Re: [VVerse] Trickier FTL gates

> 
> 
> IIRC, in the Pournelle/Niven setting with Alderson drives
> the transit in would scramble computers. This would make
> wormholes much easier to defend because the attacker can't
> bombard you with smart missiles. Clockwork timers on nuke
> bombs worked, but nothing more elaborate.
> 
> In the Andromeda universe, slipstreaming is only possible
> for living intelligent beings. I don't think this was ever
> justified even at a PSB level, but again it would make
> attacking through a wormhole a lot more dangerous.
> 
>	cheers,
>	Hugh
> 

   Yep, either of these would make a *huge* difference.  If you are
forced to
 send manned vessels through, you'll have to make a lot of changes.  Of
course,
 you can just bury a crew deep *deep* inside a major asteroid to control
the
 weapons arrays festooned around the outside.  It would make a lousy
vessel for
 maneuver combat, but against fixed defenses, a series of them would
probably
 work.	
   I still say though that any "wormhole" or "gate" system that would
allow 
 large numbers of unmanned weapons to pass through it effectively
eliminates 
 the usefulness of fixed defenses.  First you send through huge numbers
of very
 small seeker weapons to wipe out the minefield, then a bunch of nukes
to knock
 out the weapons positions with EMP effect, then missile swarms to
overwhelm
 point defenses and knock out any remaining sensors and exposed
positions.  
 Repeat until there is a hole in the defenses sufficient for a manned
fleet to
 move through with impunity.  Nova cannon type weapons only make this
easier.
   Conversly, mobile fleets are far less vulnerable to this type of
attack 
 because they aren't "fixed" near the wormhole and as the volume of
space that
 they could be in increases, the weapons needed to attack that increase 
 exponentially.  It doesn't take much to make the most effecient way to
attack
 a defending fleet be your own fleet moving through the wormhole.
   I would think the best way to defend a gate point would be to have a
small
 number of fixed defenses with a significant fleet able to back them up.
 The
 trick is to have enough defensive positions to be able to hold up the
enemy
 for your fleet to arrive, but not so many that the other side feels the
need
 to build specific weapons systems to obliterate them.

   grant