HE/Frag head fuse question

[snowgeese]

If you have an aps shell that has an HE/Frag head do you need a fuse for it to function? Like if I had an shell w/ an HE head and 3 HE bodies or whatever would it need an inertial fuse for it to detonate properly?

[The man, the myth, the leg]

From what i know all payload heads have a built in inertial fuse

[harryswinburne15]

If they have no AP they'll detonate on impact, if they have AP they'll penetrate into the craft and then detonate. you only really need fuses if you want more specific control over when they detonate

[Xeno42]

they just allow them a second way to go off. the inertial fuse is good to prevent your shell from bouncing off a craft and ploping into the ocean while the timed and altitude fuses can be join up with a certain part to allow thinks like flak to airburst and cause close misses to still do some damage.

[Kethrian]

Just to add to the above comments.

NO FUSE
A pure HE/Frag shell will detonate on impact. If it doesnt contact the target it will fly by and do nothing. Note that any shell can still ricochet off angled armour without detonating, unless it has a fuse where the conditions for detonation are met.


INERTIA FUSES:

Inertia fuses are good for area of effect shells, like HE and Frag, to make them go off if they get bounced off armour, shields, or if they hit the water near the target and skip. You can set the fuse to go off, based on a change in travel direction. This makes your explodey shells do some damage, rather than harmlessly bouncing off. They can also work similar to a pen depth fuse if used in conjunction with an AP head, as they can detonate the shell if it ricochets off internal armour angles, but it's not as reliable and should not be used for this reason alone.


ALTITUDE AND TIMED:

Altitude and timed fuses are best used with a laser targeter for attacking planes or fast moving targets with HE, Frag or Flak shells - they make the shell go off at a set altitude or after a set time, but when used with a laser targeter, the targeter will adjust the fuse to detonate the shell in proximity to the target without needing a direct hit. I prefer Timed fuse for long range AA guns (1.5km+) where you are firing relatively flat, and altitude fuses for short range AA guns where they are more likely to be aiming up at an overflying target.

There are other (very limited) applications without using the targeting laser, such as setting up a flak screen at a set distance from your vessel (think of Battle star Galactica when it puts up a flak screen at a set distance from you ship to suppress missiles and fighters getting through)


PEN DEPTH:

Used for AP shells with a HE/Frag/Flak body that you want to explode inside a target
An AP head with HE behind it will penetrate as much armour as it can before detonating, so
1) if the first layer of armour stops it, it goes off.
2) If there are multiple layers of armour the shell will penetrate as far as it can, then explode
3) If the shell penetrates ALL the armour, and doesnt run out of kinetic punching power, it may end up inside the enemy ship, or even penetrate through the opposite side of the ship and go straight through without ever exploding the HE body of the shell.

The penetration depth fuse is useful in this 3rd situation: You can have a very punchy shell, with alot of AP, but specify that it explodes after travelling X meters from first impact, so the shell will explode inside a target even if it has enough AP power to punch right through and out the other side.

Imagine designing a shell to kill an armoured ship with 3m thick metal armour. You put significant AP and speed to get through the hull so that the explodey bits go off on the squishy interior.

Now imagine shooting the same shell at the side of a crappy ship with 2m thick wooden armour... The shell would pass through the left side and out of the right side without exploding.

Adding a pen depth fuse to go off at 4m would ensure that the shell explodes inside both vessels. The down side, is that if you try and shoot a much bigger target with armour more than 4m thick (in this example), the shell may explode inside the armour, when it would otherwise get through to the squishy centre bit.