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Kyyshak
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To boil down your weapons further, you have three main types:

  • Kinetic: Conventional projectiles, Railguns, etc
  • Beam: Your lasers (light-speed) and particle cannons (near light-speed)
  • Self-Guiding: Missiles, Drones, Fighters and the like

Everyone will know where everyone else is, as there is no realistic stealth in space, thus most ship battles will occur at light-second distances, if not further. You always want to be as far away from the person trying to kill you as you can after all.

The main effect of this is the delay in information. If your sensors pick up a ship ten light-seconds away, the information your sensors give you is already ten-seconds old. Assuming you're firing light-speed weapons (beams), it'll take another ten seconds to hit, thus you need to aim at where you think the enemy will be in twenty seconds from the location you can currently see him.

For Kinetics, this problem is even worse, as your projectiles will not be moving at light speed, and will thus take more than ten seconds to reach your target.

Self-Guiding weapons however, do not have this problem. They can be launched many times further away without having to worry about predicted target location, as they will be constantly adjusting to ensure they reach the target.

No, you would thus think that Kinetics are useless compared to Beams and Self-Guiding weapons, however Self-Guiding weapons are typically much more expensive. Just compare any modern missile or UAV to a standard field gun. They may be of similar size, but that gun has much more ammo, and much cheaper. Also, Self-Guided weapons would likely move slower and be larger targets than kinetic munitions, meaning they more more easily be countered by point defence. Whether the size of an object matters for an Alcubierre shield is for you to decide.

Beams are straight-line weapons, whilst Kinetics are affected by gravity(1). This means that you wouldn't be able to hit a target on the other side of the planet you're orbiting with a Beam weapon, but you could with a Kinetic weapon. A hit from a kinetic weapon would likely be much more severe than a hit from a beam weapon. Any solid object flying at high velocity would have ridiculous amounts of momentum, and would be able to punch straight through ships. Meanwhile, a Beam weapon would be coming up against the standard radiation shielding a ship would be obliged to carry to protect its crew from solar flares and other natural, space-based radiation. Finally, Beam weapons will suffer from attenuation, meaning they do less damage at long distance. A Kinetic round will do the same damage regardless of distance, assuming it hits at all.

Thus firing solutions will generally involve volleys of self-guided projectiles, with shotgun-blast volleys of Beam weapons at long range and Kinetics at short range.

Quickly addressing Mines. Classic stationary mines would be worthless. They would easily be avoided by anyone going slow enough, and if they're going too fast, then you could just as easily use anything bigger than a fleck of paint, which chipped the windscreen of the ISS. In reality the only thing resembling mines would be drones set to hang out in an area of space, and then automatically target anything that comes into range. These would fit into the Self-Guided category above.

(1): Not actually true, but for our purposes the effect gravity has on light-speed and near-light speed projectiles is negligible.

To boil down your weapons further, you have three main types:

  • Kinetic: Conventional projectiles, Railguns, etc
  • Beam: Your lasers (light-speed) and particle cannons (near light-speed)
  • Self-Guiding: Missiles, Drones, Fighters and the like

Everyone will know where everyone else is, as there is no realistic stealth in space, thus most ship battles will occur at light-second distances, if not further. You always want to be as far away from the person trying to kill you as you can after all.

The main effect of this is the delay in information. If your sensors pick up a ship ten light-seconds away, the information your sensors give you is already ten-seconds old. Assuming you're firing light-speed weapons (beams), it'll take another ten seconds to hit, thus you need to aim at where you think the enemy will be in twenty seconds from the location you can currently see him.

For Kinetics, this problem is even worse, as your projectiles will not be moving at light speed, and will thus take more than ten seconds to reach your target.

Self-Guiding weapons however, do not have this problem. They can be launched many times further away without having to worry about predicted target location, as they will be constantly adjusting to ensure they reach the target.

No, you would thus think that Kinetics are useless compared to Beams and Self-Guiding weapons, however Self-Guiding weapons are typically much more expensive. Just compare any modern missile or UAV to a standard field gun. They may be of similar size, but that gun has much more ammo, and much cheaper. Also, Self-Guided weapons would likely move slower and be larger targets than kinetic munitions, meaning they more more easily be countered by point defence. Whether the size of an object matters for an Alcubierre shield is for you to decide.

Beams are straight-line weapons, whilst Kinetics are affected by gravity(1). This means that you wouldn't be able to hit a target on the other side of the planet you're orbiting with a Beam weapon, but you could with a Kinetic weapon. A hit from a kinetic weapon would likely be much more severe than a hit from a beam weapon. Any solid object flying at high velocity would have ridiculous amounts of momentum, and would be able to punch straight through ships. Meanwhile, a Beam weapon would be coming up against the standard radiation shielding a ship would be obliged to carry to protect its crew from solar flares and other natural, space-based radiation.

Thus firing solutions will generally involve volleys of self-guided projectiles, with shotgun-blast volleys of Beam weapons at long range and Kinetics at short range.

Quickly addressing Mines. Classic stationary mines would be worthless. They would easily be avoided by anyone going slow enough, and if they're going too fast, then you could just as easily use anything bigger than a fleck of paint, which chipped the windscreen of the ISS. In reality the only thing resembling mines would be drones set to hang out in an area of space, and then automatically target anything that comes into range. These would fit into the Self-Guided category above.

(1): Not actually true, but for our purposes the effect gravity has on light-speed and near-light speed projectiles is negligible.

To boil down your weapons further, you have three main types:

  • Kinetic: Conventional projectiles, Railguns, etc
  • Beam: Your lasers (light-speed) and particle cannons (near light-speed)
  • Self-Guiding: Missiles, Drones, Fighters and the like

Everyone will know where everyone else is, as there is no realistic stealth in space, thus most ship battles will occur at light-second distances, if not further. You always want to be as far away from the person trying to kill you as you can after all.

The main effect of this is the delay in information. If your sensors pick up a ship ten light-seconds away, the information your sensors give you is already ten-seconds old. Assuming you're firing light-speed weapons (beams), it'll take another ten seconds to hit, thus you need to aim at where you think the enemy will be in twenty seconds from the location you can currently see him.

For Kinetics, this problem is even worse, as your projectiles will not be moving at light speed, and will thus take more than ten seconds to reach your target.

Self-Guiding weapons however, do not have this problem. They can be launched many times further away without having to worry about predicted target location, as they will be constantly adjusting to ensure they reach the target.

No, you would thus think that Kinetics are useless compared to Beams and Self-Guiding weapons, however Self-Guiding weapons are typically much more expensive. Just compare any modern missile or UAV to a standard field gun. They may be of similar size, but that gun has much more ammo, and much cheaper. Also, Self-Guided weapons would likely move slower and be larger targets than kinetic munitions, meaning they more more easily be countered by point defence. Whether the size of an object matters for an Alcubierre shield is for you to decide.

Beams are straight-line weapons, whilst Kinetics are affected by gravity(1). This means that you wouldn't be able to hit a target on the other side of the planet you're orbiting with a Beam weapon, but you could with a Kinetic weapon. A hit from a kinetic weapon would likely be much more severe than a hit from a beam weapon. Any solid object flying at high velocity would have ridiculous amounts of momentum, and would be able to punch straight through ships. Meanwhile, a Beam weapon would be coming up against the standard radiation shielding a ship would be obliged to carry to protect its crew from solar flares and other natural, space-based radiation. Finally, Beam weapons will suffer from attenuation, meaning they do less damage at long distance. A Kinetic round will do the same damage regardless of distance, assuming it hits at all.

Thus firing solutions will generally involve volleys of self-guided projectiles, with shotgun-blast volleys of Beam weapons at long range and Kinetics at short range.

Quickly addressing Mines. Classic stationary mines would be worthless. They would easily be avoided by anyone going slow enough, and if they're going too fast, then you could just as easily use anything bigger than a fleck of paint, which chipped the windscreen of the ISS. In reality the only thing resembling mines would be drones set to hang out in an area of space, and then automatically target anything that comes into range. These would fit into the Self-Guided category above.

(1): Not actually true, but for our purposes the effect gravity has on light-speed and near-light speed projectiles is negligible.

Source Link
Kyyshak
  • 8.1k
  • 1
  • 23
  • 39

To boil down your weapons further, you have three main types:

  • Kinetic: Conventional projectiles, Railguns, etc
  • Beam: Your lasers (light-speed) and particle cannons (near light-speed)
  • Self-Guiding: Missiles, Drones, Fighters and the like

Everyone will know where everyone else is, as there is no realistic stealth in space, thus most ship battles will occur at light-second distances, if not further. You always want to be as far away from the person trying to kill you as you can after all.

The main effect of this is the delay in information. If your sensors pick up a ship ten light-seconds away, the information your sensors give you is already ten-seconds old. Assuming you're firing light-speed weapons (beams), it'll take another ten seconds to hit, thus you need to aim at where you think the enemy will be in twenty seconds from the location you can currently see him.

For Kinetics, this problem is even worse, as your projectiles will not be moving at light speed, and will thus take more than ten seconds to reach your target.

Self-Guiding weapons however, do not have this problem. They can be launched many times further away without having to worry about predicted target location, as they will be constantly adjusting to ensure they reach the target.

No, you would thus think that Kinetics are useless compared to Beams and Self-Guiding weapons, however Self-Guiding weapons are typically much more expensive. Just compare any modern missile or UAV to a standard field gun. They may be of similar size, but that gun has much more ammo, and much cheaper. Also, Self-Guided weapons would likely move slower and be larger targets than kinetic munitions, meaning they more more easily be countered by point defence. Whether the size of an object matters for an Alcubierre shield is for you to decide.

Beams are straight-line weapons, whilst Kinetics are affected by gravity(1). This means that you wouldn't be able to hit a target on the other side of the planet you're orbiting with a Beam weapon, but you could with a Kinetic weapon. A hit from a kinetic weapon would likely be much more severe than a hit from a beam weapon. Any solid object flying at high velocity would have ridiculous amounts of momentum, and would be able to punch straight through ships. Meanwhile, a Beam weapon would be coming up against the standard radiation shielding a ship would be obliged to carry to protect its crew from solar flares and other natural, space-based radiation.

Thus firing solutions will generally involve volleys of self-guided projectiles, with shotgun-blast volleys of Beam weapons at long range and Kinetics at short range.

Quickly addressing Mines. Classic stationary mines would be worthless. They would easily be avoided by anyone going slow enough, and if they're going too fast, then you could just as easily use anything bigger than a fleck of paint, which chipped the windscreen of the ISS. In reality the only thing resembling mines would be drones set to hang out in an area of space, and then automatically target anything that comes into range. These would fit into the Self-Guided category above.

(1): Not actually true, but for our purposes the effect gravity has on light-speed and near-light speed projectiles is negligible.