Planetary Invasions

Inspired by Bertil's recent post on how to do D-Day, the Gulf War, and
some previous thinking of my own, I present the following for discussion:


                  LARGE SCALE WARFARE IN THE IMPERIUM

     In  light of the recent reconquest of Kuwait, I would like to  take
the  opportunity to consider warfare in the far future depicted by  Tra-
veller.   I  am  posting this to the list in hope of  stirring  up  some
debate  on the topic.  Who knows?  If we come up with a consensus,  per-
haps we can submit to the Journal or Challenge...

     From my point of view, the most interesting aspects of the Gulf War
as  applied to Traveller were the incredible pace of operations and  the
potential  increase in real-time tactical intelligence due to  sophisti-
cated sensor systems.  As Traveller depicts the development of technolo-
gy, it seems that these trends can only continue.

     Let's  look  first at the 'total war' scenario as it applies  to  a
planetary  assault against a stellar technology planet.  Planets of  TL8
and below, and low population planets are automatically at the mercy  of
any  attacking force.  Why would you assault a planet at all?   For  the
same  reason  that we still have ground forces in  the  nuclear  age...a
demand to surrender or be bombarded into oblivion is not always believa-
ble.   A planetary assault would only occur during deliberate  offensive
operations  aimed  at  capturing territory.  During a  raid  into  enemy
territory,  with  no short-term intent to govern the population  of  the
target  planet, bombardment _would_ be preferred. Under limited  circum-
stances  a ground raid to capture specific removable  objectives  (data,
personnel,  or prototypes) might be considered, but it would have to  be
small  scale  to permit a stealthy approach. A stealthy approach  for  a
large raid is not generally possible, though the possibility would exist
for  regiments or divisions to be deployed by black globe  using  dread-
noughts.

     An  attacking fleet jumps into a system as a fairly  compact  unit.
The  local  forces will learn of its existence in hours at  the  latest,
depending  on  the location of the appearance.  If they  are  scattered,
they will attempt to withdraw, attempt to combine, or engage  piecemeal,
depending on their commander's assessment of the relative strengths.  In
any  case, a superior attacker can proceed to the main  world,  possibly
refueling  on the way if the configuration of the planets and the  enemy
fleets  permits,  possibly  reduced by combat if the  enemy  elected  to
engage.   In  any  case, the mainworld will be  warned.   The  planetary
defenses  will stand ready, deep meson gun sites prepared to fire,  grav
craft dispersed and moving or hidden in the oceans or deep bunkers as  a
reserve.  As the fleet approaches the planet, all craft in orbit will be
detected  and  identified.  Deception will be difficult  or  impossible.
Cheap  drones emitting the electromagnetic signature of important  craft
may  be deployed to confuse the attacker's perception of where the  tar-
gets  are,  but there will be no way to hide where  the  defenders  _are
not_.   Drones are a two edged sword, for the attacker will use as  well
in the next phase.  Prepared for the planetary meson guns, the attacking
fleet does not hazard the largest ships against them.  Instead they rely
on  saturating the defenses with numerous smaller craft  and/or  drones.
Some  will  be lost to meson gun fire, some to ground based  lasers  and
missiles.   Many will get through, and most of them will carry  substan-
tial  sensor suites, jam-proof maser communicators, and enough  tactical
computing  power  to pass the reconnaissance information to  the  combat
control  center(s).  If the defender's deception plan has been  success-
ful,  defending grav craft will outnumber and defeat the attackers.   If
not,  the skies above the planet will soon belong to the  attacker.   In
either  case, this phase of operations will be comparatively  short  and
extremely rapid.  Logistics will not be a consideration when almost  all
craft  are  armed with energy weapons requiring no ammunition  and  have
fuel  for days or weeks of continuous operation.  The entire  atmosphere
and  close  orbit space will be an enormous swirling dogfight  as  craft
engage at hundred of kilometers at speeds of thousands of kilometers per
hour.  Infantry, even when equipped with battledress and grav belts will
have  no  place in this phase of operations.  Their  individual  weapons
will not affect grav combat vehicles, there will be no pressing need  to
assault immobile positions until the 'dogfight' is over, and they  would
be vulnerable while riding in their carriers for no gain.  It is  possi-
ble  that infantry carriers might deploy with the assault wave  to  take
advantage of the saturation, and then ground and spread out to await the
next  phase.  Ground mobile forces will also have little place  in  this
combat except to fire at anyone coming within their immobile reach.   If
the defending grav forces are defeated, their ground forces will rapidly
be destroyed as the highly mobile attackers can concentrate on them  one
at  a  time.   The attackers will make a special effort  to  target  any
immobile  communication  and sensor facilities that  are  detected...al-
though a deep meson gun site may have multiple sensor and  communication
relay  stations, without the use of meson communicators the  final  link
must  be immobile, though perhaps concealed and well  hardened.   (Meson
communicators  will allow the deep site spotters to be mobile and  main-
tain communications through the ground without the use of surface  level
relay points.) (A deep meson gun site should be buried below the maximum
resolution  level of the enemy's densitometers, which is  one  kilometer
for  a TL15 invader.  The existence of TL16 sensor-building  planets  at
the  Imperial Core just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War has  pre-
sumably rendered sites buried to the 1km minimum obsolete.) Both combat-
ants  will attempt to attack as many of the enemy's most capable  sensor
platforms  as  possible, but the size and power TL14+ sensors  makes  it
easy  enough for every grav tank to be its own Gulf War  J-STARS  system
equivalent.   If  the defender has concealed assets at the  end  of  the
'dogfight' phase, they may now be cut off from central command, and will
probably  lack the opportunity for large scale surprise.   Trading  them
one  for  one for attacker forces would probably gain  nothing  at  this
point;  better  on a strategic level, though not  necessarily  for  this
planet,  to leave them concealed to strike when the attacker  has  with-
drawn most of his assault forces for the next operation, or to at  least
force the attacker to devote resources to tracking them down one by one.

     After the 'dogfight' comes the 'mop-up'.  Immobile defending  posi-
tions are assaulted as soon as overwhelming force can be brought to bear
against  them.  Limited force, in the form of infantry with very  selec-
tive  direct fire support, might be used against targets which  the  at-
tacker  desired to capture intact, or where collateral damage is  to  be
avoided,  such as cities--it has already been mentioned that an  assault
would only be ordered with an intent to capture, so it is to be  assumed
that  these  target would exist.  With his mobile  forces  destroyed  or
otherwise  neutralized, each of these targets/force concentrations  will
be isolated.  Surrender and sabotage of valuable targets to deny them to
the attackers might be common in this phase, since the conclusion is not
certain.   The defenders will lose unless assisted by an outside  force.
If  such an outside force exists, they may hold out for a  while.   This
phase  will certainly be longer than the 'dogfight', as it  may  involve
house  to  house searches of a city until the defenders  give  up.   Any
remaining  defender  heavy weapons will be at a severe  disadvantage  in
this phase, since the attackers sensor superiority will be so pronounced
that  they  will  probably not survive for multiple  shots  after  being
revealed,  at least as long as the attacker has thoroughly  covered  the
area with his own heavy weapons.

     After  the final formal surrender will be the  'occupation'  phase.
Guerrilla  resistance  will be made difficult by the  sensor  imbalance.
The existence of the advanced sensors postulated in the game would  seem
to make counterinsurgency trivial for a high-tech attacker.  A guerrilla
attack  occurs,  using  weapons hidden and not  discovered  in  searches
during the 'mop-up' phase.  The attacker is immediately alerted,  either
by  jam-proof communications or by the sudden appearance of  jamming  on
the  passive sensor network.  A grav mounted rapid response  force  sur-
round the area, sets up a sensor interdiction perimeter, and attacks any
immediately  detectable  enemy forces.  Civilian movement  will  be  re-
stricted, brutally if necessary (Warning! All grav craft over the  East-
ern  Continent ground within 5 seconds or you _will be destroyed_).   No
guerrillas  will  be able to filter through the  sensor  perimeter  with
their  weapons, although they may abandon them and escape  as  civilians
unarmed.  There will be limits to their weapons supplies, and enough  of
this  will  render  them harmless.  If a group does attack  or  jam  the
sensors  in  the  course of an escape, another response  team  could  be
called.  Enough guerrillas could saturate the response teams, but  over-
all I think that guerrilla losses would be prohibitive.

   Ruling a hostile population, and one perhaps made more hostile by the
measures necessary to suppress any large scale guerrilla activity  would
be  a  difficult (if not formidable task), but it has  been  managed  on
Earth  with a far less overwhelming superiority on the part of  the  at-
tackers.

   As I said at the beginning, I'm trying to extrapolate what the situa-
tion would look like with fast, highly capable craft which can attack at
very  long distances by current standards.  If there is any interest  in
this, we can discuss what the 'view from the cockpit' might look like at
different levels on each side of this sort of operation, as well as what
it would look like to non-combatants on the ground.