"Space Combat Weaponry" Topic

"FWS apologizes for the delay in updating the blog, but this is the SECOND time I've written this blogpost, and I hope that it goes better this time! Anyway, most mainstream sci-fi feature space warfare between starships in a fashion popularized by Star Wars and Star Trek . However, often these warships only mount two weapons (Starfleet anyone?), one being some form of directed energy weapon and the other is a missile or torpedo system. This seems unrealistic to me, especially since when compared to the USS Sulaco from ALIENS, the Andromeda Ascent from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. These space-going warships are armed with a variety of weapon offensive and defensive systems, giving their captains greater tactical options that fire phasers or launch torpedoes. To counter this limitation of armament imagination FWS has written an extensive list on the subject and if I've missed any, please comment below and let me know!

During my writing of this blogpost, Seinfeld came on, and Jerry was talking about Drake's Coffee Cake, and he said: "Yep, that's your big boy". That got me to thinking, Gauss, chemically propelled, and Railgun are all examples of the 'big boy' of offensive spaceship armaments, kinetic energy weapons. Factors that limit the lethality of DEW systems, dwelling time, the size of the heat radiators, and hull armor do not effect KEW systems in the same way. What KEW projectiles can do, is when and if they make contact with the hull of the enemy starships, they tear the utter out of it. No amount of armor could be layered on a warship to defeat against an incoming magnetically propelled projectile, but the firing vessel would have to hit their enemy. KEW projectiles do not move at light speed, and given the distance that ship-to-ship engagements would be waged (think Earth-to-the-Moon), the opposition warship would have time to avoid the incoming metal, or melt it with a point-defense laser beam due to the dwelling time. But, when it comes to THE ship-killer in space warfare, as one of my friends who I consult with, David said: "Mass is the thing in space combat."…"
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Amicalement
Armand

That was a good read. Missiles suffer from the same limitation as nukes. Most the the damage/energy travels through a shockwave, so a vacuum lessens the effectiveness. A tandem charge warhead would help with that. Oxygen itself not an issue since many high-grade explosives carry they own oxidizer.

I would think that a KEW would be a (relatively) close-combat weapon, usable at ranges of a hundred kilometers or so. They would be high-yield weapons; imagine a canister round 30 feet across, filled with a few hundred long-rod penetrators. Each penetrator would be a few hundred pounds of ceramic-tipped depleted uranium. The canister would be designed to sense its distance from the target; at the right distance, charges would blow it apart and push the penetrators apart into a cone-shaped dispersal pattern. The velocity and distance would be programmed to create an impact area of a hundred feet diameter. The ceramic tips puncture the ship's exterior armor, pushed by the shaft of the penetrator. As the penetrator passes through the hull, the friction will liquefy the uranium, which sprays the interior, starting fires, killing personnel, and inflicting explosive decompression across the impact site. This flechette-style attack would be difficult for the defender to shoot down.

DEWs, on the other hand, have the advantage of range and light-speed travel, but at the expense of lethal effect. I don't think a DEW would result in a knockout blow on a ship, although it might be capable of slicing open a section of hull enough to penetrate it, but that's not necessarily a guarantee of fatal damage. I would make sure that my ships had triple or quadruple hulls. If the outside hulls are ceramic, they would be very resistant to heat-based weapons, but even if they aren't, a laser would have to be held in the same spot long enough to burn a hole through all the hulls before reaching the interior. At thousands of miles range, between two moving ships, that would be nearly impossible. Instead, the DEW would skitter across the outer hull, leaving a long ugly scar, but inflicting very little damage. They could be very effective at sniping incoming missiles, frying sensors, and destroying weapons mounts and engines. But unless there's a way to direct the power of the sun into them, DEWs might be less than the panacea that the author thinks.

KEWs: If you're firing a single 10kg projectile, it can cross a lot of space before the target can maneuver meaningfully (that is, move the its silhouette completely off of the aim point). A projectile can also have limited lateral maneuvering thrusters attached, giving it a slight targeting cone.

This sort of projectile doesn't hit like a long-rod penetrator because its moving so fast. Instead, it mostly turns into plasma on impact, and turns the hull or armor into plasma as well. Part of the effect is shock.

Happy you enjoyed it my friend! (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

The armor could be enhanced. It might be some kind of carbon buckminsterfullerene with a forcefield running through it. So it wouldn't just be held together with chemical bonds but with forcefield energy shedding. Maybe inside each carbon sphere was one or more high mass atoms to absorb momentum.

Missiles carrying bomb-pumped x-ray lasers. Don't have to get too close.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand