On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:00:57 -0700, the following appeared
in alt.books.david-weber, posted by Loren Pechtel
Post by Loren PechtelPost by Bob CasanovaPost by Loren PechtelPost by hielan' laddieA podnaught in low orbit trumps minor details like that one.
Why would you want a podnaught in low orbit? They're standoff
weapons, not close battle weapons!
Maybe it's low *Jovian* orbit, well beyond the reach of
anything we can do... ;-)
Besides, given the Eridani Edict which, even assuming a
mostly-impotent Solar League, will almost certainly be
enforced by *someone*, what can a podnaught do?
The Eridani Edict doesn't prohibit firing the planet if it refuses to
surrender to a force holding it's orbitals.
Point taken.
Post by Loren PechtelThus you can shoot, it's just a podnaught isn't the right weapon to
shoot with.
Nope; an old-fashioned dreadnaught (or even a cruiser, heavy
*or* light) would do just fine, and wouldn't even have to
use missiles; there's sure nothing we could do to stop it.
The only caveat is that I don't know how well energy weapons
would penetrate the atmosphere while retaining sufficient
energy to be useful. While any energy weapon would be more
efficient in vacuum, the question involves issues of beam
frequencies and interaction with air molecules.
--
Bob C.
"Evidence confirming an observation is
evidence that the observation is wrong."
- McNameless