Can we get nuclear shaped charges

The long and short of it is that Shaped Charges and Project Orion were just short of having enough information to be fully modeled in game.

See here for what the dev has to say:



 

I have seen a thread where someone uses a nuke to launch a projectile at an enemy craft, which is broadly similar in principle

This article explains it. It is real and has been tested. Since the 1960's scientists have known how to concentrate a nuclear blast in a directed charge....it's not some made up fiction.


toughsf.blogspot.com/2016/06/the-nuclear-spear-casaba-howitzer.html?m=1

Here is a discussion on use of directed charges as propulsion(Orion drive). To weaponize, you would need to focus more. That is accomplished by thinning the tungsten plate.[

"A nuclear shaped charge, which became the Orion pulse units, worked in three steps.

-The nuclear device detonated, producing 80% of its energy as X-rays, released in all directions. They are blocked by the non-fissionable uranium, except for a hole on top.

-The channel filler (Beryllium Oxide) absorbs the x-rays coming through the hole, and re-radiates them as heat (infrared). It is the most important part of the design.

-The tungsten propellant absorbs the infrared emissions and vaporizes, becoming a fast travelling stream of plasma headed towards the Orion's pusher plate. The tungsten is plate-shaped so that the plasma produced expands into a thin column.

In effect, the tungsten plasma becomes the Orion's propellant. Exhaust velocities of up to 120km/s have been proposed for the original Orion designs.


"The original nuclear shaped charge design called for the use of a tungsten plate. The particles that resulted from the detonation of a pulse unit would fit inside a cone with a spread of 22.5°. The particles would be relatively slow (between 10 and 100km/s depending on thrust requirements) and rather cool (14000°C in transit, 67000°C after hitting the plate).

As noted before, using lighter elements, such as plastics or even hydrogen, in a thick and narrow instead of wide and flat shape, you can achieve a very narrow cone and very high particle velocities. A Science & Global Security report from 1990 used polystyrene as the propellant material to produce a particle beam with a spread of 5.7° and a velocity of 1000km/s."




it is possible to reduce the beam angle to 0.006 degrees in width, as reported by the third-generation nuclear weapons study. 0.057 degrees has been experimentally achieved by project Prometheus. The trade-off is much lower efficiency than propulsive units (5-10% vs 80-85%).

The theoretical maximal performance of a thermonuclear device is 25TJ/kg. Modern weapons are able to achieve 2.5TJ/kg, but this figure is for large weapons that have better scaling. Smaller warheads such as those tested for project Prometheus are likely to be in the kiloton range, and mass about 100kg. Better understanding of fission ignition has reduced the nuclear material requirement down to a kilogram or less.

results reveal that the Casaba Howitzer is an extremely destructive weapon, with the larger models able to strike at distances usually reserved for lasers. Even a small Casaba Howitzer is effective at up to 2000km, using technology tested in the 80s. Larger, more modern devices can strike at distances where light lag becomes a concern. Futuristic devices will still be limited to particle velocities of about 10000km/s, meaning that time to target becomes problematic.

Ok. So the nuclear explosion isn't being shaped. Just the stuff propelled by it is installed only on a particular face of the warhead and that face is pointed at the target.

So most of the energy of the blast is wasted, and the bomb core mass is wasted, but the propellant is accelerated to high enough velocity to make up for this if the bomb is energetic and efficient enough.

Edit: I did read that the Casaba type plasma weapon is diffenrent from a shaped charge in asmuchas the Casaba uses material to direct energy and the latter uses the charge of the explosive itself. Apparently that is possible as well. No source so take it as you will:

"Both conventional and thermonuclear shaped charges tailor an explosive burn-wave using a detonation front that releases energy along a prescribed path. Both can produce jets of molten metal having velocities greatly in excess of the detonation velocity.


"For thermonuclear fuels such as deuterium plus tritium, the burn-wave can be directed by placing hollow bubbles or inert solids in the path of the detonation front in order to alter its velocity. Of course, ignition of a thermonuclear burn in a warhead requires a fission trigger to achieve the necessary compression and temperature... but even with such a (nondirected) trigger, the overall directivity of a thermonuclear shaped charge can still be significant... Using a convergent conical thermonuclear burn-wave with a suitable liner, one could theoretically create a jet traveling at 10,000 kilometers per second, or 3 percent of the speed of light."[Fe]

yes, but why a normal nuke would work just as well

A year later and I'm still down for Orion drives and Casaba howitzers. I admit, though, that it'd radically change the game, as NTRs and whatnot would be made practically obsolete in most cases.

A package deal including Orion Drives, nuclear shaped charge weapons, and perhaps bomb-pumped lasers (which fit in nicely with nuclear propulsion) would be a cool idea for a DLC. If you're feeling adventuruous, you could call it the "nuke update" or somesuch and also add multistage teller-type nuclear bombs, new types of reactors (IE salt water, which I think isn't included in base game), and enhanced radiation weapons/cobalt bombs/neutron bombs.

I'd buy that in a heartbeat.