Orbital Assault

[IlikeCKEM]

I was wondering about ground and air assault from an orbital position in interplanetary warfare. I'm not really interested in the if or why here and would like to focus on the how. We are seeing normal air assault being a lot harder in modern war, how could these be overcome in a sci-fi setting? My guess is that first you would see a missile and decoy blitz, then a aircraft blitz, then a massive bombardment with MOAB and bigger bombs, as well as bunker busting on a set are before finally landing troops. Almost every example I see of orbital assault is onto a landmass, could a naval version work? One idea I had is to drop specialised submarines into the ocean and use the water to decelerate them.

 

[Byeman]

One idea I had is to drop specialised submarines into the ocean and use the water to decelerate them.

Not feasible, forces too high.

 

[IlikeCKEM]

Not feasible, forces too high.

Oops, I didn't mean dropping them straight from orbit lol, I was just thinking that it is probably easier to air drop a submarine than it is to drop a tank. Surface vessels would be very hard to land I imagine which might mean that no naval support would be available for taking the planet! This could be a big problem as perhaps the defenders could resort to naval guerrilla warfare.

 

[Scott Kenny]

I was wondering about ground and air assault from an orbital position in interplanetary warfare. I'm not really interested in the if or why here and would like to focus on the how. We are seeing normal air assault being a lot harder in modern war, how could these be overcome in a sci-fi setting? My guess is that first you would see a missile and decoy blitz, then a aircraft blitz, then a massive bombardment with MOAB and bigger bombs, as well as bunker busting on a set are before finally landing troops.

You start by assuming that everything that is dropping is one time use. Come down at the ragged edge of burning up, do a minimum altitude "suicide burn" at maximum deceleration, and then lithobrake. AKA crash landing.

Maybe, at the end of the battle you will be able to salvage the various pieces, and by some miracle one of the craft will not need major structural repairs to be flight-worthy.

Almost every example I see of orbital assault is onto a landmass, could a naval version work? One idea I had is to drop specialised submarines into the ocean and use the water to decelerate them.

Dropping at any significant speed onto water, even as "low" as 50kph, is about like dropping onto concrete.

 

[Archibald]

Look for USMC "SUSTAIN" two decades ago. It's the closest thing from what you describe.

SUSTAIN (military) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Byeman]

Oops, I didn't mean dropping them straight from orbit lol, I was just thinking that it is probably easier to air drop a submarine than it is to drop a tank.

Quite the opposite. A tank is about 50 tons. Subs are 1000's of tons.

 

[publiusr]

easier to drop a submarine than it is to drop a tank.

Maybe we can get a rinky dink cryobot in Europa---but that's about it.

But let's say--for humor's sake---that there were "Space Nazis" with their little flying saucers as some of the woo would have us believe.
They can't move very fast with their field effect drives---but they can hover and not need to orbit.

They drop to 30,000 feet or so---they STILL get eaten alive by modern fighters---even with handwavium.

You can make a macron gun...of sorts

Students create bench-top particle accelerator to study effects of micrometeoroids

A team of engineering students has recently developed and tested a bench-top particle accelerator they call LOKI, to test what happens to different materials when they are hit by micrometeoroids. The device, discussed in the International Journal of Student Project Reporting offers an innovative...

phys.org

Now this makes me scratch my head:

Scientists describe deployment of three-body chain-type tethered satellites in low-eccentricity orbits

Recently, the tethered satellite system (TSS) has been used in Earth observations, space interferometry and other space missions, due to its potential merits. The tethered TSAR (tomographic synthetic aperture radar) system is a group of tethered SAR satellites that can be rapidly deployed and...

phys.org

It doesn't sound as if it would be useful as a space weapon...but it might open up orbital tracks...if nothing else---maybe it was inspired by a weapon

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeKqFyX-2o0