Efficient sublight propulsion (for "dogfighting")

Researching efficient methods of no-FTL methods often turns up engine solutions that are efficient in the sense that they have a higher specific impulse, but most such solutions seem to have a comparably low acceleration, which is well and all when it comes to travel but not necessarily for dodging stuff.

The kind of space combat I am envisioning rarely involves dogfighting per se; they are more strafing battles at fairly long ranges (by planetside standards), but you'd want high acceleration every now and then to move out of the way; smaller fighter craft might get fairly close, and unmanned drones especially so; the latter are not limited by the fact that humans will die at too many Gs either.

The setting has fairly decent fusion power for energy generation; even smaller spacecraft ("smaller" meaning >=80m or so) have a fusion core that can power your choice of engines and weapons. FTL does exist in the form of Alcubierre warp but it is not precise enough to be used for in-combat maneuvers. I'd rather not have more handwaved magic technology than this; thee is no gravity manipulation for "inertial dampener" BS and spacecraft hulls are fairly fragile, though resilient enough that acceleration would kill crew before tearing apart the hull.

posted over 9 years ago

Llama_guy‭

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