Scott 2G Kellogg writes:
> The images they get are almost good enough to identify individuals. It
> seems to me that if the troops involved carried Identification Friend or
> Foe Transponders (as we assume is carried in combat armor and battle
dress)
> You could easily target individuals on the surface of a planet from orbit.
> The images were THAT clear. I'm not even sure you'd need transponders.
> You could see what they were wearing, and if the uniforms of the troops
> were sufficiently different, it would be child's play.
>
> "Yes sir! We've got the Zhodani General targeted!"
>
> The old line in the 60's was "We can read the numbers off the liscense
> plates with the spy satillites." Well, we know that isn't true, but
> given a passive array that we say has 'Interstellar' range, I can see
> there being a LOT better resolution than what we have today.
>
> That means that just about every ship that carries a laser would be
> absolutely DEADLY to ANYONE on the ground. You wanna assassinate Lucan?
> Just go into orbit around Capital and wait till he steps outside!
Well, back in February there was a discussion on Striker,
and one of the things that came up was exactly that, I believe.
Lemme go check. . .
Here it is:
Bertil writes:
I checked the Fire Control difficulties table in MegaT, and it revealed
an interesting thing: Even at hight TLs it isn't easy to hit a target at
5 to 50km range and close to impossible at 50-500km. If we accept
this, and factor in the movement DMs, it will be very hard for the navy to
hit a Gravtank at all. One could make a case for the tank being treated as a
fighter, but it would have to be above the ground clutter for that, so
the threat of an orbital navy against NOE tanks is not that high.
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