Thunderbolt Missile

Thunderbolt Missile
Yield x Warheads	75,000 x 1
Speed	195 m/s
Range	75 km
Cooldown	ms
Target Acquisition	Targetted
Fusing	Impact
Guidance	Heat Seeking
Area of Effect	m
Ware Thunderbolt Missile Cargo Class M Volume 6 Min. Price (Cr) 7,245 Ave. Price (Cr) 8,424 Max. Price (Cr) 9,603

Overview

A missile of Split design, the Thunderbolt is a very powerful, fast, and quite cheap munition for use primarily against fighters. It can track its target and is the only missile in the Commonwealth to have heat-seeking capability.

Encyclopedia Entry

The Thunderbolt Heatseeker Missile uses inbuilt guidance systems to lock on to heat signatures on both visible and infa-red spectrums. Doing so allows it to track targets in areas where doing so would otherwise be impossible. Clasically used when engaging multiple targets at distance, though pilots have since found other more ingenious uses for them.

Commentary

A powerful and inexpensive missile, the Thunderbolt is most useful for destroying M3 heavy fighters, of which only the strongest will survive more than one hit. Fast and with good range, its biggest drawback is that it is greedy for cargo volume.

This can one hit kill any fighter craft unless the target has more than 75 MJ of shielding, although it cannot effectively be used against M5 scouts because they're just too quick to get a lock on. It also can be a serious threat to M6 corvettes, with a dozen or so taking one down.