Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To provide a hybrid aeronautical-nautical miniaturized warhead
- Image Source: Here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source: adaptation of the Starbolt-class Missile
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Concord, Closed-Market
- Model: Seabolt-class Aerial/Nautical Torpedo
- Modularity: No
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: Plasteel fuselage, Detonite charge, repulsorlifts, various avionics and concussion missile / hydro torpedo components
- Classification: hydro torpedo / missile
- Size: Small
- Weight: Light
- Explosive Type: Detonite explosive charge
- Delivery Method: Self-Propelled
- Effective Range: Average
- Area Of Effect: Personal (4.5 meter blast radius)
- Stopping Power: Low
- Detonite Charge: Seabolts have a Detonite-based explosive charge. While not as powerful as many concussion missiles or hydro torpedoes due to the Seabolt’s small size, the Seabolt does have a similar blast radius to the Starbolt and Arakyd 3t3, making it ideal for precision strikes against small targets. Thanks to the torpedo’s relatively high speed, the Seabolt will detonate based only on impact alone means that even if its actual detonating device is deactivated.
- Composite Gravity/EPR tracking: Seabolt uses combined gravity and sonar signatures to make a composite signature to track targets. These sensor signatures are typically harder to spoof and/or jam, especially as joint criteria for targeting, which makes Seabolts not as easily fooled by conventional sensor jamming.
- Repulsorlift Drive: Unlike many projectile weapons, the Seabolt uses a repulsorlift drive system, allowing it to be effectively be used in the air and underwater. This dual nature drive enables aircraft to attack targets underwater and conversely, allows underwater users to target airborne vehicles. The repulsorlift drive is optimized for underwater use however, and the Seabolt is slightly slower and less maneuverable in the air compared to light, fast missiles like the Starbolt and 3t3 (though it still retains much better flight performance than the typical proton torpedo).
- Compact: Seabolts are built based on the 3t3 chassis, making it a very light and small weapon compared to many hydro torpedoes and concussion missiles. This also allows the weapon to be employed with LPD’s Shockwave missile launcher, Plumbata defensive missile batteries, and existing PLX-2M launchers. Additionally, most concussion missile warhead launchers can support the Seabolt, and even carry larger numbers of the warhead than traditional concussion missiles due to their significantly smaller size - on Lucerne Lab’s own LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launcher, three Seabolts can be carried instead of a concussion missile.
- Dual Nature Weapon: Seabolt’s ability to be used underwater and in the air due to its repulsorlift propulsion makes it unusually well-suited as transitional weapon between air, land, or sea users and targets in any of those same domains.
- Agile: Seabolts use a repulsorlift drive, which combined with its relatively small size, makes it a fairly fast and agile weapon, even outside of its preferred environment underwater.
- Compact: Starbolts are small warheads, which easily allows personnel and droids to carry and use them in personal weapons or for large amounts to be carried by vehicles.
- Detonite Charge: While using a detonite charge ensures that the warhead will still explode on contact, it also introduces the possibility that the warhead will prematurely detonate if the launcher is jarred or experiences a sudden impact.
- Low Damage: Seabolts do not produce as much outright damage as other concussion missiles and hydro torpedoes due to their small size.
- Inoperable (Space): Seabolts rely on repulsorlift technology, meaning that they are not able to travel at all in deep space.
As Lucerne Labs developed its Marrab-series Synthetic Soldier, it became clear that while the Trident Aqua Rifle designed for its use would be adequate against most soft targets such as enemy infantry, the amphibian soldiers did not have a heavier underwater weapon that could be employed against larger aquatic creatures or underwater vehicles. To that end, Lucerne Labs originally turned towards the mini torpedo employed by the mon calamari. While reworking the components of the existing Starbolt-class Missile into a prototype hydrotorpedo, engineers realized that using repulsorlift propulsion would allow the weapon to work not only underwater, but in the air as well. Using the existing chassis of the Starbolt conversely would allow a number of existing warhead launchers to be easily retrofitted to use the torpedo, from the portable handheld Shockwave Missile Launchers to vehicle-mounted LLT-7 General Purpose Warhead Launchers and Plumbata Defensive Batteries. But perhaps the largest benefit of converting to the use of repulsorlift-based propulsion was the ability for the warhead to work both underwater and in the air, effectively allowing to be deployed not only as an air-to-air or underwater weapon, but it could seamlessly cross barriers between land, air, and sea. Hence a submarine equipped with the Seabolt is not only capable of hitting other watercraft, but it could also be used to bombard land targets or shoot down overhead aircraft. Despite this impressive potential, the Seabolt remains fairly simple.
As with the Starbolt, the Seabolt uses the basic 3t3 missile chassis, but now made out of plasteel, making it backwards compatible with existing 3t3 launch platforms. The rear of the plasteel fuselage houses a quartet of miniaturized repulsorlift coils, which provide it the ability to move the projectile through air and sea by pushing up against the local gravitational mass, such as a world. Impulse for these engines is optimized to allow it to effectively push through typical seawater, but it works fairly well in the air as well, though it doesn’t quite have the top flight performance of similarly sized missiles. The Seabolt is guided towards its targets through a dual-seeker target acquisition based on gravitational signature and sonar. By using a composite image criteria, the Starbolt is not easily effected by conventional, brute force jamming, as it is difficult to fully disguise or jam a soundwave, and it is usually difficult to disguise a gravitational signature as well without something like a GAM. This does not make Seabolts impossible to defeat with electronic warfare however, as exceptional sensor decoys can replicate the signatures of their parent craft and the application of sensor blinds and similar devices can disguise ground-based targets. A number of techniques and tactics employed by targets may further mitigate the Seabolt’s tracking ability, such as a submarine docking inside a larger carrier vessel. It goes without saying that Seabolt's sensors are not designed to hunt stealth or cloaked targets, and typically are not appreciably better than conventional missiles in that respect. As the Seabolt hits the target, the detonite explodes because of the warhead’s high speed. This produces a omnidirectional explosive blast of roughly 4.5 meters, making it roughly comparable to a 3t3 missile. This blast is typically strong enough to take out mini-subs, airspeeders and “soft-skin” ground vehicles in a single hit and while usually not strong enough to outright destroy the average starfighter or large warship, it can severely cripple vehicles by outright destroying subcomponents on those vehicles. Many users use several torpedoes to destroy such harder targets. The relatively small blast radius and power of this missile also makes it ideal for precision ground strikes while leaving a minimum of collateral damage.
Like most military grade weaponry, Lucerne Labs has so far restricted their sales of this weapon to established governments with similar political views to those of the company's leadership. Most Seabolts have unsurprisingly been sold to Silver Jedi Concord aligned governments and the Directorate. Large numbers have also been supplied to resistance organizations supplied by the Directorate through its Directorate Trade Agents where they typically are paired with classic PLX-2M missile launchers.
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