In the embers of the dominion war

[McAvoy]

Nice idea for maybe raiding fleet. 6 ships or so will do little to nothing against fleets we have seen in DS9. Six orbital platforms would have be either large or spaced enough for the best angles.

I still think a Federation equivilantof the Cardassain ODP would be the best bet.

[Deepcrush]

While I agree it's the best answer for a strategic planet during a war but what about peacetime? A dozen or so of those stations wouldn't be doing alot unless we are talking about one of the core worlds like Earth or Vulcan.

DS9 was in constant operation in both peacetime and wartime. Serving for R&R, ship services, trade and traffic control. Having even a single one in a system means that you've got eyes and ears in that system. Remember you wouldn't really need these every system. Just your more important ones.

I still think a Federation equivilantof the Cardassain ODP would be the best bet.

The problem for this is cost. You need to build a power plant large enough to supply them. In the case of the CU's ODP, it was several times the size of DS9. At that point, you might as well just build a single DS9 and put a bunch of remote mines around it.

snip

A PDF also has to be able to do something other then die when someone comes after them. Patrol ships without FTL are worthless against anyone who has FTL. As soon as someone lores them out of position they can just jump past the patrol ships and then get at whatever they want.

Putting up orbital platforms is a good idea unless they are there to do nothing. Or just spam which is next to nothing. Either way, its a waste of resources. If a planet isn't worth serious thought then its not worth defending.

If a ship is worth defending but not worth a high price tag, put a Defiant there. It really is the perfect monitor. Short ranged and slow but with massive firepower so that nothing less then a cruiser is going to have any luck with them. If a system is busy with any kind of traffic then put a DS9ish station there. As the systems get more important then you increase the efforts of protection.

Watching how you defend a location is important for two major reasons. A, what is the value you of the target location. How much is it worth and how much can you afford to spend. B, after balancing out the A remember that there is not sure way to know if you can support this location. Your target area must be able to defend itself well enough to justify its importance but also not so well as to weaken your overall effect.

[Mark]

Not to interupt a good debate, but the mine comment was a reference to TWOK and the Kobyashi Maru simulation.

As far as planetary defense goes, I like the idea of a few hundred DS9 type stations dotted about. That place kicked ass after O'Brien upgraded it.

But you don't need stations the size of DS9. Remove all the extra living accomidations, the docking facilites, and the prominade and civilian areas, and you can produce a "defense outpost", which is basically one big heavily gunned, heavily shielded, and heavily armored outpost in space.