SSPS military applications - crit please

Technology allows for lopsided conflicts. Politics is the way they play out.

This is best as a political story with technology as the background, rather than the technology at the top. No matter how its written there is always someone critical of how the technology is or isn't used.

I wrote some comments below:
From: ANTIcarrot dante_feditech@...
"Even giving the nation SSTO capacity, an object in GSO is going to be a tricky target for them. It would take hours at the very least (and days more
likely) for a warhead to get close enough to do damage. If the M-SSPS can hit targets on the ground, it would be capable of hitting them in LEO or
GTO. Sneak attacks against an I-STARS (~stareing IR tracking system) would be problamatic at best. And something miles wide and long is going to be
pretty difficult to take out at all."
Was the basis for the conflict philosophical / religious/ ethnic / resource driven?

What are the capabilities of the less developed nation?

Can the smaller nation launch internet / software attacks? (or their sympathizers in other areas?)

If they can't directly attack the weapons platform, they will find a softer target.

If they have SSTO, do they have medium range missiles? Ability to strike at a neighboring nation?
Biological weapons? These could be carried by agents or launched for delivery a few hundred km away. Denied centralized electricity and airspace doesn't necessarily eliminate access to what might be common biological tools. (Compare the state of genetic research today with our space faring abilities - 2007 and extrapolate what their respective state when buildign the first SSPS.)

Will there be materials to better conceal objects from aerial viewing?

Could they, with or without third party assistence, direct nearby GEO satellites to change position, possibly risking the weaponized SSPS? (it is a story, after all) Orbital debris is a concern with all other spacefaring nations. (Would there be the ability / responsibility to clean up large debris? Would this environmental cost be the responsbility of the spacer nation owning the equipment? What treaties would exist among spacefaring nations to handle such things?)

Can this nation direct some of its own LEO satellites to collide with other countries' LEO satellites?- thus, spreading the conflict / elevating the tension between nations.

Speaking of the other parties: The capabilities / concerns of other nations or groups would play a significant role.

What about others providing critical information allowing the minor nation to monitor / interrupt communication with the sattellite?

You imply a goal is to intentionally reduce a society to a low technological level. Why would other advanced nations allow that to happen?

Tunneling:
"Yes, they could be dug on the small scale without being noticed. But any substantial distribution would be observable (or at least traceable) fromorbit. On a large scale construction would be almost impossible to conceal. At that point it becomes a simple matter of retargeting the lasers."

I agree with you 99.9%. Depends how deep they tunnel. Since the 1960s many tunnels deeper than 1 km have been dug and some of them (gold mines in South Africa) extend for several kilometers through very hard rock. These miners and shafts were designed to removed hundreds or thousands of tons per day from the ground. Old mines could be reactivated that are near a border. Of course an abandoned mining operation might not be on a list of sites to monitor. Would that allow enough access to be significant to the story?

There are also natural tunnels / underground rivers and these can run for many km.

Seems in every embargo, there is no shortage of smugglers.

Is it possible to send smaller remote controlled vehicles across the boarder without notice? Something that the satellite system might not readily ID as such?
Or weaponizing animals (if you want to mix low tech and high tech since birds can migrate over some distance.) What about their ability to harm the environment for a nearby nation (radiation / chemicals / biological agents?) Not a great thought, but a thought.

Spacer limitations:
Unless the spacers can monitor everything all the time, it seems there must be limits to what they know and when they would know about it. Holes in their system will be discovered and exploited.

The weapon must take time to aim at each target. If one SSPS is used, the embargo would take time to enforce and it might take a long time for one such station to take out all major targets. That would give the other nation time to plan some actions defensive and offensive. (I am thinking months...1 target every 20 minutes? What aiming / firing rate might you give them?)

Significant use of the weapon would require maintenance. During this time (which could take days), there would be no offensive action. Another thought: If you can't affect the weapon - how about its supply system? If it is repaired via remote control, is it possible to electronically hijack that system?

Any weaknesses in the technology or supply chain would be of strategic value.

"NB: If anyone thinks this is a shallow analogy of certian military problems in totadys world, I'm not goiung to claim otherwise. ;) With the ability to
strike from a point of complete safety, have a gods eye view over almost everything, and no troops on the ground to be killed, would this scheme work
better or worst than current methodology?

For the side with the military SSPS, better for capital cost, but likely a PR mess. There would reach a point when other nations would sympathize with the underdog. Every non-space faring nation would be extremely uneasy with this lopsided event, especially the longer it lasts. Neutral nations would call for an end to the embargo. Even those small parties initially in favor of an action would become luekwarm and call for an end. There is also the fact that some nations with similar capability may not like the use of the technology for this purpose - or they may not be in political agreement with this action. If so, one of these advanced nations would act to subvert the other. A conflict appearing too easy may adjust the balance of power one way, the more powerful nation struggling in such an imbalance confruntation, would change polical power in another way.

The story would have many levels. Political groups would seek to help the beleagured nation. This may be either with information or more substatantial assistence. The information might involve limitations of the space technology and suggested countermeasures.

Was the denial policy widely supported before it was initiated? Once initiated, it would be hard for the Spacer group to stop for political reasons.