Originally Posted by Gilead Abyss (Post 1948157)

About the only example I can think of here would be deploying atmospheric attack units from orbit, which could be considered a two-medium scenario.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve (Post 1948154)

Excellent article. Thanks for the heads-up.

One of my favorite science-fiction short stories was by Larry Niven, and was written back in the '70s. Sorry I don't remember the name.

In the story one guy is being chased by an enemy, both in ships that use a collection field of some sort to gather loose hydrogen from space, which is then fed into a sort of ramjet. The guy being chased realizes that if he can drop a large enough mass he might collapse the other guy's field, possibly even wrecking his ship. So he figures out a way to do this, and drops a part of his ship behind him. He starts watching his rear with a digital telescope. Six months later he sees a flash of light billions of miles behind that tells him it worked.

Now that was original, and probably realistic.

Originally Posted by Cybermat47 (Post 1949057)

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NOVEMBER 6TH!
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Originally Posted by CaptainMattJ. (Post 1949043)

assuming that ships are even necessary, carriers are very likely to be present.

Carriers will still be using the principle of carrying smaller attack craft. The tactical value of multiple, small, fast, heavy hitting spacecraft seems valid even in the possible future. Strike craft to pinpoint target and transport land troops is still obviously viable.

I like Halo. The Human technology is, in my opinion, the most realistic view of the future ive yet seen. Humans still use ballistics. We still have reliable guns and ammo. it is of course much more advanced guns and targeting systems than we have now, but still basic and believable. The warships carry essentially a very massive, very powerful rail gun, and while the speeds of the 2000-ton tungsten core shell are a bit unrealistic (half the speed of light), it is science that we have even today, though in its VERY early stages. The most advanced technology in the Halo series (for humans) is the warp drive, saying that it rips a wormhole into a made-up realm of space called slipstream that carries them faster than light, and thats how they travel. We have scientists working on warp drives right now. Warp drives have the potential to travel faster than light without breaking the rule of E=MC^2 because you simply push space out of your way much like a propeller pushes water out of the way of a speedboat and thats how it accelerates. Warp drives are the most sensible way to travel to distant systems. All we need is an immense power source or some way to do so. (yes, ive read the halo books. Assuming you dont associate Halo with the games the books are simply great science fiction books. disassociate the negative connotation of Halo games and the stereotype of people who play them and you get a very interesting series of books)

Anyway, in military universe of Halo, you have prowler spacecrafts, very small ships using stealth to recon and place nuclear mines. You have frigates, destroyers, Carriers, and battleships, shaped not like any kind of ship wed find on earth, kind of like a layered flat rectangle when viewing it from the side. Their armament include the MAC (magnetic accelerator cannon, the rail gun), high-payload Nuclear missiles, Shiva anti-ship missiles, multiple automated point defense cannons to eliminate attack craft, and nuclear mines. Its armor is high-tech, super-strong honeycombed titanium. Its propulsion is highly refined nuclear reactors.

All of this is obtainable technology even today, although much of the science is in its very early infancy. Thats why i like it. it is very easily plausible and the science isnt unheard of or completely theoretical. Unless of course the battles of the future dont even need ships (at least very large spaceships) at all.