Possible tactic against the Death Star?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah, I thought that's what happenned. I was going to bring up TESB. Suffice to say, it's a very strange contradiction. But ten again, as I said Stackpole vastly underquips both sides with ships. Case in point, in Rogue Squadron he describes an Admiral in command of all ships in the sector, and he has a Carrack, a Lancer and an Interdictor. Three light ships in a whole sector?

[Crazedwraith]

Hey a carrack, a lancer, an interdictor and a strike cruiser

Then again the rebels only have a Neb-B, a corvette, and a Y-Wing Wing.


It's a pity there's that last paragraph. Otherwise we could have simply handwaved it as shields being much less effective is assaulted from within.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Ah well. I suppose we can go with the "it contradicts higher cannon, therefore isn't cannon" idea - in TESB theatre shields are said to be strong enough to defelct any bombardment from an SSD and a couple ISD's, so the idea of a single SSD blasting through planetary shields with a 20 second volley must be wrong

And I forgot about the Strike Cruiser...didn't it get blown up? I know the Lancer was

[Sea Skimmer]

Ah well. I suppose we can go with the "it contradicts higher cannon, therefore isn't cannon" idea - in TESB theatre shields are said to be strong enough to defelct any bombardment from an SSD and a couple ISD's, so the idea of a single SSD blasting through planetary shields with a 20 second volley must be wrong

Or the shield simply has less resistance to weapons fire hitting it from the inside then the outside. Given how utterly little we know about the functionality of the shields that can’t be ruled out, and I cannot think of any other example in Star Wars that could be used for comparison. Fire hitting the inside of a shield may push the shield away from its generator, cause it to break off or something; while fire hitting the outside crushes the shield towards the generate and makes it stronger ect...

We certainly have endless examples of structures in real life which do not respond the same way to loads applied from different directions. Like a house roof will usually be torn off by wind hitting it from the underside (like say after the windows are broken open and the wind can blow in) under it more readily then it will be crushed from the same wind hitting it externally. This is of course just an example of the concept, not an assertion that shields must work this way but it would explain a lot.

[Eternal_Freedom]

That's a good point Sea Skimmer, one I already mentioned several times, but as already pointed out and quoted by CrazedWraith:

[quote=The Krytos Trap pg 323-324 wrote:]

As the Lusankya picked up speed, the gunners shifted their aimpoints and began firing at the upper atmosphere. Their shots hit and splashed color into the lower of the two shield spheres encasing the planet. Created to stop starhip assaults from without, they proved just as powerful against an attack from within. Even so, after twenty seconds of the Lusankya's withering barrage, a hole opened in the lower shield. [/quote]

This explictly states the shields had the same resistance to firing from within as they do firing from without

Which leads us to the "higher cannon override" I mentioned

[bz249]

AFAIK this stuff happened in the same series, where the shield of the Coruscant was broken by some orbital mirror (if it is really big, it might have the same wattage as a typical SW point defense weapon, although it is just simple light, nothing specially tuned for optimal effect against shields and/or armor) so number wise... well it is better to forget it at all.

[Eternal_Freedom]

The mirror was just reflecting sunlight, which clearly isn't blocked by planet shields so that specific argumetn falls down. But you are right on the numbers from that series being totally wacko

[Omeganian]

The mirror was just reflecting sunlight, which clearly isn't blocked by planet shields so that specific argumetn falls down.

The shields let in tolerable amounts of light, but if they were transparent to higher levels of EM radiation as well, we would be seeing a lot more of that used in SW. Too simple a weakness... are you telling me no one exploited it?

[Eternal_Freedom]

It's entirely possible no one even thought of it. When you've got hundreds of gigaton turbolaser bolts flying around, you wouldn't even think of what amounts to a giant magnifying glass that might manage kilotons per second. But against unshielded buildings, or ships whose shields let light in, it's just as deadly

[bz249]

It's entirely possible no one even thought of it. When you've got hundreds of gigaton turbolaser bolts flying around, you wouldn't even think of what amounts to a giant magnifying glass that might manage kilotons per second. But against unshielded buildings, or ships whose shields let light in, it's just as deadly

On the other hand if there are multi gigaton weapons at loose than the construction materials might withstand a bombardment of few kilotons worth of sunlight (or any effect caused by that sunlight) especially if we talk about hardened military installations like a shield projector.

[Crazedwraith]

Ok, the sunlight beam was not used on shield projectors. It was used to vapourise water and get into the atmosphere causing a massive superstorm that did take out vulnerable bits for the generator's infrastructure and the like.

However was also used to take a Golan station.

[Eternal_Freedom]

As far as I know the use of the orbital mirror as a weapon is completely unique to "Wedge's Gambit," which suggests to me that it normally wouldn't work and this was a special case

And Crazedwraith, the orital mirror's beam went through the planet shields, unless the orbital mirror was inside the shields, in which case the shields still let sunshine through

And as for taking out the Golan, maybe the station had all it's shield power facing the rebels and the OSETS satellite was behind it

[Adam Reynolds]

Given that shields let visible light through, why doesn't anyone use high power lasers in the visible spectrum as a weapon?

[bz249]

And Crazedwraith, the orital mirror's beam went through the planet shields, unless the orbital mirror was inside the shields, in which case the shields still let sunshine through

And as for taking out the Golan, maybe the station had all it's shield power facing the rebels and the OSETS satellite was behind it

Even then it means, that after a shield is down one shot from a TIE fighter can kill a Golan platform. Also the amount energy carried by the sunlight is a less one millionth of a salvo that hits the shield. Either the shield itself are perfect mirrors/radiators or the structural components should handle more waste heat than that. Also the fact that their own reactors/weapons do not melt the ships/weapon platform indicates that either they have above 99,9999% efficiency, or they can solve the problem of a similar amount of excess heat.

All in all, it is totally impossible that mere sunlight can damage the structural components of an SW ship. (Sensitive things, like sensor yes they might suffer some damage, but the hull? Really unlikely)

[Omeganian]

Given that shields let visible light through, why doesn't anyone use high power lasers in the visible spectrum as a weapon?

The obvious answer is that dangerous intensities are blocked. It is a common quality of SF shields. Always taken for granted without explanation.