Well. Looks like then we need to find some way to sell them to the Jedi Order.
Star Wars: Ship Designer Quest (1.5)
- Thread starter Jax
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- Kiel; Germany
You're in luck, the Delta-6 which is used by the Jedi Order gets a bit old at the moment. They will, in a few years, start the trails for the Delta-7. There is a slim window that might just be there at the right moment if a lot of circumstances come together ...Well. Looks like then we need to find some way to sell them to the Jedi Order.
Why currently Railguns aren't used in Star Wars - a Simple Explanation
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Railguns in Star Wars are always bandied out by people that don't really understand why the technology used in ships is the way it is, Railguns are hilariously hard-hitting for their size, and you wanna know how that's an issue? Overpenetration. If you don't nail something important all you're doing is wasting ammo, and don't even get me started on the logistics of those slugs, because they're not something that you can just hop to a random gas giant and have a decent chance of finding, they have to be manufactured, the resources have to be refined and transported and you have a significant reduction in combat endurance, because each of those slugs are going to be significantly larger than a single shot from a Turbolaser would be, even accounting for the necessary equipment to store the gas, (Assuming that it's just stored under 'normal' pressure and not as a Metallic Gas like Hydrogen can be.)
The only reasons a ship should have a railgun are A) You don't have the technology for Energy Weapons, B) Your Energy Weapons are Shit, or C) You need the Extreme Range. Assuming that literally everyone in the SW Galaxy is stupid but the MC is not fun, Railguns as a weapon of Space Combat has been put through its paces and has been demonstrated to not meet the requirements of the Galactic Military, for whatever range of reasons.
There is a reason why the only ship in the 'modern' era that has the option to use Railguns is the Onager, which is an Imperial planetary siege vessel, not a mainline battleship. And, BTW, it's the same vessel that can mount super-lasers and Particle Cannons. So it's not the most efficient design.
Sorry about that, I used to be one of those 'But Why Not Railgun' people, and it makes me angry when people don't do their research to try and make their MC seem like such a genius.
E:
Removed spoiler.
E The Second:
Removed Surprise 'Not'.
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- Location
- Kiel; Germany
I added a Threatmark, which might save us some discussion until it is proper. Just saying that, if you dump enough Budget into it I'm willing to let you go to some crazy places.
I guess, one way to try and make the railgun somewhat feasible is novel ammunition. Though of course, it also would need to be powerful and cheap enough to justify designing ships to use said ammunition...
Edit: A.K.A LOTS OF BUDGET...
What about using mass drivers as boosters for torpedos and missles? Trade some maneuverability for a massive range and velocity boost basicly.
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- Kiel; Germany
Powerful is the answer I think, not cheap. If you have mentioned that is strong enough that justice the waste of room on the ship you will find someone who buys it. You just need to find a good niche for it.
Could be but at the moment most missiles aren't used in ship-to-ship combat but mostly fighter-vs-fighter who are still a weapon system that is fancy but not taken seriously.
...How feasible would it be to try and sell a missile cruiser that is able to emulate macross missile massacre? Cause I could see such ships being absolutely devastating, even if not having the best staying power. Probably only during the war though.
We could combine the center line turret concept with that. Basicly rather then set up for broadside we build the turbolaser on the center line of the ship and stick the missle tubes on the flanks.
Gives us solid turret coverage, reduces the reactor power needed compared to a broadside set up and frees up space the missle magazines which can be placed and shaped to keep a cook off from killing the ship.
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Oh, yeah, just look at all the shit the Empire got up to in their R&D, but I hope that people recognize that certain things, (IE: Railguns, Personal Energy Shielding,) have already been put through their paces and matured to the point where they've run into physical limitations and not technical ones.
Anyone have an idea of how much support is needed for FTL coms? How stealthy are they? Some sort of Command and control ship and scout vessel with their own mini holonet could be useful for ambushes or hyperspace capable missile targeting (aka drone ship with a hyperdrive and warhead drops to normal space for attack run). Would be pretty far in the future even if possibly feasible.
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FTL Comms are... Unsubtle. Either because anyone with a Holonet Reciever can detect the transmission, or because the power necessary is... A Lot. Not to mention that Hypernet Comms are expensive, so it's not worth it. Also, most ships don't have actual FTL comms, they just ping a Beacon to send their message.
Why Railguns might be Weapons of mass destruction
Barondoctor
The things I chase come to me.
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You're missing one other important piece on the overpenetration thing: Newton doesn't stop caring about objects sent flying even if we do. What happens when you've launched a good-sized chunk of mass at "sufficient velocity" in space is that it doesn't stop until it hits something.
If you're lucky? That's a star or a gas giant.
If you're not? Horrific civilian mass casualty event. In space, a mass driver can be literally a weapon of mass destruction, indiscriminately causing damage far beyond the battlefield.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Yavin Convention outlawed them, come to think of it.
- Location
- Kiel; Germany
So, basically, going full Honor Harrington style? Just with more guns?
Could be a sell. Going by what I remember from the RC Game I think there are giant anti-ship missiles.
Why go the expansive route? Just put a droid brain into your flying bomb and be done with it. Much cheaper but most likely illegal outside of Republic Military hands ... which doesn't exist at the moment.
I do, but I spend too much time looking at ships from Star Wars.
I was sure, that you made that up. But it exists and I love it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Assault concussion missiles are basicly the star wars equivalent to RL VLS launched anti-shipping missiles.
and even if we don't go with the missles the centerline build would let us build ships that can punch above their weight class without breaking the bank.
Imagine a ship with the anti-cap ship firepower of a venator's broadside but only 1/3rd the size.
- Location
- Singapore
Unless we go full Doylist and say railguns aren't used because the writers didn't want them to be, the biggest argument I see against railguns is that laser based weapons can fill pretty much every common niche railguns could "well enough" while not having to deal with the above two threadmarked issues. Sure, a kinetic weapon in space has an effective range of "yes," while having good armor penetration and better stealth due to not being made of glowing plasma. But how often are you really going to need all that? Kind of like what people were finding out about their rifle ammunition during WW1. A fully powered cartridge that was effective at over a km is nice to have, but infantry generally couldn't aim that well in combat, it had recoil issues if you wanted to fire fast, and most combat took place at most half that distance anyway.
The only niche that comes to mind that isn't covered by lasers right now would be AAA, as I don't see how we could work a proximity fuse into a bolt of ionized gas. Though that has the added hurdle of not just the two mentioned before, but also that the buyers need to consider fighters enough of a threat to need dedicated defense weapons, even though they have those big issues.
As for using the tech to gives missiles a kick out of the launch tubes, I am unsure how much of an upgrade that would be. In my mind a big benefit of guided missiles is that you don't actually have to aim them at the enemy. If you are pointed nose in for minimal cross-section, and have broadside or vertical launch tubes, chances are you can still fire most if not all your missiles by just having them clear the edge of the ship and turn 90 degrees. An electromagnetic booster would certainly help the missiles, if the tubes were pointed at the target already. Facing anywhere else, that's just more delta V the missile has to spend from it's limited stocks in order to cancel momentum.
Thread tax for a discussion that isn't on railguns:
Does anyone know what is the state of the Republic's military logistics? While we've got absolutely no chance of grabbing a capital-class warship contract from under any of the big names, once the war kicks off and the Trade Federation takes their ships and goes home that's something we could slip into. We could try to make a armed merchant in the style of the Liberty ships in while the big companies are fighting over the Star Destroyer contracts. Or maybe we could make an auxiliary ship to stick with those capital ships for support on extended deployments.
The only niche that comes to mind that isn't covered by lasers right now would be AAA, as I don't see how we could work a proximity fuse into a bolt of ionized gas. Though that has the added hurdle of not just the two mentioned before, but also that the buyers need to consider fighters enough of a threat to need dedicated defense weapons, even though they have those big issues.
As for using the tech to gives missiles a kick out of the launch tubes, I am unsure how much of an upgrade that would be. In my mind a big benefit of guided missiles is that you don't actually have to aim them at the enemy. If you are pointed nose in for minimal cross-section, and have broadside or vertical launch tubes, chances are you can still fire most if not all your missiles by just having them clear the edge of the ship and turn 90 degrees. An electromagnetic booster would certainly help the missiles, if the tubes were pointed at the target already. Facing anywhere else, that's just more delta V the missile has to spend from it's limited stocks in order to cancel momentum.
Thread tax for a discussion that isn't on railguns:
Does anyone know what is the state of the Republic's military logistics? While we've got absolutely no chance of grabbing a capital-class warship contract from under any of the big names, once the war kicks off and the Trade Federation takes their ships and goes home that's something we could slip into. We could try to make a armed merchant in the style of the Liberty ships in while the big companies are fighting over the Star Destroyer contracts. Or maybe we could make an auxiliary ship to stick with those capital ships for support on extended deployments.
- Location
- Kiel; Germany
Not assistance, together with the whole concept of a Republic military. You have the Judical's and PDF. Most capital ships currently are prestige toys.
Barondoctor
The things I chase come to me.
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- The other side of the mirror
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I'm not sure it wasn't just a one off for a joke in canon, but "what if you miss" is a subject for gun safety and that should probably include space railgun safety.
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- Southampton, Great Britain
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It isn't made up though its canonical status is arguable since the episode it was supposed to be introduced in never got aired/finished.
Yavin Convention
The Yavin Convention was a conference held[1] approximately a millennium prior to 19 BBY[2] at which the Yavin Code was established, which stated that prisoners were required to be blindfolded prior to being executed. The Yavin Convention shared its name with[1] the gas giant Yavin.[3] When Jedi...
starwars.fandom.com
I was looking for something that would allow for coordinating a lot of missiles in an extremely quick attack. Something like keyhole II from HH allowing for FTL targeting of the missile swarms but also the possibility of a missile swarm that could drop out of hyper right on top of the enemy.
Edit: can imagine a ton of reasons this isn't in use but figured it might be worth an ask to figure out which reason ones are stopping it in the quest.
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- Location
- Kiel; Germany
You can do lots of things with droid brains. Even make them move whole ships, the thing is they can't get too creative. But if you want them to attack a ship and they don't need to do much maneuvering or simply to deliver a bunch of missiles, they can do it.
How often do Star Wars soldiers, starfighters, fighter ships, and what not waste shots in a similar manner just to punch something till the other guy\ship is down for the count? If we used railguns I imagine the targeting systems and shot waste wouldn't change all that much. Heck railguns would do more damage because they'd could penetrate a capital ship's armor and damage the other side rather than scuff the armor on this side.
And like was said above. Explosive rounds plus calibration could keep the advantages without hitting friendlies on the other side.