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Map of the planet Safehold (as of <em>By Schism Rent Asunder</em>) May 2008
The Cherwell Convention's Equipment Clause May 2008
White Haven's relief mission to Yeltsin May 2008
Escort CLACs May 2008
Capital ships and raiding defenses May 2008
Status of the Solarian League Navy Jun 2008
The League vs the Star Empire of Manticore: <em>Who declares war on who?</em> Jun 2008
Misconceptions about Torch Jun 2008
Point defense laser clusters Jun 2008
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Pearls of Weber

A collection of posts by David Weber containing background information for his stories, collected and generously made available Joe Buckley.

Hardening shipkiller missile drives

  • Series: Honorverse
  • Date: June 10, 2005

A suggestion has been made that it would make sense to put drives into shipkiller missiles of sufficient power to make them immune to wedge kill by a counter-missile. Is this practical? Could it be done as the final stage of a MDM?

 

No, it isn't. And it won't be -- ever. I believe we've had this discussion before. You cannot -- not "it would be hard," not "only possible with great difficulty," but cannot -- build a missile drive sufficiently powerful to take out another missile (or counter-missile) drive without being taken out itself. End of story. The physical size constraints make it impossible. That's why counter-missiles have used their impeller wedges as their primary missile-killing weapon for so long.