How quickly could a spaceborne missile accelerate?

Is there any practical g-limit for unmanned spacecraft, or could you theoretically push a missile to significant fractions of c in hours or minutes while pulling hundreds or thousands of Gs? I need to design a relativistic kill vehicle that can be readily used for ship to ship combat without being intercepted (these are REALLY big ships).

A railgun is still on the table but missiles don't risk damaging the ship the same way a railgun discharge does, allowing for higher yields. Missiles need time to accelerate out in space independently of the ship however, which risks them being detected and destroyed before they can accelerate up to a speed at which counterattacking or even detection would be impossible.

So out in the vacuum of space, how many Gs of acceleration could you subject a large hunk of solid mass attached to antimatter-catalyzed fusion rockets with a targeting system and an explosive charge before you risk compromising the missile's structural integrity?

posted about 8 years ago

Z.Schroeder‭

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