OK, maybe I should have put the From -> To diffs in the original post. Let's do that now.
From:::
Generally these are coilguns in the 20mm - 100mm range. '''Coilguns''' have proven themselves as a good general purpose weapon, and have been around a while.
The bigger brother to the coilgun. The '''Mass Driver''' has started to appear in places, however the weaponized versions are rare, as most that are built are the electromagnetic catapult version.Such systems may actually be part of a missile tube on larger vessels or for launching small craft quickly.
Lately the '''Railgun''' has been perfected. This is a weapon good for armour piercing and has a superior rapid firing ability as well as a faster muzzle velocity on 100 times the speed of sound. The most effective caliber currently is the 20mm round.
Currently in prototyping is the '''Rail Cannon''', a weapon using a 155mm round weighing 5Kg with a projected muzzle velocity of 1 PSL (Percent of the Speed of Light).
To:::
Generally these are coilguns in the 20mm - 100mm range. '''Coilguns''' have proven themselves as a good general purpose weapon with sustained fire rates, and have been around a while.
The '''Mass Driver''', the bigger brother to the coilgun, has started to appear in places, however the weaponized versions are rare, as most that are built are the electromagnetic catapult version.Such systems may actually be part of a missile tube on larger vessels or for launching small craft quickly.
In early 2013 the '''Railgun''' was perfected. This is a weapon good for armour piercing and has a superior burst firing ability as well as a faster muzzle velocity of around 100 times the speed of sound. The most effective calibre currently is the 20mm round.
First seen in prototype during Serenity-Con is the '''Rail Cannon''', a weapon using a 155mm round weighing 5Kg with a maximum muzzle velocity of 1 PSL (Percent of the Speed of Light). This weapon has a low rate of fire (1-3 rounds per minute) at maximum power. It typically operates at muzzle velocities of 1000 times the speed of sound with a slightly higher firing rate of 20 rounds per minute. Due to a combination of power use, size, and heat levels generated in action, it is only mounted on stations and ships of the Destroyer type and up.
---
From:::
'''Particle Beams''' are still only a theoretical weapon, requiring power and/or hardtech equipment that Fenspace can't access at the moment.
To:::
'''Particle Beams''' are still fairly rare in Fenspace after their explosive (figuratively speaking) introduction at [[Boskone War#Boskonian Bases|Boskone Prime], due to their large size and much larger energy requirements. Again, these weapons are normally mounted on stations and large vessels. Any vessel that mounts one is classed as a Battleship or Battlecruiser. The latter are especially closely watched by the Fen [[Space Patrol|law] and [[Great Justice|military] organisations.
---
From:::
As it stands, most '''missiles''' are vacuum adapted versions of those found in the 'Danelaw. Only [[Stellvia Corporation] has access to pure space designs, and they don't share with anyone (except once, when they delivered a consignment of missiles to the USS ''[[Stingray]'' at the very end of the [[Boskone War]). These use specialist warheads (specifically [[Kaboomite], but rumors of other high-level warheads exist).
To:::
As it stands, most '''missiles''' are vacuum adapted versions of those found in the 'Danelaw. Only [[Stellvia Corporation] had access to pure space designs originally, and they didn't share with anyone (except once, when they delivered a consignment of missiles to the USS ''[[Stingray]'' at the very end of the [[Boskone War]). These used specialist warheads (specifically [[Kaboomite], but rumours of other high-level warheads exist). Since then other [[Faction Guide|factions] have developed more 'aerospace' versions, with the new '''Illudium-P24 Space Modulator''' warheads.
This should cover the issue about Noah's initial lead on vacuum missiles.
Next, hard numbers for the Rail Cannon. It was mostly an execise in limiting things. As I put in the scene during the Battle of Serenity-Con, a 5kg 'shot' at 1PSL has kenetic energy equivilent to 5.4 kilotonnes of TNT. This is not a small amount of energy to hit something with, especially in a small surface area. (As an aside, the recoil of one shot damn near stopped the Stallion in space.)
Even the low 'regular' speed woud hit with the equivilent of ~83 tonnes of TNT, and as specced we can fire one every three seconds.
And who says we only have one per ship?
Thus we come to the power issue. Quite frankly, power capacity is not a problem to the Fen. These are people with working arc reactors being used to supply powered armour. Given that the prototype in the first film was stated to produce 3 gigajoules per second or 3 gigawatts on a continuous basis, and the Fen probably have better versions, I cannot realistically see much larger ship and installation powerplants NOT being able to supply enough energy to charge capacitors for at least 20 seconds for the fastest fire rate I specced.
Power distribution can be a different proposition, but why don't the Fen have high to room temp superconductors?
From:::
Generally these are coilguns in the 20mm - 100mm range. '''Coilguns''' have proven themselves as a good general purpose weapon, and have been around a while.
The bigger brother to the coilgun. The '''Mass Driver''' has started to appear in places, however the weaponized versions are rare, as most that are built are the electromagnetic catapult version.Such systems may actually be part of a missile tube on larger vessels or for launching small craft quickly.
Lately the '''Railgun''' has been perfected. This is a weapon good for armour piercing and has a superior rapid firing ability as well as a faster muzzle velocity on 100 times the speed of sound. The most effective caliber currently is the 20mm round.
Currently in prototyping is the '''Rail Cannon''', a weapon using a 155mm round weighing 5Kg with a projected muzzle velocity of 1 PSL (Percent of the Speed of Light).
To:::
Generally these are coilguns in the 20mm - 100mm range. '''Coilguns''' have proven themselves as a good general purpose weapon with sustained fire rates, and have been around a while.
The '''Mass Driver''', the bigger brother to the coilgun, has started to appear in places, however the weaponized versions are rare, as most that are built are the electromagnetic catapult version.Such systems may actually be part of a missile tube on larger vessels or for launching small craft quickly.
In early 2013 the '''Railgun''' was perfected. This is a weapon good for armour piercing and has a superior burst firing ability as well as a faster muzzle velocity of around 100 times the speed of sound. The most effective calibre currently is the 20mm round.
First seen in prototype during Serenity-Con is the '''Rail Cannon''', a weapon using a 155mm round weighing 5Kg with a maximum muzzle velocity of 1 PSL (Percent of the Speed of Light). This weapon has a low rate of fire (1-3 rounds per minute) at maximum power. It typically operates at muzzle velocities of 1000 times the speed of sound with a slightly higher firing rate of 20 rounds per minute. Due to a combination of power use, size, and heat levels generated in action, it is only mounted on stations and ships of the Destroyer type and up.
---
From:::
'''Particle Beams''' are still only a theoretical weapon, requiring power and/or hardtech equipment that Fenspace can't access at the moment.
To:::
'''Particle Beams''' are still fairly rare in Fenspace after their explosive (figuratively speaking) introduction at [[Boskone War#Boskonian Bases|Boskone Prime], due to their large size and much larger energy requirements. Again, these weapons are normally mounted on stations and large vessels. Any vessel that mounts one is classed as a Battleship or Battlecruiser. The latter are especially closely watched by the Fen [[Space Patrol|law] and [[Great Justice|military] organisations.
---
From:::
As it stands, most '''missiles''' are vacuum adapted versions of those found in the 'Danelaw. Only [[Stellvia Corporation] has access to pure space designs, and they don't share with anyone (except once, when they delivered a consignment of missiles to the USS ''[[Stingray]'' at the very end of the [[Boskone War]). These use specialist warheads (specifically [[Kaboomite], but rumors of other high-level warheads exist).
To:::
As it stands, most '''missiles''' are vacuum adapted versions of those found in the 'Danelaw. Only [[Stellvia Corporation] had access to pure space designs originally, and they didn't share with anyone (except once, when they delivered a consignment of missiles to the USS ''[[Stingray]'' at the very end of the [[Boskone War]). These used specialist warheads (specifically [[Kaboomite], but rumours of other high-level warheads exist). Since then other [[Faction Guide|factions] have developed more 'aerospace' versions, with the new '''Illudium-P24 Space Modulator''' warheads.
This should cover the issue about Noah's initial lead on vacuum missiles.
Next, hard numbers for the Rail Cannon. It was mostly an execise in limiting things. As I put in the scene during the Battle of Serenity-Con, a 5kg 'shot' at 1PSL has kenetic energy equivilent to 5.4 kilotonnes of TNT. This is not a small amount of energy to hit something with, especially in a small surface area. (As an aside, the recoil of one shot damn near stopped the Stallion in space.)
Even the low 'regular' speed woud hit with the equivilent of ~83 tonnes of TNT, and as specced we can fire one every three seconds.
And who says we only have one per ship?
Thus we come to the power issue. Quite frankly, power capacity is not a problem to the Fen. These are people with working arc reactors being used to supply powered armour. Given that the prototype in the first film was stated to produce 3 gigajoules per second or 3 gigawatts on a continuous basis, and the Fen probably have better versions, I cannot realistically see much larger ship and installation powerplants NOT being able to supply enough energy to charge capacitors for at least 20 seconds for the fastest fire rate I specced.
Power distribution can be a different proposition, but why don't the Fen have high to room temp superconductors?