Salvaging missiles fired at you

[Tor]

Does anyone recall if there is a way to disable a missile so that it drops without exploding so that you could go pick it up and sell it or use it for yourself?

Shooting down obviously wouldn't work. I get the impression with most missiles if you dodge them, they end up hitting the ground or just auto-destructing mid-air. An exception being smart-missiles which will keep flying for a certain distance/time.

Do you think smart missiles might run out of fuel if you kept dodging them a long time and then you could just pay to refuel them at a cost cheaper than buying an entirely new missile?

I'm trying to brainstorm ideas how to do this since missiles are so expensive so it would be nice if they were used against you if that could be turned into an advantage.

Do you think the 'negate mechanics' TW pistol in FoM shot at a missile could disable the exploding mechanism? Would it still be a danger if the spell expired before you could locate and rewrite it in time? Presumably you could just keep firing the spell at the missile to keep it a dud for as long as you needed though...

[glitterboy2098]

smart missiles will attemptto turn back and hit the target, IIRC.

if they run out of fuel or cannot reach the target, i suspect they'd self-destruct themselves. most smart munitions in real life are programmed to self destruct or otherwise render themselves useless to anyone if they don't find their target within a certain timeframe.

regular missiles would just explode when they hit something else. (a Gm should always keep in mind collateral damage issues, if for nothing else than dramatic narrative)

[kb001]

smart missiles will attemptto turn back and hit the target, IIRC.

if they run out of fuel or cannot reach the target, i suspect they'd self-destruct themselves. most smart munitions in real life are programmed to self destruct or otherwise render themselves useless to anyone if they don't find their target within a certain timeframe.

regular missiles would just explode when they hit something else. (a Gm should always keep in mind collateral damage issues, if for nothing else than dramatic narrative)

Many of the dumb munitions also have a auto-destruct. The russian/chineses made RPG 7 and most of those that followed upto the RPG 31 had a 7-9 sec auto-destruct fuze system on them for two reasons, the first being so that the enemy could not reuse the explosive(minor reason) the second was so as to use it as an air burst frag weapon w/ a range of almost 1Km at 45-55 degree angle. Same thing with a lot of AAM, SAMs, AAA. The mostly so the tech. does not fall into enemy hands. The US VT proximity fuze used during WW2 which used the first radio transmitter in a shell so as to increase lethality by 6 fold when shooting enemy fight/bombers down. Yet was not allowed for use over land even though a HE shell detonating 30m above the ground would have a massive kill zone when compared to point det. fuze(impact on the ground). Was not until the Battle of the Bulge did they allow it to be used by land art. (b/c the sit. was so bad) Gen. G.S. Patton said "when all army's have these new shells with the funny fuze, man will have to find a new way to kill each other."
One more useless info, and that is that the Soviet Atoll AAM was reversed eng. b/c a US sidewinder flew right up the tailpipe of a Mig 15 (could have been a 17), yet the det. fuze failed as well as the auto-destruct. The Mig landed and they pulled the AAM out and copied it all. You will also see main other weapons equipped w/ a destruct system, especially all type of mines, torps. even some aircraft such as spy planes (Gary Powers was ordered to blow up the U2 as well as take the cyanide pill, as were all spy pilots...anyways take it light --KB

[kb001]

Does anyone recall if there is a way to disable a missile so that it drops without exploding so that you could go pick it up and sell it or use it for yourself?

Shooting down obviously wouldn't work. I get the impression with most missiles if you dodge them, they end up hitting the ground or just auto-destructing mid-air. An exception being smart-missiles which will keep flying for a certain distance/time.

Do you think smart missiles might run out of fuel if you kept dodging them a long time and then you could just pay to refuel them at a cost cheaper than buying an entirely new missile?

I'm trying to brainstorm ideas how to do this since missiles are so expensive so it would be nice if they were used against you if that could be turned into an advantage.

Do you think the 'negate mechanics' TW pistol in FoM shot at a missile could disable the exploding mechanism? Would it still be a danger if the spell expired before you could locate and rewrite it in time? Presumably you could just keep firing the spell at the missile to keep it a dud for as long as you needed though...

All most all combat aircraft have an emergency (I forget the name it been given, like FUBAR dump or whatever) switch ejects all external ordanance on all hard points w/o arming them. The weapons are never armed on the ground and must be armed prior to firing, this includes the seeker heads activation. For example the sidewinder seeker head needs about 2 Liters of liquid nitrogen to keep it cooled during operations, even if activated and not fired the liquid nitrogen will be consumed (no big deal it just needs recharging at the airfield, liquid nitrogen cost about as much as soda pop) the more advanced units like stinger and javalin use argon to cool the seeker head which takes about 30 sec. to do so and get a lock on, this is the only big disadvantage of these weapons as you can't engage right away). Even to old WW2 dumb bombs had a little windmill like device the would unwind after dropped once off the weapon was armed not before. All AAM, SAM, and even ICBM use solid all in one rocket fuel and oxidizer that is consumed during flight. Refueling such a system would most likely not work b/c of damage from heat to the engine body, however all such weapons are modular meaning you could remove the warhead and seeker head from the spent fuel engine. After that if both or one is usable then you could attach it to a new rocket motor, the big problem may lay in how the seeker control the fins on the rockets body. If the program or just the connection bracket where not the same then you would either have to both rewrite the program and hard wire the missile control circuits. Or you use a missile that has the same seeker head and engine just replacing the explosive warhead although the expensive parts of such weapons are the seeker and engine not the explosive so unless you found missiles with unusable warheads or a factory that produce all but warhead parts, the cost to reuse a war head while having to buy all the other parts would most likely not be a cost advantage situation rather a last ditch no other option situation. Thats just my opinion and what I know about such systems. take it light --KB