Could a proton torpedo fly faster than hypersonic missiles?

[Maximum7]

I've been hearing a lot about hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic is much faster than say an X-Wing, because in 1977, nobody knew ships could go that fast in atmosphere. An X-Wing can go faster than hypersonic in a vacuum but in atmo, the mph is actually lower than hypersonic. In the Prequels, Padme's Nabooian yacht which she used to travel with Anakin to Tatooine is listed as saying in Star Wars: Complete Vehicles that it at 8,000 kph which translates to almost 5000 mph which is in the hypersonic range.



Now proton torpedoes. I can't find a source for their speed but here on Earth, I'm pretty sure missiles move faster than the planes that fire them but I'm not super-sure. I remember the Boba Fett children's series Book 5 Hunted, said that nanoseconds after Fett launched them, they exploded. Could a proton torpedo reach a target at hypersonic speeds?

[Solauren]

First, your post is rambling.

Second, have you looked up the speed of Proton Torpedoes?
2 seconds on google, and there is data on the parent website of this board.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tec ... pedo2.html

The ones Luke fired were moving at about 1 km/second when they reached the exhaust port. That's conservative.
Hell, you can use them in Starfighter dogfights, so, 1 km/second is rather slow for what they can do. Assume they're faster then an X-wing, and possible an A-wing.

Now, let's consider a moment. Proton Torpedoes are NOT ICBMS, or ground to air interceptor missiles. They're deployed from fighters or bombers, like most modern Jetfighter/Bomber weapons. They're the starwars version of Air-Air missiles, like a sidewinder missile.

So, the question shouldn't be 'can a Proton Torpedo' fly faster then a hypersonic missile. It's "can the vehicles that would be firing the Proton Torpedoes to shot down the hypersonic missile, fly faster then it"

Or, in short, can a Starfighter that can make galactic scale flights as easily as I can walk to the grocery store, catch a low tech worlds continental weapons.

Well, that brings up two questions?
#1 How fast is a Hypersonic missile.
According to google, wikipedia, etc, about 15,000 mph, or 6.4 km per second out of atmosphere.

#2 How fast is an X-wing fighter when not using Hyperdrive?

Atmosphere - According to Wookiepedia - 1,050 km/h/
So, in an atmosphere, an X-wing probably couldn't hit a hypersonic missile.

But, why would the X-wing attempt to intercept a missile in the atmosphere, hypersonic missiles spend most of their flight in low orbit?
That's space.

The maximum velocity of an X-wing is listed as 100 Megalights per hour.
What's a megalight?

Well...
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Megalight_per_hour
Short summary - 1 MGLT ≈ 0.0755 light-years per hour
In other words, without going to hyperdrive, X-wings can move at nearly 7 lightyears per hour.

YES HELL, that can totally intercept Hypersonic missiles. Hell, at 1% power, they'll fly past and have to turn around.

And Proton Torpedoes, in space, can, at short range, catch up to an X-wing. (It's run to fly Imperial craft and hit an X-wing in the ass with a proton torpedeo, while muttering 'for the Death Star')

[Batman]

You argue X-Wings can go 61,000+ c without hyperdrive but yeah, he's the one who's rambling.

[Solauren]

You argue X-Wings can go 61,000+ c without hyperdrive but yeah, he's the one who's rambling.

I was quoting sources. I agree, the MGLT measurement is a little high, and should probably be lower (say .007% of light)

However, in the old novels, they had X-wings jumping up to near 90%c to race between local engagements during system wide conflicts during the Vong Invasion, so... (shrugs)

[Batman]

There's a universe's worth of difference between arbitrarily high fractions of c and FASTER than c.

[Maximum7]

First, your post is rambling.

Second, have you looked up the speed of Proton Torpedoes?
2 seconds on google, and there is data on the parent website of this board.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tec ... pedo2.html

The ones Luke fired were moving at about 1 km/second when they reached the exhaust port. That's conservative.
Hell, you can use them in Starfighter dogfights, so, 1 km/second is rather slow for what they can do. Assume they're faster then an X-wing, and possible an A-wing.

Now, let's consider a moment. Proton Torpedoes are NOT ICBMS, or ground to air interceptor missiles. They're deployed from fighters or bombers, like most modern Jetfighter/Bomber weapons. They're the starwars version of Air-Air missiles, like a sidewinder missile.

So, the question shouldn't be 'can a Proton Torpedo' fly faster then a hypersonic missile. It's "can the vehicles that would be firing the Proton Torpedoes to shot down the hypersonic missile, fly faster then it"

Or, in short, can a Starfighter that can make galactic scale flights as easily as I can walk to the grocery store, catch a low tech worlds continental weapons.

Well, that brings up two questions?
#1 How fast is a Hypersonic missile.
According to google, wikipedia, etc, about 15,000 mph, or 6.4 km per second out of atmosphere.

#2 How fast is an X-wing fighter when not using Hyperdrive?

Atmosphere - According to Wookiepedia - 1,050 km/h/
So, in an atmosphere, an X-wing probably couldn't hit a hypersonic missile.

But, why would the X-wing attempt to intercept a missile in the atmosphere, hypersonic missiles spend most of their flight in low orbit?
That's space.

The maximum velocity of an X-wing is listed as 100 Megalights per hour.
What's a megalight?

Well...
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Megalight_per_hour
Short summary - 1 MGLT ≈ 0.0755 light-years per hour
In other words, without going to hyperdrive, X-wings can move at nearly 7 lightyears per hour.

YES HELL, that can totally intercept Hypersonic missiles. Hell, at 1% power, they'll fly past and have to turn around.

And Proton Torpedoes, in space, can, at short range, catch up to an X-wing. (It's run to fly Imperial craft and hit an X-wing in the ass with a proton torpedeo, while muttering 'for the Death Star')

Thank you! You just blew my mind. I didn't know that ships could travel at FTL without a hyperdrive

[Galvatron]

Thank you! You just blew my mind. I didn't know that ships could travel at FTL without a hyperdrive

It would definitely explain how the Falcon was able to reach Bespin in so short a time without an operational hyperdrive.

[Solauren]

Gheto edit - reading it over again, it's 7% the speed of light. Still more then needed to intercept a Hypersonic missile.

And for the record - the Falcon made it to Bespin on it's backup hyperdrive.

[Batman]

The trip to Bespin is useless because we don't know how far the Falcon had to travel nor how long that took. (outside can't have been less than the screen time, wasn't enough for anyone involved to age visibly and must have been enough for Luke too get his training in)

[Lord Revan]

The trip to Bespin is useless because we don't know how far the Falcon had to travel nor how long that took. (outside can't have been less than the screen time, wasn't enough for anyone involved to age visibly and must have been enough for Luke too get his training in)

There's also the matter that Empire was searching for the Falcon so it couldn't been that long (I'd say a month at most) that said the time frame is still very broad.

[Solauren]

I remember reading once it took the Falcon 3 months to reach Bespin from the Hoth

[Batman]

Nothing in the movie gives a time frame beyond the limits I mentioned far as I can tell.

[Galvatron]

They were also being followed by Boba Fett. He's not going to wait years to tell the Empire where to intercept the Falcon.

[Batman]

EU Boba is described as asininely mission-focused. But realistically, yeah, not likely.

[Gandalf]

If the Falcon is flying in a particular direction slowly, shouldn't it be easy enough for Fett to guess their destination?

He could fly away to let the Empire know, and periodically fly back to make sure the Falcon was still on the anticipated course.

[Batman]

Why would he have to fly away to let the Empire know?

[Gandalf]

Why would he have to fly away to let the Empire know?

No idea. The meeting they all had on the bridge was in person, so maybe Vader didn't want it on the comms network, and Fett could visit Vader to report while raiding the pantry on the Executor.

The "travelling for months" issue though raises the question of why the fleet didn't just descend on them, knowing their hyperdrive was out.

[Batman]

Out of universe, because it would have broken the narrative. In-universe-because the Falcon used its backup hyperdrive so the trip didn't take that long?

[Batman]

And um-the fleet DIDN'T know the hyperdrive was out. They just knew the Falcon was gone.

[Lord Revan]

And um-the fleet DIDN'T know the hyperdrive was out. They just knew the Falcon was gone.

True but "and oh he's traveling at sublight" would probably one the first things Boba Fett would tell Vader and as far as we know there was nothing wrong with Slave 1's Hyperdrive.

Honestly anything beyond a month doesn't seem likely as Vader isn't known for his patience and tracking the Falcon for months doesn't seem like would work there.

[Batman]

True and them not noticing the Falcon once it detached and moved out doesn't say favourable things about Star Destroyer Sensors or their operators.

[Lord Revan]

True and them not noticing the Falcon once it detached and moved out doesn't say favourable things about Star Destroyer Sensors or their operators.

Well boarding doesn't seem that common so looking for things attached to the hull wouldn't be a priority and after detachment Falcon floated essentially powered down among the junk the Star Destroyer had just dumped so it was probably just mistaken for a literal piece of junk.

[Batman]

It was What, 30 seconds before Han powered up the sublights? how often do pieces of junk DO that? And I know Star Destroyers are big but how many pieces of junk that big are there realistically going to be?

[Solauren]

Remember a few things -
Most Star Wars ships have a back-up hyperdrive. Numerous books I've read (pre-Disney) cited the Falcon had one as well. RPG Books, and Tech spport books especially.

Han is ex-Imperial navy. Don't real world navies make sure the crew know alot about the basics of the ships, including access to non-classified technical data, so they can all assist with repair and cover operation holes that might happen due to misfortune? (i.e injury, illness, battle damage/loses, etc)

I would make sense that the Imperial Navy is the same way. So Han (probably like alot of Rebels) knows the basics of how the Empire operates, and how the ships work, and how the ship systems work. I can imagine one of the things Han learned in the navy, and used as a smuggler, was sensor blind spots on some of the ships.

Really, close to the hull of the ship kind of makes sense for blind spots. (At least close to the ship).


Han even said to Leia "Well, if they follow standard Imperial procedure, they'll dump their garbage before they jump to lightspeed, then we just float away."

Fly into a blind-spot, park in it, and when they follow procedure, go 'power dead' and float away with the garbage, and don't go to hyperdrive until after the Imperial ships have all left. Hans plan, and it worked. It let them jump into hyperspace without the Empire tracking the jump. (And for all we know the back-up hyperdrive takes a build up for the jump).

Problem, of course, was Boba Fett guessed they'd do that. Or Boba Fett did that as well so the other Bounty Hunters couldn't track him, and he just lucked out with the Falcon being there.

Since the Empire (and I would assume Fett) got there before they did (Lando "I'm sorry, they arrived right before you did), odds are Fett DID figure out where they were going, and reported as much to Vader. A quick consultation with Vader's records on Han (you can bet he had all the information the Empire could get on Luke's friends), Vader decides Bespin is the best place to grab them.

(Factors for that include not knowing the exact speed of the Falcon's backup, or it's status, and the difficulty of getting enough Interdictors to scour the path to try to get them, the Falcons ability to get out of traps, and getting the Falcons crew OFF the ship and into a trap with Vader present).

[Solauren]

It was What, 30 seconds before Han powered up the sublights? how often do pieces of junk DO that? And I know Star Destroyers are big but how many pieces of junk that big are there realistically going to be?

He waited until after the Star Destroyers jumped before he powered up.