Hatchet SSW

The Mark 44 Hatchet Ship-to-Ship Warhead is an unguided, prolifically manufactured missile in use by a wide range of navies and military forces, among them the New Republic Navy and the Caspian Navy. It lacks an advanced guidance package, simply relying upon the deploying warship to feed it a vector upon which to travel upon, or to aim its launcher with the use of a targeting computer or LIDAR imager. It trades off this computational accuracy for a low-cost, simplicity of use, and a significant destructive yield. The Hatchet's chief rival in the missile market is the Mark 22 Saint SSW, but ironically the two missiles are often used side-by-side, sometimes in the same brace.

Hatchets are best employed in a brace of three to eight, often at close range. Caspian warships, with their HOWL/VOWL systems, use them to great aplomb when going broadside-to-broadside with opposing starships since their launch systems can reload so rapidly.