Why are there no nukes in Star Wars?

For all the advanced technology in the SW universe, I'm surprised by the absence of nuclear weapons.

The electromagnetic pulse from an atom bomb sure would take out a lot of star fighters and battle droids. You could also destroy all life on a planet with nuclear weapons for a tiny fraction of the cost of a Death Star.

Lightsabers, blasters, ion cannons, repulsorlift, droids, clones...but no nukes. What gives?

 

Thermal detonators more or less fill the roles of nukes. The one Leia used in ROTJ was a very small-scale nuclear-type weapon.


Shatterpoint spoilers:


























In Shatterpoint both Mace Windu and Depa Billaba thought about dropping a baradium bomb on the Geonosis arena, instead of landing and taking casualties. Baradium is what thermal detonators are made of.































END SPOILERS

 

Perhaps the GFFA has developed much more powerful weapons and nukes are obsolete?

In the book Vector Prime a New Republic Mediator class Star Cruiser was nuked. They tractored in a shuttle that held a nuclear weapon, which took out a vast majority of the ship. I believe it took two years to repair. That is of course EU.

 

I don't think the Mediator was ever repaired. I inferred from that passage that it was destroyed in that battle.

 

I thought I read in Balance Point that it was repaired/being repaired. Or perhaps it was another novel. I'm pretty positive I read it somewhere though.

 

The missiles Luke shot into the Death Star were Tac Nukes I think. I thought I heard that almost all of the weapons they used were nuclear.

 

Proton torpedoes aren't exactly nuclear weapons, or at least not the kind we're familiar with. They don't create mushroom clouds, or have months of radioactive fallout or anything. Maybe the GFFA can make nuke blasts more focused or something.

 

Like cold fusion nukes.

 

For all the advanced technology in the SW universe, I'm surprised by the absence of machine guns! Let's see a Jedi deflect some bullets, eh?

 

Wouldn't lightsabers vaporize bullets?

 

I think a lightsaber would vaporize bullets.

 

Many backwater worlds in the GFFA use "slug throwers," which is a fancy name for bullet guns.

 

In my book, there is a nuke that lands on Coruscant.

 

For all the advanced technology in the SW universe, I'm surprised by the absence of machine guns! Let's see a Jedi deflect some bullets, eh?

We see the Sand People use bullets in TPM. I guess that would indicate that bullets are inferior to blasters.

 

Hmmm. I don't remember bullets in TPM, but I'll take your word for it. It sure doesn't seem like handheld blasters are much more powerful than the gunfire of today, though, and bullets travel much faster and are smaller and less visible. Nowhere in the movies do we see Jedi moving at bullet-speed, so I always figured a guy with an M-16 could make short work of them.

But- SW isn't 'science fiction' in the most absolutely strict sense of the word (like Star Trek), so it's not exactly a really big deal.

 

Hmmm. I don't remember bullets in TPM, but I'll take your word for it.

In the Pod Race, when the Tuskens are taking pot shots at the podracers. The sounds their guns make are similar to those of traditional gunfire, and you can clearly see the bullets ricochet off of Anakin's pod.

I think the fact that a primative race like the Tuskens use bullets, while the more advanced peoples of the galaxy use blasters would indicate the technical superiority of blasters.

 

Blasters are superior to bullets because Dr. Lucas wants them to be.

Don't I sound like a Nazi?

 

Blasters cause more damage than bullets when they hit.

 

Its said that stormtrooper armour is built to deflect bullets.

Shame they forgot about deflecting rocks etc.

As for nukes, well the Empire probably had the ability to make them, but found their other weapons could do the job more efficiently.

 

Well the empire thought about making nuclear weapons, then they changed their mind and made Death Stars instead.

 

Why would they need nukes when they have superlasers capable of destroying entire planets, and missilies capable of destroying entire Star systems?

 

Sure, constructing a Death Star is very expensive, it's cheaper then using tons of nukes to destroy a planet.

 

and bullets travel much faster and are smaller and less visible. Nowhere in the movies do we see Jedi moving at bullet-speed, so I always figured a guy with an M-16 could make short work of them.

Helllooooo, Mcflyyyyy!

Bullets do not travel at the speed of light like blaster shots. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use their "get the heck out of Dodge" force power in TPM.

M-16....bwaaahahahaha!

 

If Blasters traveled at the speed of light, then it would be impossible to even see the lasers coming from the blasters, laser cannons or turbolasers.

I think bullets travel faster than most blasters, though blasters are much more powerful.

 

Man, we HAVE to see the blaster shots or they wouldn't look all cool and spacey!

Laser=light