more complex computer model of exactly how each proposal would perform under various stress conditions, as well as its ability to withstand normal conditions in space for years on end. At this point, the goals and requirements of the project were shifted because of the rise of the Insurrection. Ships now needed to be protected not only against accidental collisions with space debris, but also against missiles, both Archers and Ares’, as well as MAC and Helix AAA gun rounds. As such, the 5000+ proposals were brought back to be looked at again, and two of them were brought back, having far better performance against missiles, MAC rounds, and high explosive shells than any of the previously admitted candidates, while three of the proposals that had survived original testing were declared unfit, two being unable to handle the impact of an Archer missile, while the last couldn’t handle the multiple rapid impacts of the Helix AAA gun, and while it wouldn’t break under the relatively weak impacts of the 50mm high explosive shells, after a long burst the plate had a tendency to weaken, and would shatter if dealt serious damage, especially by a MAC gun round or anti ship missile.

Third Stage
The project then moved on to its third stage. The third stage was really just another run through of the Second Stage, modeling each system under different conditions than during the Second Stage. Each system was tested based on its resistance to repetitive impacts by high explosive shells and missiles, as well as impacts by MAC rounds, and its ability to survive repeated impacts by any of these and hold. This stage took almost a year as proposals were modeled and run through millions of situations with hundreds of variables of variables. This stage eliminated 3 proposals. The first was discovered to lose almost all effectiveness if hit at an angle of 62 degrees vertical regardless of the horizontal deviation. This was due to the layering technique used to create the armor, which created a line of weakness in the armor. The second proposal was a modification of Explosive Reactive armor commonly found on ground vehicles, which would explode outwards on impact, deflecting the incoming projectile. However, the force necessary to do this was found to be greater than previously thought, to the extent that the explosive would do nearly as much damage to the hull as the impact would have. The third proposal was simply a reshaping of the standard Titanium-A plate to disperse more of the force, however, this design was found not to be any more effective than standard Titanium-A at angles from 43-57 degrees. The twelve remaining proposals then moved on to the fourth stage of testing.

Fourth Stage
The next process was to build small prototypes of each of these devices. Because of the war, this process took seven years, and by the time the prototypes had been completed, it was 2502. These prototypes would spend the next 15 years undergoing the most stringent tests small-scale prototype armor had ever been subjected to. Each system built at 1/10000th scale. In one test, each system was attached to the barrel of an M68 Gauss Cannon. The Gauss Cannon then emptied an entire drum full of ammo into the system. Only one system suffered noticeable damage throughout this stage, a process by which Titanium-A was compressed and crushed into powder, then liquefied and cooled, creating a much denser form of Titanium-A, which would in theory allow it to resist far more punishment than standard Titanium-A. It was able to stand up to more punishment, but not enough for the purposes of the project. The remaining eleven proposals were considered strong enough at that level to move on to the next round of testing.

Fifth Stage
If all had gone to plan, the project would have concluded after the Fifth Stage, and a separate project would have been set up to install each of the systems that had passed through all five stages in various ships. The systems began their finals tests in 2517. This involved the building of three full-scale prototype of each; a 25-foot by 25-foot panel of whatever system was being tested. The testing was scheduled to take 10 years due to resource depletion by the Insurrection. However, as we now know, nothing slated to occur after 2525 went precisely as planned for the UNSC. The panels were tested with full-scale weapons, such as Archer missiles and Helix AAA guns. The panels were even tested with MAC guns, a 600-ton slug moving at 30 kilometers per second. This test alone eliminated two proposals, a hexagonal lattice of carbon nanotubes, and an extremely fine Titanium-A mesh over standard Titanium-A plate, designed to slice up incoming projectiles in order to make them more easily deflected. The remaining proposals were then tested with missiles and AAA gunfire. All of the remaining proposals survived this level of testing, so the next level was commenced. In the next test, one MAC round was fired at each plate once a week for an entire year. Every third day each plate would be hit with 500 rounds of Helix AAA gun ammo, and data would be collected. The MAC gun had a recharge time of nearly 15 minutes, so it took more than 6 hours to complete the testing. While each plate was being tested, the scientists, having been provided valuable information about each plate’s weak points and where energy was distributed on impact, analyzed the data. Any proposal whose first prototype to break broke fewer than three weeks in, or whose third prototype to break broke fewer than 10 weeks in was immediately disqualified. Two proposals were disqualified for first plate breaks, a triangular lattice of carbon nanotubes, and a Titanium-A-Carbon composite plate, and a third was disqualified when all three plates broke on the eighth week, a radial lattice of carbon nanotubes reinforced with Tungsten Carbide plating, impressive, but not enough for the program. Unfortunately, before the Fifth stage was completed, the Covenant was discovered, and the Human Covenant war broke out. This led to yet another change in the project’s goals, as the covenant used lasers, plasma and particle beams, only one of which could be deflected with current proposals. This was hampered by the fact that only one of the weapons could be tested with human technology. Pulse lasers were tested, and all proposed systems survived, though only one survived without serious damage, and it didn’t stop the laser or even deflect it in anyway. Plasma torpedoes were acquired in 2530, and were added to testing, and only that same system survived, though one other system managed to disperse the plasma before impact. An energy projector was never procured, and a particle accelerator was used as a stand in. The same two systems survived, and neither took serious damage. At this point, the project moved to the sixth stage.

Proposal 476
Proposal 476 was one of the most effective proposals in all areas, surviving everything thrown at in with equal indifference. It was made up of two components, the Laser Lattice and the plasma window. Incoming projectiles first passed through the laser lattice. It was composed of several high-powered lasers, arranged in a grid to slice up any incoming projectiles, making it much easier for the plasma window to vaporize the projectile. Each laser was cancelled by a beam designed to interfere with the laser, reducing its power to that of a spotting laser, harmless to surrounding ships. The plasma window below would then convert the incoming projectile to plasma, which would be harmlessly expelled into space. The system was able to survive anything that could be thrown at it, though it would not stop the weapons. However, they were used for the final stages of Project: SCUTUM.

Proposal 3812
Proposal 3812 was of similar effectiveness to Proposal 476, surviving all but the pulse laser and plasma torpedo with complete indifference. It used a room temperature superconductor to create a massive and rapidly varying electromagnetic field, deflecting magnetic or charged projectiles, including energy projector blasts. The penalty for this incredible stopping power was Newton’s third law, and hitting it with a large enough projectile would be enough to break through, or send it flying off in the opposite direction. Additionally, the extremely high charge of energy projector beams led to high amount of radiation at the point of collision, which was often enough to overload the field, requiring replacement of the electromagnets. A faraday cage, which, while useless against static and slowly varying magnetic fields, protected internal systems fairly well. It was used in conjunction with Proposal 476 for the final stages of Project: SCUTUM.

Sixth Stage
The Sixth Stage used Proposal 476 and 3812 to deflect the known weapons, both Insurrection, natural, and Covenant. Between 476 and 3812, all natural and human weapons and projectiles could be deflected, or at least survived. 3812 provided defense against energy projectors, though only for about 30 seconds before many internal systems would be overloaded or disrupted by the electrical interference, though at least one blast could be survived at once, though each successive blast reduced the time for which the magnet could defend against the beam. The magnets would have to be replaced after each blast, leaving the system virtually useless. ONI then requested solutions to pulse laser and plasma torpedo problems. In 2541, they finally found a solution to the problem of deflecting pulse lasers. Using what would forever be known as a “cheater plate” the system used an advanced form of Plasmonics to essentially bend the laser around itself. While this meant that the laser would still be a threat to ships behind the system, this meant that a fleet of ships equipped with this system would be nearly immune to pulse laser fire, requiring massed pulse laser fire to break through. ONI calculated that 25 pulse laser blasts would be required before the system began to break down. While actual value would probably be lower, especially in field conditions, pulse lasers were no longer a serious threat. Dozens of small improvements were added, and hundreds of attempts were made to fix the last remaining problem with the system: the system had to be able to deflect plasma torpedoes. Unfortunately, the system would not be completed until 2555 with the help of Sanghieli Technicians and Huragok. They gave the UNSC Magnetic Tunnel generation systems, which were used after the impact of a plasma torpedo on the electromagnetic field, which would disperse the plasma, allowing it free access to the armor, destroying the system. The plasma was compressed by the magnetic tunnel and funneled away, enabling the system to survive plasma torpedo impacts.

The system was eventually installed onboard all UNSC ships with power capacity to handle it as the M389 Ship Protection System.

Disadvantages
The main problem with the system was that it required massive amounts of power, to the extent that the MAC gun and all other weaponry could not be fired while using the system, and power was limited for the remaining systems.

Note: this system is related to energy shields in purpose only. This system should not be confused with energy shields, which would Not be Canon Friendly because of the creation date of the system.