Changes in Space Warfare Doctrine
The information displayed on the large screen revealed that the shell's outer shell and impact-resistant structure were made of No. 1 Metal.
It contains an internal Atomic Bomb as a fuse, and its primary explosive force is a hydrogen bomb. The No. 1 Metal casing is made porous to release the energy of the hydrogen bomb explosion.
I see!
Everyone understood.
They all understood that even a meteorite falling to Earth from a planet's orbit under the influence of Gravity would cause an extremely powerful impact. If it were ordinary metal, the force of that impact would be enough to melt it into liquid.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible to achieve the effect of a ground-penetrating explosion; only No. 1 Metal material can withstand such an impact.
What they didn't realize was that this type of Electromagnetic Railgun projectile was something humans didn't originally possess. It could be said that it was designed specifically for the needs of mining.
According to the military, the emergence of this type of shell has made the warheads of human Electromagnetic Railgun more diverse, and could even be used as a basis to design an Armor-Piercing Shells that can penetrate the armor of warships.
This was not unintentional; in fact, the Weapon Design Department had already discussed and made preliminary designs in this regard when designing this planetary orbital bunker-buster.
Their idea was to upgrade the design based on the structure of Armor-Piercing Shells from the Earth Era, replacing the funnel-shaped structural material in the warhead of the Electromagnetic Railgun's Armor-Piercing Shells projectile with No. 1 Metal, and then replacing the 'ammunition' in the warhead with a hydrogen bomb. In this way, the armor-piercing metal jet of the original Armor-Piercing Shells- piercing projectile could be transformed into a high-thermal-energy jet of a hydrogen bomb.
The goal is to melt away the warship's armor instantly with extremely high temperatures.
However, they encountered a problem right from the start: Alloy No. 1 has a melting point of 150 million degrees Celsius, and the original design of this Armor-Piercing Shells was not to penetrate ordinary armor, but to penetrate the hull of a warship that was also armored with Alloy No. 1.
The problem then arises because, as we all know, the core of a hydrogen bomb can reach temperatures ranging from 100 million to 1 billion degrees Celsius, depending on the yield. Therefore, if Alloy No. 1 is directly used as a hole-shaped reflective jet structure and placed at the core of the explosion, No. 1 Alloy Material will melt before the jet is concentrated and reflected by the hole-shaped structure.
Using Alloy No. 2 as the structure to reflect and concentrate high-temperature jets, and then rationally designing the warhead hydrogen bomb yield, is feasible, but humans feel that using Alloy No. 2 as a shell is too wasteful.
Therefore, the Weapon Design Department is still studying the rational structure of this Armor-Piercing Shells, mainly experimenting with and adjusting the funnel structure of the reflected jet and the distance to the hydrogen bomb's explosive core, as well as the appropriate explosive yield.
The main idea is to control the distance so that when the core heat of the hydrogen bomb explosion comes into contact with the funnel-shaped reflective structure made of No. 1 Metal, the temperature is below 150 million degrees Celsius, while the energy temperature of the high-temperature jet tip of the reflected hydrogen bomb must exceed 150 million degrees Celsius. Only in this way can we ensure that this Armor-Piercing Shells can burn through the armor of a warship instantly when it hits it.
In fact, after selling the manufacturing process of No. 1 Alloy Material to the Nair Civilization, the Weapon Design Department had the intention to conduct research in this area, because they felt that the effectiveness of the Positron Cannon was greatly reduced when the warships of the Level 2 Civilization had Magnetic Shield.
If both sides' warships have strong armor, Positron Cannon cannot break through the Magnetic Shield in a short time, and conventional Laser Weapon cannot burn through the warship armor. In this case, Electromagnetic Railgun naturally become the main force in the war.
However, Electromagnetic Railgun projectiles are too slow to be suitable for space warfare at distances of 15 to 20 light-seconds. Therefore, to unleash the true power of Electromagnetic Railgun, they need to be brought much closer.
Humanity has fought a space war, which was the war against the Kun-Tai Civilization.
At that time, both humanity and the Kun-Tai Civilization were Tier 1 Civilization, and neither possessed Magnetic Shield technology. Therefore, humanity's space warfare practices, theories, and command systems were all based on Tier 1 Civilization technology.
After reaching Level 2 Civilization, the Human Command Department also considered changes in the form of warfare, but the concept of space warfare has remained unchanged.
It wasn't until the sale of No. 1 Alloy Material to the Nair Civilization and the emergence of the Electromagnetic Railgun armor-piercing warhead design model that the Command Department realized the problem.
Now, after witnessing the effects of Orbital Bombardment on the warheads of bunker-buster bombs, the Command Department personnel are even more convinced of this idea.
That is, the battles of Level 2 Civilization will be different from those of Tier 1 Civilization. Their main fighting force will no longer be Positron Cannon, but Electromagnetic Railgun, and the engagement distance will be closer.
It may be narrowed down from 15-20 light-second intervals to hundreds of thousands or even tens of thousands of kilometers.
From this perspective, the design of the Lyra's main gun as a super-large Positron Cannon actually greatly weakened the Lyra's attack capabilities, which was indeed a consequence of outdated concepts.
Because for a weapon like Positron Cannon, which is a type of charged particle jet weapon, to break through Magnetic Shield, unless the Magnetic Field Generator is damaged or the magnetic field strength is insufficient to distort the charged particle jet, it's really like a turtle fighting a turtle.
Fortunately, not all Lake-Class Warship in the human fleet were equipped with super-large Positron Cannon as their main guns. The original manufacturing ratio was one-third each of the three types of main guns, so a three-thirds combination was sufficient and the problem shouldn't be too big.
However, to fully utilize the advantages of the Lyra, the super-large Positron Cannon must be replaced with Super Large Electromagnetic Railgun.
As a flagship, it must have both offensive and defensive attributes maxed out.
The Orbital Bombardment mining experiment continued. After the first round of bombardment, the planet's continents were covered in dust, but humans didn't care and immediately arranged for the second and third rounds.
While observing the Orbital Bombardment experiment, a host of experts from various fields, especially those in the weapons Manufacturing Department and the department conducting research on space warfare strategies and tactics, were constantly generating ideas.
In short, not long after the completion of this Orbital Bombardment experiment, Yue Yuan's office terminal was filled with documents on topics such as research on warship main guns, the ideology of Level 2 Civilization warfare, and space warfare tactics.
There was also a more unusual proposal document, which suggested replacing the main guns of the Lyra. The argument was that although Armor-Piercing Shells hadn't yet been manufactured, based on the research progress, they should be available within the next ten years. If the Lyra were refitted now, it would be ready to be equipped with Electromagnetic Railgun shells with armor-piercing warheads in ten years.
Furthermore, the proposal also suggests partially modifying the main guns of existing Lake-Class Warship so that two-thirds of the fleet's warships would have Electromagnetic Railgun main guns.
Yue Yuan reviewed the proposal and felt that modifying the Lyra was not a problem, but for the other warships, he felt it was completely unnecessary. This was because he had consulted with the head of the Space Dock after seeing the proposal, and the answer he received was that extensive modifications were less desirable than building new ships.
Just modify the Shipbuilding Plan and replace the main guns of all the warships to be built in the future with Super Large Electromagnetic Railgun.
Yue Yuan thought this made a lot of sense.
If the main guns of all the warships in the construction plan are replaced with Large Electromagnetic Railgun, the ratio of the three main gun types in the entire human fleet will conform to the Command Department's understanding of the space warfare concept of Level 2 Civilization.