Death Star weapons question

[Jim]

Am I correct in the thought that the ONLY anti-capital ship weapon the Death Star(s) have is the main planetary gun? Other than that is there just the small surface/deck guns?

[kostmayer]

Theres a line at the end of Star Wars IV that suggests the Death Star's defenses were based around repelling an attack from Captial Ships, rather then small fighters. I would have thought that it would at least have a few anti Captial Ship weapons on board. I don't recall ever seeing any fired on either the original Death Star or the Death Star II. The Death Star II was using its main laser to take out Rebel Capital Ships.

[Deepcrush]

Both DS's mounted QTLs in mass. But they can't hit fighters and the Rebel Fleet stayed out of range.

[Deepcrush]

DS
Death Star

QTL
Quad Turbo Lasers

[Blackstar the Chakat]

No. The surface guns are anti-capital weapons. That's why they were too slow to shoot down the starfighters. The Death Star is so large that an attack by a capital ship would be the same as a planetary assault. However they are defensive weapons as their range is only about 80 kilometers. Given the ranges at the Battle of Endor the shield from the planet are probably too large to let a ship reach weapons range, which is why they only used the Superlaser.

[Sionnach Glic]

Other than that is there just the small surface/deck guns?

Er, those millions of surface guns are capship guns.
That's why they had such difficulty shooting down the fighters. Although the results they had were quite impresive.

[Jim]

Okay. It just seemed weird that they only used the main gun to shoot at the Mon-Cal ships in ROTJ.

[Captain Seafort]

No. The surface guns are anti-capital weapons. That's why they were too slow to shoot down the starfighters. The Death Star is so large that an attack by a capital ship would be the same as a planetary assault. However they are defensive weapons as their range is only about 80 kilometers. Given the ranges at the Battle of Endor the shield from the planet are probably too large to let a ship reach weapons range, which is why they only used the Superlaser.

Those surface guns are the same model as those used on the ISD. Since the heavy guns of the Clone War-era Venator class SD had a range in excess of 10 light minutes (180 million km) the ISD's probably do as well. The reasons the superlaser was being used instead were 1) the DSII was incomplete, 2) it was probably a lot easier to open a single window in the shiel for the superlaser, to avoid risking fighters slipping through the holes, 3) the SL was a one-hit-kill weapon and 4) Palpy was showing off his new toy.

[Sionnach Glic]

That was becuase Palpatine wanted to take the rebels down slowly. He needed to use their deaths to convert Luke, that's also why the Imperial fleet never engaged the rebels, until Lando ordered the rebel fleet to close to point blank range.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

No. The surface guns are anti-capital weapons. That's why they were too slow to shoot down the starfighters. The Death Star is so large that an attack by a capital ship would be the same as a planetary assault. However they are defensive weapons as their range is only about 80 kilometers. Given the ranges at the Battle of Endor the shield from the planet are probably too large to let a ship reach weapons range, which is why they only used the Superlaser.

Those surface guns are the same model as those used on the ISD. Since the heavy guns of the Clone War-era Venator class SD had a range in excess of 10 light minutes (180 million km) the ISD's probably do as well. The reasons the superlaser was being used instead were 1) the DSII was incomplete, 2) it was probably a lot easier to open a single window in the shiel for the superlaser, to avoid risking fighters slipping through the holes, 3) the SL was a one-hit-kill weapon and 4) Palpy was showing off his new toy.

What? My sources say they have a max range of 100 km, and an optimal range of 15 kilometers

[Captain Seafort]

What? My sources say they have a max range of 100 km, and an optimal range of 15 kilometers

What sources are those? The fact that DS surface guns are the same as ISD's comes from the Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology, while the 10 light-minute range for Venator HTLs comes from the Revenge of the Sith Incredible Cross-Sections. More to the point, does it make sense to you that heavy starship weapons have a maximum range less than the diametre of the vessel mounting them, and an optimum range less than that of an AT-AT (which fired on the Hoth base generators at 17.28 km)?

[Aaron]

What? My sources say they have a max range of 100 km, and an optimal range of 15 kilometers

What sources are you using?

[Teaos]

Yes I believe in the briefing they said the weapons would have a hard time tracking fighters since they were ment for capital ships.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

My source is The New essential guide to Weapons and Technology. Pg 70-71. Taim and Bak XX-9 heavy Turbolasers. Used on Both Death Stars and Imperial Star Destroyers. The Death Star's superlaser also has a maximum range of 420,000 km.

And Seafort, two things. 1) The Death Stars are mobile battle stations not vessels. 2)We're talking about a military group that lost a moon sized station to 30 fighters and an old frieghter. Of coarse it doesn't make sense.

They're using off the shelf defense weapons, stuff designed for conventional warships, not a battle station. If it helps don't think of the Death Star as a ship, think of it as a moon.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

From the Death Star technical companion, published by West End Games and... well, it's on a canon tier. Don't know which one, but anyway...

Weapons:

Superlaser

5,000 turbolaser batteries

5,000 heavy turbolasers.

2,500 laser cannons.

2,500 ion cannons.

768 tractor beam emplacements.