Most people aren't that precise in conversation.

: But if you want to weaponize ss drives then the ripper part just might be
: significantly less expensive than a full frigate. If you can make one that
: can be fired from a MAC...

On the other hand, designing a slipspace drive with the structural integrity to survive the g-forces inherent to being launched by a mass driver might be a job best left to the Forerunner. There's also the ludicrously strong magnetic fields that are guaranteed to fry any electronics in a MAC round.

: Apparently 50% get through point defenses. Which is odd - does it not matter
: how many Archers are fired at once? Is it always 50% get through? :-)

It was fifty percent of a huge barrage. Hundreds of missiles, I think.

: I assume that if you fire about thirty then ~1/2 get through. Add an SS
: missile to that lot and you have a 50% chance of destroying the target.
: This still seems promising...

Consider that engagement ranges in Halo generally take place beyond visual range, games notwithstanding. In fact, fighting warships being separated by thousands of kilometers isn't unusual. Now consider that missiles have to cross that distance. They do it, of course, which leads me to believe that Archer missiles employ nuclear propulsion.

Actually, let's follow this line of thought. If an Archer missile can cross a thousand kilometers in one minute, then it would be travelling at just over 30 kilometers per second when it reaches the Covenant warship, assuming no intercept and constant acceleration. We know that they have warheads, and a warhead can correct for a near-miss by firing off-axis, but the body and the guidance package and the unburned fuel is still packing a heckofalotta kinetic energy. Consider that the armor-cutting jet from a HEAT warhead is travelling at 14km/s, at most. Now consider that the rigid body of the rocket is travelling at twice that speed. So if the warhead of the Archer missile is some kind of massive HEAT warhead, then a direct hit on a 'stationary' Covenant warship means that a jet of plasma is going to impact at 45+ km/s, followed by the fragments of the rocket body.

This doesn't have much to do with what you were talking about, but it makes Archer missiles sound badass.

Anyhow, the problem with using UNSC slipspace drives as a warhead is that they appear to require several seconds to warm up, which is more than enough time for Covenant PDS to single them out of a barrage and destroy them. Operation UPPERCUT worked because an improvised Slipspace bomb was delivered by a trojan horse.

Archer missiles are now kinetic kill vehicles.