Krulle wrote: ↑Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:27 am
I just wonder though, if that missile will make a lot of damage. The pusher plates need to be pretty massive (a lot less than a pusher plate for a ship which is intended to survive combat), and thus you're creating a kinetic missile more than an explosive missile.
What if that missile then misses?
It will be a lot less efficient at altering/adjusting its course than a conventional missile.
If pulses are left when hitting the enemy, these pulses can do some damage too if used as normal explosives.
But as mentioned before, those missiles will be VERY expensive, and difficult to handle.
For the same amount of space on a ship, and cost of manufacturing, it seems you'll get a lot more out of conventional missiles.
Which you can use to try to box in an enemy...
But yeah, war/is was seldom a time for cost-benefit analysis, but often for maximum impact weapons.
And in that regard, an Orion-type missile may sound great.
A,manned Orion is big because it has to be. AM, or it's equibalent, allows one to make a smaller version simply due to energy density.
A few grams of antimatter equal big boom.But we could easily.do more than that.
And massive won't need to be. A thin film of oil on solid metal balls that were basketball size at ground zero for a nuke detonation survived totally intact.
The oil layer vaporized, but the shock of the plasma was so hard the balls were found miles away.
Huge no, just large. enough for 60 b-balls. a plate, and whatever else.
Smaller than a blister or shuttle or fighter.
Expensive? Metal and bombs they know how to make.
It's arguably cheaper than making complex 30gr ocket torpedoes!
LATE EDIT: There is one major drawback....time. The moment the Umiak see the Loroi do this they would begin copying them, since they have much the same technology if the Loroi could not end the war before the Umiak managed to fully adopt Orion missile tech, the war is lost to the Loroi.
Since Umiak would use regular missile screens, and then spam 1000g orion missiles at closer ranges. Even the Loroi could not persevere against that indefinirely.
Also due to the sheer power of Type A orion propulsion, you must deploy it from the ship, then fly off a safe distance before it ignites the first bomb. Since at close range a Type A Orion missile would damage the ship that launched it from the blast of Type A in the first pulse bomb.
You really don't want Type A Orion missiles flying close to each other as they launch unless you can ensure none are behind each other, since they would incinerate them or blow them backward.