Earth - X16 Missile

EXPERIMENTAL LORE FILE - CURRENTLY INCOMPLETE/SUBJECT TO CHANGE

ASA-MMX-16 (Arcadia Spacecraft Armaments-Missile Model X-16) "Trebuchet" Missile.

The ASA-MMX-16, also simply called the X-16 is an anti-capital ship missile built by the Arcadia Systems corporation, exclusively for the European Federation.

Originally created in response to the UIS' new ship building programs following the Winter Takeover, these cutting-edge missiles were quickly integrated into the New Horizons program, being adapated for fire support for the newly imagined Dawnstar-class super-battleships. To say that these missiles are massive is an understatement. At 60 meters in length, 6 in height and width, the missile clocks in at 2160 cubic meters, which is about the volume of an SF-15 Starlight UIS interceptor starfighter. In total, with 10% of it's volume dedicated to missile launchers and handling systems (which means that about 5% in total was pure missiles), the Dawnstar-class brought 125 000 of these missiles into action.

It's standard warhead (the proprietary ASA-TWMX-91/Arcadia Spacecraft Armaments-Thermonuclear Warhead Model X-91) has a yield of 300 Megatons of TNT, with large gravitational lenses and refractory aid to help direct the explosion. The most common variant (the ASA-FPLWMX-3/Arcadia Spacecraft Armaments-Fusion Pumped Laser Warhead Model X-16) however uses a 260 Mt warhead with laser rods, to convert the bomb into a massive, single use laser cannon, also called a 'fusion pumped laser warhead'. Some have pointed out that packing enough ordnance to level every major city on Earth 10 times over was unnecessary, but most of those comments were disproved and ridiculed after the Second Battle of Alpha Centauri, where despite a tactical and strategic victory, the EFSN was forced to pull back due to literally running out of missiles. UISN dreadnoughts have proven themselves so incredibly resilient, thanks in no small part to their vastly superior electronic warfare systems and counter missiles, not counting even their incredible structural toughness and armor plating, that it took over a thousand missiles to score a single solid hit, and over a dozen hits to severely damage a dreadnought.

Rumors abound that the latest generation incorporated an antimatter warhead, due to the opening of a massive antimatter production facility in the Arcadia Systems Radiance orbital industrial platform, but no one knows for sure, except for the highest circles of the European Federation Star Navy, and Arcadia herself.