Hand held weapons
- Thread starter BlueClaw
- Start date
Isn't that what mass driver is in the first place?
Anyway, I have to agree that more than one type of weapon is to be used in any engagement. You can liken all of this to real world applicatiions. Militaries around the world use different kinds of weapons to get a task done. Lets take the US Army Special Forces. In one special forces squad (what is that 12 men? can't remember
), you would have a ton of different weapons most with different types of ammunition (the gun using different types of ammunition being likened to the different guns in the WC universe). You would have a heavy machine gun (I think called a SAR - squad action rifle - agian my memory is fuzzy ) which depending upon the mission could be anything from an all out tripod mounted M-60 (shooting 7.62mm rounds) to a light loadout that might have an AR-15 (shooting I believe .223 caliber rounds). Everyone of course would have their sidearm (using according to preference, .45 caliber, 9mm, or .38 caliber rounds) and their main weapon, probably an H&K MP5 or something of the sort (again either 9mm or .45 caliber rounds). Plus you might have a sniper rifle in the bunch (probably firing .308 shells). And if we are to beleive the movies, one "cowboy" who has his shotgun along for the ride (using either 12 or 20 guage rounds). So we use a variety of different types of weapons in even one of our small military groups.Also, laser weapons as we know them would not be a very good battlefield weapon. Number 1, a lasers blast radius is determined by the size of the emitter and the puncture in an enemy would be no bigger than the emitter (forcing a well-placed shot into an opponents vital organs - and oh by the way, even if you punctured a hole the size of a quarter in the hull of a ship, you would have a pretty nasty decompression). number 2, the laser would be instantaneous cauterizing the flesh it passed through. Therefore basically unless you hit something major, your enemy would still press home an attack (if you were hit by something that put a little hole in you that you probably wouldn't even feel due to the instant distruction of the nerves, would you stop an attack?). Repelling an attack is based on 2 things, stopping power and lethality. If you have a weapon that will knock an enemy off his feet and even if it doesn't kill him there, he might still bleed to death in a few minutes, you've got one hell of a battlefield weapon. Thus the age old debate over velocity and stopping power, too much vleocity and the bullet goes right through, barely slowing your enemy. Too much stopping power (low velocity) and your round doesn't travel that far. So I would have to surmise that Confed uses a whole slew of weapons including the dissinteegrating lasers, particle weapons (probably the standard issue - like those in WCIV. they couldn't be lasers since lasers don't travel in bolts), stun weapons for security personnel (we see a slew of these in WCA), and projectile weapons (mass drivers). I belive thees room for all of them in this mans Confed
.C-ya
Depends on how often it needs maintenance or needs parts replaced. Ideally, such a weapon could see weeks of frequent use while only needing its batteries changed whenever they got depleted.
Also, on the Lexington, we see Seether using an energy pistol when he kills the captive Border Worlds pilot. This would seem to suggest that such weapons are widely used onboard vessels by Confed personnel and not just Border Worlds personnel.
Why does it have to be a laser? It could be another type of energy weapon or a high energy particle weapon. Unless it's actually stated somewhere...
Also energy weapons can also be made for short range. Either something like a laser with a tight focus or another energy weapon with quick energy depletion over range.
Ripper
Peace Through Superior Firepower
A lot of this was devoted about concerns about puncturing the ship hull. That would seem to be of extremely minor concern, unlike major structural damage from very large weapons, which probably woud not be hand held, except by Arnold. Look at the two huge holes at each end of the flight deck. Those holes are O.K. because it was structurally designed that way. Small holes from hand held weapons would be structurally insignifigant. Normal damage control parties could keep the air in, maybe even with portable shields/ force fields like what keep the air from leaving the hangar deck. Then after the fighting is over, do the permanant fixes. It would seem unlikely that small arms could do any more than very minor damage, just because the ship is comparatively so enormous. Kinda like the Excalibur against the Kilrathi Dreadnought on Nightmare level.
Haesslich
Spaceman
However, those small holes may well weaken the integrity of the hull - yes, the hole itself is insignificant in size, but it may compromise the armor integrity on the outside... by weakening it so that the armor won't take the torpedo blast properly, crumpling with one hit rather than surviving to take two or more.
Ripper
Peace Through Superior Firepower
Look at the combat record of U.S. carriers in WW2. They were getting strafed, Kamakaze d, bombed, and just generally given one hell of a beating. They were very hard to sink, and it was because of the way they were built. The only way to take one out in one shot is to nuke it. I would think that a space based carrier of... how can we not offend.... descended from American manufacture would probably be so tough that the small stuff would still be insignifigant pin pricks. The Nimitz had a crash on deck in (79?) that you might think would imperil the ship, but flight ops resumed after about 90 minutes, if I remember right. The U.S. makes really tough carriers.
bombed, and just generally given one hell of a beating. They were very hard to sink, and it was because of the way they were built. The only way to take one out in one shot is to nuke it. I would think that a space based carrier of... how can we not offend.... descended from American manufacture would probably be so tough that the small stuff would still be insignifigant pin pricks. The Nimitz had a crash on deck in (79?) that you might think would imperil the ship, but flight ops resumed after about 90 minutes, if I remember right. The U.S. makes really tough carriers.