This might interest you all, http://www.trekbbs.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/002941.html A lively debate about the weapons in Star Trek, ranging from starship tactics, planetary defenses, and ground troops. -Colt

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Be not afraid of any man no matter what his size; when danger threatens, call on me, and I will equalize.

> what about all the stealth technology thats being developed now <

It might be worthwhile seeing if there are any FAQs from the sci.space newsgroups--the topic has come up several times.

Anyway, radar can probably be eliminated as a tracking method. But there's not much that can be done about IR signature. And if you fire up an engine you may as well take out an ad in the paper.

Stealth would work fine for a first strike to start the war--you'd have unmanned spacecraft performing some nominally useful function that just happen to be in the right place to diquise the lanch of stealth warheads using the normal positioning burns to mask the thermal signature of the weapon. Then it's just a matter of letting orbital mechanics move the warhead into an orbit near the targets. When everything is in place, send a signal to detonate at the closest approach. If they're kinitic-kill devices, they'll be to close for the thermal signature to do anyone any good.

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"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." — Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

441!!!! :)

Anybody catch the CNN article about the METHL laser system? Give'em time, there'll be a laser armed shuttle flying the minute they get it perfected. It may not be as big bad and powerful as the one they tested, but with lack of attenuation in space, it won't need to be.

That or they will add some missile launch tubes to the shuttle, "We see you have made a few alterations to the Orbiter, what are they?" "That is the molecular disruptor, and this thing here is the torpedo launcher."

I heard at one time that the Russians had armed the Buran with a Gatling system in it's bay, or were going to. Probably just a rumor though. -Colt

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Be not afraid of any man no matter what his size; when danger threatens, call on me, and I will equalize.

Its still around but is morphed a bit since then. At the 2000 AUSA Exposition, Boeing was showing a potential modification of the EKV that included a Jello spray. Yup, Jello. the idea was to pump the liquefied jello out to form a cloud which would coat the optics and solar panels of the target satellite. The effect of flash evaporation and solar radiation would be to turn the deposits into an opaque gel that would destroy the optics and cripple the power generation capability of the solar cells. I don't know if thats been pushed any further. The idea was to avoid the debris problem by keeping the target as a unitary but useless lump.

Back in Nike-Zeus days, the idea was to wrap the nuclear device in the warhead with gold foil. That, combined with a couple of other tricks, produced a relatively low "explosion" but a horrendous sleet of radiation that would have fried the target warheads. Thats one reason the idea of a nuclear interceptor went out - the initiation of the warheads would have fried every satellite in LEO (the effective range of a Zeus warhead against an unshielded satellite was in the region of 1,000 kilometers).

I don't believe a "nuclear shaped charge" is possible. By the way (and just out of interest), the device that destroyed Hiroshima was a Mark 1 and the one that got Nagasaki was a Model 1561. The devices intiated by Pakistan a couple of years back were reportedly analogues of Mark 1 but there is some doubt if the Pakistani ones worked at all. They may have fizzled.