Zan replied to me: > > Statistics > > Size: 150'x15'x15' Payload: 10 tons Lwt.: 100 tons > > Volume: 5,000 cf Maint.: 24 man-hours Price: $25,755,350 > > Cool. At $25 million each that isn't much more than a modern fighter > jet, so industrialized planets could have hundreds or thousands of these.
A unified world would have little need for ground or naval forces, except as expeditionary forces, so the aerospace force could have tens of thousands of battle sats -- unless the interstellar navy grabs most of the budget. The civilian orbital infrastructure would be a key part of the industry, so a would-be conqueror can't just blast everything in orbit, either. If they are decentralized, I could see hundreds of thousands of factory modules, OTVs, transfer stations, shuttles, etc. to complicate the targeting problem. On the other hand, a conqueror could send a couple of battleships into the system and demand that the defenses stand down, or all orbital structures will be obliterated from standoff range. On the gripping hand, the debris from the first factories just gives the defenses more chaff to hide. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
