Re: Missiles
In reply to #5588 Missiles by Leonard Erickson
> From: [email removed] (Leonard Erickson)
> Subject: Missiles
> I can just about *guarantee* that detonating velocity is *far* below
> closing velocity. Which means that shaped charges are useles, as the
> missile impact will be moving faster than the detonation of the
> explosive. This kills HEAP and doesn't help HE much either.
Wildstar adressed this.
> And if they punch through, they'll either create one *hell* of a shock
> wave in the atmosphere of the ship, or keep punching holes in anything
> that gets in their way until they are slowed to bullet velocities, or
> have completely vaporized.
Are you sure that they are capable of penetrating? If your data is correct
(and I have no reason to doubt it) it would seem that any missile sized
object would vaporize into plasma (along with a part of the hull) when it
hits. So the effect on the hull would be a crater and the effect inside the
ship a fireball and spalls flying around. No penetration of missile parts.
> Your several inches of armor could result in *more* damage than an
> *unarmored* vessel would recieve, simply because more of the projectiles
> KE would be transferred to the vessel!
You need a minimum level of armour to get the radiation down to manageble
levels.
> For a 5 ton projectile,
Too heavy. Abolute maximum 2 tons (for 1 ton of warhead and one ton of
structure) I'd say.
> V (g-hr) (m/sec) KE(ergs) (% of BC) kilotons diameter(meters)
> 1 3.528e3 3.112e19 .04 .7 kT 91
> 2 7.056e3 1.245e20 .18 3.0 kT 145
> 3 10.584e3 2.801e20 .39 6.7 kT 190
> 4 14.112e3 4.979e20 .70 12 kT 230
> 5 17.640e3 7.779e20 1.1 19 kT 267
> 6 21.168e3 1.120e21 1.6 27 kT 301
> 7 24.696e3 1.525e21 2.1 37 kT 334
> 8 28.224e3 1.991e21 2.8 48 kT 365
> 9 31.752e3 2.520e21 3.5 60 kT 394
> 10 35.280e3 3.112e21 4.4 75 kT 423
> 11 38.808e3 3.756e21 5.3 90 kT 451
> 12 42.336e3 4.481e21 3.3 110 kT 478
>
> 47.8 168.522e3 7.1e22 100 1.7 MT 1200 :-)
>
> These figures should give an idea of just what sort of forces we are
> discussing. No *possible* chemical explosive will even be noticed in
> this sort of energy release.
Having 1000kg of HE in the missile means that you have a cheap (yes,
militarily speaking exposives are cheap) 1 ton lump of something that won't
work worse than any other 1 ton lump, but will work better in an atmosphere.
1 gturn is aprox mach 50. I'd like to see a missile designed for space
pull mach 50 in an atmosphere:) I assume they are designed for space since
most situations occur in space and protection against mach 50 would increase
the cost significantly.
(This also limits the use of KE missiles against ground targets)
> BTW, for a 5 *gram* projectile, we get 1 millionth the energy, or
> 1/100th the diameter. So change the diameters above to cm. Which means
> that 5 gm projectile (a BB) at the veocity give by a mere 1 g for 1
> hour, will blast a 91 cm crater in solid rock. And likely do something
> similar im armor. How many 5 gm BBs can a 7 ton missile carry and how
> large a volume will they fill at "optimum" dispersal?
The cannister missile I did used 15000 10mm 10g tungsten spheres, since
I estimated that that would weigh the same as the laser/detonation warhead.
(Btw: I'll check the crater sizes against the tEoNW, since they look a
little large for the kilotonnage even at optimum depth of burst:)
- -bertil-
- --
"It can be shown that for any nutty theory, beyond-the-fringe political view or
strange religion there exists a proponent on the Net. The proof is left as an
exercise for your kill-file."