From: haywire@pitt.WPI.EDU (the Insane One)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars
Subject: Re: Harpoons ??
Date: 22 Jan 1993 20:05:24 GMT
Organization: The Worcester Insane Asylum (WPI)
NNTP-Posting-Host: pitt.wpi.edu

In article <1993Jan16.001747.8894@ll.mit.edu> shoham@ll.mit.edu (Daniel Shoham) writes:
>In article <1993Jan15.090707.1@nickel.laurentian.ca> s1400070@nickel.laurentian.ca writes:
>>     I must agree totally with another posting that I saw while back.  If we
>>are to assume that the rebels had never faced the ATATs at an earlier 
>>point in time, then why are the snow fighters equiped with 
>>on the rear of their ships?  Can anyone make a suggestion as to why these
>>"artifacts" are present if they are not some king of weapon system.


>Nevertheless, I don't think the harpoon and tow cables were designed against
>AT-AT. I think tow cables were designed to, well, tow stuff (not too heavy,
>I should hope). Many utility vehicles have them. In the SW universe,
>even PEOPLE carry (sometimes motorized) tow cables (Luke used them in ANH
>and ESB, and has one used on him in ROJ) and harpoons.


AS far as I knew the harpoon was PART of the rear gun blaster.
And as told many times before it is used for towing. It expends
alot less energy than a tractor beam which probably requires F-buttloads
of energy and space. The snowspeeders are not the big.

>First of all, I think it is clear that the rebels have seen AT-AT before, as
>they are immediatly recognized as such. Also, the controller sends out over
>the general-channel the alert "Imperial walkers on the north ridge.", upon
>the first reported sighting. Such an alert without an explaination implies
>that the rebels are expected to know what he is talking about. (It is possible
>that the Rebels only know about ATAT from intelligence reports - like the
>manner of their familiarity with DS's - but unlikely, as they show no surprise
>at the AT-AT awesomeness).
>Mind you, I don't think the rebels have actually fought AT-ATs in the past.
>The rebels did TRY to use blasters before concluding that "That armor's too
>strong for blasters." so they clearly haven't done this before. Have they
>figured this out a little earlier, they may well have taken out all four (?)
>(I sometimes think I can deduce there were five, anyone else feels that way?)
>walkers before losing the generator, and the Empire discovering that landing
>more walkers is useless (That would force the Empire to discover what many
>military commanders allready know: there is no substitute for dimounted
>infantry in ground assaults).

Im sure that the rebels have seen ATATs before. You must remember that
the Rebels have VERY FEW TRAINED pilots. They have very few trained in
anything. That is why they are a rebellion and not an army. They are
common people not trained warriors. Of course they don't know how to fight
them. they have enough problems flying.

>I was somewhat disapointed with this (and moreso the Endor battle) concept.
>Are we to guess that the Empire never used AT-AT before (hard to see how any
>credible opponent would fail to see the obvious fault), even in OT&E 
>(operational testing and evaluations, the phase new weapons go through before
>being introduced into the standard fighting doctorine - in any serious armed
>force).
>With the Endor battle, one could make the (admittedly weak) argument that 
>the Empire did not consider Jungle fighting when the hardware they deployed
>to Endor was designed. (Sort of a Vietnam syndrome). One can see how the
>restricted Endor terrain hurt the Impies.
>It is hard to make the same argument about Hoth. I have trouble making up
>anything that would work to make this voulnerability Hoth-specific.

Huh What....

The Empire's ATST's were winning until Chewie stole one...
They were really moving through thiose trees and blasting
everything and kicking Ewokian ASS. 
And you try to walk across a bunch of logs...It is not that easy.
It wsnt the terrain that defeated the Empire. They used the ATSTs in the 
fight because the ATAT were to big to manuever between trees that are 
hundreds of feet tall. It seemed to make perfect sense. The ATATs were
used only as transports.

>A possibility:
>AT-AT are supposed to have dismounted infantry around them to prevent anything
>coming so close to them. In Hoth the Empire was so Cocky they dispensed with
>the Infantry (who would have slowed the assault to walking speed), and paid
>for it.

The infantry is inside the ATATs. It is better to transport your infantry
in close enough to use them first. That is the purpose on Infantry
Fighting Vehicles.

>This possibility is based on the operational doctorine of tank warfare. Tanks
>are quite voulnerable to anything that comes close to them 
(they can lose their
>chain REAL easy). Therefore, when in hostile terrain, tanks always travel
>surrounded by dismounted infantry. The tank provide the heavy firepower to
>engage high-valued targets at a distance, while the infantry defend the tank
>from close-range threats.

This is mostly true in city or rough enviroments where enemy troops have 
places to hide and set up things like LAWs or missile traps for tanks.
On Hoth you are mostly in the open....not much cover to hide behind. 

The Ever Insane
Haywire
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.starwars