Space Warfare 101

What you need to know to fight in space

Movement.

We are still dealing with regular physics when we are flying in space. The gravity control unit does not cause ships to move as if they were in air. You accelerate, then you must decelerate. You can ‘turn’ but only in a very wide sort of arc. You can spin your ship in any direction as you coast along in your trajectory. These are the basics any pilot must grasp.

The gravity control system does let us pull some high G moves, without feeling their effect. A ship can change its velocity or spin around with several G forces and the crew hardly feels it. Most civilian GCS can handle 5 G. Military ones 10 G. Beyond this you do feel the pressure. Ion engines usually provide 1 G of acceleration, while Fusion rockets can deliver 5 G.

Typical movement is made with ion drives giving a constant 1G acceleration up to mid point, then the ship flips over and decelerates at the same 1G until it reaches its destination. Fusion rockets burn fuel much faster than ion drives and so they are reserved for emergency use or combat. However keep in mind that a ship having made 10 hours worth of acceleration can not stop on a dime, even if it kicks in the fusion rockets at a full 5 G burn. It will take a few hours to stop. 

 

Detection.

A ship usually has several nodes of sensors, to cover all directions. These include passive and active scanners; radar, lidar, radiation detectors, 12inch telescopes, grava-metric detectors, magnetic spectrometer, etc. There are no working FTL sensors. Thus the speed of light matters a lot. 1 light second being 300,000 km. We can detect things at greater distances, but the accuracy of info begins to be an issue, especially for targeting computations.

Sensors are not magic, as some science fiction TV makes them seems. Most ships have serious shielding in their hulls to prevent any sort of cosmic rays getting in. This is also very effective at blocking any attempt to scan the inside of a ship. We can not simply pick up life signals.

 

Having said that we should point out that it is very easy to spot a ship, especially if it has a gravity field and it is moving under power. Hiding the energy output from a drive system is quite difficult, hiding a grave filed nearly impossible. Stealth is possible, but requires special emissions control equipment, a sensor deflecting hull and the ship must be very careful using its thrusters.

There is no way to sneak in and out of hyper space. Both entry and exit have a notable flash of light-radiation and gravitic wobble. A ship wanting to stealthfully enter a system would have to do so by exiting H-Space behind an outer planet. Even then a large central grava-metric sensor would likely detect it.

Using H-Space for tactical movement.

One advantage FTL ships have over local vessels is mobility. Even good grava-metric sensors can not anticipate the exit point of a ship. Surprise is on your side. But more interestingly you always have the option to withdraw ( so long as your equipment is not damaged ). Using high band H-Space is great for system to system travel, but it is not good for tactical movement. In this case you want a ship able to move in the H-1 band, just at the speed of light.

Defence.

The average ship has a double hull, with a crawlspace a few feet wide between the inner and outer walls. Various pipes and equipment run through this area. The outer hull is a light “armor” designed to deal with micro meteors and general junk that you may hit in space. It is not intended to stand up to combat weapons. The inner hull has a lining that protects the central parts of the ship from radiation. Frequently the power plant will have extra shielding all around it to prevent radiation contamination in the event of damage.

All military craft have an improved armor composite, that should stop a round from a small weapon like a point defence gun. True warships layer on a full secondary hull several feet thick that is a mix of hard and soft alloy layers. This is intended to stop or reduce more serious weapons, especially lasers.

A ship with a gravity control unit has a deflection field that will deal with small particles and general space radiation. It provides some minor protection against small weapons and near miss nukes. Military ships usually have a stronger GCU that can produce a more powerful deflection field. Of course having the ‘shields up’ takes a lot of energy. As the term deflector is very accurate, we must point out that the shields often perform in an all or nothing way. Incoming fire will bounce off (not reflect) or punch right through, most of the time. A grazing shot results when a medium strength weapon pierces the shield but does not directly hit the ship at a good angel.

Active defence.

Point defence guns are installed on civilian and military ships. They use good old slug-thrower technology, very much like the anti-missile systems on a navy warship. The guns are linked to an active radar fire control. They target any object on a collision course, alert the bridge and wait for orders. Typically a ship has 2 or 4 PD-guns mounted forward and the same number aft. Big warships will also have midsection guns.

Defence lasers are being developed but have not yet entered wide service. In several ways lasers are better than guns. However they do use a lot of power, and have some technical issues. After the battle for Sol in 2030, when many ships simply ran dry of DG-gun ammo, a push was made to add some PD-lasers to all warships. 

Weapons.

Missiles.

The Gramps Mk 5 missile system is used in many small military and civilian ships. It launches a 3x12ft missile, which may include a wide range of probes or other mini-craft. Scout ships often use the system to launch satellites.

The Archer Mk 7 missile system is used by the military for more serious payload delivery. It launches a 3x18ft missile. In addition to the various probes and utility mini-craft, the Archer is intended to fire T3 torpedoes (which contain 3 warheads, usually 1 nuke and 2 decoy/jammers)

The Athena Mk 9 system, launches 3x22ft weapons, with its main munition being the T6 torpedo (yes it has 6 warheads)

 

Most missiles have a powered flight time of 20 seconds at 20G of acceleration. Using a conservative flight plan will greatly expand the duration. They also have a separate manoeuvring thruster rig with several seconds use. When in attack mode a missile will “jink” to make itself a harder target to shoot down. Most missile are smart, with several programmed action plans, they can also receive specific instructions before launch or during flight.

Nukes in space.

A 1KT nuclear bomb has a quick kill range of 1000m, anyone without radiation shielding is dead. Those up to 1500m get a fatal exposure but do not die right away, they have a few hours before death. Those up to 2000m are also fatally radiated, but they have many days before death. Beyond this, out to about 20 km, radiation is dangerous but not deadly.

There is no shock wave from a nuke in space as there is in an atmosphere. But at 500m it will be felt, doing some "shake up" damage to a ship. 

Using the 1KT at 1000m example, some of the outer hull will vaporize or melt. Sensitive equipment (things sticking out) are most at risk of damage. Also the EMP is a danger, with its effective range being 10 km against regular electronics. The field created by a GCU offers some protection, as does the radiation shielding built into the ship’s hull.

All the above missile systems are designed to carry 10 KT warheads. 

Note; the difference between Nuclear and Neutron bomb is mostly in duration of its blast.  A nuclear bomb delivers all its energy in a single instant of explosive power. A neutron bomb gives the same power over 20 seconds. In practical terms, systems which may survive the flash of a nuke will likely not survive the "cooking" effect of a neutron bomb.

Rail Guns.

The "ship killer" magnetic rail acceleration gun fires a projectile 3x12ft in size. The power of the gun depends a lot on the length of the barrel, as this provides the acceleration for the shot. A 100ft barrel provides enough punch to cut through any shields (we are able to put up) effectively making it a one shot ship killer. The Sabre class warship mounts 2, 140ft rail guns. However they are fixed forward so the ship itself must be aimed at the target. A rail gun usually fires a solid slug “kinetic kill can” but may be used to launch anything that can fit into it, including Mk5 missiles. The 3x12 size was no accident.

The BFGs Big Fearsome Guns. They are central mounted and run the entire length of the ship, about 350 ft. They fire 6x12ft KKCs, solid or fragmentation. Simulations show that a round of fragmentation from a BFG can shred a group of ships at a distance of 1 light minute. Shields and point defence being inadequate to stop the barrage. The construction of the BFG as a central open ended weapon, allows it to fire forward or aft. However the rate of fire is rather slow, because the capacitors must charge between each shot. 

Note; at the lowest power setting it can be used to launch a standard cargo pod at a velocity that will not harm the occupants. The usefulness of this feature is questionable, but it was insisted on.     

Mini Rail Guns do also exist. Th M-RG s3 is turret mounted in a cargo pod and may be added to improve a ship’s fire power. The pod contains the ammo supply and a capacitor, but the gun draws from a main power connection. These are a lot less powerful than the large fixed guns, with a barrel length of only 15ft. The advantage they have is in movable field of fire.

Lasers.

Very accurate and powerful light speed weapons, they may eventually replace guns on Human ships, but have not yet.

The T-4 laser turret, mounted in a cargo pod, is right now the main production energy weapons of the UN-Fleet. It provides good fire power and does not worry about ammo, however it does suck up a lot of energy and is rather delicate in comparison to a rail gun. The damage of a laser drops off rather quickly with distance because of diffraction. Thus the practical range for the current laser weapons is about 100,000km. A laser is not an effective one hit weapon on large targets. It takes a few seconds of contact for a laser to melt a hole through an armored hull. Any ship being hit by a laser is advised to roll, thus spreading out the damage to a wider area, instead of allowing the laser to cut through it. 

Combat Factors.

Range to Target

There is usually lots of time to get ready for a fight. Scanners can detect and identify ships several light minutes away. (1AU, distance from Sun to Earth, is about 8 light minutes) Most ships do not move at more than 10% of light, thus the time before the shooting starts can be rather long. Stealth and trickery can of course be a factor that reduces reaction time.

Missiles have a very long range, so do rail guns. However there are several drawbacks to using them at more than a few light seconds distance. The most notable is that the target has time to move out of the way and employ effective counter measures. To ensure a hit, against a target with active PD-guns several missiles are required at once, preferably those that each have multiple warheads. With a bit of tactical coordination, a ship can launch all its magazine of missiles and have them reach the target at the same time, making a swarm attack. This tends to be done at long range, 2-4 light seconds, but works well at medium, about 1 light second (300,000km)

 

Close range is considered to be anything under 100,000km, which is the effective firing range of our lasers (some aliens have much better ones) It is a dangerous zone of engagement because there is very little time to dodge anything and you can not dodge lasers here at all. For example; small RG have 5,000km/s muzzle velocity, while large RG have 10,000km/s.

Thus a careful captain will want to keep the distance above this, to give his ship time to respond. This is very important when dealing with heavy weapons that can kill a ship with one solid hit.

Considering some of the weapons and the defensive abilities, bigger ships are not better than smaller ships. That is to say they can be killed with one hit form a large rail gun just as easily as a small ship. On the other hand there are several advantages to big warships in terms of fire power and versatility. Which brings me to the next point.

FTL vs LAC

Because of the mechanics of FTL technology, hyper capable ships have a rather low size limit as compared to local area craft. The basic maxim is that an attacking FTL ship will be small, while a defending ship can be any size, often larger than the attacker. This is no grantee of a win in any given ship to ship fight. As we noted above there are some one hit = one kill weapons that can take down any ships (any we know about). However the advantage in fire power that can be placed on a large defence ship means it can potentially destroy several enemy craft before it is taken out.

The Centurion LAC mounts a lot of missile launchers (a LOT) based on the idea that if it only has time for one shot, then its missiles will be out and seeking the enemy. The tactical planers suggest the counter move to this in a serious invasion would be a small number of widely spaced FTL ships, considered expendable, who would snipe the defenders before the main fleet jumped into the system. The reply from defence comm is to give the missiles a program that will turn them into basically mobile mines. If the primary target is killed, they will drift and await new targets or orders from command. 

 

Are small craft any use?

We humans seem to have a fascination with fighter craft. These are best described by Admiral Hunter as “armed shuttles of questionable value in a big fight”. The argument between manned and unmanned craft continues, with the edge being held by the smart or remote controlled craft for the simple reason that they can pull higher G moves.

A single fighter is not a danger to a warship ship, but a squad of them may be. Why? Because of the number of missiles they can swarm the ship with. If each of 4 fighters carries 4 missiles, that is 16 coming at you. Some will be decoy-jammers and some will be nukes. Fighters are designed to carry the MK 5 (3x12ft) missiles.

Note ; all images are just because they look cool and not intended to be ships of this setting.