Line #40 Main/WeaponRunningTime


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3	%% The examples section has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings.
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7	All kinetic weapons have a finite speed --along with most energy-based ones-- they take time to get from the attacker to the target. Even light takes 8 minutes to reach Earth from the Sun. Sometimes this becomes a plot point. When a weapon takes over 30 seconds to reach a target, it allows things to happen, such as OhCrap reactions, defensive countermeasures, and self-destructing the missile.
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9	Of course, for TheSpeedster, there's almost always more than enough time. May well involve a MagicCountdown, when time flows differently on time counters currently not onscreen or discussed. {{Hitscan}} is what you get when a game skips this. When combined with OffscreenInertia, it produces peak tension.
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11	SisterTrope of TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot, any vehicle travels as fast or as slowly as the plot demands. SuperTrope of SlowLaser, laser beams depicted as slower-than-light energy bullets.
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13	!!Examples:
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15	[[foldercontrol]]
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17	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
18	* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'': There're several scenes with torpedoes inexorably closing in on the sub. Usually includes the first officer stoically counting down the time to impact with his stopwatch.
19	* ''Film/JamesBond'':
20	** In the ActionPrologue of ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'', Bond exploits the fact that his tiny jet is almost as fast as an intercepting missile to lead it into a hangar so that it explodes there and destroys the advanced radar system that was Bond's target.
21	** In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', Bond has to get an aircraft clear from an ArmsFair before a Tomahawk hits the place.
22	* ''Film/RogueOne'':
23	** The first time the Death Star is used, it's set at its lowest potency because while the Imperials want to stifle the rebellious discontent brewing in Jedha City, they still want to keep their planet-destructor under wraps. As a result, the Death Star's ray acts as a WaveMotionGun that takes very little to reach its target and causes a slower expansive wave up the size of a nation. Its firing startles the heroes into a rushed escapade from the moon before the blast kills them.
24	** The second time the Death Star fires, it's again in its single-reactor ignition, so the ensuing destruction is the same. Except, the trope is {{subverted}} because the heroes send the maps of the Death Star to Princess Leia just as said superweapon appears from the hyperspace in Scarif's space. Mission accomplished, they merely embrace each other as they await the fatal blast.
25	* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'': V'ger's plasma-energy bolts travel slowly enough that the ''Enterprise'' can see them coming for ten or fifteen seconds -- but [[PointDefenseless has no way to divert or stop them]] and must depend on shields for defense.
26	[[/folder]]
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28	[[folder:Literature]]
29	* ''Literature/AlexRider'': In ''Eagle Strike'', Alex has 90 minutes to stop [[spoiler:the nukes launched by Cray]].
30	* ''Literature/FlightOfTheIntruder'': One of the things that A-6 Intruder pilots need to dodge a surface-to-air missile is time to set up their evasive maneuvers. If the missile is fired too close, they can't dodge it.
31	* ''Literature/HonorHarrington'': Missiles are the primary ship-to-ship weapon, and running time is an essential aspect of missile combat in multiple ways. Missiles can be evaded, shot down with point-defense fire, diverted by decoys, or blocked by a "rolling ship" and interposing the target ship's impenetrable drive wedge between the ship and the missile. The longer the running time, the more time the target ship has to try all of these countermeasures.
32	* {{Inverted\|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober''. The ''Red October'' survives a torpedo hit because the torpedo doesn't run long enough. Its safety systems require a run of at least 400 meters before the warhead would arm, and it hits ''Red October'' just 350 meters after it's launched.
33	* ''Literature/RedStormRising'':
34	** Aircraft use missiles as their long-range weapons (where "long-range" is anything beyond 500 meters). However, as in real life, all air-to-air (and most air-to-ground) missiles have top speeds in the 500-600mph range. This is a particular problem for the F-14 with its very long-range Phoenix missile: at long Phoenix range, the Tomcats must take every possible precaution against being detected, because the missiles take so long to reach their target that a forewarned target will be able to dodge, duck, or decoy the missiles and escape.
35	** Submarines use both missiles and torpedoes, and both have the same problems: limited speed and limited fuel, which means limited range. Torpedoes also have top speeds between fifty and seventy knots, while submarines have top speeds ranging from twenty to forty knots. This means that under certain circumstances the submarine can ''outrun'' a pursuing torpedo. Even if the sub can't outrun a torpedo, it can use noisemakers and water conditions to dodge or fool the torpedo. A great deal of the skill in attacking an enemy sub comes from the need to get as close as possible before firing, so the target doesn't have time to employ any counter-tactics.
36	* ''Literature/USSCunninghamQuintet'': The running time of both missiles and torpedoes becomes tactically important as the U.S.S. ''Cunningham'' fights a solo battle against multiple enemies above, on, and below the sea in ''Choosers of the Slain''.
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39	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
40	* ''Series/Babylon5'': The defense grid aboard all Earth ships includes "interceptors" that can destroy incoming fire if they have enough time to aim and fire.
41	* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': Plasma bolts have running times, allowing the force wall on the ''Liberator'' to be activated.
42	* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]", the Romulans' plasma bolt travels at sublight speed and has a limited range. This allows the fleeing ''Enterprise'' to travel far enough before the bolt hits that it survives the weakened bolt's impact. A full-power hit would have destroyed the ship.
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45	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
46	* ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'': Torpedoes move a set distance (usually 30cm) every turn, which means that at long ranges they're more useful for limiting enemy movements than actually attacking.
47	* ''TabletopGame/{{Harpoon}}'': Missiles and torpedoes move set distances during engagement turns and may take over 10 minutes to reach a target.
48	* ''TabletopGame/{{Starfire}}'': Combat between starships is heavily missile-oriented. Some missiles are relatively slow and can be intercepted by point defense. Others are blindingly fast --almost lightspeed-- and at the ranges where combat occurs, these "capital" missiles can't be intercepted, only blocked by shields. In Insurrection, one of the weapons breakthroughs produced by the Zephrain research base is a missile that runs for such a long time that if it misses on its first run, it can turn around and make a second attack. Needless to say, that comes as quite a shock to the opposing forces.
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51	[[folder:Video Games]]
52	%%* Modern games often incorporate a tiny, practically invisible delay between firing and the slug hitting your target.
53	%%* Many a game involving HotSubOnSubAction.
54	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'':
55	** The first scene of the mission "One Shot, One Kill" is a sniping mission. The target is so far away that the bullet will take over a second to reach him and your CO tells you that you need to account for the Coriolis effect in your aim.
56	** Later, during "Ultimatum," the bad guys launch [=ICBMs=] toward the Eastern Seaboard. "No Fighting in the War Room" becomes a TimedMission to take the control room and enter the missiles' destruct codes.
57	* ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'': Nuclear missiles launched can take several minutes to reach their targets, which means they could be shot down en route by enemy anti-air missile sites.
58	* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': The series was one of the earliest to model each round's trajectory when fired rather than {{hitscan}} it, so as to be able to utilize the BulletTime mechanic for Max. Even at normal speed, there is a slight but noticeable delay between Max firing a shotgun and the rounds actually striking the target and knocking him back dead.
59	* ''VideoGame/Portal2'': The portal gun works at the speed of light. In all of the test, chambers save the finale [[spoiler: where you have to put a portal on the surface of the Moon]], the delay between the trigger and the portal opening is negligible.
60	* ''VideoGame/Helldivers2'':
61	** Offensive stratagems take anywhere from a second to twenty to call in. They're ''supposed'' to be aimed at the enemy, but in the chaos, a teammate can throw one down dangerously close, prompting a terrified scramble out of the way. Of particular note is the 500kg bomb, which has a one-second fuse -- when it lands on the cliff you're on instead of the valley you aimed it at, you have just enough time for an OhCrap
62	** Artillery -- whether the SEAF's, the automaton's mortars, or the bugs' bile spewers -- takes many seconds of arcing through the sky to land.
63	** In a volcanic eruption or meteor shower, you have just enough time to spot incoming rocks and dodge them.
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66	[[folder:Real Life]]
67	* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, torpedo-bombers had to consider running time in their attacks and drop their torpedoes from a range that didn't give the target ship time to dodge. Japanese torpedo-bombers didn't have to worry about this as much as American ones, because the Japanese air-dropped torpedo ran about twice as fast as the American one.
68	* Modern torpedoes generally travel at around 50 knots. When launched at a target 2.5 nautical miles away, a torpedo will take three minutes to reach a target, allowing a sub time to "clear datum".
69	* Nuclear missile from the US to Russia, about half an hour. From Russia to the UK, about ten minutes. From Cuba to the southern US, under five. [[UsefulNotes/TheMoscowCriterion Welcome to nuclear strategy]].
70	[[/folder]]

Context Main / WeaponRunningTime