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[Zrk2]

I think it's impossible for us to predict future warfare, just as someone from 1912 couldn't predict warfare in 2012, so someone in 2012 can't predict warefare in 2112, let along 3112.

[Loud Whispers]

I think it's impossible for us to predict future warfare, just as someone from 1912 couldn't predict warfare in 2012, so someone in 2012 can't predict warefare in 2112, let along 3112.

Well the guys in 1912 predicted submarines would be the worst thing ever, and pirates would rule the seas in submersibles of doom.

So basically we ended up with nuclear submarines carrying nuclear warheads.

So it stands to reason that whatever we predict will happen, just with more destructive capabilities and more control. And submarines. In space.

[Mr Space Cat]

Did somebody say pirates? In spehss?

Personally, I like the concept of space-ships sailing flying up against one another as specially trained boarding parties of spehss mahrines attempt to board the other ship and do what damage they can from inside. It's simple, fairly straightforward, and cuts out all these complex factors such as lasers, missiles, etc.

If these space pirates (heh) meet each other in space between the ships, they could hypothetically fight each other, although that depends on the design of the boarding pods/ships they would be using.

Combat between individuals in space would be pretty straightforward:
1)Shoot at other
2)Punch a whole in their suit
3)Watch as they implode
4)? ? ?
5)Repeat

Bonus points if the squads have developed this Viking-esque raiding state of mind, and sing battle songs while drinking mead from their space mead-horns and swing their space axes. In space.

[TheBronzePickle]

There's a problem with that. It's really hard to do the whole ramming thing without risking the complete destruction of both ships because of how orbit works.

[Mr Space Cat]

That's true, although I probably worded the original idea poorly. It's not so much the ships ramming one another directly, more like in an action flick during a race/ chase scene. One car pulls along side another and some guys jump from one car to the other to much with the opposing driver.

Only in this case the raid parties would be jumping across a much wider space (hah, punny) and they wouldn't be jumping so much as being launched from their own ship. I'm kinda imagining it like the ODST drop pods from Halo's universe.

The ramming could be a whole 'nother vista of space combat: Skeletal hulks of ships built with the base necessities for space travel for the sole goal of ramming their whole mass into targeted ships.

[Draxis]

So, missiles?

[Azated]

I've always imagine that space combat would devolve into round ships with layer upon layer of railguns. How can you flank something that has no flank?

[Loud Whispers]

The ramming could be a whole 'nother vista of space combat: Skeletal hulks of ships built with the base necessities for space travel for the sole goal of ramming their whole mass into targeted ships.

Or into planets.

[Cthulhu]

I think kinetic weapons are still going to be big, and relativistic weapons will be the ultimate test of human morality and fitness to survive.

Hundred-ton tungsten slug at .75c.  Very difficult or impossible to pinpoint its exact location (You see it 100 light years away, it's actually 25 light years away.  By the time you calculate where it should actually be it's somewhere else).  Probably impossible to destroy, redirect, or otherwise protect from, assuming no magic technology.  Capable of permanently rendering a planet uninhabitable.  And, most importantly, a necessary corollary of interstellar spaceflight (If you can send a ship at relativistic speed you can do the same with a slug).

If we meet another insterstellar civilization, they'll have the same technology.  If they, for whatever reason, decide to launch a relativistic attack, we're fucked.  If we decide to strike first, we just wiped out millions of years of evolution because we're scared of aliens.  Can we trust a race we know literally nothing about, and what if that trust is misplaced?  A lot of people say reaching that level will only be possible if we're culturally advanced enough to be friendly.  Sure, I can see that, we can't keep wasting our technology on murdering each other, but who says that applies to other species?

Who says any of that applies to aliens?  What about a hive situation where all individuals are in naturally perfect harmony without eliminating capacity for aggression against other species?

That's scary shit. 

To answer the question:  I'm not sure "space combat" is the best description.  More, "space killing"

[kaijyuu]

When we get such relativistic capabilities, what's to say we'll still be standing on planets? I've always thought clouds of ships in space could be our solution to running out of room to live and build on. Dodging a relativistic weapon fired at any reasonable distance would certainly be possible with such.

We'll still be stuck orbiting stars for the foreseeable future though, so if we can fire something big and fast enough to destroy one of those...

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Well, eventually combat will get So quick it'll be ending up as whoever fires first wins the war.

[misko27]

Well, eventually combat will get So quick it'll be ending up as whoever fires first wins the war.

I doubt this, if only because of second-strike capabilitiy. Plus all combat will need to be thought out in advance, so it will take a long time to get ready.

[10ebbor10]

Well, eventually combat will get So quick it'll be ending up as whoever fires first wins the war.

I doubt this, if only because of second-strike capabilitiy. Plus all combat will need to be thought out in advance, so it will take a long time to get ready.

The idea of relativistic weaponry is that there's no second-strike capability left.

Edit: A bit late, but nukes don't cause an EMP in space.

[Scoops Novel]

This is my biggest worry. I'm very much hoping for a fool the laws of physics situation, where your warping space-time around you rather then actually going at father then light speeds. Unfortunately, I'm sure you could vindicate that sub-relativistic speeds are more then enough, and if you've got enough power for warp speed, achieving that probably wouldn't be enormously difficult. On top of that, if all you need is one errant spaceship deciding to ram earth at those speeds and we're gone, then ftl is a long way away. Somehow energy efficient wormholes would be best to me, assuming they don't lauch you out much faster then you went in.

[10ebbor10]

This is my biggest worry. I'm very much hoping for a fool the laws of physics situation, where your warping space-time around you rather then actually going at father then light speeds. Unfortunately, I'm sure you could vindicate that sub-relativistic speeds are more then enough, and if you've got enough power for warp speed, achieving that probably wouldn't be enormously difficult. On top of that, if all you need is one errant spaceship deciding to ram earth at those speeds and we're gone, then ftl is a long way away. Somehow energy efficient wormholes would be best to me, assuming they don't lauch you out much faster then you went in.

Warp drive might actually work, is the last thing I heard. Also, for safety reasons, any such warptravel will not be aimed directly, or even on a possible collision course with earth.

As for the wormholes idea, I dislike it on the ground of planning to place a black hole within one lightyear of my backyard.