The Utility of Bombs [Spaceships]

[acrosome]

Modern smart-bombs can maneuver quite significantly in atmosphere. They can drift many miles, depending upon release altitude. I fail to see how something similar dropped from orbit would be less maneuverable and "useless". There were glide bombs with an 18-mile range in World War II, let alone more modern ones. The JSOW has something like 70 miles of standoff range!

So as long as we can get them within a few miles of the target- and recall that the Apollo capsules were unguided and ballistic during reentry and we did it with them- then bombs can guide into the target. The entry for them in Spaceships was obviously meant for such orbital strikes. I don't see why you couldn't target an individual bunker, just like we do now. Hell, the US was dropping Paveways on individual moving tanks in the Gulf War. They called it "tank plinking."

If anything, using them on airless worlds would be more challenging, since they probably can't maneuver as well, unless they do have some sort of small RCS thrusters or something.

[Aldric]

Reading Spaceships 4 p40 it seems these bombs have fins and thrusters. They also have the same accurcy against ground targets.
I haven't found their damage, but being 1/3 the mass and SM-1 compared to a missile fired from the same launcher, I'd assume their damage would be one step lower on the chart

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Aldric

Reading Spaceships 4 p40 it seems these bombs have fins and thrusters. They also have the same accurcy against ground targets.
I haven't found their damage, but being 1/3 the mass and SM-1 compared to a missile fired from the same launcher, I'd assume their damage would be one step lower on the chart

Still no book access, but I’m pretty certain they’re meant to have the same base damage as their nominal caliber calls for. The extra mass of a missile is in its propellant and other bits that are shed prior to impact.

As for terminal guidance, that’s going to depend on the final velocity of the bomb (keep in mind WWII and similar munitions were loaded with explosives, while we’re dealing with kinetic kill bombs). If it still has a plasma sheathe when it reaches the point where adjustments aren’t meaningful, it’s not really possible to guide it once it enters the atmosphere. That puts a speed limit on the bombs, at least if you want to maintain their full accuracy.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Still no book access, but I’m pretty certain they’re meant to have the same base damage as their nominal caliber calls for. The extra mass of a missile is in its propellant and other bits that are shed prior to impact.

You are of course exactly correct there.

Of course, that does mean that in many circumstances their damage would be several times lower than that of the missile, due to lower closing speed. But the base damage is the same. (Probably the warhead is identical.)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

S

(keep in mind WWII and similar munitions were loaded with explosives, while we’re dealing with kinetic kill bombs).

There is at least enough of an explosive charge to implement the proximity fuse option.

I have not seen a detailed (i.e. VE2-like) build for the Spaceships missilezs but knowing how David built the missiles in Traveller there may well be enough explosives to make the missile somewhat effective at even very low velocity. The GT missiles had a 300mm HEAT warhead though at my current state of knowledge I'd think a SEFOP might be a better choice.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Modern smart-bombs can maneuver quite significantly in atmosphere. They can drift many miles, depending upon release altitude. I fail to see how something similar dropped from orbit would be less maneuverable and "useless". There were glide bombs with an 18-mile range in World War II, let alone more modern ones. The JSOW has something like 70 miles of standoff range!

And they also move fairly slowly.

So as long as we can get them within a few miles of the target- and recall that the Apollo capsules were unguided and ballistic during reentry and we did it with them- then bombs can guide into the target.

The miss distances for most of those re-entries are many miles, sometimes hundreds. I suppose if you had the bomb use chutes high up to slow down, and then glide from there it would work. However, that means you're going to need an explosive warhead. It also makes it a lot easier to shoot down.

Also, the Apollo and other such systems had a reasonable amount of delta-vee compared to what these bombs appear to have, so they're not using slow aero-braking. Note that the bombs in Spaceships have no 'minimum velocity', and thus the only velocity they have is from their launching ship. Thus if you want a fast deorbit you need to set that up using the launching ship, and then deploy the bombs (and presumably the launching ship then changes course so as to not de-orbit as well). If this is done, then the problems go away.

[AlexanderHowl]

Or you have the launch ship being an AKV and not worry about recovery. Compared to the cost of 60 25-kiloton nuclear bombs, a SM+4 AKV is a minor expense. A SM+10 carrier could easily deploy 120 SM+4 AKVs, meaning that the enemy would have to deal with 7,200 SM-2 25-kiloton bombs.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Or you have the launch ship being an AKV and not worry about recovery. Compared to the cost of 60 25-kiloton nuclear bombs, a SM+4 AKV is a minor expense. A SM+10 carrier could easily deploy 120 SM+4 AKVs, meaning that the enemy would have to deal with 7,200 SM-2 25-kiloton bombs.

Congratulations, you have invented multiple-warhead missiles.

[AlexanderHowl]

Not quite, as the bombs are smarter than MIRVs, so it is just autonomous space bombers and their carriers. Of course, the AKVs can just park in low orbit and drop one bomb at a time on their targets. When it comes to guided nuclear bombs against ground targets, it is really hard to miss by an appreciable distance.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

N. Of course, the AKVs can just park in low orbit and drop one bomb at a time on their targets.

When you are in orbit (at least a long-term not highly elliptical one) you can not just "drop" anything. You open your bomb bay and it will sit there not moving. Even if you push it out the bay forcefully it drifts slowly away but doesn't go far because you have not substantially changed its' orbit.

That thing you can launch at a ground target while you're just sitting in orbit is a missile. In most circumstances the only "bombing" you can do in space is _dive_ bombing. You fly at the target on a collision course and then eject your bomb while using delta-v to move your bomber off its' collision course.