Babylon 5 Missile Weaponry

## **Missile Weaponry**

The next stage in weapon technology – the rocket-assisted missile. A totally self-propelled explosive device with attached sensor targeting equipment and limited fuel supplies, each missile is a deadly payload. Using very complicated loading and priming mechanisms in the launchers, the weapon system acquires some form of lock onto its target before sending ignition sequencing to the missile. The missile will then hopefully home in on its target and impact with devastating effect.

#### **Special**

Missile systems must usually be locked on before being fired. In other words, the firing craft must have successfully locked on to the target craft.

Firing the missiles ‘dumb’ (without a lock-on) is possible, but they will simply act as slow rockets in this case and have an attack penalty of -2D.

#### **Standard Missile System**

Using magnetic and conveyed loading systems to line up each missile as it prepares to launch, the standard missile system has a rather slow and ponderous rate of fire. What it lacks in speed it makes up in variability, with several types of specialist missiles being available on the open market for those with a few extra thousand credits to spend.

Standard missile systems may only fire once per turn due to their slow loading times.

#### **Advanced Missile System**

After joining the Interstellar Alliance, Earth gained access to many new technologies. One of which was artificial gravity generators to be used in many of their newer models of ship.

Besides creating a better atmosphere for their crews, it could also be used to help aid in the loading of the new advanced missile systems found in the prototype Apollo Bombardment Cruisers. This used gravitic instruments and magnetic restraints to speed up load times dramatically, allowing a much higher firing rate without losing any of the efficiency of the missiles themselves.

Advanced missile systems may fire up to twice per turn due to their faster loading times.

#### **Fighter Missile Rack**

Much smaller than the missile systems found on larger ships, fighter missile racks only have one standard type of missile that can be launched from the simple electronically-guided rack attached to the fighter. Not drastically more damaging than most other fightercraft weaponry, fighter missile racks are often programmed with better targeting than the simple ‘friend or foe’ systems of a fighter’s main guns.

#### **Ballistic Torpedo Launcher**

One of the few forays into non-laser sciences by the Centauri, the ballistic torpedo is actually a slight misnomer. Using an on-board tracking computer and a series of internal combustions to propel themselves toward a target, the torpedoes launched from this weapon are a physical shell containing a powerful energy-reactive core. The torpedoes slam into a target just like any other ballistic shell, but then swell and explode outward when the impact superheats the core. Very powerful and very expensive, the ballistic torpedo is found only rarely in anything but important Republic warships.

#### **Ion Torpedo Launcher**

The Narn Regime has never been known for its subtlety or its inability to adapt to war. Using morally questionable resources to develop delivery systems that hurl high-yield ionic masses, the ion torpedo was used to great success during their many conflicts with the Centauri. Not too drastically different from a common energy torpedo, the ‘ion torp’ is a reactive shell of energy designed to punch into an enemy’s hull before releasing the ionic mass inside.

For a weapon designed with little more than vengeance in mind, the ion torpedo is a very effective tool during long ranged conflicts in which the Narn once suffered greatly against the battle lasers of the Centauri.

Ion torpedo launchers may only fire once per turn due to their slow loading times.

## **Missile Ammunition**

#### **Anti-Fighter Missile**

Compromising longer range boosters for several directional thrusters tied into the guidance system of the missile, the anti-fighter missile can home in on and track some of the most evasive of targets a capital ship must face: fighter craft. These missiles may not have warheads that cause much damage to heavily armored targets, but they do perfectly well against lightly hulled fighters and shuttles.

#### **Anti-Ship Missile**

This is the default ammunition for most missile systems. It is little more than a compressed standard explosive warhead atop a delivery system. Nevertheless, it packs a powerful punch.

#### **Flash Missile**

A development from the standard explosive warhead of the anti-ship missile, the flash missile uses a plasma-based warhead for devastating effect. A well guided shot is capable of causing massive damage to sensitive internal systems of even heavily armored targets.

#### **Heavy Missile**

Fire Control: -1

Sacrificing fuel and guidance systems for extra explosive power, the heavy missile is used primarily as a close range weapon. Their massive payloads can deal incredible amounts of damage, though the accuracy of the missile system launching it is usually partially compromised due to the missile’s unwieldiness.

#### **Multi-Warhead Missile**

Fire Control: -1D

Basically a group of singular warheads on timed-release triggers designed to slip past enemy defenses or saturate a single target with destructive power, the multi-warhead missile allows a single missile to effectively become three, hopefully getting past any defensive fire the target might be able to muster.

#### **H.A.R.M.** (High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile)

Fire Control: +2

Intended for use against the Minbari, the HARM missile specifically targets enemy sensor systems, rendering them temporarily blind with electromagnetic interference. These missiles do not carry normal payloads but instead pulse with ECM emitters when near to an enemy ship.

**Special**: The HARM reduces the targeted ship’s Sensors by –2D for 1D rounds if it ‘hits’ (in truth, the missile need only approach near the target for the effect to take place).

#### **R.M.T.S. Missile** (Radioactive Monitor Tracking System)

A forebear of the HARM, the Radioactive Monitor Tracking System (RMTS) missile variant was a very expensive attempt to coat a Minbari target with easily traceable materials that further attacks and scanners could home in on, eliminating one of their most notorious edges. The materials used were unfathomably expensive and the missile was nowhere near as effective as the test scientists believed it would be, which is why they were discontinued before the end of the Earth-Minbari War.

**Special**: Any ship hit by a RMTS Missile loses –1D to its Stealth rating for 1D rounds.

## **Source**

* Babylon 5 Ship Builder's Manual (pages 47-49)
* thedemonapostle