Brandon Cope:
>Remember, just because you can detect it doesn't mean you can defend
against
>it...
>
>A while back, someone mentioned something about a dozen ships being
adequate
>to cover a planet. However, I cannot remember the distance at which these
>ships
>were supposed to be operating from the planet. I am going to assume a
distance
>of 10 planetary diameters for this discussion, for three reasons: (1)
ships
>coming into the system will be 100 or more diameters out, so the
protective
>ships will be between the intruders and the planet, (2) ships leaving the
>system will be unlikely to jump until they get at least that magical 10
>diameters out (unless really foolhardy or desperate), so the protective
ships
>have time to intercept the target ships (such ships are usually smugglers
or
>escaping criminals), and (3) with 'x' ships, it means that the ships have
less
>of an area to cover, thus improving effectiveness, than if they were at
100
>diameters. With this being said, with an earth-sized world, it will take a
6G
>fighter over *2 hours* to get from the 10 to 100 diameter ranges. This is
more
>than enough time for the hostile ship to do what it wants way out there. A
few
>'first-line-of-defense' ships at 100 diameters might help, but unless you
have>half the Sector Navy at hand, you won't be able to put more than a
token
>number
>of ships at the 100 diameter range (of course, a few Q-freighters would
help).
Hmmm...
I said that about twelve ships defending a planet.
The assumed positions were at 50 diameters. The average imperial world is
size 5, which means that 50 diameters is 400,000 Km. Since shipboard
weaponry has a range of 500,000 Km, all twelve ships could bring low
planetary orbit under fire. Presumably six ships could bring any point
in low planetary orbit under fire. In addition, at least one ship could
bring any point at 100 diameters under fire. At least eleven ships could
fire on any point at the ten diameter limit.
Therefore, these defensive installations do not have to intercept any ships
appearing at the 100 diameter limit. They just blow away any ship that
does not comply with traffic control orders. SO, yu act like a pirate
with-
in 100 diameters, between one and twelve LARGE ships blow you away
immediately. Intercept time, rather than being several hours, is only
1.7 seconds.
It does not pay to forget that ship weaponry can target you at a range of
500,000Km, which is 62.5 diameters of the average world, and 30+ diameters
of even the largest world.
In the case of a larger world, I assume that you would deploy a few more
ships. Using the basic assumptions I used, a size 'A' world requires
96 ships to achieve the same coverage.
This defensive force is, of course, not suitable for dealing with enemy
fleets, but will serve admirably against anyone so foolish as to commit
piracy nearby.
In fact, we have noticed that in heavily trafficked systems (Efate,
Rhylanor,Trin, Mora come immediately to mind) that the normal merchant
traffic is dense enough that any pirate attack inside 100 diameters would
come under fire from as many as 200 merchant ships within range at any
given instant (under Imperial laws requiring all vessels to render
assistance). At ranges much less than 100 diameters (ten say), that
number would rise to perhaps 5000 ships capable of firing on any pirate.
Not counting any naval vessels in system at the time.
Later...
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[email removed]
I have learned to use the word "impossible" with the greatest caution.
--W. von Braun