Intergalactic Summit

You are correct, orbit to surface weaponry is just another form of artillery. It is a common bias of many career ground officers that orbital strikes are some sort of tactical godsend. A bias borne of a military who separates the commands of orbital and ground forces and who lack practical experience. I have known staff-level officers who saw an orbital strike as both the solution to every problem on the ground and an insurmountable obstacle, remarkable how decades of experience can be shamed by the clear mind of a tinkerer.

You are however incorrect about the design intentions of Carriers and Supercarriers. While they are true voidbreathers, more than any other capital ship they are designed to operate at extreme low altitudes specifically to fill the role of a troop carrier and landing craft platform. A step between dropships and landing craft and vulnerable and slow troop transport ships in a safer high orbit. One of the primary design considerations of a Carrier or Supercarrier is the ability to maintain orbit in the Thermosphere of a human-ideal planet (pressure, typical mass, etc.) down to an altitude of 150 kilometers from surface. The Federation, Amarrians, and Matari have even conducted training exercises as low as the mesosphere. A famous use of the tactic was during the Day Of Darkness where Amarrians stationed carriers at an altitude of only around 350 kilometers in the Thermosphere of Matar, and over Beloger, Varkal, Kulheim, Huggar, and Syld. This cut hours off the turn around time for surface to orbit transfer craft and was at the time considered a innovative and brilliant tactic that was likely responsible for the surprise speed of the Amarrians that day. Back then, going even into the low gravity and atmospheric density of 350 kilometers from surface was considered extremely dangerous for a capital. Today, an altitude of 300 kilometers is perhaps even considered normal.

Of course, going down to a smartbomb-altitude of eight to ten kilometers is a critically high-risk tactic and another beast entirely. Especially in high-mass planets or near the equator of a world where you have to descend into the troposphere's current and temperature fluctuation-heavy area. Maintaining position in the stratosphere is far preferable but is not possible on every planet considering the range of high-meta smartbombs, especially human-habitat temperate planets with their typical atmosphere thickness. Nor is it possible without consideration made toward mass-reduction of the ship doing so. Should the higgs anchor fail, atmospheric density or currents shift drastically then it is very likely the attempting ship will be lost. Before the advent of microwarpdrives and afterburners capable of outputting giganewtons of thrust to my knowledge it was only theoretical. We did it however, with specially fit Nyxes during the invasion of Vale during the beginning of the war earlier this year.

At that time we did employ smartbombs against the constellation's seat of government. The devastation of that event was enough disincentive that the other times we pushed into extreme low orbit, in Vale, Deklein, Tenal, and Pure Blind the planetary governments and regional branches of the Imperium ground forces surrendered at the threat of a repeat. One of these repeat dives was photographed and was one of the iconic images of the war featured across New Eden. ( http://updates.eveonline.com/conflict/world-war-bee-the-battle-of-m-oee8/ -in the video titled "World War Bee".) By the end of the war the presence of the ships that had done it in orbit was enough of a threat.

That bombing has however become a symbol to the now-insurgent former Imperium citizens under Darkness, TEST, and the other groups who have occupied the north. It was a show of force that allowed us to take hundreds of colonies without bloodshed but it and other things have since been tinder for anti-occupational sentiments in those same colonies and many others. Less destructive than a doomsday strike against a planet, accomplishing the similar goal of forcing incumbent ground forces and governments to surrender but like any massive show of force the effects often generate extreme ill will. This, and the difficulty of the attempt was why it was us who did it, not any group who would later be trying to live in the space and make peace with its people.

Consider, we only attempted this with a specialized fit after we had ensured that all ground to orbit weaponry was destroyed, with total system control and a force in high orbit that could screen any attacks while we were vulnerable descending into the atmosphere. We also had cynos positioned though the most conservative speculation of the effects jumping out while that close to a planet meant it was likely far higher risk than the low altitude show of force to begin with. Certainly the planet would have likely been rendered dead and uninhabitable in seconds from the radiation burst of a jump but it is hard to say.

For the absolute fastest conquering of a planet while keeping the most surface intact, the dive to smartbomb range has no peer provided you are able.

To Ayallah,

Other than the video looking like PL propaganda reel, I still think that your assertions may be valid and will review blueprints and revise my knowledge base accordingly.

Also, I had worked with enough artillery to know artillery when I see one, considering that my job in the RMS involved maintenance and field repairs of shipboard hardware and surface hardware.