Re: Real Space Combat Help:

At 09:00 AM 4/10/97 +0000, Mike Wikan wrote:
>I think Railguns/ Mass drivers can be extremely effective considering 
>you can tailor the ordinance you can fire. For instance:
>In combat I think that you would lay down a "probability pattern" of 
>most likely hits. The current first generation Mass drivers GE is 
>testing for Main Battle tanks is performing at 5400 FPS (feet per 
>second) muzzle velocity with a kinetic penetrator round. Assuming 
>your Starship has a Railgun that is 10 times more efficient (not 
>unreasonable, I think) in space you should be able to get fractional 
>C velocities since there is no Atmosphere or Gravity to interfere. 
>The thought of being hit by a 1 kilo Frozen Chicken moving at 5% of C 
>is enough to give ME the willies! 

	I like the idea, however as you start to examine the
probabilities
at varrying range, you start to run into the problem of needing a LOT of
rounds to fill that threat cone...  That's a lot of Mass that you spent
precious fuel to carry with you.