Is Planetary Occupation Possible?

[Sidhe]

Surely, it's possible, just more bizzare. I'd imagine an intersteller war wouldn't be faught between two creatures like humans, but rather two different types of nanotechnological life forms. I wouldn't dare speculate what sort of tactics could be used there.

Sounds like the old grey goo thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

 

[Perfection]

Sounds like the old grey goo thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo

Yeah, but grey goo fighting grey goo, it's like hardcore to the extreme maximum absoluteness!

 

[nc-1701]

Well is it? If a planet were to be invaded could it be successfully occupied? I would say it could be possible but would cost so much (both in resources and manpower) that it would not be very practical or profitable unless the entire native population were exterminated first. I mean, just look at how many men are needed to secure a small area of a planet like Iraq. Now, if we were to extrapolate that number to an entire planet, the numbers needed to occupy are just simply too large for any force to deploy.

Basically, the point of this thread is to discuss the practicality of the interstellar wars seen in various sci-fi movies, specifically the Clone Wars of the prequel triliogy of Star Wars.

With sufficient; willpower, troops, technology, and money anything is possible.

 

[Perfection]

With sufficient; willpower, troops, technology, and money anything is possible.

Even perpetual motion machines?

What about square circles?

 

[warpus]

Forget occupying planets; humanity's next great endavour should be the occupation of the sun.

 

[Perfection]

Forget occupying planets; humanity's next great endavour should be the occupation of the sun.

Why occupy it when you could destroy it?

 

[warpus]

Why occupy it when you could destroy it?

I'll take that one step further and say that we should instead milk the sun and harness its solar milk. Then, after all the solar milk is gone, we can blow it up.

 

[Evie]

Provided the attacker has a sufficient economic base to support their military, it should be feasible.

I'd estimate the sufficient base to support an one-billion-men occupation force (and all other duties of the army, such as garrison work, and maintaining a significant reserves for unexpected operation) as anywhere between 50 to 500 Earth-population planets, depending on the overall galactic situation if the attacker is keeping hte vast majority of his work force on economic duty (to avoid running the economy into the ground).

 

[Commodore]

Provided the attacker has a sufficient economic base to support their military, it should be feasible.

I'd estimate the sufficient base to support an one-billion-men occupation force (and all other duties of the army, such as garrison work, and maintaining a significant reserves for unexpected operation) as anywhere between 50 to 500 Earth-population planets, depending on the overall galactic situation if the attacker is keeping hte vast majority of his work force on economic duty (to avoid running the economy into the ground).

That would be a lot of resources to commit to occupying a single planet, which is why I maintain that the occupation would fail and it would be more profitable and worthwhile to just bombard the planet from orbit until their isn't anything left to resist. That way, you would only need maybe a few million troops to handle the mop-up work.

 

[nivi]

Well, if we don't want to "rebuild" the planet, and just want to use the population as slave labor, a large garrison isn't needed.

 

[Commodore]

Well, if we don't want to "rebuild" the planet, and just want to use the population as slave labor, a large garrison isn't needed.

Good point.

 

[Neomega]

3 words:

Giant Death Robots

 

[North King]

That would be a lot of resources to commit to occupying a single planet, which is why I maintain that the occupation would fail and it would be more profitable and worthwhile to just bombard the planet from orbit until their isn't anything left to resist. That way, you would only need maybe a few million troops to handle the mop-up work.

A billion soldiers is ridiculously large. You'd need something more on the scale of half a million, given the fact that in a planet you'll have enough internal rivalries to exploit to use the humans against each other. Once these "aliens" arrived, they would doubtless use their technology to obliterate any and all nuclear weapons, and to cripple hostile heads of state. Engineering wars on the planet, they would divide us into thousands of little pieces, aiding and abetting their allies with support from high above; it would be a simple matter to shatter and absorb a planet's polities. Assuming the more difficult challenge of a united government, they could simply behead it and cause anarchy, or prey on disloyal members of the world government. In any case, the sheer fact that these aliens would be able to bombard the planet from far above with fairly little resistance in precision strikes minimizes damage to the infrastructure and maximizes damage to the political and military power of the planet. So if an alien fleet comes along, well, just hope you aren't in the same city as the government.

 

[Shaihulud]

Once you have won the space battle, you could potentially exterminate the entire population with ease. Asteroids, moons, comets etc. Grab whole of everything in the vicinity and fling it onto the planet.

 

[nc-1701]

Once you have won the space battle, you could potentially exterminate the entire population with ease. Asteroids, moons, comets etc. Grab whole of everything in the vicinity and fling it onto the planet.

Massive bombarbment with thermonuclear bombs would be more efficient.

@Perfection Remember "Suffiently advanced technology is indestinguishable from magic." So we can infer that magic is just advanced technology so anyone with sufficient technology could do anything right? I guess you still can't go faster than c but thats about it.

 

[Shaihulud]

Massive bombarbment with thermonuclear bombs would be more efficient.

Well, theres a moon sitting right there and a little nudge will send it spinning towards gravity oblivion, while you actually have to build or transport thermonuclear bombs, space rocks, you could just guide it with your pre-existing propulsion system. Getting smacked by a comet or the moon beats thermonuclear bombs in efficiency or destruction. Its crust cracking stuff we are talking here. Just be sure you don't go overboard with the rocks or you might render the planet unlivable.

 

[Evil Tyrant]

Why bother occuping it? Just sit in orbit blow up a country or two, and threaten to annihlate the inhabitants if they don't pay tribute. You don't have to have much in the way of an occupation force, since the native governments will keep their subjects in line.

If the planet is unified, and technologically advanced, things will be more unpleasant, but it can be done. Once their defenses are dust, slaughter about 30% of the civilian population outright, enslave the remainder and brainwash 10% of those into supporting you and spying on the others. It is simply a matter of finding what to brainwash them into.
So kneel before your gods!

 

[Gladi]

My impression of the Clone Wars was that it spanned the entire galaxy, not just a handful of planets. If I recall, the CIS was described as being comprised of thousands of star systems.

Yeah, but one thing that they never really explained is how insurgencies were dealt with. It would seem to me that you would spend so much just trying to occupy the planets, that any offensive campaigns would come grinding to a halt. It also seems that the only practical solution to avoid insurgency, would be complete extermination of a planets population (ala GalCiv2).

Bright day
In EU I read that land campaigns are mostly just swift strikes after planetary shields, the rest can then be dealt with orbital bombarmen. (this is also how it was on Hoth)

To OP: Of course. But it wouldn't be very economical for us right now.

 

[Yuri2356]

My impression of the Clone Wars was that it spanned the entire galaxy, not just a handful of planets. If I recall, the CIS was described as being comprised of thousands of star systems.

Yeah, but one thing that they never really explained is how insurgencies were dealt with. It would seem to me that you would spend so much just trying to occupy the planets, that any offensive campaigns would come grinding to a halt. It also seems that the only practical solution to avoid insurgency, would be complete extermination of a planets population (ala GalCiv2).

Yes, but not every battle in the war was descided on the land. Space superiority would grant you easy victory over any world which was not either Heavily Fortified, or contained things that you simply couldn't bomb out of existance for whatever reason. Well-Fortified planets could be placed under siege by portion of your Navy, to be invaded at your leisure, leaving only those places with valuable targets (Or worlds of your own with similar value to the enemy) in need of a gound army. So, out of the thens or hundreds of thousands of systems that are engaged in battle, there may be only 100-1000 worlds that are considdered worth landing on.

Big 'ol Ships of Doom would be in far greater demand than big 'ol Armies of Doom.

 

[El_Machinae]

I think it would be easier to blockade a planet and demand regular tribute. Fear will keep the locals in line.

As long as they ship out grain and educated youth, it doesn't really matter.