Can ICBM's actually stop an Imperial Invasion

[Howedar]

Or if I wanted to be an ass, I could point out that landing in the middle of nowhere seems to be the order of the day in Star Wars ground battles, given TPM (the initial march into Theed), the Hoth battle, and to a certain extent the battle in AOTC.






Yes, I know that the droids were the only ones who acted stupidly, I just wanted to be an ass

[Patrick Degan]

An ICBM would be a completely impractical weapon to use for any battlefield application, nevermind as a means to stop an Imperial ground invasion force. They're designed as city-killers, to be used against fixed location targets. And while an ICBM can be programmed to be fired against any spot on Earth, the target would not remain in place before the warheads reached it. Tactical nukes would be far more practical in terms of deployment. Besides, ICBMs are designed to follow a suborbital arc, which would bring the MIRVs within range of stardestroyer guns or TIE fighters in orbit.

However, I agree with Lord Wong on this one: the easiest means to achieve conquest would be to annihilate one or more major cities, then transmit surrender-or-die demands to the surface.

[Master of Ossus]

I've been reading up on the net about the Neutron Bomb, it infact is designed just to kill people and does a good job at it too, its radiation is more deadly than a hydrogen bomb, the radiation is designed to go through several feet of concrete, metal or earth.

What about those poor storm troopers? Their armour isn't even dense enough to stop an arrow fired from a bow made out of sticks

Be prepared to be flamed. There are some out there who feel the 30mm Avenger cannon from the A-10 couldn't hope to penetrate Storm trooper armor.

Strawman fallacy. He's referring to me. I never said anything remotely resembling that. You can go back and read the thread in the SW forum. Its name is "bulletproof?".

[Master of Ossus]

I've been reading up on the net about the Neutron Bomb, it infact is designed just to kill people and does a good job at it too, its radiation is more deadly than a hydrogen bomb, the radiation is designed to go through several feet of concrete, metal or earth.

What about those poor storm troopers? Their armour isn't even dense enough to stop an arrow fired from a bow made out of sticks

Their armor is apparently good enough to provide excellent NBC protection through an unknown process, however special suits are required to enter high radiation areas for long periods of time (ref. The Imperial Source Book).

[phongn]

run out of missles? there are 20,000+ nuclear missles around the world, all in the 300 kt range, some higher some lower, all it takes is a ground burst near a formation of AT-AT's and its over for them. You don't need 5 mt's to make a huge crator, a 220 KT tomahawk cruise missle will do just fine

There are not 20000 nuclear missiles in the world. TLAM-N was withdrawn from service a decade ago, and isn't suitable for those kinds of attacks.

[phongn]

I've been reading up on the net about the Neutron Bomb, it infact is designed just to kill people and does a good job at it too, its radiation is more deadly than a hydrogen bomb, the radiation is designed to go through several feet of concrete, metal or earth.

There are no operational neutron bombs (or more properly, enhanced-radiation weapons). The USSR made a big row over it in the 1980s - defending NATO troops properly sheltered (and with sheltered civilians) could destroy WARPAC forces without too much collateral damage.

What about those poor storm troopers? Their armour isn't even dense enough to stop an arrow fired from a bow made out of sticks

It hit the flexible joints.

[Omega-13]

I've been reading up on the net about the Neutron Bomb, it infact is designed just to kill people and does a good job at it too, its radiation is more deadly than a hydrogen bomb, the radiation is designed to go through several feet of concrete, metal or earth.

There are no operational neutron bombs (or more properly, enhanced-radiation weapons). The USSR made a big row over it in the 1980s - defending NATO troops properly sheltered (and with sheltered civilians) could destroy WARPAC forces without too much collateral damage.

What about those poor storm troopers? Their armour isn't even dense enough to stop an arrow fired from a bow made out of sticks

It hit the flexible joints.

I'll sum it up quickly, instead of point by point, its not hard to bring something back into operation, the americans modified an existing B61 to the nuclear Earth penetrator in a very very short time, bringing something out of the moth balls would not be hard at all,

As for the flexible joints, yes i know, i should have stated, but why does that change anything?

[Darth Wong]

there is that kelvar like stuff in the joints of the stormy armour, that thin material that lets an arrow through would certainly let radiation through

Actually, that is completely false. Most forms of dangerous radiation are far easily blocked than an arrow. Please stop making statements of fact based purely on intuition.

Survivors at Hiroshima who suffered severe skin burns were often OK wherever they had clothing on. Even a sheet of paper will stop most of it. Most radiation released by a nuclear weapon is absorbed and converted into thermal/shock by the atmosphere.

[Omega-13]

there is that kelvar like stuff in the joints of the stormy armour, that thin material that lets an arrow through would certainly let radiation through

Actually, that is completely false. Most forms of dangerous radiation are far easily blocked than an arrow. Please stop making statements of fact based purely on intuition.

Survivors at Hiroshima who suffered severe skin burns were often OK wherever they had clothing on. Even a sheet of paper will stop most of it. Most radiation released by a nuclear weapon is absorbed and converted into thermal/shock by the atmosphere.

thats only Alpha and beta radiation, Gamma radiation can penetrate several feet of concrete and earth,

[SirNitram]

there is that kelvar like stuff in the joints of the stormy armour, that thin material that lets an arrow through would certainly let radiation through

Actually, that is completely false. Most forms of dangerous radiation are far easily blocked than an arrow. Please stop making statements of fact based purely on intuition.

Survivors at Hiroshima who suffered severe skin burns were often OK wherever they had clothing on. Even a sheet of paper will stop most of it. Most radiation released by a nuclear weapon is absorbed and converted into thermal/shock by the atmosphere.

thats only Alpha and beta radiation, Gamma radiation can penetrate several feet of concrete and earth,

What did Mike say? 'Most Forms Of Dangerous Radiation'. 2/3 is most. Yes, Gamma is still dangerous, but of course, Stormtroopers have specially made armour to prevent Gamma rad from hitting them. It's called RadTrooper armour.

[Omega-13]

Actually, that is completely false. Most forms of dangerous radiation are far easily blocked than an arrow. Please stop making statements of fact based purely on intuition.

Survivors at Hiroshima who suffered severe skin burns were often OK wherever they had clothing on. Even a sheet of paper will stop most of it. Most radiation released by a nuclear weapon is absorbed and converted into thermal/shock by the atmosphere.

thats only Alpha and beta radiation, Gamma radiation can penetrate several feet of concrete and earth,

What did Mike say? 'Most Forms Of Dangerous Radiation'. 2/3 is most. Yes, Gamma is still dangerous, but of course, Stormtroopers have specially made armour to prevent Gamma rad from hitting them. It's called RadTrooper armour.

uh, lol

alpha radiation is only dangerous when injested from a water or food source,
Gamma is the type that kills your nervous system, alpha is blocked by clothing, beta by thin walls, its hardly worth mentioning that most is blocked by clothing,

If you aren't wearing a lead suit that is 3 feet thick, u aren't safe

[Alyeska]

Its the Gama radiation and Neutrons that are most deadly. Those both can move through almost any type of shielding. It takes specialized suits to defend against these types of Radiation and even then the people can't spend much time in the area. Thats AFTER the bomb goes off. Durring the explossion a nuclear weapon puts out MASSIVE amounts of radiation. At close ranges it puts out enough Gama radiation to vaporize people.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its the Gama radiation and Neutrons that are most deadly. Those both can move through almost any type of shielding. It takes specialized suits to defend against these types of Radiation and even then the people can't spend much time in the area. Thats AFTER the bomb goes off. Durring the explossion a nuclear weapon puts out MASSIVE amounts of radiation. At close ranges it puts out enough Gama radiation to vaporize people.

At the ranges your talking, your inside of the fireball. You dont need gama radiation to be vaporized inside of that. The heat pulse works just fine.

[Darth Wong]

uh, lol

alpha radiation is only dangerous when injested from a water or food source,
Gamma is the type that kills your nervous system, alpha is blocked by clothing, beta by thin walls, its hardly worth mentioning that most is blocked by clothing,

If you aren't wearing a lead suit that is 3 feet thick, u aren't safe

Wrong again. Atmosphere blocks gamma radiation. Unless you are so close to the blast (as Sea Skimmer pointed out) that you're already going to get killed from a variety of other effects, gamma radiation will be blocked by stormtrooper armour, INCLUDING the flexible parts that won't stop a bullet.

The point is that you claimed anything which can't stop an arrow or a bullet would be easily penetrated by radiation which is not intense enough to cause physical destruction (your "high-rad bomb" idea). I pointed out that this is not true. You tried to evade by changing the subject (all of a sudden, we're talking about radiation which is released so close to the subject that the blocking effect of atmosphere is irrelevant). Don't do that; it looks dishonest. No, wait ... it is dishonest.

[Omega-13]

uh, lol

alpha radiation is only dangerous when injested from a water or food source,
Gamma is the type that kills your nervous system, alpha is blocked by clothing, beta by thin walls, its hardly worth mentioning that most is blocked by clothing,

If you aren't wearing a lead suit that is 3 feet thick, u aren't safe

Wrong again. Atmosphere blocks gamma radiation. Unless you are so close to the blast (as Sea Skimmer pointed out) that you're already going to get killed from a variety of other effects, gamma radiation will be blocked by stormtrooper armour, INCLUDING the flexible parts that won't stop a bullet.

The point is that you claimed anything which can't stop an arrow or a bullet would be easily penetrated by radiation which is not intense enough to cause physical destruction (your "high-rad bomb" idea). I pointed out that this is not true. You tried to evade by changing the subject (all of a sudden, we're talking about radiation which is released so close to the subject that the blocking effect of atmosphere is irrelevant). Don't do that; it looks dishonest. No, wait ... it is dishonest.

Ok, no thats not how it works
A neutron bomb lacks the uranium shell which creates the huge blast, the gamma radiation is shot out thousands of times stronger,
You don't need to be near the blast, to get affected by Neutron bomb gamma radiation, Hydrogen bomb, u have to be near the blast side, not neutron.

Second, I didn't change any subject, I was very clear in my posts, please stop nit picking,

[Darth Wong]

Ok, no thats not how it works
A neutron bomb lacks the uranium shell which creates the huge blast, the gamma radiation is shot out thousands of times stronger,

Oh, for chrissakes, now you're just making stuff up! Please see the Nuclear Weapons FAQ on neutron bombs. They are designed to maximize neutron radiation while minimizing other forms of output (such as gamma). Why do you think they're called neutron bombs????

They are localized tactical weapons; the idea is to release a low-yield burst of intense neutron radiation which will cause localized heating effects, because tanks are surprisingly resistant to the shockwave and thermal pulse effects of nuclear blasts but fairly vulnerable to intense neutron radiation at close range.

You don't need to be near the blast, to get affected by Neutron bomb gamma radiation, Hydrogen bomb, u have to be near the blast side, not neutron.

Wrong. First, neutron bombs are expressly designed to create as much neutron radiation as possible and as little gamma radiation as possible. Second, they are localized-effect tactical devices. You have to be fairly close.

Second, I didn't change any subject, I was very clear in my posts, please stop nit picking,

Yes you did. Please stop wasting time with puerile self-justifications. And now that you've resorted to fabricating "facts" about neutron bombs out of thin air and speculation, please stop that too.