A few dumb questions about Turbolasers.

[Sir Sirius]

Sorry, some, if not all, of these must have been asked before, but I couldn't really find any reliable info on them. So could you help?

• 1# What is the accurate and effective range of the Turbolasers of an ISD against another ship of equal size?
  I'm asking this because I've heard quite radicaly different estimates, anything and everything from several AUs to a few kilometers.
  
  2# What is the velocity of an ISD's Turbolaser bolts in space?
  And is their velocity constant or do they accelerate/deaccelerate on their own after been fired?
  
  3# Would it be possible to intercept an ISD's Turbolaser bolt by hitting it with something (like a *true* laser, another TL bolt, missile, Etc.)?
  
  4# If an ISD's TL bolt hits a 10cm thick steel plate in space would the TL bolt pierce the plate and continue on it's way or would it explode? (the plate is a circular with a diameter of 50 meters, if that has any relevance)
  Asking because I can't remember a scene where TL bolt pierce something and because the "flak bursts" indicate that TL bolt can explode.

[Lord Pounder]

http://www.stardestroyer.net/tlc/index.html

Have u not read the site?

[Darth Servo]

Sorry, some, if not all, of these must have been asked before, but I couldn't really find any reliable info on them. So could you help?

• 1# What is the accurate and effective range of the Turbolasers of an ISD against another ship of equal size?
  I'm asking this because I've heard quite radicaly different estimates, anything and everything from several AUs to a few kilometers.

Depends on how accurate their targeting range is and the only real Cap ship combat we've seen is in ROTJ which was at point blank range. The Trade Fed ship in TPM was able to pick off 1 meter tall astromech droids on Amidala's ship from a range of about 20km. Plus, ISD are capable of planetary bombardment so that proves that the bolts can travel tens of thousands of km.

2# What is the velocity of an ISD's Turbolaser bolts in space?
And is their velocity constant or do they accelerate/deaccelerate on their own after been fired?

Depends on the size of the bolt. The rebel ion canon in TESB reached the ISD in seconds.

3# Would it be possible to intercept an ISD's Turbolaser bolt by hitting it with something (like a *true* laser, another TL bolt, missile, Etc.)?

A reeaallllyy big light saber?

4# If an ISD's TL bolt hits a 10cm thick steel plate in space would the TL bolt pierce the plate and continue on it's way or would it explode? (the plate is a circular with a diameter of 50 meters, if that has any relevance)
Asking because I can't remember a scene where TL bolt pierce something and because the "flak bursts" indicate that TL bolt can explode.[/list]

The bolts that hit the TESB asteroidsd detonated on impact eventhough they had suficient energy to totally vaporise the asteroid. That energy would easily be enough to punch a hole through said asteroid, but it didn't.

The flak bursts are probably a set to detonate in close proximity to the target (the Falcon).

[Sir Sirius]

Have u not read the site?

Yes I have, but I didn't find the answers there.

The Trade Fed ship in TPM was able to pick off 1 meter tall astromech droids on Amidala's ship from a range of about 20km.

Were actualy aiming the droids? Seems a rather strange thing to do.

[Darth Servo]

The Trade Fed ship in TPM was able to pick off 1 meter tall astromech droids on Amidala's ship from a range of about 20km.

Were actualy aiming the droids? Seems a rather strange thing to do.

Not really. Think about it. The Trade Fed wanted Amidala to sign a treaty to "leagalize" their occupation of Naboo. They were obviously trying to DISABLE the ship. Not destroy it. Those droids were clearly trying to repair the ship. Taking them out was critical.

[Ender]

Sorry, some, if not all, of these must have been asked before, but I couldn't really find any reliable info on them. So could you help?

• 1# What is the accurate and effective range of the Turbolasers of an ISD against another ship of equal size?
  I'm asking this because I've heard quite radicaly different estimates, anything and everything from several AUs to a few kilometers.

They have hit things with no ECM at long range. Most combat seems to take place in the 10-30 thousand kilcks range though because of it. Effective range depends on how fast the Mon Remonda was going. In Solo Command there is a line about tiem to range, time to effective range. Difference is 32 seconds. So depending on how fast they were going (.4C seems to be upper limit for large cap ships) you get different numbers

2# What is the velocity of an ISD's Turbolaser bolts in space?
And is their velocity constant or do they accelerate/deaccelerate on their own after been fired?

Depends on the description of Tls you take. Some say they travel at C, others slower. And the bolts move at all different speeds in the film.

3# Would it be possible to intercept an ISD's Turbolaser bolt by hitting it with something (like a *true* laser, another TL bolt, missile, Etc.)?

Yes, a shield.

4# If an ISD's TL bolt hits a 10cm thick steel plate in space would the TL bolt pierce the plate and continue on it's way or would it explode? (the plate is a circular with a diameter of 50 meters, if that has any relevance)
Asking because I can't remember a scene where TL bolt pierce something and because the "flak bursts" indicate that TL bolt can explode.[/list]

There's a big todo about flak bursting in another thread here somewhere.

[Connor MacLeod]

Sorry, some, if not all, of these must have been asked before, but I couldn't really find any reliable info on them. So could you help?

• 1# What is the accurate and effective range of the Turbolasers of an ISD against another ship of equal size?
  I'm asking this because I've heard quite radicaly different estimates, anything and everything from several AUs to a few kilometers.

Depends on the situation. Most effective ranges in large or medium scale fleet battles involving heavy ECM use (IE Endor) can be hundreds or thousands, or even tens of thousands of km in effective range. If the targets have substantial velocities relative to each other, engagement ranges can increase substantially. If there are fewer opponents involved and ECM is less heavy, ranges could increase. If an opponent hyperdrives in close to an enemy ship or planet (its happened), ranges can be much shorter.

The "Multi AU" Range is more an indicator of how little dissipation of blaster energy occurs at longer ranges - against any starship the top range of energy weapons is going to be no greater than 4-5 LS, probably closer to 3 max.

2# What is the velocity of an ISD's Turbolaser bolts in space?
And is their velocity constant or do they accelerate/deaccelerate on their own after been fired?

The "official" definition is that they're massless, therefore moving at lightspeed. There may be some reason to believe that there IS a kind of blaster weapon more akin to a particle beam, in which case velocity is variable (but can reach appreciable fractions of c with little difficulty - starships do this and ion engines are required to expel their particles at near-c).

3# Would it be possible to intercept an ISD's Turbolaser bolt by hitting it with something (like a *true* laser, another TL bolt, missile, Etc.)?

As was stated, a shield or some forcefield defense, or really large piece of debris, or a missile perhaps, but this isnt an efficient way to do it really, especially at close ranges (no reactive defense like an interceptor would be able to interpose itself between a laser bolt at less than a LS range, and perhaps not even then) There are no true "interceptors" in SW the way there are in B5.

4# If an ISD's TL bolt hits a 10cm thick steel plate in space would the TL bolt pierce the plate and continue on it's way or would it explode? (the plate is a circular with a diameter of 50 meters, if that has any relevance)

Since most ISD TLs of the light/medium variety can easily put a hole through 20 meters of durasteel (though there are versions durable enough to survive two shots with a bare 15 cm - which just emphasizes how powerful they are), 10 cm would probably not be a problem if the bolt is concentrated enough. A narrow enough beam would simply "drill" through before delivering too much energy, leaving the majority of the plate intact (Such a setting is called "needle beams" - witnessed in novels such as "Han Solo at STar's End"

Whether or not the plate "stops" the bolt will depend on the output of the bolt in question, and how much energy said plate absorbs. Its entirely likely the plate will be destroyed and the TL bolt will simply pass straight through. Again, larger guns on ISD's can easily hole another ISD's hull with little effort, and Imperial materials are far superior to those we use.

The "Explosion" a TL generates comes from the rapid expansion of vaporized material at the point of contact (witness the "knock down" seen amongst some people hit by blaster fire) - TL bolts themselves do not "explode"

Asking because I can't remember a scene where TL bolt pierce something and because the "flak bursts" indicate that TL bolt can explode.[/list]

They don't flak burst. Hit something with a large enough quantity of energy in a short enough period of time, and it will vaporize. Read the various discussion son the TESB/AOTC asteroid scens on this site, Curtis Saxton's site, or Brian young's old TL commentaries site for more info.

[Connor MacLeod]

The flak bursts are probably a set to detonate in close proximity to the target (the Falcon).

And how does one set an energy weapon to "detonate"? Its not a bomb.

[Sir Sirius]

Thanks Highlander!!!

[Darth Servo]

The flak bursts are probably a set to detonate in close proximity to the target (the Falcon).

And how does one set an energy weapon to "detonate"? Its not a bomb.

How does one travel FTL? Its Sci-Fi for crying out loud. Maybe the energy casing of the bolt wears out after a while and they can vary the strength of said casing. Who knows. The point is, the bolts consistantly explode around the Falcon, so its likely intentionally set to a certain distance depending on the situation.