The U.S. military is ready to take the next step in developing a nuclear rocket to help monitor Earth-moon space, an area it has deemed a high strategic priority.
DARPA wants ideas for a nuclear rocket for missions in Earth-moon space : Read more
Proposed armament for an orbital gunship:
1) A five inch Naval deck gun firing the hypervelocity projectile developed by the Navy for their railgun. Other projectiles:
a) a maneuverable glide round for intercepting ICBMs or ASATs during boost phase.
b) a canister round with 10,000 cubes of tungsten, each 1/2 cm per side, for orbital intercepts.
c) a kinetic kill vehicle with terminal guidance to steer itself to collide with an agile target (like another gunship with NTP).
2) A 20 to 30 mm autocannon for orbital intercepts, for the same reason they are used on aircraft, they throw 60 rounds per second, improving hit probability on high-speed targets. Ideal weapon for a Space Shuttle door gunner.
Note that the muzzle velocity of the gun plus orbital velocity exceeds escape velocity, removing concerns about projectiles becoming space junk.
Relying on gunpowder is lighter and simpler than hauling a reactor around to power a laser. The nuclear rocket of course has a reactor, but not a power reactor. Its heat load exits the engine in the rocket exhaust. To extract electrical energy, waste heat must be dissipated, and for reactors over about 1 MW (IIRC), the dissipation panels outweigh the reactor. Perhaps there is a way to tap off some energy from the propulsion reactor/exhaust, what do people think?
Also, a laser is a line-of-sight weapon, good out to about 1200 miles, the horizon distance in LEO. Projectiles can curve around the Earth, their paths predictable by orbital mechanics. Our door gunner would need to be able to integrate the differential equations of dynamics.
Missiles could be carried, but cost much more than guns and shells. They have some advantage in midcourse and terminal guidance, but kinetic kill vehicles also have terminal guidance and these could be launched from guns.