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Something that has confused me...can planetary weapons fire through shields? If so, why aren't planets invulnerable?

Think about it. A fleet of Star Destroyers drop over a planet with planetary shields and pound on the shields. The entire time, planetary ion cannons disable them, and planetary turbolasers pound them. There's no way the fleet could pound the shield for days without getting destroyed by planetary weapons, right?
But then, if they can't fire through shields, how was it done on Hoth? Was the shield dropped for a split second?

Thoughts?

1. Why should planetary weapon NOT be able to shoot through shields? Shipborne ones do it all the time.
2. Effective range. The planetary weapons are shooting at ships a few kilometres long that flit all over the place and jam them like nobody's business. The ships are shooting at a planet some 12,000 km across that isn't going anywhere. Marginally easier target.
3. Assumption that planetary weapons are present in sufficient quantity to pound the fleet to rubble. The fleet is by definition heavily armed. A planet need not be.
4. Assumption that the fleet CAN pound on the shields for ages with impunity.
As shown in the battle for Coruscant in TLC, moving within range of planetary defenses is a Bad Move.

Well, so far the only ones I can remember firing through shields are Ion cannons, and there's a tradeoff. They're rather inaccurate weapons at long ranges.

But who knows, maybe they're synchronizing the shields to open up a split second hole to let the beam get through.

Praxis wrote: But then, if they can'tfire through shields, how was it done on Hoth? Was the shield dropped for a split second?

The ion cannon was fired when the shield was lowered to let the transport out.

Batman wrote: 2. Effective range. The planetary weapons are shooting at ships a few kilometres long that flit all over the place and jam them like nobody's business. The ships are shooting at a planet some 12,000 km across that isn't going anywhere. Marginally easier target.

The cannon on Hoth had no trouble smacking down that ISD.

3. Assumption that planetary weapons are present in sufficient quantity to pound the fleet to rubble. The fleet is by definition heavily armed. A planet need not be.

A single planetary ion cannon knocked out an ISD in two hits. A planet with two or three or four could do some serious damage if it had a WEEK to pound on orbitting ships.

Hardy wrote:

Praxis wrote: But then, if they can'tfire through shields, how was it done on Hoth? Was the shield dropped for a split second?

The ion cannon was fired when the shield was lowered to let the transport out.

Wasn't the shield power destroyed by then?

Praxis wrote:

Batman wrote: 2. Effective range. The planetary weapons are shooting at ships a few kilometres long that flit all over the place and jam them like nobody's business. The ships are shooting at a planet some 12,000 km across that isn't going anywhere. Marginally easier target.

The cannon on Hoth had no trouble smacking down that ISD.

Uh-huh. The Star Destroyer being that close because they just off-loaded a ground assault team has certainly nothing to do with it.

3. Assumption that planetary weapons are present in sufficient quantity to pound the fleet to rubble. The fleet is by definition heavily armed. A planet need not be.

A single planetary ion cannon knocked out an ISD in two hits. A planet with two or three or four could do some serious damage if it had a WEEK to pound on orbitting ships.

Which are going to stay out of range.

Batman wrote:1. Why should planetary weapon NOT be able to shoot through shields? Shipborne ones do it all the time.

Because their shields systems are designed to open mini-holes to let the fire out when the guns are being fired in the place the beam is being shot through

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the shield being dropped so that the transports and 2 escorts could get away. This was also when the 2 shots were fired from the cannon. I took it to mean that the ion cannon couldn't fire through the shield. Otherwise just knock'em outta the sky then send all the escorts & transports out at once.

Mr Bean wrote:

Batman wrote:1. Why should planetary weapon NOT be able to shoot through shields? Shipborne ones do it all the time.

Because their shields systems are designed to open mini-holes to let the fire out when the guns are being fired in the place the beam is being shot through

Works with me. As there's no reason a planetary shield couldn't do that goes both way.
On top of that it does explain the Hoth idiosynchrasy If it was a single generator (say, a salvaged spare for a panetary shield grid) instead of a full grid like a ship's or a proper planetary shield, opening gaps in it might be tricky.

Batman wrote:

Mr Bean wrote:

Batman wrote:1. Why should planetary weapon NOT be able to shoot through shields? Shipborne ones do it all the time.

Because their shields systems are designed to open mini-holes to let the fire out when the guns are being fired in the place the beam is being shot through

Works with me. As there's no reason a planetary shield couldn't do that goes both way.
On top of that it does explain the Hoth idiosynchrasy If it was a single generator (say, a salvaged spare for a panetary shield grid) instead of a full grid like a ship's or a proper planetary shield, opening gaps in it might be tricky.

Segmented overlay shields VS One big old honking shields
With precision comes cost, not something the Rebels could afford alot of

xammer99 wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the shield being dropped so that the transports and 2 escorts could get away. This was also when the 2 shots were fired from the cannon. I took it to mean that the ion cannon couldn't fire through the shield. Otherwise just knock'em outta the sky then send all the escorts & transports out at once.

You are correct, i fact IIRC the shots and the ships where launched and fired at the same time.

Lord Pounder wrote:

xammer99 wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the shield being dropped so that the transports and 2 escorts could get away. This was also when the 2 shots were fired from the cannon. I took it to mean that the ion cannon couldn't fire through the shield. Otherwise just knock'em outta the sky then send all the escorts & transports out at once.

You are correct, i fact IIRC the shots and the ships where launched and fired at the same time.

The shots can be seen passing by the fighters as they have Hoth behind them, I believe... they whap the ISD right then.

In 'Isards Revenge' its explictly stated that the ion cannons can not fire through a planetery shield, it has to have tiny gaps opened up when the bolts arrive at the shield perimiter.

General Rieekan wrote:Their primary target will be the power generators.... Prepare to open shield.

One need not even turn to EU sources for this when Rieekan seems to make things pretty clear. He says "open" the shield, which to me seems like a pretty good indication that a window is opened up rather than dropping the whole thing.