UNSF X-Ray Pump Laser Drone

This one shot chemical fuel drone is used to shoot a high powered X-Ray Laser at a target. Its operation involves a nuclear detonation, and so can only be fired once.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

Based on the regular nuclear shaped charge, this focuses the xray emmissions not into a deformable tungsten hot plate, but into a lasing medium. Approximately 85% of the energy is directed through the lasing medium, and with an efficiency 14.5% of the laser itself, the 3 MT nuclear explosion is converted into a 1.5E PJ of 0.2 nm laser with a diffusion of 1.678E-4 arc seconds (spot size of 25 cm at 1 light second)
The drone is delivered to near its detonation point by the delivery drone described above. It has an internal 120 m/s dV thruster, as well as a small set of RCS thrusters and pointing gyros for orientation. It can aim within around 2E-4 arc seconds.
The drone has a laser comms reciever, as well as a camera for target recognition and tracking. Its internal mind is non-intelligent, and must recieve the target information from it's delivery drone.

Significance

This weapons is used for longer range engagements than the Shaped Nuclear Charge, allowing for strikes multiple light seconds out. It also travels at the speed of light, and Xrays are hard to entirely block.

Item type

Weapon, Ranged

Manufacturer

United Nations Space Force

Related Technologies

• Nanotech

Owning Organization

United Nations Space Force

Rarity

The deployment units (A drive assembly with 500 m/s of dV attached to 4 lasers) make up around 1/4 of the drones on most UNSF ships.

Weight

6845 kg

Dimensions

cylinder, 450 cm long, 20 cm radius

Raw materials & Components

The casing of the bomb is made of a 12 mm steel casing. The lasing medium is actually a plasma, heated by the triggering explosive of the nuclear bomb. The shaped charge itself surrounded by an additonal layer of depleted uranium, to keep the bomb together slighlty longer, and reflect more XRays onto the lasing medium. The lasing medium is also surrounded by depeleted uranium, to prevent XRay spillover. One end of the lasing medium has a solid XRay mirror, which increases the efficiency of the bomb by a whole 20%.

Tools

The explosive used to trigger detonation, codename C-213, must be produced by nano-assemblers due to its complex molecular structure. However, all other components are "off the shelf" if your shelf is in the armoury of a UNSF ship, and require only basic assembly and molding.