'Realistic' weapons

[Typhonis 1]

One of the weirder weapons in sci fi I have seen is a razorgun? SJ Games came up with the damn thing. Its a coilgun that fires 1 inch lengths of monowire fired at high speeds. The weirds things about it are the ammo is a coil of monowire that is snipped off as it also has a nasty adverse effect on electronic gear.

[Ford Prefect]

One of the weirder weapons in sci fi I have seen is a razorgun? SJ Games came up with the damn thing. Its a coilgun that fires 1 inch lengths of monowire fired at high speeds. The weirds things about it are the ammo is a coil of monowire that is snipped off as it also has a nasty adverse effect on electronic gear.

If anything, that sounds similar to the Deathspinners of Warhammer 40,000, and both of them don't really make sense. If one were to actually use 'monowire', then you'd probably end up basing it off the real world's 'Bolo shells', which consists of two or more slugs molded onto steel wire; when fired the wire is made taut.

[Sikon]

A small enough object moving fast enough close to the ground can be outside the engagement capabilities of conventional, non-computerized weapons. For example, on the current battlefield, although soldiers, tanks, and aircraft can all be engaged, the chance of an infantry antitank missile being shot down before it reaches its target is typically miniscule.

An example is a Dragon anti-tank missile that's an object 14 cm (6 inches) in diameter and 0.9 meters (3 feet) long traveling at around 200 m/s. Even though such couldn't stand up to bullets if they somehow hit it, in practice the chance of a soldier seeing the blur, aiming accurately enough, and hitting the missile all within the few seconds it takes to cover a distance of up to thousands of meters is basically zero.

An interesting concept would be swarms of robotic craft around the size of such anti-tank missiles that flew around shooting enemy soldiers.

And they could "fire while cloaked" in terms of being invisible to the unaided eye in the visible-light spectrum.

Practical invisibility to the unaided person can be obtained not from speed in itself but from the ratio of speed to size. For example, a 100 meter aircraft going 300 m/s is perfectly visible, but a 0.01-meter bullet going 300 m/s is invisible to the unaided eye.

In sci-fi, consider craft of a few centimeters diameter outfitted with an imperfect version of cloaking technology, analogous to a more advanced equivalent to this. Even an imperfect "invisibility cloak" that wouldn't stand up to prolonged scrutiny at close range on a stationary object could do far better on a small, moving object that was no more than a blur already. In that manner, an ordinarily imperfect cloaking system could become perfect invisibility against the unaided eye.

The point of adding such a cloaking system instead of relying on the speed to size ratio alone could be to ease the technological requirements for the craft's engine performance and robotic piloting reaction time. For example, although a 1-cm bullet going 300 m/s is invisible to the unaided eye, that's rather high of a speed to size ratio to be practical for a miniature fighter even with future tech ... but even a 20cm object going just 50 m/s might be made invisible to the unaided eye with a moderately good cloaking system.

Of course, no weapon system is invulnerable. Certainly, with equipment for multi-spectral detection and with computer-controlled targeting systems, even such craft could be frequently shot down. However, they could be rather effective if deployed against a military too dependent upon conventional "guys with guns" alone.

One may keep in mind that the mere existence of technology able to counter a visible-light cloaking system doesn't mean everybody has it all of the time. For example, infrared googles exist in the real world today, but the percentage of civilians, criminals, and even soldiers wearing them is about 0% currently. Some groups like criminals or insurgents may not have access to the fanciest equipment.

[Lord of the Abyss]

Another odd weapon is from The Jehovah Contract; a bullet that reads the target his rights ( very quickly ) before it hits. Described as the ultimate expression of the philosophy that as long as someone has been informed of their rights, they don't have any.

[Sikon]

The above post reminds me of something else.

Heinlein's Starship Troopers had a talking bomb.

There's actually a logical application for such if the goal was to destroy enemy infrastructure while minimizing civilian casualties. For example, if a bomb dropped into the power plant for an enemy city loudly announces that it is going to explode in minutes, getting most or all people nearby to run away before detonation, that could drastically reduce lives lost.

Although such concern for the lives of the enemy public may seem unusual, it is one of many sci-fi possibilities, with limited war being just as possible as all-out wars of extermination. An analogy is the real world, where the U.S. tends to use guided munitions instead of WWII-style carpet bombing, and, in all recent conflicts, has used conventional weapons rather than just nuking enemy cities.

[Sikon]

EDIT:

A minor correction to my last post:

Guided munitions are actually only a portion of the total bombs dropped even in recent conflicts, rather than the 100% that my last post might incorrectly seem to imply. But the point about preferring fewer civilian deaths to occur remains.

[Lord of the Abyss]

The above post reminds me of something else.

Heinlein's Starship Troopers had a talking bomb.

There's actually a logical application for such if the goal was to destroy enemy infrastructure while minimizing civilian casualties. For example, if a bomb dropped into the power plant for an enemy city loudly announces that it is going to explode in minutes, getting most or all people nearby to run away before detonation, that could drastically reduce lives lost.

The Starship Troopers version were meant to spread panic, as I recall. I recall an example of your variation in the Sten series, End of the Empire; Sten and his rebels in their strike at Dusable used missles like that. They used modified Kali missles ( big capital ship missles ) that cruised to their targets, landed, and anounced that they were going to explode at such and such a time and that everyone should evacuate. Since Sten was trying for the Great Liberator image, and ( accurately ) trying to portray the Emperor as far more bloodthirsty it was a good idea I think.

[Sea Skimmer]

EDIT:

A minor correction to my last post:

Guided munitions are actually only a portion of the total bombs dropped even in recent conflicts, rather than the 100% that my last post might incorrectly seem to imply. But the point about preferring fewer civilian deaths to occur remains.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq the percentage bombs with guidance exceeded 80%, the invasion of Afghanistan saw something like 50% usage. Prior to that the percentages where indeed far lower, less then 20% for Allied force and about 10% for Desert Storm.

[Ariphaos]

One of the weirder weapons in sci fi I have seen is a razorgun? SJ Games came up with the damn thing. Its a coilgun that fires 1 inch lengths of monowire fired at high speeds. The weirds things about it are the ammo is a coil of monowire that is snipped off as it also has a nasty adverse effect on electronic gear.

This would be a nifty way to store needler ammunition (anodized in the process of firing, or something like that).

[kinnison]

A couple more - one is more of a close-combat/assassination weapon. This one is the variable-sword from the Nivenverse; a variable-length blade made of monofilament (read: single-molecule, maybe nanotube) wire, stabilised by some sort of EM field so it stays straight. Basically, you have here a ridiculously sharp, super-strong blade.

The other one, from James Blish's Cities in Flight: RDX, a gravitationally polarised explosive - meaning that it explodes in a horizontal plane, thus enormously concentrating the force of the explosion. Great as an antipersonnel weapon.

[Starglider]

This would be a nifty way to store needler ammunition (anodized in the process of firing, or something like that).

Down at that scale the surface area to mass ratio is going to be huge, enough that it is seriously affected by air drag and microturbulence - and spin stabilisation is unlikely to work due to the miniscule angular momentum.

[Ariphaos]

Down at that scale the surface area to mass ratio is going to be huge, enough that it is seriously affected by air drag and microturbulence - and spin stabilisation is unlikely to work due to the miniscule angular momentum.

Well, I wasn't referring to monofilament wire, just wire in general. In any case, the purpose of a needler is going to be closer to that of a machine gun than something you are intentionally gaining significant accuracy with.

[Admiral Valdemar]

On cloaks for hunter-killer drones, the use of metamaterials may aid in having something that works in visible and IR or whatever required wavelength while being passive, unlike the common idea of many tiny cameras and a light emitting skin.

The idea of many smart, small and well armed drones that can fly, walk, roll or swim is quite the catch all weapon system if done right. Armour and fire-power can only go up so far realistically (no gigatonnes from a pistol or tanks taking the equivalent), so to rely more on stealth, speed/agility and sheer numbers works better than a big hulking tank that tries to do everything.

As for needlers, we have sabot based flechette cartridges for modern assault rifles today. The US Army did toy with some designs in the '60s that gave varying degrees of success. For armour penetration, it works. Stopping power is the issue, and using an MP7 in 4.6 mm is about as low as I'd go without that insane cyclic rate.

[Starglider]

On cloaks for hunter-killer drones, the use of metamaterials may aid in having something that works in visible and IR or whatever required wavelength while being passive, unlike the common idea of many tiny cameras and a light emitting skin.

This is getting away from 'realistic', but one cool concept for aircraft is covering the whole skin with optical-scale phased arrays - which act as full-spectrum EM sensors and emitters, for all your tracking/EW, active radar stealth, active optical stealth and (with sufficient power density) laser point defence needs (no mirrors or moving parts required). Unfortunately we don't currently know how to make a phased array that operates at optical wavelengths, nor do we have the very high level of computing portable power required to drive it. But it's physically /possible/, and possibly plausible with advanced nanotechnology.

[Admiral Valdemar]

That would be cool. You could also have it so it's a flex wing like NASA is trying to make, where there are no ailerons or elevators etc., it's more like a bird's wing in that it's able to twist and morph itself, relying on the engines for propulsion still, but having an elegant and simpler blend wing design.

Hell, if you had the materials tech, you could make it act as an ornithopter to cut IR emissions from the turbines if need be.

[Starglider]

You could also have it so it's a flex wing like NASA is trying to make, where there are no ailerons or elevators etc., it's more like a bird's wing in that it's able to twist and morph itself, relying on the engines for propulsion still, but having an elegant and simpler blend wing design.

Hell, if you had the materials tech, you could make it act as an ornithopter to cut IR emissions from the turbines if need be.

If your materials tech is that good the skin might be able to act as a cold plasma thruster as well as a wideband phased transceiver array, with your active airframe for gross control - potentially simpler, lighter and stealthier than any sort of combustion engine (though I don't know how well it scales to large aircraft and high speeds). Cool images:







...though that site is rather crankish, you can find more serious/academic research on it if you google.

[Admiral Valdemar]

That sounds a bit like an electrical version of a pulse wave detonation engine like some theorise powers "Aurora". Can't say PWD is stealthy unlike cold plasma, though. DARPA even talked about using plasma from high speed flight as a weapon, channelling it into a LINAC and firing it at any incoming missiles.

[Starglider]

That sounds a bit like an electrical version of a pulse wave detonation engine like some theorise powers "Aurora".

No, not really. A pulse detonation engine is basically a fuel/air explosion confined in a tube, repeated many times a second - in other words a pulsejet with a much faster and more efficient combustion process. A plasma drift thruster ionises boundary layer air and then increases its velocity relative to the aircraft's skin by applying electric fields. I'm not sure how those could seem similar.

[Typhonis 1]

No this isn't a continuous cable merely a one inch sliver shot out at extremely high velocity at the target.

[Starglider]

No this isn't a continuous cable merely a one inch sliver shot out at extremely high velocity at the target.

Try snipping off a one-inch section of 1mm electrical cable and throwing it at a target across the room. You will notice that this does not work very well. Scale that up to higher velocities and ranges and it still will not work very well. For tiny flechettes like that to be accurate over useful ranges they need fins, which implies a bulky and easily damaged cable cross section and a complicates angled cutting system, and they will still have a limited range compared to normal bullets due to their high surface area/mass ratio.

[Ford Prefect]

This is getting away from 'realistic', but one cool concept for aircraft is covering the whole skin with optical-scale phased arrays - which act as full-spectrum EM sensors and emitters, for all your tracking/EW, active radar stealth, active optical stealth and (with sufficient power density) laser point defence needs (no mirrors or moving parts required). Unfortunately we don't currently know how to make a phased array that operates at optical wavelengths, nor do we have the very high level of computing portable power required to drive it. But it's physically /possible/, and possibly plausible with advanced nanotechnology.

That's a pretty interesting idea, and one I might consider for some polities or designs. As I'm pretty sure I mentioned earlier, the thing that humanity is best at in my setting is computing, so that's not a problem (and I have pretty silly nanotech, so that's cool too).

You could also have it so it's a flex wing like NASA is trying to make, where there are no ailerons or elevators etc., it's more like a bird's wing in that it's able to twist and morph itself, relying on the engines for propulsion still, but having an elegant and simpler blend wing design.

That's also a cool idea, but one I've already had and used in a short story, though these wings bordered on the obscene - they went from being swept back to being swept forward at one point.

[Admiral Valdemar]

No, not really. A pulse detonation engine is basically a fuel/air explosion confined in a tube, repeated many times a second - in other words a pulsejet with a much faster and more efficient combustion process. A plasma drift thruster ionises boundary layer air and then increases its velocity relative to the aircraft's skin by applying electric fields. I'm not sure how those could seem similar.

No, no, what I meant was in the concept for the fabled Aurora engine, that uses the fuselage as the combustion area (somehow). Naturally the pulse-wave is nothing like a gentle plasma system, but I do recall a non-traditional engine that used the shape of the body rather than a nacelle.

[Starglider]

No, no, what I meant was in the concept for the fabled Aurora engine, that uses the fuselage as the combustion area (somehow).

The integrated powerplant on the most popular Aurora design (and most other hypersonic airbreathing propulsion concepts) uses the underside of the fuselage for compression, not combustion. The combustors (i.e. the PDE tubes) are internal. I believe it may also use the aft fuselage as an extended nozzle surface, but I'm not sure on that one.

[Admiral Valdemar]

This wasn't that system from memory. The traditional Aurora has that underside box housing for the scramjet/PDE, while another design I saw was external using half the body as an aerospike, for lack of a better term. I never saw where the actual drives were housed, but it would have to be forward and flush with the fuselage in any case. Was years ago anyway and no such craft is proven to exist, though that's what I thought when seeing that cold plasma drive.

The concept of using the body that way is pretty neat, you have to admit. It also reminds me of EDI from Stealth (yeah, I know) where the body/wings would shift to offer thrust vectoring like some older flap based VTOL craft.

[MJ12 Commando]

Don't know if it was suggested-but if I remember correctly, antimatter catalyzed fusion is a viable method of building almost arbitrarily small H-bombs.

You could have bullets with a yield equivalent to a few hundred kilograms of explosive and other silly fun.

The Slow Guns from Singularity Sky were a fun idea, although not really explored in depth. Basically, they launched hummingbird-winged projectiles that tracked a marked target no matter where they went and killed them with injected neurotoxins.

Also: Bosers are boson lasers but I don't know how that works.