Comment on Would Nuclear Weapons be as destructive in ship to ship space combat, as they are on the ground in an atmosphere?

• awwwyissss@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  How about a railgun with a nuclear payload? Breach the hull and the nuke would work again

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  • FireRetardant@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    With a hull breach the atmosphere within leaks out and I doubt there would be enough oxygen in the ship to really help with detonation. Maybe some self sealing projectile with a nuclear tip but really any traditional explosive would work fine in that case as the ship would act as a sealed canister

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    • fubbernuckin@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I think you overestimate how fast the atmosphere would leak out, or underestimate how fast a nuclear blast goes off. You could detonate the nuke before air really has a chance to start leaving behind the wake of the projectile moving at Mach 12 or whatever. The hole left behind i don’t think would change how the explosion worked inside the ship.

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    • cali_ash@lemmy.wtf ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I doubt there would be enough oxygen in the ship to really help with detonation.

      How would oxygen help with a nuclear detonation?

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