Sat, Mar 6, 2021 at 12:13 PM
Ignatz,
This is really interesting. Great location, too.
In my mind, a general "best practice" for weapon placement would be to have different systems in different locations. A single hit to this part of the ship destroys (potentially) both systems. So, missiles would be in one place; right here, maybe. The charpac would be in another; to the fore?
Having three separate weapon systems built into a vessel of this class seems like a lot. I wouldn't expect to find a lantern gun system installed, in addition to these two. Maybe instead of the charpac?
The nature of the lantern gun means it needs two oppositely-polarized energy emission points (the lanterns), separated by enough physical space on the hull that their streams don't cross, creating a short circuit. Top and bottom of the ship is common, but obviously wouldn't be optimum here, since it couldn't be deployed when the ship is moving cargo. Port and starboard could work, as could fore and aft. Still, you wouldn't really be able to target anything above you when shifting freight.
What I think would be more useful, is for any lantern gun deployments for a cruise to be done with the weapon drones, temporarily mounted on the cargo boxes. The guns could provide coverage for the entire thing, as the lanterns' looping arc of energy is able to lash out to a distance of many kilometers. Attached is a diagram sketch of how it would be used.
Again, as always, ignore me if that's better for you.
-David