Spaceships hull armor…solid?

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

GPS guided bombs are aimed at static targets from free fall not across the relative velocities encountered in spaceship combat, and the targets did not have ECM or the ability to shoot down satellites.

You'd have the impactors on the same delivery bus, and them separate very shortly before impact so the separation is small (in both time and distance).

Again, I have never seen an argument that single thick layers of hard dense armour would be a practical scheme for spacecraft armour, whereas there are actual spacecraft which use Whipple shields. Anyone who believes in the first scheme would need to make a case, with the physics.

And nowhere in Spaceships does it say whether the armour is a single monolithic plate or not. It merely tells us what it's (mostly) made of, how much it masses, and what protection that confers.

I think assuming that it's anything but "whatever works well against the threats the ship faces" (whatever form of armour that might be) is mistaken. "Whatever works best" would of course be the 'hardened' option, at double cost.