Directorate Officer
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To create a relatively cheap, but modern heavy explosive warhead for capital ships
- Image Source: here
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Primary Source:
- Manufacturer: Lucerne Labs
- Affiliation: Directorate, Silver Jedi Concord, Lucerne Personal Defense Customers
- Market Status: Closed-Market
- Model: Vortex-class Heavy Concussion Missile
- Modularity: none
- Production: Mass-Produced
- Material: solid durasteel nose cone kinetic penetrator, Carbo-plas fuselage, Detonite-mirrsteel shaped charge, solid fuel rocket motor, Energy envelope projector, various electronics
- Classification: Heavy Concussion Missile
- Size: Large
- Weight: Heavy
- Explosive Type: Detonite
- Delivery Method: self-propelled
| Omni-Directional Explosive Mode | Shaped Charge Mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Effective Range: | Average | Long Range |
| Area of Effect: | Large | Average |
| Damage Output: | High | High |
SPECIAL FEATURES
- Variable Fire Modes: The Vortex effectively has two different firing modes that dictated by how it is armed. Most commonly is uses a simple proximity setting - when its guidance system shows that the missile is within several meters of the target, it explodes in all directions, making it useful for saturation bombardment or hitting groups of clustered starfighters. However, if that mechanism is not selected (or jammed), it acts like a Starcore-class Concussion Missile, using simple physical impact itself to detonate the detonite to act as a shaped charge, which focuses and concentrates the explosion forward, trading area of effect for greater damage through increased penetration.
- Detonite Charge: Vortexes have a shaped charge Mirrsteel-Detonite core. While this provides reasonably good amounts of damage against many capital ships, detonite's ability to detonate based only on impact alone means that even if its actual fuse mechanism is deactivated, it will still explode on contact and act as a shaped charge.
- Armored Assault: Vortex is designed to withstand at least several hits to the front from point-defense weapons. Its nosecone is solid durasteel, which can usually absorb a several laser cannon hits and brush aside many flechette-based defenses. A high-powered energy envelope projector shrouds the Vortex in flight with a dark blue sheathe of energy that can take absorb several more hits.
- Composite Gravity/EPR tracking: Vortexes use combined gravity and infrared photoreceptors signatures, like GAM missiles, to track targets. These sensor signatures are typically harder to spoof and/or jam, especially as joint criteria for targeting, which makes Vortexes not as easily fooled by conventional sensor jamming.
- Chemical Drive: Vortexes use a solid fuel slug, much like the Vulture Drone, to propel the warhead. Using a chemical reaction for propulsion means that it cannot be shut off by electronic countermeasures.
- Backwards Compatible: Vortexes are the same general size and shape as many heavier concussion missiles, meaning that it can easily be fitted into existing warhead launchers, including most heavier concussion missile launchers or Lucerne Lab's own Harpoon-class General Purpose Warhead Launcher.
- Versatile: Vortexes can be employed as area of effect saturation munitions against lighter targets or act as armor-piercing, shaped charged warheads against well defended targets.
- Defended Strike: Vortexes have both armor and shielding which protects them against most point defense weapons. Additionally, the nature of the chemical-based drive and simple mechanical contact detonation means that they are highly resistant to missile transmitter deactivators while their sensor package is designed to not easily be fooled.
- Bulky: Fire Vortexes are bulky weapons that don't fit into smaller or even average warhead launchers. Typically a larger general purpose or specialized launcher is needed to fire these weapons.
DESCRIPTION
The everchanging battlefield and the proliferation of technologies have brought a number of very advanced defense systems and high tech missile designs to the market. But with those technological advances came additional costs, often limiting the concept of cheap, missile spam. The Vortex is designed to bring that option back onto the table by using a number of legacy technologies leveraged with simple brute force engineering. The most basic of these is a simple solid fuel slug rocket, which not dispenses with the costs of making sophisticated ion engines but is also incapable of being electronically deactivated once ignited. The second very simple technology is using commonplace detonite as the main payload. Not only can a large amount of it be cheaply placed within the warhead, but it can also detonate by simple kinetic impact, which again lessens the possibility of the weapon being taking out of service by advanced ECM warfare. Perhaps the most innovative feature of the Vortex is the use of an overcharged energy envelope projector which allows the warhead to absorb successive point defense weapons hit before it begins to hit the armored nose cone, which greatly improves the possibility of the Vortex surviving its attack approach, especially over short firing distances.
The Vortex is a fairly decent general purpose weapon. In omnidirectional blast mode, the Vortex is fairly reasonable at wiping out large groups of light enemies, whether they are ground formations on planets or groups of small craft in space. Conversely, the Vortex can be used as a reasonably effective anti-ship weapon: its defensive armor and shielding give it a reasonable chance of penetrating through some defensive screening and its kinetic penetator followed by a shaped charge warhead give it enough power to usually damage or destroy many subsystems even on large warships.
