Making EM Guns Viable in Space Combat (3e)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by GURPS Fox

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First, how fast are EM guns in general? I've seen some 2km/s velocities here and there, but nothing concrete.

Second, I keep hearing that all kinetic weapons have some self-guidance capability in space. Is this true from a game standpoint?

2 km/second is a speed for guns used in atmosphere where ammo terminal ballistic characteristics are important. If you go radically faster your projectiles start burning up like meteors as they fly through atmosphere and then exploding like meteors when they hit.

Early railgun research did produce higher velocities but it used experimental rigs that had to be re-built after every firing and that's where they also discovered that they had limitations on useful projectiles.

Velocities higher than 2km/second can probably be produced (by unknown future tech) for combat in vacuum where it's okay if the projectile explodes on impact making shallow craters.

2. is a rule in Gurps Spaceships and is part of its' efforts to make projectile guns more useful.

I would say that the "best" way to make EM guns more useful is to use the ^ rules of the setting to play around with engagement distances. For example you have a setting where ships "pop" out of FTL at specific Jump points and almost all fights occur at such places at very short ranges by space standards.

If you have a hard science setting based on our solar system the the defenders of Earth will see when the enemy fleet leaves Mars and will plan their intercept at the maximum practical distance. It won't matter what EM guns "could" do. Lasers (and maybe missiles) will have finished the combat before EM guns come into even extended ranges.