Text 12244, 77 rader
Skriven 2007-02-14 19:09:28 av Vorlonagent (15685.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: Military tactics in sci-fi?
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"Jeffrey MacHott" <Raguleader@netzero.net> wrote in message 
news:7RwAh.213822$5l2.24210@fe02.news.easynews.com...
>> 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.
>
> It occurs to me that we have seen one space minefield on B5, in the 
> beginning of season 3.  When told that they'd need to clear a path through 
> it to allow a group of Rangers to withdraw from a planet in the system 
> before the Shadows could arrive, Sheridan's first assumption was that 
> they'd need "A starship", he didn't seem concerned with what type of 
> starship or that they'd need more than one, so presumably minefields, as 
> used on B5, are generally most effective around a jumpgate (and thus, only 
> effective against smaller ships not equipped with jump generators).

That's right, the centauri blockade mines.

No the field was around the planet.  Thing was, IIRC, the mines were weapons 
platforms.  They were a defense grid that keep ships in, not off the planet.

You need a capital ship to blow a hole in the minefield without getting too 
banged up.  A squad of fighters would likely take heavy attrition.


> A pre-Minbari War ship like the EAS Hyperion could probably make easy work 
> of the minefield if they knew to jump in rather than use the jump gate, 
> and then just proceed to get gunnery practice in with the explosive clay 
> pidgeons.  To be effective, a minefield would need to be supported by 
> mobile forces, probably a flotilla of cruisers or destroyers and their 
> fighters, in order to fend off any minesweeping efforts.

Except the mines weren't explosive

But you're still right.  Automated defenses are nice but they need 
sentient-crewed ships to back them up.  Not that it matters if it's the 
vorlons come to vaorize your planet.


> Similarly, we've seen that the G.O.D. arrays over Earth are of only 
> limited use against attacking fleets when deprived of support from 
> warships.  Ideally you'd probably want to catch the enemy force in a 
> pincer movement, pinning them in a crossfire between your ships and the 
> defense grid, minimizing the effectiveness of their point-defense.  Both 
> times Earth was attacked after we saw that they had the defense grid in 
> place, the (sizable) EarthForce units deployed to protect Earth were 
> distracted (General Leftcourt's squadron was disabled in orbit over Mars 
> by the White Stars and the CyborgPeeps, and General Yuri's fleet was 
> attacking the Planet Killer, or at least the forces around it).
>
> The Defense Grid is probably outstanding in defending against raids and 
> planet-swatting asteroids and what not, and a minefield is probably a 
> handy blockade tool, but both have severe limitations if you don't use the 
> other tools in your box effectively.

Outstanding deterrent against raids.  Also projecting a safe zone around 
earth against raiders.

I'd station them along the approach(es) to Earth's jumpgate(s) as well. 
(IIRC Earth has several.  Has to do with there being a max number of 
hyperspace beacons you can put on any one gate)


-- 
John Trauger,
Vorlonagent

"Methane martini.
Shaken, not stirred."

"Spirituality without science has no mind.

Science without spirituality has no heart."

-Methuselah Jones
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