This report was collated by Padawan Learner San’ago
The use of droids as soldiers has been a practice that has existed for thousands of years, from the Great Hyperspace Wars where they acted as supplements, to already potent military forces to the Clone Wars, where droids made up the majority of the Confederacy of Independent systems’ primary forces. However, throughout all of history even to the present day the answer for a droid-enhanced military lies in the Ion Weapon.
The purpose of this document is to demonstrate the historical and present-day benefits and proper utilization of ion weaponry in conflict with organized military units. This document will not provide direct recommendations or advice but will arm decision-makers such as the Jedi Council, Gate Masters, and Battle Masters of the various Facilities with the knowledge of Ion weaponry to make informed judgments on their utilization. With the caveat that this document will warn against unethical and immoral uses of the technology in keeping with Jedi tradition and ethics.
Ion Blasters
Ion Weapons are blaster-type weapons that fire highly ionized plasma that can have a variety of adverse effects on technology of all sorts. On the low-end, ion weaponry can fry electronics or disrupt computer systems, rendering droids, vehicles, or for that matter anything that relies upon an electrical current to function to temporarily cease functioning. Larger ion weapons can fuse delicate components, melt the silicon in complex computing systems, or even do damage to organic tissue. Most low-powered ion weapons will act like stun-weaponry, doing limited damage to organics, however high-powered ion weapons are considered to be extremely cruel to use, due to their propensity for causing pain, dismemberment and disfigurement, but rarely death.
Ion Weapons come in a variety of forms, including Personal scale blaster-like weapons such as pistols and rifles, explosives such as shaped charges, grenades, and mines, to starship grade weapons such as laser cannons, torpedoes, and even massive purpose-built “super-weapons”. This Document will cover all of these, and how they have been utilized in previous and current conflicts to this day. This document will also go over the known weaknesses and problems that Ion Weapons can have.
As stated, personal scale ion weapons are not very much different from standard blasters, they simply produce more specialized energy blasts. One can find purpose-built ion weapons on the open market as easily as one can find a standard blaster. Typically, such weapons may be identified by an enlarged conical shaped barrel to maintain integrity on the plasma bolt’s higher ionization. However, where personal-scale ion weapons differ from blasters is primarily in range. The integrity of an ion bolt “Fizzles” faster than a blaster bolt, the higher energy dissipating significantly faster. This unfortunately means that most ion weapons have significantly shorter range than their blaster counterparts, with a few exceptions. Ion weapons are also prone to overheating and have slower rates of fire overall compared to most blasters due to the excess heat that the bolt puts out.
Some purpose-built, advanced examples of ion weaponry do exist such as the DEMP, or “Destructive Electromagnetic Pulse Carbine.” These weapons are not simply blaster designs that have been converted to become ion weapons, but are instead designed and built specifically for the task of being an ion weapon, and while the range and rate of fire of the DEMP is still significantly less than a blaster-type weapon, it is significantly better than most other Ion weapons of the same type on the market. The DEMP is also capable of delivering “Overcharged” blasts that can envelop large areas of effect at the cost of draining the power pack faster. Purpose-built ion weapons tend to be more expensive than their blaster counter-parts due to a more intensive manufacturing process and more hardened components, however advanced examples such as the DEMP are not that much more expensive than even the most basic of Ion weapons due to extreme amounts of competition in the ion weapon field.
Common galactic society has known how to build Ion Weapons for thousands of years, the processes for such is not that different from a standard blaster weapon, producing a heavily ionized blast-bolt is easy, the tricky part is keeping the weapon safe and operating well with continued use. Which is why it is not uncommon to see ion weapons cobbled together from scrap and old blasters on the regular in the outer rim. Jawas are particularly well known for their strange, but ingenious designs for such weapons. However, not all cobbled Ion weapons are of Jawa make, and can be dangerous to operate, becoming more-so with continued long-term use.
Ion Munitions
Ion explosives are a common utilization of the technology, typically delivering far more high-powered bursts in a cheap, cost-effective manner. Ion Grenades, Mines, and Charges tend to be far more heavily utilized by professional militaries due to limited droid presences in most modern armies. It’s there when they need it, but a standard blaster keeps most soldiers versatile, as most purpose-built ion weapons
An Ion Grenade works very much the same as any other grenade, pull the pin, flick the trigger, push the button, throw the grenade. An ion explosion will occur at the point of impact, potentially destroying many machines at once. However, the ionized plasma is such that it will damage organic tissue to varying extents. If a being is lucky, it will be an unpleasant shock to the system, if they are unlucky and take a full blast it will result in pain, dismemberment, disfigurement, and permanent damage to the nervous system or brain. The Author once again re-iterates that high-yield ion weapons should NOT be used on organic targets for this reason.
Ion Mines, charges, mortars, and rockets also exist. These, like Ion Grenades are not particularly different from other explosives of the same type. Mines are explosives that are meant to be hidden and explode when triggered via a variety of different methods, such as pressure, proximity sensors, or other wide varieties of apparatus. Charges are explosives that go off after a certain amount of time, they may also be manually detonated via a detonator or a signal. Mortars are explosive weapons designed to fire over long range to suppress an enemy or destroy dug-in positions. Rockets are directed explosives fired from a shoulder-mounted weapon or through the use of other launching systems.
High powered personal scale weapons do exist as well, however are typically highly frowned upon in professional civilized militaries. The most prominent personal-scale anti-vehicle ion weapon is the ion disruptor. While it is true an Ion Disruptor can disable vehicles of various sizes and types relatively easy, they have been banned for hundreds of years due to the unnecessary pain and suffering that they inflict upon organic victims of the weapon.
Where most ion weapons deliver electrical burns and shock, ion disruptors outright disintegrate organic tissue atom-by-atom resulting in a slow, painful, and grotesque death. These weapons have also been historically utilized in crowd-control and terror campaigns by evil regimes such as the Galactic Empire. The T-7 Ion-Disruptor was banned some-time as of the Dark Times due to their use in the extermination and near extinction of the Lasat species.
Transitioning from Personal scale to larger scale ion weapons we have something that’s somewhere in between. The Gungans of Naboo have created a fascinating weapon called a “Booma”. The Booma is a simple sphere of plasma harvested from Naboo’s planetary core that naturally holds stability when placed in a simple, surprisingly durable spherical container despite the high ionization. When broken against a target, the plasma is released. This will not only cause extraordinary amounts of damage to an organic target similar to a high powered blaster but will also release an electromagnetic pulse not unlike a standard ion weapon. The Gungans use these weapons primarily to protect their settlements from the Mega-Fauna that exist in the waters of Naboo but saw extensive use in the Battle of Naboo near five centuries ago against the droid armies of the Trade Federation.
Large scale ion cannon weaponry has been utilized throughout history on tanks, Starships, and as emplaced planetary defenses. These gargantuan weapons are indeed slower firing and the bolt flies slower than regular laser or turbo-laser cannon fire. These weapons typically quite draining on a reactor system and are responsible for immense heat-buildup, meaning that larger scale ion weapons are typically less heavily utilized on smaller craft. However, large capital-ship grade weaponry has been known to disable comparable vessels in one-to-two shots when well-aimed. Typically, ion weaponry is left to bombers, gunships, and other such vehicles due to their propensity for utilizing larger reactors and greater amounts of weapons anyway. Ion cannons are also extensively utilized on patrol craft and customs ships to easily disable fleeing or uncooperative vessels as necessary, in addition to the use of tractor beams and override codes through electronic warfare.
Ion torpedoes, Ion Bombs, and other starship grade explosive munitions have proven to be extremely effective throughout history for disabling and destroying targets many times larger than the vessels that utilize them. Rebel Alliance fighters were able to utilize these weapons to meaningfully and consistently challenge the Galactic Empire’s larger Star Destroyers even when horribly outgunned and outnumbered. While shield systems and technological progress have rolled ever onward, ion munitions remain a staple of star fighter weaponry to this day due to their incredible ability to “punch up” on vessels that they would ordinarily have no business facing down.
Ion Superweapons
Ion Super-weapons have existed, though they are not typically practical, affordable, or sensical in most modern operations, much less for the Jedi Order to operate. Knowledge of these weapons’ existence could be vital should they be utilized by adversaries or allies in the future. One example was the main Heavy Ion Pulse cannon utilized on the experimental “Subjugator-Class Heavy Cruiser”. Which was a dreadnought deployed by the Separatist Alliance during the Clone Wars. The Ion Pulse cannon was capable of completely disabling small fleets of Republic Warships with a single shot, before closing in and ripping them apart with its’ extensive array of turbo-lasers.
The Electro Proton Bomb was a single-use munition utilized by the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars. It was an ion weapon that could destroy massive formations of droids in a single detonation while leaving organic tissue entirely unharmed. The bomb was not utilized further according to public record due to problems inflicted upon planetary ecosystems.
As can be seen throughout this document, Ion Weapons come in a variety of different forms. While they are similar to blasters there are differences that one must be wary of when deciding to utilize ion weapons in a serious combat operation. The weaknesses of ion weaponry are far outweighed by the benefits when facing down significant mechanized opposition, and when supplemented on an existing fighting force allow for increased versatility and contingencies when facing unexpected mechanical forces.