Planetary Defense Missile

A Planetary Defense Missile (PDM) is a specialized anti-shipping missile designed to threaten spacecraft at High Guard and in various orbital attitudes.

• It is a strategic defense weapon, generally placed in hardened silos with significant ground defenses.
• It is a GUW classed weapon.

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Please see the following AAB Library Data articles for related data:
Military:

• Ordnance
  • Guided Weapons: Missile
    • Antimatter Missile (AMM)
    • Kinetic Kill Missile (KKM)
    • Planetary Defense Missile (PDM)
    • Surface to Air Missile (SAM)
    • Tac Missile (TACM)
      • Anti-Flyer Missile (AFM)
      • Anti-Tank Missile (ATM)
    • Torpedo (TORP)

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Description (Specifications)

In its present incarnation, the PDM uses a salvaged TL-8 nuclear bomb pumped X-ray laser warhead fitted in the place of the conventional warhead, a process that added almost three meters to the length of the missile's second stage, and cut back its range to 221 kilometers.

The range of the solid-fuel engines is not important, as their function is purely to lift the warhead out of the atmosphere and point it in the general direction of the incoming target. Each missile locks on a radar guidance signal reflected off the targetby a ground station (usually, but not always, one connected with the battery that launched the missile).

Once out of the atmosphere, the nuclear-pumped X-ray laser warhead functions exactly like a standard space combat missile.

History & Background (Dossier)

It was originally designed as a two-stage medium-range air-defense missile, and was constructed to carry a conventional nuclear warhead for use in the upper atmosphere against squadrons of attacking aircraft.

Class Naming Practice/s & Peculiarities

No information yet available.

Image Repository

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References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Fire, Fusion & Steel
• TNE Path of Tears
• Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide
• T5 Core Rules .
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science