M.A.D

Alistair wrote:As I understand MAD is an acronym for mutually assured destruction.

...

Could a minor to medium power in Honourverse build a M.A.D deterrence?

Whitecold wrote:The problem with a MAD strategy is that it is not really 'assured.' C-fractional attacks are only devastating against purely fixed defenses. Mobile forces can intercept the missiles in flight, or the launching ship as it performs its attack run, and ballistic birds are easy kills for PD.
Short, to perform a genocidal attack, you either need to eliminate the enemies warships, or be undetectable. Neither is feasible for a verge system.

cthia wrote:

Wiki wrote:
A doomsday device is a hypothetical construction — usually a weapon, or collection of weapons — which could destroy all life on a planet, particularly the Earth, or destroy the planet itself, bringing "doomsday", a term used for the end of planet Earth. Most hypothetical constructions rely on the fact that hydrogen bombs can be made arbitrarily large assuming there are no concerns about delivering them to a target (see Teller–Ulam design) or that they can be "salted" with materials designed to create long-lasting and hazardous fallout (e.g., a cobalt bomb).

Doomsday devices have been present in literature and art especially in the 20th century, when advances in science and technology made world destruction (or at least the eradication of all human life) a credible scenario. Many classics in the genre of science fiction take up the theme in this respect.

After the advent of nuclear weapons, especially hydrogen bombs, these technologies have usually been the dominant components of doomsday devices. RAND strategist Herman Kahn proposed a "Doomsday Machine" in 1960 that would consist of a computer linked to a stockpile of hydrogen bombs, programmed to detonate them all and bathe the planet in nuclear fallout at the signal of an impending nuclear attack from another nation. The key aspect of the doomsday device's deterrent factor is that it would go off automatically without human aid and despite human intervention, providing a highly credible threat that would dissuade attackers and avoid the dangerous game of brinkmanship that brought the United States and the Soviet Union closer to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With a doomsday device on the planet, neither side would suspect the other of launching a sneak attack in attempt to destroy the opposing country's infrastructure before they could retaliate.

For many, the scheme epitomized the extremes of the suicidal logic behind the strategy of mutual assured destruction, and it was famously parodied in the Stanley Kubrick film from 1964, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (while the alliterative term "doomsday device" has subsequently become much more popular, Dr. Strangelove itself consistently refers to such a weapon as a "doomsday machine").

Examples:
The Dead Hand (or "Perimeter") system built by the Soviet Union during the Cold War has been called a "doomsday machine" due to its fail-deadly design and nuclear capabilities.

Dead Hand (Russian: Система «Периметр», Systema "Perimetr", 15Э601),[1] known also as Perimeter,[2] is a Cold-War-era nuclear-control system used by the Soviet Union. General speculation from insiders alleges that the system remains in use in post-Soviet Russia. An example of fail-deadly deterrence, it can automatically trigger the launch of the Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) if a nuclear strike is detected by seismic, light, radioactivity and overpressure sensors. By most accounts, it is normally switched off and is supposed to be activated during dangerous crisis only; however, it is said to remain fully functional and able to serve its purpose whenever needed.[3][1]

The Soviet Union has a doomsday device, if activated set on automatic??? Once again I feel like I should be hiding under my desk in grade school!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_device

Does textev give any technical specs on the Masadan doomsday device?

BobfromSydney wrote:The moment they announced that nonsense OFS and FF would be all over them like chocolate on a malteser.

The trouble and expense to build the hyper capable ships, logistics support capability and also missile stockpile would be enormous.

Think about how long it would take for a small squadron or even a few squadrons to work their way through 100 stay systems in the Core, hundreds of light years away from their home bases.

Why would the citizens be in favour of committing an unprolonged lifetime of production towards such an end just so their unprolonged children can be conquered/destroyed by OFS/FF?

There would be backbreaking taxes to fund such a project for the kind of poor star nations you are talking about. I don't imagine any society short of Masada or a North Korean space dictatorship being willing to make this form of long-term 'investment'.

Such commitment put towards more productive goals could potentially build a version of the RTU that enables those planets to 'cut a deal' with OFS that was favourable to them.

In the end the Solly Media would report would be:
"Rogue states that threatened to depopulate our planet have been neutralised by the heroic actions of the OFS and FF".
"The citizens of these brutal dictatorships/theocracies have been joyously liberated by FF and are welcoming the Solarian League with open arms."
"Megacorp has opened up a subsidiary on these planets already and is keen to see these planets experience Solarian economic prosperity."

Most likely the news would get out and OFS/FF would move in long before the 'deterrent' was ready for deployment.

Such an announcement would be a big windfall for the defence sector however. Imagine all the governments rushing to purchase planetary missile/particle/kinetic bombardment countermeasures/defences.

kzt wrote:From a practical standpoint, I tend to doubt that a COTS missile power system is designed or capable of running for weeks, much less months.