Ion Hardened Armour
Ion Hardened Armour is a metal alloy designed to contain and resist electrical forces,
such as ionization induced by ion cannons and electromagnetic pulse weapons. It would
not only be expensive to cover the entire hull of a capital starship with ion hardened
armour, it would also be inefficient, since standard armour is more effective against
common space weapons such as turbolasers. Additionally, it is not possible to completely
negate ionization damage; IHA simply raises a ship's resistance to it. Therefore, IHA
is typically employed to protect especially electrically sensitive areas, such as
control systems, targeting systems, sensors, and navigation. The usefulness of IHA
is that it makes it much more difficult to disable or mission-kill a warship through
ionic weaponry. IHA is applied with three different grades of effectiveness, which
reflects on the thickness of the armour, its quality grade, and the sensitive area
coverage percentage.
Some experimental designs with IHA uses an adjustable level of IHA with sliding
armour plates. The intention of this type of design is to allow the best combination
of ionization resistance and sensor sensitivity. Simply put, the more sensitive
sensors a ship has, the more vulnerable they are to ionization. One way to protect
sensors is to change their mode; passive search mode is the least vulnerable and
gives the longest range. However it is also the search mode with the least resolution.
Variable IHA allows the sensor systems maximum protection while in combat, or the
free range of unprotected systems while searching long distance or in focus mode.
In short, it allows the ship's commander to select what compromise between protection
and sensitivity best fits a given situation. Non-variable IHA offers the same
built-in compromise all the time, and the only option is different sensor modes.
Variable IHA is not yet available on any standard warship in the NIF, but it is
likely to be a future feature.
*ORIGINAL DESIGN*
Name/Type: Ion Hardened Armour (fixed)
Designer/Manufacturer: New Imperial Federation
Designation: Armour Plating
Efficiency: Grade I: 25% vs ionization. Grade II: 50% vs ionization. Grade III: 75% vs ionization.