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Hutt Gambit BDZ calculations:
Back when Mike had his debate with Edam, and prior to the unveiling of the AoTC ICS, I'd undertaken a research attempt at analyzing the BDZ incident. As we know, it was commonly claimed that the BDZ event in the Hutt Gambit was a "failed BDZ" and that many SW critics claimed Baron Fel's "vision" of the operation the factual process. However, during my investigation, I turned up some rather interesting and startling conclusions. Hence, this document. Its not of much use now probably, but we *can* consider just how many examples of the SW galaxy's firepower existed in canon and EU before it was ever put onto paper.
I. Definition of a Base Delta Zero operation
BDZ ops should be familiar to everyone by now, so I won't spend overly much time going over just what it is. I will, however, address several important points regarding the Hutt Gambit in regards to the Base Delta Zero.
First, the Base Delta Zero order is first discussed here:
Page 223-224: Han tensed, but made himself stay calm. He could tell Greelanx was really tempted. "Sir, what are your orders?" he asked. "Perhaps we can think of something that will benefit us both, and yet leave you free of any charge of wrongdoing."
Greelanx laughed bitterly a short, bitten-off laugh. "Hardly, Young man. My orders are to enter the Hutt system, execute order Base Delta Zero upon the Smuggler's Moon, Nar Shaddaa, and then blockade Nal Hutta and Nar Hekka until the Hutts agree to allow full customs inspections and a complete military presence on their worlds. The Moff doesn't want to cripple the Hutts too badly, but he wants Nar Shaddaa reduced to rubble."
Han swallowed his mouth dry. Base Delta Zero was an order that called for the decimation of a world - all life, all vessels, all systems - even droids were to be captured and destroyed. His worse nightmare comes true.
Many critics of the BDZ claim that the Hutt Gambit represented what was a "true" BDZ, and cited as an example the m usings of one Baron Soontir Fel, who commanded one of the vessels involved in the Nar Shaddaa operation:
However, that is not the only source as to what the BDZ on Nar Shaddaa was to result in. The Essential Chronology gives a much different picture:Page 247: "Fel would carry out his orders, but he wasn't happy about them. He knew images of the flaming buildings would haunt him, as he gave each order to fire. And afterward. They’d have to send down shuttles and ground troops to mop up, and he, Fel, would have to oversee the operation.
Visions of smoking rubble strewn with blackened corpses filled his mind, and Fel took a deep breath."
Obviously, there is a clear difference of opinion as to what the operation is. However, the first example is clearly a subjective impression of the operation, culled from the mind of a man terrified of having to perform that very same operation! Even more, it was to be his FIRST BDZ operation ever - how are we to assume he is qualified to know what one is, or looks like? Obviously, there are some serious problems about basing the definition of a BDZ on the subjective (and guilt-ridden) imaginings of one man.Page 29: "Suddenly scrutiny from the Empire brought all normal life on Nar Shaddaa to a screeching halt. Moff Sarn Shild proclaimed the Hutts lawless territory would benefit greatly from stricter Imperial control. As a public-relations stunt, Shild was authorized to blockade Nal Hutta and turn the smuggler’s moon into molten slag."
Secondly, we can consider that the former quote is far less specific than the second one is, even were we to take his "imaginings" literally. Its not totally impossible for the operation to leave SOME smoke blackened bodies or rubble in the process of turning the moon to molten slag. Obviously, we can reconcile the two by accounting for the inherent ambiguities in Fel's "impression" of a BDZ operation. This is much more in line with the "100% fatality" definition of the BDZ, which would be far more destructive than Fel's mind would imagine.
Lastly, consider that Fel believes they would be landing troops. Several BDZ critics have repeatedly stressed that the deployment of ground troops is a key element to the BDZ operation. However, this too has problems:
(quote borrowed from Curtis SAxton's STar Wars Technical commentaries: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/isd.html#weaponry-bd0)"Sir, what about bombardment? Is there a stage for that?"
"Blasting a planet from orbit is easy -- you don't need me to tell you how to do that. Limited orbital strikes would occur during the invasion stage. Just hope you are never given a Base Delta Zero order, lieutenant. Ah, yes, another question?"
"Sir, what's the Base Delta Zero order?"
"Base Delta Zero is the Imperial code order to destroy all population centres and resources, including industry, natural resources and cities. All other Imperial codes are subject to change, as you well know, but this code is always the same to prevent any confusion when the order is given. Base Delta Zero is rarely issued. ...."
A World to Conquor, Star Wars Adventure Journal #2, p.256
The two quotes above are provided to reinforce the fact that a Base Delta Zero is a navy BOMBARDMENT operation. It only applies to naval operations and to a kind of planetary bombardment. Ground operations as such would be a role of the Army, not the Navy (the ISB is also quite clear on this.) As such ground troops, if involved, can be called upon, but are quite clearly NOT an integral part of any BDZ operation. This further puts Fel's "vision" of a BDZ operation into question.If Army commanders deem the surface situation to be beyond hope of victory, or if the proper political authorities directly command it, the Navy is to execute a series of punitive attacks upon the target. The attacks are given code names which vary according to the mission and change frequently. The only code name which has not yet changed is "Base Delta Zero," the code for complete destruction of all "assets of production," including factories, arable land, mines, fisheries, and all sentient beings and droids. The code name has not yet changed so there can be no possibility of confusion when a Base Delta Zero is ordered. - Imperial Sourcebook, pg. 82
Regardless of the reason, its quite clear that the Essential Chronology gives us the actual indication of what the Base Delta Zero on Nar Shaddaa was to do: to reduce the moon to molten slag.
II. The Moon of Nar Shaddaa
Nar Shaddaa is the smugglers moon orbiting (And orbited by) the Hutt Planet of Nal Hutta (for information on the planet, go here: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/astro.html#ytoub )
The size of the moon is not officially given in any number, although the following is said:
Curtis Saxton estimates that Nal Hutta is approximately 21,400 km in diameter. If we assume "size" means "diameter", this would make Nar Shaddaa approximately 7,140 km in diameter (slightly more than half the size of Earth). Of course, its quite possible Nar Shaddaa is larger, but probably not much larger than Earth. Nevertheless, we will stick with the 7,140 km diameter and use the "Earth size" as an upper limit.Page 56 “Ham watched as the Princess drifted closer and closer to the large moon. Nar Shaddaa was actually the size of a small planet, almost a third the size of Nal Hutta.”
The Surface area of Nar Shaddaa at 7,140 is 1.6e14 m^2 (I believe thats the appropriate value)
and 5.1e14 m^2 if the moon were Earth-sized.
There are other considerations. Nar Shaddaa is more than just an inhabited moon. Its a thriving spaceport and literally a miniature version of Coruscant. It has dozens of underground levels (close to a hundred, at least) and kilometers-high towers (the Dark Empire and DE2 comics imply some of these reach nearly to low orbit!). So in addition to melting the crust (which is required, as per the Ep2 ICS) we're talking about melting a fairly substantial amount of artificial surface area. This is for the moment ignored in the calcs, but such would greatly increase the output (and thus makes these calculations conservative.)
andStar Wars Encyclopedia:
Page 207 Nar Shaddaa - the ungoverned “smugglers’ moon”, it is completely covered by interlocking spaceport facilities and kilometers high docking towers reaching into orbit. Nar Shaddaa’s “vertical city” was built over thousands of years and is protected by often-malfunctioning shields.)
Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina,
Page 27: “The Rodian Refugees merged with the denizens of the dingy warehouse districts of level 88.”
Page 42: “Greedo was hanging around with Goa and Dyyz and a bunch of other bounty hunters on level 92.”
III. The Melting of Nar Shaddaa
Now, keep in mind that the operation in question never really happened, so its not exactly an "observable event." However, its quite clear that they are meant to have the capability to do this, so we can treat it as if it was meant to be.
Above, we estimated the surface area. Now, we need the depth, composition, and energy to melt a given volume in order to do the calculations. Now, traditionally BDZ calcs of this measure used "one meter" to be conservative. However, its ridiculous to assume that Turbolasers would penetrate to such a shallow depth, particularily when they are meant to turn the upper crust of aplanet into molten slag.
In the EGW&T there is a weapon (that big repulsor driven tL the NR uses.. I forget what it scalled) has a weapon that is equal in power to one of the 60 MTLS an ISD-1 carries. Such a weapon is said to be able to put a 20 meter hole in DURASTEEL. Melting rock or the crust to that depth should be simple.
Also, consider the volumes of nickel-iron rock a single ISD TL on lower power settings can vaporize (tens of meters, uip to 100 meter rocks as BY estimated) - that again proves that a single TL should melt the earth to a tremendous depth.
Starfighters of Adumar pages 99-102 - discussion of a munitions manufacturing plant buried "hundreds of feet" below the Cartann city and that the Adumari had bombs (fighter grade?) that could penetrate nearly that deep (they were only stopped by the fact that living quarters were housed above the actual plants.) And reputedly, there were many such manfuacturing facilities located belowground.
Basically, we have plenty of reason to assume a depth ranging from several tens of meters to several hundred meters. For conservation's sake I will do calcs for one, thirty, and three hundred meter depths.
Composition is assumed to be 2220 kg/M^3, and the energy to melt is 1.9122 MJ/kg (Roughly, these are the same variables used in Mike Wong's infamous "1 meter/one hour" benchmark.)
For one meter of depth and a 7,140 km Nar Shaddaa, teh energy reqiurement for melting 3.552e17 kg of rock is roughly 6.8e23 joules.
Were Nar Shadda an Earthlike planet, the estimate is of course, 2.2e24 joules.
Increases in depth increase the energy content proportionally. That is, to melt the surface of Nar Shaddaa to a depth of 10 meters rather than just one would require 6.8e24 joules... 100 meters required 6.8e25 joules, etc.
Note that alternately, we might assume that a baseline of 4.2e24 joules is required to successfully execute a BDZ operation minimum, because of the "100% casualties" requirement. This will be incorporated later as well.
As previously stated, Nar Shaddaa is a city-world much like Coruscant, so we are ignoring the fact that much of hte surface is covered with artificial cityscape, and possesses dozens of levels and countless kilometers-high towers.
Additionally, Curtis Saxton notes here: http://www.theforce.net/swtc/isd.html#weaponry-bd0
Other BDZ concerns can be addressed here: http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Tec ... aZero.htmlCurtis Saxton wrote: There will be losses and inefficiencies because some of the heat will radiate away into space, be conducted into the deeper planetary interior or be expended in blowing off atmosphere and surface material. The true energy input required for this kind of bombardment may be a hundred or a thousand times greater.
IV. The fleet and timeframe considerations
The Imperial forces deployed to slag Nar Shaddaa did not consist of any front-line warships like the majestic Imperator-class Star Destroyers. They did not even have Victory-class Star Destroyers. The largest vessel they had access to in the operation were Dreadnaught heavy cruisers and Bulk cruisers, with a couple of light cruisers and a score of customs vessels as screening elements.
Hutt Gambit indicates the fleet here:
Basically, we're talking seven major capital ships and some eighteen escorts.Page 281: “The Seven Capital-class ships arranged themselves into Greelanx’s stipulated fighting wedge - with the Destiny (Dreadnought CA) as point of the Wedge. Then came two bulk cruisers, Arrestor and Liquidator, followed by the Peacekeeper and Pride of the Senate (both Dreadnoughts CA’s). The last two bulk cruisers, Enforcer and Inexorable, brought up the rear. The Dreadnoughts launched their TIE fighters, which moved to surround the wedge.
The two recon Carrack-class ships Vigilance and Outpost moved out in front of the squadron and launched their recon TIE fighters. The sixteen skirmish ships, Guardian-class Customs corvettes, were already in the shell-torus formation, ready to block any escape from the Smuggler’s Moon.”
The timeframe is much more difficult. Traditionally, an assumption of one hour to a few hours is used. However, the Hutt Gambit gives us a different idea:
According to Greelanx, the Admiral in charge of this operation, his battle plan (which must include the base Delta Zero - remember that its a Naval action.) projected the operation to take at most fifteen minutes. This DOES include some fighting with the smugglers (although Greelanx, like most Imperials, did not consider them a significant threat.) This timeframe does NOT include troops (if any), since as mentioned they would be apart of any Army operations, not Naval.Page 282: "The admiral sighed. His battle plan called for the entire engagement to be over in less than fifteen minutes. He had better get busy, figuring out how he was going to manage to lose.”
Thus, assuming a timeframe of 15 minutes, and seven capital ships (the escorts are unlikely to contribute much to the firepower, even the light cruisers would only contribute a small portion of the overall firepower.) We can derive the following sustained values on a "per vessel" basis
6.8e23 joules = 9.7143e22 joules per ship ~ 1.1e20 watts sustained.
2.2e24 joules = 3.143e23 joules per ship ~ 3.5e20 watts sustained
4.2e24 joules = 6e23 joules per ship ~ 6.7e20 watts sustained.
Now, pre ICS this would have been alot of energy for a 600-700 meter long warship.
Of course, its still very conservative for many reasons, the least of all that this operation does not involve a single Imperator-class Star Destroyer. Also, Bulk Cruisers are vastly inferior to dreadnaughts, so more of the firepower would logically be coming from the three dreadnaughts.Also remember many of the aforementioned concerns - we're ignoring the fact that much of the above ground surface of the planet would be melted, that the depth would be likely to be several tens or hundreds of meters rather than just one meter, and that inefficiencies as mentioned by Saxton would result in anywhere from roughly 2 to 3 orders of magnitude increase in power (this is also ignoring any large bodies of water being vaporized, but that can be ignored as minor for the purposes of this discussion as well.)
So how does this stack up against an Imperial Star Destroyer? Hard to say, although we're given a rough idea in "Dark Force Rising":
Basically, this implies taht a single ISD is at LEAST equal to 3 or 4 dreadnaughts, and quite possibly more.DFR page 127:
"The New Republic had a fair number of Dreadnaughts, and at six hundred meters long each they were impressive enough warships. But even three of them working together would be hard pressed to take out an Imperial STar Destroyer."
