Why are there no nuclear weapons in Star Wars?

CraigTNelson, would you do a Coach movie if the money was good enough?

 

Huh, just ran into this thread. Anyway, I'd have to agree with Davi....nuclear weapons are too useful for space combat for them to not have shown up more. In fact, given that the technology does exist in the GFFA according to various sources, it doesn't make sense that nukes haven't seen more widespread use.

It's true a Star Destroyer can probably withstand multiple nuclear blasts, but smaller frigates and corvettes probably would not. Fighters too would be completely obliterated. There's also one major advantage that a nuclear warhead has over a turbolaser: it's compact. You can't mount a turbolaser onto a Y-wing, much less provide enough power to fire it. But you more than likely can stow a payload of nuclear-tipped missiles into its weapons bay and send it off to bomb Imperial bases, convoys, or whatever else needs destroying.

Another major use of nukes would have been during the Yuuzhan Vong war. Dovin Basals can generate voids to eat up turbolaser blasts, so why concentrate your energy into one powerful coherent beam that takes minimal effort to block? A nuclear blast would cover a much greater area and force the Vong shielding system to exert itself to a greater extent, allowing New Republic ships to wear down their defenses more quickly and finish them off with conventional weapons.

 

^^^^
All excellent points, my friend.

 

How do we know that there isn't?

"Proton Torpedo"

That could be a nuclear missile.

 

What the fO&*???? Are you freakin serious? Play Rogue Squadron as a Y-Wing, Watch ANH one more time, a Proton Torpedo has a blast efficasy of like 7 sticks of c4. That's it.

 

Ha yes proton torps compared to a nuclear blast um...
Well I have to say that to a planet a Torp. is a minor itch.
On one of my games it takes several torps to to even take out 1 building. If I had a nuke than on hit and the entire city is gone.

If my memory is right in Vector Prime, The rommamools, can't spell it, vs. the Osarians. I think those ballistic missles were nuked. I maybe wrong how ever.

 

Games are not considered canon. So you can't use that argument here. I merely offered a "what if" solution, that I wasn't entirely sure about. You don't have to insult my intelligence about it.

In today's world, nuclear missiles are bcoming smaller and more tactical, instead of larger and capable of even more massive destruction. I'm no expert on what a proton torpedo actually is. I was simply using some logic that may or may not be correct. Protons are in atoms, splitting an atom is what causes a nuclear blast, so I thought that a proton torpedo could be a small tactical nuclear missile.

But forgive me for thinking.

 

Just as a general FYI, any fan can accept whatever source they consider authoritative, from a Jar Jar coloring book to the films themselves. This obviously includes games; but by the same token, any fan can reject those same sources as non-authoritative in his/her own personal conception of the STAR WARS Galaxy.

In other words, we can offer data from games etc. as one possible solution or explanation, but not THE solution or explanation.

 

Jango10, I get what you are saying...but, while I do believe that nuclear weapons would be a viable weapon to use against the Empire in certain situations (thus the reason I created this thread) I do not believe a proton torpedo could be a small tactical nuke. The torpedoes have a very limited explosive range, which would seem to me indicative of the amount of energy released from the explosion...Even if you had a nuclear device the size of a proton torpedo, the power behind the detonation would far exceed the capabilities of the torpedo, otherwise if the nuke was a low enough strength to match the explosive output of what we see from torpedoes, it would probably be cheaper to just use other material. When I envisioned the rebels using nuclear weaponry, I was thinking more of a device that would be used to sabotage Star Destroyers from the inside, wreck Imperial bases in one shot, that kind of thing, not something that would be used in starfighter to starfighter combat. Nukes in a dogfight would be impractical.

 

I've asked for years to have a board dedicated to "THE SCIENCE OF STAR WARS".


So many useful threads and meaningful knowledge get shuffled in with fascinating threads like, "Was Yoda mad at Luke?" and the sort.

 

I am sorry if I insulted anyone. But after all I have seen the Proton Torpedoes do not seem to be Nuclear. If so than why in all aspects of war would you dial down the strenghth of the thing.

I would also love a Science of Starwars thread. To help perserve the Intelligence.

 

I assume your not a big fan of the "Why did Tarkin give Vader a funny look?" thread.

Look man, I think the guy who threw out the Proton Torpedo thing was trying to do right, but a thread like this requires precise info and applications to real world nuclear yield/explosive magnitude/radioactivity criteria.

 

Actually I haven't seen that thread.