Talk:AFOH/@comment-27510151-20161223183442/@comment-14850713-20161225190832

OOC: Projectile velocity, penetrator density and hardness, as well as the enemy's armor all factor into a projectile's penetration capability. A larger diameter/caliber gun doesn't automatically equate to an improvement, and you can't just say a projectile can penetrate 30m. There are also tactical and operational reasons that made us stick with the Mk 8/16 240cm railguns. And they also fire projectiles similar to the one you described. Below is an excerpt (the original entry is in the Comments):

"The gun is the first fully weaponized model to come out of Project Paixhans, the Mk 8 240cm railgun, the "8" actually standing for Mach 8, the maximum sustained speed that it can hurl its specially designed ammunition. Because major AFOH combatants (flying capital ships, super-warships and heavy battleships) are 30-40% smaller than their counterparts from other navies, the fleet prioritized rate of fire rather than size (in comparison with guns which have the same range and mission like, for example, the Israeli Navy's 20 inch railgun), with the Mk 8 able to fire 1 round per minute."

"There are 2 types of projectiles. The HAP (Heavy Armor Penetrator) has a tungsten core with terminal active radar homing and either a thermobaric or small nuclear warhead (of about 50 kT). The extended range HAP-ER (nicknamed "Silver Bullet") can reach up to several kilometers beyond Earth orbit. Maneuvering and range extension is done by the guidance system via controlled bursts of shaped charges (1 for HAP, 3 for HAP-ER) at predetermined distances from the launch site as aerodynamic surfaces are useless due to the projectile's speed. The other round, the Area Denial-Tactical or "Ardent" has a lighter tungsten core but explodes a 10 MT nuclear payload in the midst of aerospace ship formations and has the same range of HAP-ER but with only 2 maneuvering stages."

As for our plasma railguns, they primarily deal thermal damage which is the reason why we developed them. So Project Fire is in hold for now. Cheers!