Although the battle against the Tarbotians last year was a success there were several issues that arose from analysis of the combat by DDS Research. The Tarbotians used a mass of their small bomber spacecraft to attack the DDS fleet, while these small ships did not have the firepower to do any real damage the sheer volume of fire and the confusion caused allowed the main Tarbotian warships to gain an early advantage. The DDS ships were unable to handle these small craft due to their size and speed.
Dr Forbidden has announced a CIWS (Close In Weapons System) update for selected Pulsar, Quasar and Terran Sea warships. The update includes modified sensor and fire control systems to better cope with small combatants and two batteries of laser cannons. These each hold 20 independantly targeting guns allowing the ship to engage with 40 small combatants simultaneously. Existing auxilary weapons are also to be updated to increase response time. All DDS ships will be receiving a software upgrade to their shield control system to better optimise the shields for smaller weapons.
Each CIWS update costs 35 million zarks, because of budget limitations the DDS will only update a small number of ships which are currently allocated to the Tarbotian flank. The forthcoming Pangaea class may have the CIWS fitted as standard. Pulsar cruiser 1010 Arctic was fitted with the CIWS for testing and evaluation, two other Pulsars are currently being fitted with it.
