Repulsor lifts- why not?

[The Jazz Intern]

Why don't they use repulsor lifts as much in the years after the clone wars? Imagine- AT-ATs zooming towards the rebel sheild generators at 70 Mph, with snowspeeders zooming around like flies looking for a weak spot.

[Noble Ire]

Why don't they use repulsor lifts as much in the years after the clone wars? Imagine- AT-ATs zooming towards the rebel sheild generators at 70 Mph, with snowspeeders zooming around like flies looking for a weak spot.

Um, theater shield.

Repulsor lift vehicles can't penetrate shielding, walkers can. The Empire has repulsor vehicles, they just didnt use them there.

[Mr Bean]

Why don't they use repulsor lifts as much in the years after the clone wars? Imagine- AT-ATs zooming towards the rebel sheild generators at 70 Mph, with snowspeeders zooming around like flies looking for a weak spot.

Um, theater shield.

Repulsor lift vehicles can't penetrate shielding, walkers can. The Empire has repulsor vehicles, they just didnt use them there.

Yes that and, no power=pancake

Plus I imagin for a vechical that size, trying to build sufficent large power generation into it is abit of a losing propsition.

[Civil War Man]

Also a bit of an intimidation factor. The appearance of a huge prehistoric behemoth bearing down at you is unsettling. Add that to the canon description that AT-ATs are deceptively fast, with their huge size making them move faster than their lumbering gait would suggest, and you get something that's pretty scary.

[Dangermouse]

Repulsor lift vehicles can't penetrate shielding, walkers can..

Out of curiousity, why is that?

[Duckie]

Repulsor lift vehicles can't penetrate shielding, walkers can..

Out of curiousity, why is that?

I don't know, it probably has to do with something about how the theatre shields don't burn into the ground either. Maybe having legs allows a vehicle or droid to get through because it's in contact with the ground. 'Grounded', so to speak.

[The Jazz Intern]

Then why not some Flash speeder like things for tattooine? Surely that has usefulness far greater than dewbacks, not to mention greater speed. also the empire could put the speeders there withought to much difficulty.

[Dangermouse]

From the main site:

However, the theatre shield is not identical to a planetary shield. While a planetary shield exists mostly in space, a theatre shield must interact with the ground. Its design must therefore be altered accordingly. According to the SWEGWT, any object which touches a planetary shield receives a tremendous blast of energy and is instantly vapourized. That effect was demonstrated in ROTJ, when Rebel starships exploded on contact with the Death Star's defense shield. However, this would be counter-productive (to say the least) for a theatre shield, where it would vapourize the ground at the point of contact and quickly overload its generator. Therefore, theatre shields must employ some form of contact discrimination, so that they don't burn themselves out by vapourizing huge quantities of dirt and rock, but they still perform their primary function. If the Gungan theatre shield is any indication of standard Star Wars theatre shield technology, this discrimination is performed through ground contact. Since the shield applies only mild force at its point of ground contact (as demonstrated by the audible "thump" when it struck the ground in TPM), it is possible for an object to slip through if it moves slowly through the barrier while maintaining contact with the ground. Repulsorcraft, missiles, bomb, energy beams, and starfighters cannot enter through such a shield, but foot soldiers, wheeled or tracked vehicles, and walkers can.

I suppose Repulsorcraft could drag a physical object that touches the ground while moving slowly through the shield.

[Quadlok]

Repulsor lift vehicles can't penetrate shielding, walkers can..

Out of curiousity, why is that?

superior leverage. Also, vehicles not in direct contact with the ground are known, from time to time, to be completely destroyed, or at least damaged, by contact with planetary type shielding.

[000]

Then why not some Flash speeder like things for tattooine? Surely that has usefulness far greater than dewbacks, not to mention greater speed. also the empire could put the speeders there withought to much difficulty.

They had an HAVr Flying Fortress on Tatooine.

Snowspeeders do use repulsors, by the way. How else do you think they stay aloft?

[Civil War Man]

Then why not some Flash speeder like things for tattooine? Surely that has usefulness far greater than dewbacks, not to mention greater speed. also the empire could put the speeders there withought to much difficulty.

They had an HAVr Flying Fortress on Tatooine.

Snowspeeders do use repulsors, by the way. How else do you think they stay aloft?

Snowspeeders stay aloft with their repulsors, but at no point do they have to go THROUGH the shield. The Imperial forces didn't have that luxury.

[000]

I know. The OP suggested that Jazz Intern didn't.

[Elheru Aran]

I believe one reason for the use of walkers-- which may now have been discredited, but I'm not sure-- is that theatre shields tend to build up a static charge or something like that. Anything passing through the shield will receive a pretty hefty zap; but if it's in contact with the ground, the charge will go to ground and leave the zappee intact. Repulsorlift vehicles presumably would become large-scale microwaves in short order.

AT-ATs with repulsors goes down to Hoth, goes through shield. Poof. Two hours later, Rip-Me-Own-Throat-Out <insert alien equivalent of Dibbler> opens a stand in Echo Base, offering Fried Stormtrooper Inna Bun.

[Trolic_1]

Then why not some Flash speeder like things for tattooine? Surely that has usefulness far greater than dewbacks, not to mention greater speed. also the empire could put the speeders there withought to much difficulty.

A dewback is easier to maintain away from supply bases then a speeder ( I belive they are a transplanted species that adapted to the enviorment on tatoonie) And what we saw on them were regular stormtroopers not specially trained and equiped sandtroopers so maybe the forces deployed for that search didnt have many vehicles equiped to operate in a desert enviorment

[Jim Raynor]

Why don't they use repulsor lifts as much in the years after the clone wars? Imagine- AT-ATs zooming towards the rebel sheild generators at 70 Mph, with snowspeeders zooming around like flies looking for a weak spot.

They do use a lot of repulsorlift vehicles. It's just that a lot of SW books and games focus on the few vehicles and ships seen in the movies. The more obscure RPG describes a lot of vehicles that don't appear in other sources. The Empire has a repulsorlift heavy assault vehicle (the already mentioned Floating Fortress) that is said to rival AT-ATs, and their main battle tanks use repulsors as well.

[VT-16]

And what we saw on them were regular stormtroopers not specially trained and equiped sandtroopers so maybe the forces deployed for that search didnt have many vehicles equiped to operate in a desert enviorment

Actually, those were Sandtroopers and they are trained to ride animals as well as vehicles. It´s sometimes a benefit in desert environments, where engines could get clogged up with sand.

The XP-38 landspeeder is also used by the Empire, in a similar way to the RL Jeep.

[Spartan]

Dangermouse wrote:

Out of curiousity, why is that?

According to ATOC: ICS particle shields carry alot of juice and when a flying object tries to penetrate the shield it grounds out. Imagine a supersized lightning bolt. Also the sheild would block the thrusters on the craft, so your engines flame out and you pancake.

[Admiral Bravo]

It should also be mentioned that certain planetary electromagnetic fields screw up repulsor lifts, making walkers and crawlers useful in certain situations.

[Kurgan]

So do walkers explain why they don't use theater shielding in AOTC and after?

And the counter measure for walkers is mines!

(At least if you go by Star Wars Battlefront, but it sounds pretty logical)


And yes, there are numerous instances of repulorlift usage in the classic trilogy, just rarely in actual battles.

[Winston Blake]

The ICS quote is:

AT-TE's are effective at penetrating powerful energy shields. Walker movement uses simple surface traction, whereas the high-velocity exhausts that drive a speeder or starship are stifled by particle shields. furthermore, flying craft can be damaged by energy discharges leaping from the ground at shield interfaces, but a walker's natural grounding provides invulnerability against this effect. AT-TEs are also well shielded against electromagnetic pulse weapons and ion cannon fire.

Now, using ground contact to get through a theatre shield begs the question of why they don't:
- stick some tracks or a few wheels on the bottom of a repulsorcraft for it to use temporarily while crossing the dangerous boundary (useful if the repulsor screws up too), or
- use wheeled or tracked transport 'sleds' to carry them through, or
- as Dangermouse mentioned, trail/drop a grounding strip/wheel etc.

[Civil War Man]

Now, using ground contact to get through a theatre shield begs the question of why they don't:
- stick some tracks or a few wheels on the bottom of a repulsorcraft for it to use temporarily while crossing the dangerous boundary (useful if the repulsor screws up too), or
- use wheeled or tracked transport 'sleds' to carry them through, or
- as Dangermouse mentioned, trail/drop a grounding strip/wheel etc.

They probably don't do those for the sake of simplicity. Which is easier,

a) build a repulsor vehicle with retractable drives or legs (which adds a lot of weight and leaves less room for armaments/troop carrying),

b) create a whole new support unit whose sole job is to ferry repulsor vehicles through theatre shields (which will probably be open to attack from advance enemy units),

c) develop an add-on that grounds a vehicle for the purpose of moving through shields (which could possibly be improperly attached or damaged, thereby negating the benefits),

or d) make a vehicle that just uses legs or wheels for motion (therefore not having to worry about being disrupted by shielding)?

[Hawkwings]

you know, c) could just be a metal chain that drags on the ground...

[Noble Ire]

you know, c) could just be a metal chain that drags on the ground...

It's possible that requires more grounding than that, prehaps perportional to the vehicles mass. This is pure speculation.

[Winston Blake]

Now, using ground contact to get through a theatre shield begs the question of why they don't:
- stick some tracks or a few wheels on the bottom of a repulsorcraft for it to use temporarily while crossing the dangerous boundary (useful if the repulsor screws up too), or
- use wheeled or tracked transport 'sleds' to carry them through, or
- as Dangermouse mentioned, trail/drop a grounding strip/wheel etc.

They probably don't do those for the sake of simplicity. Which is easier,

a) build a repulsor vehicle with retractable drives or legs (which adds a lot of weight and leaves less room for armaments/troop carrying),

I admit i have no idea how much the weight or subsequent penalty would be but: why should they be retractable? It doesn't need to maintain a certain height above the ground all the time, it can just lower itself onto fixed wheels/tracks (legs would be rather silly).

b) create a whole new support unit whose sole job is to ferry repulsor vehicles through theatre shields (which will probably be open to attack from advance enemy units),

They had to create a whole new range of combat vehicles to be all-terrain yet shield-penetrating anyway: walkers. And why shouldn't such a 'breaching sled' be armoured too?

c) develop an add-on that grounds a vehicle for the purpose of moving through shields (which could possibly be improperly attached or damaged, thereby negating the benefits),

I wasn't thinking of an exposed add-on, this component would make sense to be retractable. It only needs to be out for a few seconds while the boundary is being passed. Anything's benefits can be negated by it being damaged, and losing legs is worse than not being able to get back out past the shield.

or d) make a vehicle that just uses legs or wheels for motion (therefore not having to worry about being disrupted by shielding)?

Since the idea with legs is that they're all-terrain, if it was fine for wheels then using repulsorcraft isn't an issue. But then repulsors are far better at 'all-terrain-ness' than legs, and apparently less complicated/vulnerable/etc.

However, I think this can be rationalised by simply saying we have no idea exactly what subtle weaknesses are fundamental to repulsors. Maybe above a general limit the power/cost/etc skyrockets as load increases? Maybe above a certain size they generally become vulnerable to some type of force-field weapons (related to the problems they have with theatre shields)?

[Dangermouse]

Are there examples of foot soldiers walking through the shields? I think I remember in TPM the droid soldiers walked through the Gungan's shields but I was curious if we have examples of biological creatures walking through a shield as well. It has been a long time since I have seen TPM and maybe the Gungan soldiers were able to walk through the shield as well but I am not sure.

The reason I mention this is if it in fact it is a grounding problem, why not have a few of your soldiers dismount from the the repulsor craft and then walk through with the craft while holding on to a handrail? After passing through the shield, they would remount. There must be a specific reason why the Empire decided to use walkers over repulsorcraft with respect to theater shields but I can't pin it down.