Nuclear weapons.

[Lostboy]

How effective would nuclear weapons be against Star wars ships & shields.

Would a single nuclear warhead be enough to blowup a star destroyer?

Any one with an opinion.

[Hellcat]

Let's say a nuke got past the shields. Could it destroy a star destroyer? I kinda doubt it. Certainly it would damage it, possibly moderate to heavy damage. But I don't think it would destroy it. Multiple nukes would be more likely to do so.

However, a warhead detonated within an ImpStar, now that's a different story. The ImpStar Invincible was destroyed by a single nuclear warhead planted within the ship during Operation Strike Fear.
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[CRMcNeill]

The Technical Commentaries section over on TheForce.net go into detail about the truly staggering amounts of energy required for ships in the SWU to do what they do. I would hazard a guess that the energy weapons mounted on capital ships inflict enough energy damage (and with more versatility) to render most nukes obsolete. IIRC, proton torpedoes are actually supposed to be miniature nukes.

What with this being Star Wars, I would up the ante and go with something above and beyond nukes. Anti-matter bombs would be a nice choice, but they have a slightly Trek flavor to them.
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[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

Doubt that. Most US ships are made to withstand internal explosions almost as much as external ones.
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[Hellcat]

It would depend on where the explosion was I'd say.
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[Lostboy]

[Bren]

[Lostboy]

[Praxian]

I wouldn't think that suicide would be a trick that the Rebellion would use. I say that, because the only way to make sure that a Nuke goes off inside of an enemy ship would be to make sure your on it, and then set it off by hand as during a fight, communications would be on lock down and they'd be keeping all incoming signals from escaping their initial thing.

Could it be gotten around, maybe. But if it's internal like you're wanting, it's deep enough inside that an external signal isn't getting in.

I would say do something like aim a Nuke at the engines and run away fast. =D

That oughta do something.

[Bren]

[Ankhanu]

I would say a nuclear blast (external) would at least cripple a Star Destroyer. Aside from the vaproizing effects near the hypocenter of the blast (I think the area of the Hiroshima bomb was ~1.5km for vaporization of matter) and the resulting damage (assuming that shields MIGHT deal with that), they also generate a pretty intense EMP, which would act like an ion cannon blast, shutting the ship down pretty effectively.

I do think the energy release of the explosion would be sufficient to at least cause some pretty major damage to a ship like a Star Destroyer; it's enough to level an entire city, a much smaller ship would suffer major damage as well (the whole ship would be within the strongest damage radius of even a moderate warhead). A turbolaser would produce a lot of energy, but it's also of a specific form (wavelength and frequency), which shields would be designed to deal with; a nuclear blast includes thermal, gamma ray, x-ray, neutrons, etc. that would likely overwhelm the shields and then the structural integrity of the hull materials. Add in the effects of radiation and, even if the ship stays intact, the crew would be charred husks
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[Lostboy]

Very concise and well thought out Ankhanu. I agree with you. Thanks.

[Kemper Boyd]

Remember that nuclear explosions in space aren't nearly as destructive as ones in an atmosphere. Also, there will be no real EMP pulse in deep space.

Edit: remembered I had a physicist friend nearby. He said that considering average nuke size, the plasma from the explosion loses most of it's destructive capacity after about 20-30 meters, and the radiation pulse over a distance of approximately one kilometer. To get a real effect, you need a penetrating warhead like a modern bunker buster.

[Gamer]

'A warhead' is going to depend on it's yield.