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Planetary invasion ramblings (longish)

From: Jeff Lyon <jefflyon@m...>
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 15:57:22 -0500
Subject: Planetary invasion ramblings (longish)


Hi guys,

I've been following this thread for a while now and thought I would jump
in
with some comments:

John Atkinson wrote:
>Minor peeve--note that it's only possible to actually conquer a small, 
>small colony from space.  Once you get a couple million colonists with 
>a homegrown industry, it becomes impossible to physically land enough 
>troops to do more than raid.

In principle I agree, although I would be reluctant to assign a hard
number
like 6 million; a planet is HUGE and it is population density that makes
the biggest difference.  

There are about as many people in Austin, Texas (for example) as there
are
in the entire state of Alaska.	Conquering each of these would present
an
entirely different set of tactical problems as a result of the relative
population densities.

Austin would be harder (relatively) to conquer without collateral
damage,
but would be more likely to surrender outright under threat of orbital
bombardment.  In Alaska, it would be easier to seize major resources
with
small forces, but harder to round up the whole population and keep an
eye
on them.  I suspect that most colony worlds would fit the Alaskan model.

Given an entire planet to fill up even a population of 6 million people
would be very dispersed; not all (or even most) of its population will
be
clustered together in large settlements unless forced to by hostile
environment, natives or wildlife.  Besides the simple desire for living
space, there would be economic motives as well; the colonists would go
where the resources were.  So you would probably have numerous small
settlements scattered across the planet.

>...Example:  Israel, with 6 million 
>inhabitants, can field 13 armored divisions, and one parachute division

>(or is it 12 and 1?  I don't recall).	Taking down a force that big 
>would require either massive and indiscriminate use of orbital support 
>(trashing what you're supposed to be trying to conquer!) or one even 
>larger--which would be prohibitive to transport.

Depending on the situation, a similarly large force might or might not
be
able to stop a determined enemy from seizing control of a planet.

Large concentrations of troops just beg for orbital bombardment and
unless
they are using their own population centers as human shields, there is
no
reason the bombardment has to be indiscriminant.  Kinetic strikes or low
yield nukes will make short work of large troop concentrations, military
bases, and centers of resistance.  Even the threat of such actions would
probably cause most colonies to surrender and wait for the relief force;
at
which point your large civilian population becomes a liability, not an
asset.	

(Unless the invaders are the Bug-Eyed, Carnivorous Space Vermin From
Galaxy-X (tm) in which case all bets are off...)  

:)

Smaller, highly mobile/heavily stealthed forces with cached supplies and
equipment can put up a tough resistance and work to deny the enemy the
infrastructure and resources of a planet, but these require a high
degree
of initial preparation and training which may not be reasonable on a
developing world.  (Political or social climate may change this; a
couple
of pirate raids or a long-running cold war would encourage the
development
of such contigency plans.)

Controlling the "high ground" of local space gives any attacker
tremendous
advantages of superior surveillance, relative invulnerability of supply
lines and reserves, superior mobility and the ability to choose when and
where to fight.  One of the first targets of an incoming attack fleet
would
be to  destroy enemy communication and survey satellites.

Unfortunately, starships are too valuable a resource to just park in
orbit
forever.  If they move on, the odds become a little more even.	Although
the invaders can leave their own satellites in orbit, a hidden laser or
surface-to-space missile may be able to knock them down. 

In my opinion, any unsupported ground forces that try to resist an
initial
invasion will be annihilated.  The larger they are the higher the
stakes;
the enemy will just bring more ships, more troops and use orbital
bombardment more liberally.

The best hope of any colony world IMO (short of its own fleet and/or
full
scale orbital and planetary defenses) is a pre-prepared resistance force
armed, equipped and trained to lay low until the initial invasion is
over
and then attack the enemy garrison troops to deny the economic value of
the
planet to the enemy until relief arrives. 

(Rick Shelley's Buchanan Campaign/Fires of Coventry/Return to Camerein
novels, Gordon R. Dickson's Tactics of Mistake & Dorsai novels, David
Drake's Hammer's Slammers short stories and novels and David Weber's
Crusade & Path of the Fury all have good examples of small unit actions
against outlying colonies and/or address the problems of full scale
planetary invasions.)

Jeff

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