Text 12211, 65 rader
Skriven 2007-02-13 20:36:36 av Vorlonagent (15652.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Military tactics in sci-fi?
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"Soundy" <soundy106@gmail.com> wrote in message 
news:1171386845.035788.66680@k78g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> You also aren't TRULY operating in three dimensions, where planetary
> tactics are limited by gravity to what's possible in one dimension...
> it's sort of a two-and-a-half-dimension situation: if you could build
> your minefield high enough (ie. from the planetary surface to the
> fringes of the atmosphere) you take away one possible avoidance route.

> And of course, the reduced effectiveness of nukes in a vacuum must be
> taken into consideration: you lose one of the major destructive
> properties of ANY explosive, namely the shock wave.

Then there's the problem of building and maintaining that many nukes.

Mines work on 21st century earth because they're a cheap method of denying 
passage through territory to the enemy.

Trying to barricade the way to an earth-size planet would require sufficient 
depth that the enemy still risks life and limb *after* the first mine goes 
off, either because they have to penentrate multiple layers or because the 
mine explosion won't kill other mines.

You would need thousands of nukes to do this.  Mine fields would have to be 
set up in belts orbiting the planet.  You would need successive belts from 
equatorial orbit to polar orbit to effectively seal the planet off.  Each 
belt would be narrow so you'd need 10s or 100s of them to get complete 
coverage.  The belts can't be at the same altitude or the mines will 
collide.  Running belts at different altitudes takes up potentially valuable 
oribital real estate.  And sicne they have to be spaced so that an exposion 
from one doesn't vaporize or EMP other belts, there are seams between the 
belts that ships might be able to navigate.

Then there's the question of how to get legitimate traffic in and out safely 
when every mind around the planet is whizzing around at 50,000 MPH.

No, mines don't work in space in any broad, territory-holding manner. 
Earth's "Defense Grid" concept (the Centuari use it too, probably most 
races) works much better and is much cheaper.  You could mine something like 
B5, however.   If the whole field orbits the planet or is in deep space, you 
can build a grid pattern that is tedious or dangerous to penetrate.  You 
could have a convoluted set of "safe paths" thought the field to allow 
maintenance and traffic flow.

But still the cost would be high and the maintenance cost pretty severe. 
You would only mine extremely important or vital assets.  If EarthForce had 
a free-floating supreme HQ for example, they might mine that.



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John Trauger,
Vorlonagent

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Science without spirituality has no heart."

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