I'd like a little clarification about nukes and missiles and what not.
I take it that they're doing the nuclear X-Ray laser missile ala 2300
in TNE now. So, unless there are several alternatives (such as those
that have been suggested), it would appear that missiles would not be
very common on many civilian ships because of the Imperial No-Nukes
policy.
Now, not being a Nuclear Weapons Engineer (I prefer steam locomotives
:-), I understood nuclear weapons to be much less effective in
space compared to an atmospheric burst. Obviously, impact is impact
regardles of the environment, but a nuclear weapon gets a lot of its
power from the shockwave that it produces as the explosion pushes the
air out from the blast.
In space, ain't no air to push, so I would think that they would lose
a lot of their shock value, specifically in a proximity situation.
Now, they would still produce zany amounts of heat, which I would
guess would travel nicely through space.
Also, with the closing velocities that the ships will have, explosives
seem pretty weak compared good 'ol kinetic energy. (A paragraph or two
out of 'The Forever War' comes to mind...).
So, I guess I'm asking what you folks are thinking about with these
new missile designs. I like the Shrapnel idea, sounds rather nasty to
me. But, if you can get a 3-5 ton vehicle to actually IMPACT a ship
then why bother with an explosive?
I guess one way would be to send in a salvo of nuclear missles to fry
all the sensors off of the ship, then follow up with a couple of tons
of cinder block or whatever to knock on their door.
Overall, I just don't think that an HE missile would be very effective
(assuming that the explosive is designed to hurt the ship versus deploy
a munition).