Sci-fi Weapons, Vehicles and Equipment

WowWee's still around? That's a pleasant surprise.

CS gas grenades with fetanyl mixed in with the gas: How awful is this idea? Granted, it does make more sense than Human Revolution's gas grenades.

Inflammation with a drug that can cause respiratory distress sounds more like you are trying to kill someone.

I am working on a military in the near-ish that relies heavily on orbital bombardment. They have a star fleet of 13 nuclear submarines in space, how would a ground based resistance force defend against or attack their fleet?

Surface-to-space missiles, launched from underground silos in Nebraska.

That seems like a tactics question. This is vehicles and equipment.

So how do cybernetics work in your setting? Artificial musculature or servos and motors? Or both?

Definetly a tactics question unless you want equipment ideas. Someone had that crazy MANPOD (Man Portable orbital Defense) idea a while back.

How?

Hand Wavium Sci fi magic, aka soft sci fi.

You activate Kruger of course.

Personally this◊ or This◊ is about the only way I can envision portable surface to orbit....

Since not only are you trying to shoot from the ground to orbit and fighting gravity the whole way, but your also targeting well a ship, and a litlle MPODS isn't going to pack enough oompf.

It doesn't have to be launched from the surface, a missile launched from a high altitude aircraft might be an option. That would cut the distance from the target by 225 kilometers.

Once you get to high altitude though, you loose the advantages which firing from ground to orbit provides, ample cover to hide, the logistics chain to keep you firing, and the heat managment that comes from being inside a rather decent cooling medium.

At which point you might as well engage in orbit to orbit.

edited 27th Apr '17 3:43:20 PM by Imca

Clearly the answer is a missile zeppelin. What it lacks in cover and logistical support it makes up for with enough internal volume to spam biblical numbers of missiles at any aggressor.

Immy: What he is talking about is something akin to aircraft firing anti-satellite missiles. In fact the first time the US ever did this they were firing missiles off of B-47's. Granted it was just a test flight to show it could get close for the nuclear tipped missile to kill a satellite. Unlike later weapons which are more accurate and capable of impact based intercepts or using some sort of close fragmentation effect. The US successfully test fired a ASM-135 ASAT missile fired from an F-15 at an altitude of 11km to strike the defunct Solwind P78-1 Orbiting Solar Observatory satellite at 555km destroying it. Instead of a much larger launch assembly needed for a ground launch it was only about half a metric ton missile that could be mounted on a common US fighter plane. The concept is being looked at a as a dirt cheap option for mini and micro satellite market for launches.

To be fair though our missile tech has gotten better since the 1985 test and we are firing a comparably sized missile in the SM 3 from surface to orbit with more range overall. So taking that tech and making a new missile could possibly make a smaller missile for air launch.

You don't need to keep firing. You can't take on all 13 warships at once without taking considerable damage to your forces. It's more realistic to take up guerilla tactics. In order for you have the logistics to keep firing you need to be near a major military base. You would be handing them a victory. Aerial launch allows mobility, which is a huge advantage.

But at that point you agian, might as well just go orbit to orbit and shave the remaining distance off whatever weapon your firing.

There really isn't much use for air to orbit.

edited 27th Apr '17 4:22:26 PM by Imca

You don't have time to start a space program.

That was a little vague. Even if you had a space program in orbit, it would have been destroyed by the approaching enemies. If you tried to reinstate it it would still, take too long to amass a fleet large enough to stand a chance against the enemy without being destroyed. How would air to orbit be less useless?

edited 27th Apr '17 4:57:22 PM by TheOnlyFish

Fish: Air to orbit would be pretty handy given it is a lot easier to get craft up to the initial launch attitude described for that test.

Immy: No not really. At only 11km altitude for the launching craft, with typical max altitude for most air breathing aircraft being 15km that is a good distance from having a space program. The K line is at 100 km and is considered the start of space.

In the case of the F-15 it is a highly mobile platform that can land or take off from any compatible air field and is firing well inside Earth's atmosphere to 555km. The missile is relatively small has good range, speed, and accuracy, and best yet its launch platform is common and very cheap compared to any space launch.

edited 27th Apr '17 5:39:09 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Here's something I've noticed in a few other websites discussing hard sci-fi. They tend to be... kinda snobbish. Is that common or am I just finding the wrong people?

Also, Cybernetic movement, artificial muscles or servos?

Some can be others are not so uptight. It really depends on the crowd.

Definitely not here, so long as we specify soft sci-fi (or it seems no longer it's just assumed) things go fine.

A mixture of both depending on the platform and particular use, servos are much cheaper, but in setting artificial muscle has some regenerative capabilities.

edited 27th Apr '17 5:50:20 PM by Imca

My cybernetics use a mix of both, myomer style artificial muscles provide most of the power and movement with specific brands. While Servos are used for control and such.

I've been looking for a good world building forum for a while now. Some of the past ones were pretty rude, sorry if I seemed rash.