Missiles

While the Umbrian Republic Navy utilizes railguns for both point defense and ship to ship engagements, they supplement these weapons with extensive missile armament on most warships. Housed in vertical launch tubes buried in the outer hull of the vessels themselves, small frontline warships may carry hundreds of these munitions, while the largest battleships are equipped with thousands.

Missiles are seen as an expensive but necessary compliment to railguns, as the latter struggle to hit small targets at range. The tremendous maneuverability afforded to enemy ships in the vacuum of space allows even large fleets to constantly shift and move about as they approach one another, rendering the unguided kinetic penetrators susceptible to missing their targets entirely.

Instead, as the URN's fleets approach optimal firing range, they use missiles to probe the enemy's defenses and attempt to create gaps in their structure which can be exploited later once the battle enters the general melee portion of a fleet engagement.

Coordinated salvos of heavy ship to ship weapons have proven to be capable of tearing open even the most heavily armored Ascomanni warships. However, they are vulnerable to enemy electronic warfare, which attempts to confuse or distort the acquisition lock generated by the missiles' onboard targeting computer.

Missiles are also used as supplemental point defense weapons, capable of intercepting other missiles or enemy starfighters. While the Asco seem to have only a lukewarm affection for spaceborne fighter and bomber craft, they have shown themselves to be quite lethal when massed in significant numbers. Smaller interceptor missiles help prevent enemy starfighters from massing, wearing down and diluting their strength before they can do too much damage.

Further advances in guidance systems and basic autonomy are currently being prototyped in a number of military R&D facilities across the Republic, and rumors of even more lethal missiles can often be heard amongst the URN's rank and file. Despite its costly nature, the effectiveness of missile armament ensures that it will be a feature of the Republic's warships for the foreseeable future.