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Planetary shields can withstand massive damage. The Hoth shield for instance was so powerful that even the formidable death squadron could no longer consider orbital bombardment as an option. So why not use such shield generators on ships ?

The Shadow wrote:Planetary shields can withstand massive damage. The Hoth shield for instance was so powerful that even the formidable death squadron could no longer consider orbital bombardment as an option. So why not use such shield generators on ships ?

Because of their size and energy consumption?

It's not that the Hoth sheild made them impervious, it's that it would have taken to long, by their estimates, to penetrate. The main concern with starship sheilds, my interpretation from what I've read, is that as weapons are fired at them they heat up. The ship has heat sinks that bleed this excess heat off. Unfortunately those sinks can only handle so much before they overload. Once overloaded the sheild goes down. On a planet, IIRC, you potentially have more places to dump this excess heat, so less chance of overheating.

The Shadow wrote:Planetary shields can withstand massive damage. The Hoth shield for instance was so powerful that even the formidable death squadron could no longer consider orbital bombardment as an option. So why not use such shield generators on ships ?

Because as noted, "size and energy consumption." To say ntohing of recoil bracing and the like.

Really, there's nothing inherently "better" about planetary sields aside frfom the fact they're bigger and better anchored than normal shields. The onyl conceivable way you could make that work is to dedicate an entire ship solely to generating a massive planetary-scale shield.. which would be kinda pointless in combat.

What about something massive like the Death Sta? Seems like it would be large enough to mount one (seems like it would have to, or the fragments from the planets it destroys would hit it and damage it, they were going pretty fast from what i understand).

18-Till-I-Die wrote:What about something massive like the Death Sta? Seems like it would be large enough to mount one (seems like it would have to, or the fragments from the planets it destroys would hit it and damage it, they were going pretty fast from what i understand).

Umm ... it did mount a massive shield, which, alongside the many armaments, made a capship attack on it practically impossible.

18-Till-I-Die wrote:What about something massive like the Death Sta? Seems like it would be large enough to mount one (seems like it would have to, or the fragments from the planets it destroys would hit it and damage it, they were going pretty fast from what i understand).

General Dodonna explained during the briefing in ANH that the Death Star was "heavily shielded".

The shields appear to be of a somewhat different nature compared to the theatre shield on Hoth, though. The Rebel fighters were able to approach the DS' surface, while on Hoth, the Imperials were unable to land their forces.

Connor MacLeod wrote:Because as noted, "size and energy consumption." To say ntohing of recoil bracing and the like.

Really, there's nothing inherently "better" about planetary sields aside frfom the fact they're bigger and better anchored than normal shields. The onyl conceivable way you could make that work is to dedicate an entire ship solely to generating a massive planetary-scale shield.. which would be kinda pointless in combat.

It depends, I suppose on how large a volume it could protect. It would be a neat trick to have one of those ships throw a planetary shield around an entire fleet.

Cykeisme wrote:The shields appear to be of a somewhat different nature compared to the theatre shield on Hoth, though. The Rebel fighters were able to approach the DS' surface, while on Hoth, the Imperials were unable to land their forces.

However though, afaik there's no definitive knowledge of whether or not the DS even fully activated its shields. Certain sections may have been shielded, (like the exhaust port) but not the entire structure. The fact that the rebels were able to approach and fire directly on the surface points to shields being lowered imo. This may have seemed odd, but Tarkin was rather contemptable of the Rebels in the first place and didn't even bother launching fighters until later on during the attack.

It's not that the Hoth sheild made them impervious, it's that it would have taken to long, by their estimates, to penetrate.

General Veers' report to Vader does not support this conclusion.

Anguirus wrote:

It's not that the Hoth sheild made them impervious, it's that it would have taken to long, by their estimates, to penetrate.

General Veers' report to Vader does not support this conclusion.

Hyperbole.
Full planetary shields have been shown to fall under consentrated bombardment before (YV invasion of Coruscant for example.) There's no reason to believe a theater shield, even such a large one, would be more powerful than the captial planet's.

Veers' line in the novelization clarifies this a bit. The Hoth shield was "strong enough to prevent any desireable bombardment" (emphasis mine). In other words, Vader wanted many of the Rebels alive, sure Death Squadron could have overwhelmed the shield with massive orbital bombardment, but it would probably kill everyone beneath the shield as bleedthrough began occuring. The piecemiel bombardment (like taking out the power generators, defensive cannon etc) however, was impossible through the shield, hence the ground assault.

apocolypse wrote:

Cykeisme wrote:The shields appear to be of a somewhat different nature compared to the theatre shield on Hoth, though. The Rebel fighters were able to approach the DS' surface, while on Hoth, the Imperials were unable to land their forces.

However though, afaik there's no definitive knowledge of whether or not the DS even fully activated its shields. Certain sections may have been shielded, (like the exhaust port) but not the entire structure. The fact that the rebels were able to approach and fire directly on the surface points to shields being lowered imo.

Only if you assume the shields are bubble shields; planetary shields have to extend above the planet's surface because people live there; however, nobody lives on the Death Star's surface, so the main shields may have been subsurface.

18-Till-I-Die wrote:What about something massive like the Death Sta? Seems like it would be large enough to mount one (seems like it would have to, or the fragments from the planets it destroys would hit it and damage it, they were going pretty fast from what i understand).

Death Star shielding was compared to a planetary shield.