Superluminal Missiles in Science Fiction

[Piisfun]

I have been reading a bit of science fiction lately, and this question keeps coming to mind:

Why does no one ever seem to come up with the idea of attaching a "faster-than-light" engine and a guidance computer to the back of a warhead?

In most cases, such a weapon could be set to explode just a fraction of a second after the engine shuts down, resulting in a virtually unavoidable attack...

While I do get that in most stories the cost of the engine would make this unreasonable for conventional missiles, I can't understand why they don't ever seem to exist for superweapons.

 

[Daitengu]

Cause lasers and death rays are sci-fi romance in the west. Like mecha is sci-fi romance in Japan.

PS: no point in a warhead with a FTL missiles. The kinetic impact alone is math destroying. Also: teleporting a warhead(which is FTL) has been done on Star trek, then banned for being too underhanded. Lots cheaper too.

Might be worth it to destroy a planet, but most of the time the fight is to take over a planet not destroy it in scifi. Resources and all that.

Imagine missing with the superluminal missile and accidentally taking out the sun.

 

[Titanoktonon]

The total energy of an object in motion is given by the equation E=γmc^2, where γ=1/sqrt(1-(v^2/c^2)), c being the speed of light. Note that if the velocity is greater than c, that makes γ a complex number, and we don't exactly know what that would imply. I still think it would do damage, but I have no idea what having a complex phase would do. Supposedly, if E is negative, it could cause a wormhole, but that's only in theory.
Also, I have heard of firing missiles at right angles to reality in the Hitchhiker's Guide, which I suppose could mean having E being entirely imaginary.

 

[Jemini]

I have been reading a bit of science fiction lately, and this question keeps coming to mind:

Why does no one ever seem to come up with the idea of attaching a "faster-than-light" engine and a guidance computer to the back of a warhead?

In most cases, such a weapon could be set to explode just a fraction of a second after the engine shuts down, resulting in a virtually unavoidable attack...

While I do get that in most stories the cost of the engine would make this unreasonable for conventional missiles, I can't understand why they don't ever seem to exist for superweapons.

I have never seen this with FTL applied directly to the missile, but I think we've seen pretty darn close in "Shadows in flight" by Orson Scott Card. He had a planet buster scale missile set up in a computer-guided FTL space-craft, which basically had a round-trip bombing mission to deposit the missile at the target location and then fly back.

I think it was "Shadows in flight" anyway. It has been a while since I read from the Ender series, but I'm pretty sure that was the right book. For those of you who have read Ender's Game, this planet busting missile was the exact same one you all know about already. They upgraded the systems so it no longer needs a manned craft to deliver the payload, it can be sent out with drone bombing now. (Coincidentally, Shadows in flight was written during the Obama presidency.)

 

[UYScuti]

I think it’s more a matter of authors thinking, what’s the point? If one civilzation capable of FTL does it, then what’s to stop every other civilization capable of FTL from doing the same? You’ll just have a story of people warping missiles from one star system to the next, blowing up planets. There’s no drama in that. And in a way it would become a pain dealing with all the other things you need to explain.

Superluminal Ladar to know where targets are. Superluminal messaging and coordinates at all times. Warping a ship to a star system is more dramatic and has fewer pieces to explain. Just warp the ship and blow stuff up.

 

[tarreb]

Star Wars: the Last Jedi's 'Holdo Maneuver' was basically just this when she used her ship as an improvised FTL kinetic missile into the New Order vessel.

 

[pynkbites]

Yeah they had em in A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge. Predictably, they were solar system killers.

 

[AryaX]

Well... Star Trek have their Photon Torpedoes and such... "Which were developed in part due to the requirement for a weapon, which unlike phasers, could be used at faster than light speeds."

 

[Freesia.Cutepearl]

Also: teleporting a warhead(which is FTL) has been done on Star trek, then banned for being too underhanded. Lots cheaper too.

Photon/Quantum Torpedoes have engines than can sustain warp if they're fired from a ship already in warp. Pretty much the only option if both the attacker and target are travelling at warp.

If I remember right, transporters were used on at least one occasion if not more to beam a photon torpedo inside some place before it detonated. Not a practical thing due to shields blocking transport, but can be done otherwise.

 

[Daitengu]

If I remember right, transporters were used on at least one occasion if not more to beam a photon torpedo inside some place before it detonated. Not a practical thing due to shields blocking transport, but can be done otherwise.

Yep. Voyager series. Janeway tped them onto a Borg vessel.