Nuclearspace.com original author known as GoogleNaut
No one mentioned a semi-static defense of a planet.
An interesting idea cropped up during the height of the cold war, and it really illustrates the Brute-Force approach to missile defense.
It was once proposed to build an array of 'space-cannons' not unlike the Jules Verne concept in his novel From the Earth to the Moon.
Take a cylindrical concrete shaft, perhaps lined with steel to make it smooth, say ten meters wide by two hundred to three hundred meters deep. At the bottom of the shaft place a small thermonuclear explosive, say 350 kiloton yield. Around the bomb pack 5000 tons of wet sand. This is the propellant. Now place a reinforced concrete plug, ten meters wide, and say seven meters thick, into the shaft so that it is snug but not tight. This is the wadding. Now pack hundreds of ceramic coated, one meter cast-iron balls, separated by more sand (dry this time.) This is the shot. Now cap off the shaft with something light and cheap, say fiberglass or plywood. (Could even be galvanized roofing tin, or maybe a shingled roof, making it look like a house)
If you've done your homework, and build many of these things at different angles into various mountains, then an appreciable part of the sky could be covered. By properly spacing the shotguns, you could even get multiple shots at a particular section of sky.
Now when the enemy comes, and drops MIRVs on your heads or is silly enough to come over your pole with his Star Destroyer, you can defiantly shake your fist at the sky and shout Eat hot lead, Darth Vader
Firing the shotguns will result in a narrow cone of hypervelocity shot. Muzzle velocity ought to be at least 20 kilometers per second. Possibly much higher than that. Each shot gun should throw a couple of thousand tons of big buckshot in the bad guys face. I would imagine that a Star Destroyer caught in such an onslought ought to come apart more spectacularly than clay pidgeons at a Skeet range. However, because of the high velocity of the projectiles, they will leave your planet pretty quick. You'd have to use a lot more shot and wadding to get them into a ballistic trajectory so their 'hang time' will make them a real navigation hazard for ships on an intercept trajectory. Using a variable yield bomb could probably accomplish this.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention a warning about operating such weapons. Don't breath the propellant smoke from this gun, unless you don't mind a good glow. The EPA is liable to not license such hellishly polluting projectile weapons. [They're NO FUN]
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So, what do you think if this
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif
