Talk:Trentad Nuclear Cruise Missile

Okay, so here's another "me wondering why" - topic which needs some insight.

When you think about conventional nuclear weapons in the PS Universe, we can all probably agree that there ain't too many entries here about them. I've always understood that the general consensus among us has been, that what with all these fancy black hole generator/particle annihilator/antimateria - stuff, conventional nukes aren't the first choices for weapons on anybody's part. Yet, think about the possibilities of conventional nukes i.e. planetary invasions. You could drop a dozen or so to a fairly badly defended colony with no planetary shields - and cause some serious havoc. And a nuke could probably deal damage of some sorts to a shielded planetary outpost as well - I'd guess.

Naturally Hemmoian or Gigerdian ground units, such as some sorts of tanks and stuff would also take some considerable damage if a nuke of the right size would be dropped on them. Not to mention what the blast wave would do to a large sum of infantry - no matter how heavily armed etc. they might be. Now, naturally even modern armored vehicles have some sorts of NBC-protective systems, which enable the tank to survive a (among others) indirect nuclear attack - yet I'd guess that no tank in the world with an NBC-system could survive the blast wave head on.

I think that the power of conventional nuclear weapons aren't very much utilized by the various PS races. I think that they'd be a fairly powerful weapon even in the 32nd(?) century despite all these fancy planetary bombs we've come up with.

Your thought, as always, are welcome.

-Dalleer

It's true ...

A plain old fashioned nuke still has a hell of a lot of destructive power, and yeah, they could be used in certain situations, especially on a tactical scale or against unshielded targets. Raw explosive force is raw explosive force any way you slice it.

However, several considerations:

• Anti-missile systems in PS. These are likely very advanced. Already today the US has been able to shoot down missiles with lasers to a degree and whatnot - in PS with superior computer technologies, even artificial intelligences, and high energy beam weapons such as lasers, Interceptor Grids for starships, etc., the chances of a relatively slow moving missile getting through planetary or starship defenses seem slim. Any sensible base commander would want to install systems like this at planetary bases. This is why I don't see much use for conventional cruise missiles etc. in the modern PS setting.

• Shields. This is another big unknown. Considering the incredible energies of starship weapons, shields must be able to take an equally incredible amount of beating to be of any use; therefore they should be able to shrug off nuclear detonations with ease. 50 megatons is a lot for a nuclear missile; a single Hemmoian torpedo from the pre-PS era is rated at 80 megatons at "low yield". Nuclear weapons therefore are not useful against shielded targets. Given that shields are everywhere, including planetary shields and Personal shields, this also makes it easy to negate the effects of nuclear weapons to a degree. Consider: If personal shields are possible, Tank Shields are too.

• Pollution. The fact that nuclear weapons are messy and leave deadly radioactivity all over the place might make them simply undesirable to current galactic civilizations who have the option to use more clean and effective weapons (especially fighting for planets), see Neutron Beams.

All that being said, I could easily see nukes being used in tactical situations (like that scene from Starship Troopers where they "nuke that bughole!") and in a considerably more liberal fashion than today since they're probably not at all that difficult to make - enriched uranium etc. can probably just be replicated directly by industrial replicators. Not as much in space combat, but ground combat definitely.

- Shok 43 00:54, 30 Apr 2007 (EEST)