Starfleet Jedi: The Empire Strikes Back Weapons

TIE Bombers have bright blue flashing bombs. They appear to carry several of them; their yield seems low, although they have a blast radius of 5-10 meters and are very bright.

Although low in yield for bombs, the VFX suggest a multiple-gigajoule range, well above the 10-100 megajoule range suggested for AT-AT chin guns.

Handblasters are less powerful - 10-250 kilojoules.

More certain is that ISDs may fire high kiloton to low megaton level turbolaser bolts with a reasonable accuracy at distances of a few kilometers at the rate of several shots per second.

They also have weapons that can successfully bombard a planet's surface from orbit, although not through a shield. Planetary ion cannons may accurately hit an Imperial Star Destroyer at a range of somewhere from at least 5,000 km, although the ion bolts do not appear to be particularly fast.

The bombs in question produce a bluish-white burst. This suggests either certain particular chemical reactions, or a burst of high temperature gas, also known as a fireball. If the latter, a 10-100 gigajoule range of energy yield would be appropriate given the relatively small size of the blast. We do not see any lasting effects to the surfaces of the asteroids being bombed, though, suggesting either a specialized class of weapon, a far less harmful weapon, or an unusually durable asteroid.

AT-ATs fire bolts that, curiously enough, fail to vaporize large craters in the snow, although occasionally plumes of steam may be seen. As even very cold ice will flash vaporize when confronted with several 3-3.6 kilojoules per gram, we may estimate the yield by examining the size of the plume and the size of any divot blasted in the packed snow.

The plume of steam is roughly ten feet high and nearly as wide; any divot blasted out of the ice field is not more than a foot or so on a side, however. We may readily suggest that 10-100 megajoule blasts were being used by the AT-ATs to hunt Rebel troops.

Landspeeders used by the Rebels appeared unable to damage the AT-ATs with their guns; as tanks and battleships are traditionally designed to resist no more than their own main armament, landspeeder blasters should have no more than a 100 megajoule yield per shot.

Blasterfire made these holes in the wall:

How much firepower was needed to blast (and scorch) these divots is not entirely clear. In general, the size of the craters suggests firepower equivalent to a modern-day anti-material rifle or elephant gun (e.g., ~6-30 kilojoules of muzzle energy) but the material of the wall is unknown, and the scorching left by the blasters could indicate up to an additional order of magnitude of firepower. Accounting for all these factors, a final estimate of 10-250 kilojoules per shot is quite reasonable.

The turbolasers of an ISD may readily blast small asteroids using mid-sized bolts. The scaling of the particular asteroids is uncertain; however, it is universally agreed that the largest asteroids blasted fall between 15 and 75 meters in diameter. Few if any are larger than the Falcon, which is commonly cited as 26 meters in length.

The energy required to outright vaporize these asteroids is therefore between a kiloton and 2.3 megatons; any energy substantially in excess of outright vaporization would be expressed in a more energetic explosion.

One longer bolt is seen exiting an asteroid after its detonation; this suggests it may have several times the potency needed to blast entirely through the asteroid.

Small bolts than those used on the asteroid field are seen striking the Falcon. It is unclear what their yield is, but we may reasonably estimate that it is less than that of the medium bolts, somewhere in the gigajoule or terajoule range.

It is possible to arrive at a noticably higher yield for them than the larger asteroid-blasting bolts (see link, left) by assuming them to be massless lightspeed weapons (i.e., actual lasers rather than physical bolts).

	TIE Bombers have bright blue flashing bombs. They appear to carry several of them; their yield seems low, although they have a blast radius of 5-10 meters and are very bright. Although low in yield for bombs, the VFX suggest a multiple-gigajoule range, well above the 10-100 megajoule range suggested for AT-AT chin guns. Handblasters are less powerful - 10-250 kilojoules. More certain is that ISDs may fire high kiloton to low megaton level turbolaser bolts with a reasonable accuracy at distances of a few kilometers at the rate of several shots per second. They also have weapons that can successfully bombard a planet's surface from orbit, although not through a shield. Planetary ion cannons may accurately hit an Imperial Star Destroyer at a range of somewhere from at least 5,000 km, although the ion bolts do not appear to be particularly fast. The bombs in question produce a bluish-white burst. This suggests either certain particular chemical reactions, or a burst of high temperature gas, also known as a fireball. If the latter, a 10-100 gigajoule range of energy yield would be appropriate given the relatively small size of the blast. We do not see any lasting effects to the surfaces of the asteroids being bombed, though, suggesting either a specialized class of weapon, a far less harmful weapon, or an unusually durable asteroid. AT-ATs fire bolts that, curiously enough, fail to vaporize large craters in the snow, although occasionally plumes of steam may be seen. As even very cold ice will flash vaporize when confronted with several 3-3.6 kilojoules per gram, we may estimate the yield by examining the size of the plume and the size of any divot blasted in the packed snow. The plume of steam is roughly ten feet high and nearly as wide; any divot blasted out of the ice field is not more than a foot or so on a side, however. We may readily suggest that 10-100 megajoule blasts were being used by the AT-ATs to hunt Rebel troops. Landspeeders used by the Rebels appeared unable to damage the AT-ATs with their guns; as tanks and battleships are traditionally designed to resist no more than their own main armament, landspeeder blasters should have no more than a 100 megajoule yield per shot. Blasterfire made these holes in the wall: How much firepower was needed to blast (and scorch) these divots is not entirely clear. In general, the size of the craters suggests firepower equivalent to a modern-day anti-material rifle or elephant gun (e.g., ~6-30 kilojoules of muzzle energy) but the material of the wall is unknown, and the scorching left by the blasters could indicate up to an additional order of magnitude of firepower. Accounting for all these factors, a final estimate of 10-250 kilojoules per shot is quite reasonable. The turbolasers of an ISD may readily blast small asteroids using mid-sized bolts. The scaling of the particular asteroids is uncertain; however, it is universally agreed that the largest asteroids blasted fall between 15 and 75 meters in diameter. Few if any are larger than the Falcon, which is commonly cited as 26 meters in length. The energy required to outright vaporize these asteroids is therefore between a kiloton and 2.3 megatons; any energy substantially in excess of outright vaporization would be expressed in a more energetic explosion. One longer bolt is seen exiting an asteroid after its detonation; this suggests it may have several times the potency needed to blast entirely through the asteroid. Small bolts than those used on the asteroid field are seen striking the Falcon. It is unclear what their yield is, but we may reasonably estimate that it is less than that of the medium bolts, somewhere in the gigajoule or terajoule range. It is possible to arrive at a noticably higher yield for them than the larger asteroid-blasting bolts (see link, left) by assuming them to be massless lightspeed weapons (i.e., actual lasers rather than physical bolts). Hoth's shield prevented the Imperial fleet from bombarding the Rebel base from orbit; however, while in an orbit high enough to see most of the disc of Hoth. Although the speed of the bolts seems to be 20-200 km/sec relative to the ISDs, total flight time does not appear to be on the order of minutes, although we would expect the orbit to be several thousand kilometers high, and even during a 1 minute flight time, a projectile would decelerate by less than 1 km/sec due to gravity. This produces a minor dilemma; the ion bolt seems to move quite slow for something that hits quickly enough to catch an orbiting ship with its pants down. We can solve this problem by assuming the orbit is on the low side, the speed on the high side of our estimates, and the flight time on the high side of our estimates. More irritating is the problem of turbolaser speed. In the chase of the Millenium Falcon, we see extensively how fast turbolaser bolts move; none of them seem to be moving any faster than 5 km/sec relative to the ISD. From 1000 kilometers altitude, assuming no air resistance and Earth gravity, it would take almost three minutes (~2:50) for a TL bolt to hit the target. Even with the ISDs heading straight for the target at ~26,000 mph, it would still take about a minute to go 1,000 kilometers. Unless an ISD has missiles on hand for planetary bombardment, or planetary bombardment turbolasers with faster muzzle velocities, this marks a consistency problem.	SDN: Asteroids were vaporized by 1500 TJ bolts. ST-v-SW: Asteroids were fragmented by 5.9 GJ bolts (1.2 tons TNT). TLC: Bolt striking observed asteroid was 250 TJ. Others may be up to 31,000 TJ. : Critics charge larger "asteroids" in the above were flak bursts. SDN: Smaller Falcon-striking bolts had ~15,000 TJ of energy.