The Sandcaster in Traveller

Since the first version of Traveller all the way through to modern Mongoose Traveller and Cepheus Engine, space combat has included the "sandcaster" as defence against lasers. The simplest description of the sandcaster is as a shotgun that fires sand into the void to disrupt incoming laser beams.

Here's my take.

For a start it doesn't fire sand. If fires  polychromatic glass-like granules that have some resemblance to sand.

Furthermore it isn't a shotgun. It is a large barrelled launcher that fires the highly engineered somewhat guidable granule dispenser.

The sandcaster round is a short cylinder 8" across with rounded ends. As well as having a few small manoeuvre jets the surface is covered in perfectly arranged tiny dispenser holes. So the next questions are, why is it complicated and why isn't it a shotgun?

Imagine you're leading a stern chase and your opponent is using beam-laser bow chasers. If you shotgunned a blast of sand off the stern, that sand would likely blast past the enemy before they even fired. Much better would be to fire my sandcaster, that distributes its "sand" over time as it slowly falls behind your ship. My sandcaster would thereby give longer lasting protection.

Imagine you're not in a stern chase, but instead hiding in an asteroid belt, fire an intelligent sandcaster and you can deposit a shield of "sand" around your hiding place that not only gives you a defence if you get surprised, but also gives you some defence against enemy sensors.

Now your enemy is vectoring in on you from your port beam, a well placed intelligent sandcaster can be launched ahead of your ship and angled slightly towards the enemy, pouring out its "sand" in a perfectly arranged cloud of protection between you and the enemy.

Now you're about to emerge from behind a station into the sights of the enemy. You launch your sandcaster ahead of your planned path laying down a protected route before you even start thrusters.

Please, upgrade your sandcasters from shotguns for bags of sand, to a tactical device for increased survival. The humble sandcaster round is a complex somewhat programmable device.