Stormtrooper armor question

[Batman]

An upper limit on stormtrooper armor effectiveness against projectile weapons is that some rounds around 30mm or greater can be hundreds of kg * m/s momentum, giving the potential for a concussion upon hitting a stormtrooper's helmet regardless of armor performance.

Screw the potential for a concussion. A head hit by anything bigger than .50 is going to kill the trooper by virtue of a snapped neck even if there's no dent in the helmet. CoM is a bitch.

The lower limit is less obvious, as a 34mm steel plate could also do well against a relatively powerful spear.

Define 'relatively' powerful please and again, comparing stormtrooper armour to 34mm worth of steel (as a lower limit no less) is a statement about the durability of that armour in and of itself.

[Sikon]

An upper limit on stormtrooper armor effectiveness against projectile weapons is that some rounds around 30mm or greater can be hundreds of kg * m/s momentum, giving the potential for a concussion upon hitting a stormtrooper's helmet regardless of armor performance.

Screw the potential for a concussion. A head hit by anything bigger than .50 is going to kill the trooper by virtue of a snapped neck even if there's no dent in the helmet. CoM is a bitch.

The lower limit is less obvious, as a 34mm steel plate could also do well against a relatively powerful spear.

Define 'relatively' powerful please and again, comparing stormtrooper armour to 34mm worth of steel (as a lower limit no less) is a statement about the durability of that armour in and of itself.

The spear incident is that described on the main site, apparently corresponding to momentum like giving a person (around 100kg) a few m/s velocity, relatively quite powerful considering it is a thrown object. The droid apparently had superhuman strength. I wouldn't disagree with the basic idea of what you are saying.

[Kartr_Kana]

hmm wonder what the blunt force truama from that kind of impact would be?

[Major Maxillary]

hmm wonder what the blunt force truama from that kind of impact would be?

Enough to shatter your sternum.

[Cykeisme]

This thread sure got derailed.. though I guess the fact that it turned into a discussion of the practicality of anti-armor weapons against MBTs says something, in itself.

As Batman said, when you get to the point where you're discussing the use of rounds like that against individual infantry, that does say something about the quality of the armor.
It's obviously far more efficient to use blaster-type weapons.

Also, according to the Guide to Weapons and tech, some rebel commandos used slugthrowers with special explosive rounds that did very nicely against Stormtrooper armor.

According to A New Hope, some rebel troopers used DH-17 blaster carbines that did very nicely against Stormtrooper armor!

Dead or blaster-stunned, regardless, those troopers were incapacitated.

[Gunhead]

Technically speaking it should be possible, using SW tech, to make a bullet with a small but efficient HEAT warhead. Or something very similar that works roughly on the same principle. Slugthrowers utilizing such munitions could be silenced and would be well suited to personnel who prefer silenced weapons, but also need something to use against armored foes.

These rounds would also prove useful to planets that are not up par tech wise with the rest of the galaxy, but can manufacture slugthrowers and ammunition from resources gathered from their own planet.

-Gunhead

[NecronLord]

The spear incident is that described on the main site, apparently corresponding to momentum like giving a person (around 100kg) a few m/s velocity, relatively quite powerful considering it is a thrown object. The droid apparently had superhuman strength. I wouldn't disagree with the basic idea of what you are saying.

It was a former TIE pilot, now training officer, with a droid arm. In theory, he should have ripped his arm off doing that.

[Cykeisme]

The technological homogeneity that comes with over 25,000 years of continous galactic civilization has blasters becoming so prevalent that even the poorest podunk world has access to them. Firearms are accessible to even the poorest war-torn nations today, despite mere centuries since their advent, and higher relative costs for rapid travel to the edges of our realm.

There isn't a world that would be using firearms instead of blasters, and anything that a specialized bullet can do, a blaster of similar size can do better.

Except, perhaps, as Gunhead stated, having a silent weapon. Even so, without complete understanding of the underlying functioning principles of a blaster, we can't be sure it's not posible to achieve that, too.

[Noble Ire]

There isn't a world that would be using firearms instead of blasters, and anything that a specialized bullet can do, a blaster of similar size can do better.

That is not entirely accurate. There are a few remote colonies, like Mace Windu's homeworld Haruun Kal, which sport ecosystems or climates that are corrosive to a blaster's complex internal systems, thus making the usage of convetional firearms more prevelant. It could be argued then that firearms might be more versatile than blasters, even if they are less powerful; however, it is likely that similar planets are not common enough to make the blaster a liability.

[Gunhead]

I'd say if you're in a corrosive enviroment, blasters should be far more reliable than slugthrowers. Blasters are a mostly contained system with little or no moving parts. The only opening into the weapon would be the focusing barrel. And I find it just a little hard to believe that it would contain parts that are more vulnerable to corrosion than slugthrower.

Unless we include into the slugthrower category bowcaster type weapons.
I don't see why someone couldn't utilize a similar system in a rifle weapon.

-Gunhead

[Pelranius]

I don't think the Xerrol Nightstinger is silenced, is it?

(I recall Han mentioning something about hearing a blaster shot, but I don't have my copy of SotP at college)

[Anguirus]

^ Nope, it's not. I don't think there is any known silenced blaster.

[Batman]

I don't think the Xerrol Nightstinger is silenced, is it?
(I recall Han mentioning something about hearing a blaster shot, but I don't have my copy of SotP at college)

No mention of the Nightstinger being silenced but the sound Han heard was the redirection mechanism being put in place, not the shot itself. Unsurprising as while blasters aren't silenced they aren't particularly noisy either so he wouldn't have heard the shot, particularly against the backdrop of an angry crowd.

[Gunhead]

Blaster bolt impacting a wall for example would generate quite a bit of sound. But the key part would really be masking the sound generated by the firing of the weapon. Now even if you cannot completely negate it. It's really sufficient if the sound pattern can be made hard to localize.

How do blaster weapons interact with an athmosphere btw? They don't seem to function as like a direct energy weapon. Instead the bolt seems to pass through air a lot like a projectile would. Atleast the visible part.

-Gunhead

[Winston Blake]

I'd say if you're in a corrosive enviroment, blasters should be far more reliable than slugthrowers. Blasters are a mostly contained system with little or no moving parts. The only opening into the weapon would be the focusing barrel. And I find it just a little hard to believe that it would contain parts that are more vulnerable to corrosion than slugthrower.

All he said is that the atmosphere was corrosive to blaster components. This might not be the same as being generally corrosive. One or more blaster components may contain exotic materials that happen to be affected by those conditions, and must be accessible through the barrel in order for the blaster to function.

[Gunhead]

All he said is that the atmosphere was corrosive to blaster components. This might not be the same as being generally corrosive. One or more blaster components may contain exotic materials that happen to be affected by those conditions, and must be accessible through the barrel in order for the blaster to function.

This makes sense if they specifically use corrosion resistant materials to produce slughthrowers and for some reason said materials cannot be used in blasters.
Note: I'm using the term slugthrower quite liberally here to include all weapons that spit out a projectile. Be it a bullet or a swanky bowcaster type energy bullet.
If the overall costs of a slughtrower are lower compared to a (corrosion resistant) blaster and slugthrowers can achieve roughly same performance levels, then it makes sense to produce sluggies.

-Gunhead

[Kurgan]

This is just something i have been wondering about, does the EU shed any light on the matter?

Does Clonetrooper/Stormtrooper Armor have a built in system for collecting the waste products of the Human digestive system?

Zor

Perhaps waste is collected and compressed into a little holding area on the armor.

That "thermal detonator" at the back? Poopy-bomb.

[Major Maxillary]

According to A New Hope, some rebel troopers used DH-17 blaster carbines that did very nicely against Stormtrooper armor!

Dead or blaster-stunned, regardless, those troopers were incapacitated.

I fail to see how that does anything against my argument that it is possible to defeat Imperial body armor with projectile-based firearms.

[Cykeisme]

According to A New Hope, some rebel troopers used DH-17 blaster carbines that did very nicely against Stormtrooper armor!

Dead or blaster-stunned, regardless, those troopers were incapacitated.

I fail to see how that does anything against my argument that it is possible to defeat Imperial body armor with projectile-based firearms.

Ah, sorry.

I simply meant that while special explosive rounds were necessary for the slugthrowers, blasters that are capable of achieving the same effect are common and readily available.
Plus, their ammunition capacity and the cost of each shot is probably considerably less, since blasters just need their power packs recharged, rather than an explosive round that, judging by its special nature, might cost quite a bit.

You're absolutely right, though, and it's no surprise that SW-level firearms can defeat their personal armor. I mean, considering the energy density they have in the explosives used in their munitions of all sizes (from starfighter missiles to thermal detonators), they could be packing the same sort of energy per unit mass in the explosive slugthrower projectiles.