Diamond boron missile

The diamond boron missile was a weapon developed sometime during the Clone Wars, but only truly refined at the height of the Galactic Civil War. Diamond boron missiles were nearly impervious to starfighter-scale laser weapons and could be fired from most standard concussion missile launchers. They were equipped with powerful warheads capable of completely destroying everything within fifty meters from the point of detonation. Thus, the missile proved itself an effective weapon against fighters, since a single blast could easily take out several at a time.

Description[]

The diamond boron missile was a sleek one-meter long projectile that was designed to be launched from any standard concussion missile launcher, such as Arakyd Industries' ST2 concussion missile rack.^[1]

When launched, a diamond boron missile deployed dorsal and ventral flanges at the rear of the missile, with expandable diamond boron blast plates flaring out at the front of the projectile. The rear flanges gave the missile enhanced armor and atmospheric maneuverability, while the forward blast plates rendered the missile virtually impervious to starfighter laser cannon fire.^[1]

The missile had enough fuel for ten minutes of flight time, using thrust-vector plates within the exhaust nozzles for exceptional maneuverability. Diamond boron missiles could reach speeds that were faster than standard missiles such as proton torpedoes and concussion missile.^[1]

Diamond boron missiles had several detonation settings; they could be programmed to blow up when reaching a certain pre-determined location, or when their internal sensors registered a number of enemy ships in the vicinity of the blast radius. The missiles could also be guided remotely by a gunner, but this method allowed the projectile to be jammed by the enemy.^[1]

While starfighter weapons were unable to stop a diamond boron missile, capital ship turbolasers were capable of destroying the missile. However, turbolasers had a hard time even hitting the missile due to their targeting systems being unable to track a target that small.^[1]

History[]

The diamond boron missile was developed during the Clone Wars. It took until the Galactic Civil war for the design to be refined.^[2] During the Galactic Civil War, Sienar Fleet Systems manufactured the MS-15 diamond boron missile. However, Sienar's missile was prohibitively expensive, with each unit costing nearly twenty thousand credits. The missile never saw widespread use due to the cost, but also because of reports of the warheads exploding while in storage. Sienar continued to produce their missile while researching more cost-effective versions.^[1]

During the Galactic Civil War, Imperial Broadside-class cruisers were initially equipped with diamond boron missiles, but later models were refitted to use concussion missiles.^[3] The Zann Consortium also often employed the missiles, which were fired from stationary space platforms.^[4] The freighter Suprosa used a diamond boron missile to destroy four Y-Wings piloted by Bothans during the Alliance's attempt to capture the ship.^[1]